Disco

Summer Festivals 2012: Nile Rodgers - interview

The disco legend talks to us ahead of his set at RockNess with Chic

25 May 2012

Disco and pop icon Nile Rodgers is recalling the first time his band Chic played Atlantic Records their biggest hit. ‘We emptied the boardroom,’ he says of multi-million selling 70s wig-out, ‘Le Freak’. ‘We started it – “One, two, awwww Freak Out!” And…

Friends - Manifest!

An insidiously hooky album that's sometimes brilliant, sometimes bloomin’ annoying

22 May 2012

There are songs you can’t get out of your head, and then there are songs you wish you could get out of your head. In the latter category: ‘Hey Baby’ by DJ Otzi. In the former: Friends’ ‘Friend Crush’ and ‘I’m His Girl’. The Brooklyn band’s well-blogged…

Crate Digging: Melting Pot's Simon Cordiner and Andrew Pirie

A selection of tunes ahead of the disco night's eleventh birthday

8 Mar 2012

Fonda Rae ‘Living In Ecstasy’ (Mood II Swing mix) (Wave Music) has to be one of our favourite ever records. It’s now a classic, a timeless house track featuring a fabulous vocalist from the disco era in Fonda Rae and the superb house producer Mood II…

New York's The Rapture set for UK tour

After a tumultuous period, the band are back on track with new album In the Grace of Your Love

21 Sep 2011

‘It’s been a real up and down five years,’ says The Rapture’s drummer Vito Roccoforte on the line from his home in New York City. That’s something of an understatement. In the half-decade since their second full-length album Pieces of the People We…

Wild Beasts - Smother

Hayden Thorpe and co deliver sleazily brilliant third album

20 Apr 2011

(Domino) Having covered back alley frottaging and the pleasures of ‘girls from Whitby’ on their 2009 release Two Dancers, the four-piece from Kendal have peeled back the net curtains even further for Smother, casting a pale light on the kinks of…

Flesh - Sick Electricity

Disco-pop debut masterminded by Stephen Lironi and Douglas MacIntyre, featuring Sharon Martin

20 Apr 2011

(Creeping Bent) The brainchild of producer Stephen Lironi and label boss Douglas MacIntyre, Flesh is based around the ice-cool voice of Sharon Martin and aspires to an electro-squelch, dancefloor melange of Chic-styled gloss and the avant-disco diva…

Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost

New York disco revivalists fail to make any significant advances with the genre

21 Mar 2011

(DFA) In March this year NY duo Holy Ghost supported Australian electropop heroes Cut Copy at the Arches. This debut album also comes in the wake of the excellent recent Cut Copy record, and does little to advance on the Aussies’ good practices.

Clubbers' decktionary: Italo

A guide to the myriad genres of clubbing

4 Mar 2011

Italo (disco), adj. style of disco music commonly attributed to records of Italian origin, c.1978-1985. Essentially electronic disco made with synthesisers and drum machines, Italo has a very white, rigid, European feel compared to its much looser…

Den Haan - Gods From Outer Space

Glasgow duo deliver debut to match electrifyingly sleazy live sets

1 Mar 2011

(Courier of Death) It’s taken them a while to get down to it, but Glasgow duo Den Haan (Matthew Aldworth, aka Crème de Menthe, and Andy Gardiner) have finally arrived with the debut album their electrifyingly sleazy live sets have promised. Beginning…

Bad Mouthin’ presents the best in Disco

Glasgow club's residents are Al Kent and Rahaan

11 Feb 2011

Residents: Million Dollar Disco’s own Al Kent and Rahaan. Guests: ‘Rahaan’s our resident DJ, but he’s actually based in Chicago,’ says Kent (real name Ewan Kelly). ‘Naturally he won’t be able to make it every month, but when this happens we’ll…

Hercules and Love Affair - Blue Songs

3 Jan 2011

(Moshi Moshi/Cooperative) Within the first few seconds of this sophomore album, Andy Butler’s New York-based disco-house collective have achieved Objective A: to lose the one-hit wonder tag after the deservedly monumental success of ‘Blind’ in 2008.

Vintage Violence - new Edinburgh club from the makers of FAST

Glam Rock with a twist

30 Nov 2010

‘It’s pretty rock’n’roll,’ says promoter Chris FAST, discussing the spirit of his semi-regular club night at Edinburgh College of Art’s Wee Red Bar. That should come as no surprise – Chris’ old club FAST was among the very best nights in Edinburgh for a…

R-P-Z at Stereo

Stereo, Glasgow, Sat 28 Aug.

19 Aug 2010

No sooner has Glasgow’s long-running Art School Thursday nighter R-P-Z closed than it’s back in a brand new monthly incarnation for a new venue. ‘The main reason it’s moved is that my DJing partner Bonjour Boi [aka Tom Straughan] has moved to Stockholm…

The Rizla Riverboat Shuffle on the Waverley Steamer

Optimo and Melting Pot DJs play second set on board landmark Glasgow landmark boat

30 Jul 2010

David Pollock climbs aboard the Waverley Steamer as Melting Pot and Optimo set sail on another Rizla Riverboat Shuffle It wasn’t meant to be more than a one-off party in a unique location, but the DJs from Glasgow’s Optimo and Melting Pot nights had…

The Final Night of Club R-P-Z

23 Jun 2010

‘R-P-Z has been the best thing I have ever created,’ says the night’s founder, promoter and resident Hushpuppy, ‘and the most fun I have ever had at a club night, with all the best friends I have ever met. Far more fun that any one person could ever…

Slo-Mo and La Di Da bring disco, house and funk to Glasgow

14 May 2010

‘After being stuck in Edinburgh for 12 years,’ says club promoter and blogger Chef De Party (not his real name, you might have guessed), ‘moving through to Glasgow is like finding the promised land.’ Which is a bit harsh on the capital, but then Chef is…

The Juan MacLean

New York house meets rock’n’roll by way of funk and post-rock

10 Aug 2009

With the temporary absence of LCD Soundsystem while James Murphy and co near the finish line of recording their third album (and not, as rumoured at one point, split up never to return), the next best alternative for fans of New York disco-punk might…

Chic - Nile Rodgers

Funk master

23 Jul 2009

Nile Rodgers defined an era with the classic disco soul of Chic and again as one of the most sampled act in hip hop history. David Pollock meets him.

Labels of Love - Firecracker Recordings profile

23 Jul 2009

Based in Leith, Edinburgh Roster Linkwood (Nick Moore, from Bristol but based in Leith), Fudge Fingas (Gavin Sutherland, from Edinburgh), Vakula (from Ukraine), Intrusion (one half of the Detroit/Chicago-based duo Echospace), House of Traps (Lindsay…

Headspin

9 Jul 2009

The resident Headspin DJ squad refuse to conform to genre specifications with their no-holds barred four deck mix of house, hip hop, funk, disco, soul, breakbeat and all points in-between. All backed up by live percussion from Bongo Dave and visual…

Zoo MuZik

11 Jun 2009

B*Licious and GK Machine (pictured) stir up the wildlife with their new night of hot sweaty dance beats. Taking in acid, electro funk, tribal disco, ‘hippie freakout beats’ and more besides, this second date has a guest set from Chris G of Soft Rocks, a…

Aeroplane

28 May 2009

Location: Brussels, Belgium. Occupation: Cosmic orbiters of Planet Disco. Should I be excited? We think so. Having planted the magic beans in Glasgow with an infamous performance at H&P last September, Aeroplane return to spray their flourishing…

Club For Heroes

28 May 2009

‘A lot of clubs describe themselves as “sleazy” or “grimy”,’ says Club For Heroes’ founder, promoter and DJ, Simon Eilbeck. ‘I wanted to run a night which was a bit more aspirational, which held its head up higher than that. So I came up with Club For…

Melting Pot Weekender

30 Apr 2009

There’s another Bank Holiday on the horizon and disco-house kings Melting Pot are planning on taking full advantage. Kicking off on the Saturday night with a residents special, on Sunday they team up with Million Dollar Disco for very special guest…

Exposure: Den Haan

18 Dec 2008

At the best of times, a live slot at Glasgow’s trailblazing, cross-genre club night Optimo is to be prized by any band. Even more than that, though, a gig at the club’s Hogmanay Party is the Holy Grail. One of the bands to have hit the jackpot on the…

Heartbreak - Lies

18 Sep 2008

ITALO DISCO Heartbreak, where have you been all my life? It seems only fair to point out – before excessive scenester fawning turns the increasingly resurgent Italo disco sound into a mutated make-believe genre of new rave proportions – that this…

Wrong Island

4 Sep 2008

‘Last month, a guy from London came up to us and said, “this is exactly what I remember the old Basement Jaxx parties being like”,’ says Teamy, co-promoter and DJ at Sleazy’s finest basement party since it won itself a late licence. ‘That’s just what…

Headspin

7 Aug 2008

Over the years the guys behind Headspin have built up an enviable reputation on the Edinburgh club scene. Seamlessly mixing the retro with the futuristic on their no-holds-barred four-deck set-up, which splices hip hop, funk, disco, house and other…

Melting Pot

31 Jul 2008

‘Disco music as a genre essentially stopped in the mid-80s and became dance music as we now know it,’ says Andrew Pirie, promoter and DJ at Glasgow’s Melting Pot. ‘Everything happening in dance music today has some sort of roots in disco. Just as disco…

Todd Terje

19 Jun 2008

DISCO HOUSE After Dark at Stereo, Glasgow, Sat 21 Jun When the teenage Todd Terje’s big sister said she liked disco, he didn’t really believe her. He thought she was being ironic, because she was hanging round with DJs on the Oslo scene and had heard…

Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair

13 Mar 2008

DISCO HOUSE (EMI/DFA) We can only hope that Hercules and Love Affair’s stunning debut single ‘Blind’ doesn’t soak all the attention away from this great record, because otherwise the new last days of disco start here. Neglecting the affecting…

SoCo Social Mardis Gras

28 Feb 2008

New Orleans-flavoured night of DJ skills and live music. Steve Angello (pictured) mixes up electro, techno and house influences while Henry Ralph mashes hip hop, rock and disco. Plus, there’s a live set from the Hot 8 Brass Band (also playing the Voodoo…

Various - Vintage Grooves: Disco Volume One

4 Jan 2008

DISCO RARE GROOVE (Seamless) (BBE) Vintage Grooves Disco may sound like the stuff of Sunday tabloid giveaways, but in spite of setting off on a two-disc excursion with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes standard ‘The Love I Lost’ (included here as…

Rollerdisco at Sea and Crystal Lounge

4 Oct 2007

Get your skates at the ready folks as Rollerdisco rolls into town. If the shrieks and screams of people passing their colourful street posters is an indication of the overall excitement, then expect to see many grown-ups taking over Glasgow’s skate…

Crazy P

20 Sep 2007

DISCO HOUSE Ultragroove at Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Sat 22 Sep With a new album recorded and all-but mixed, the artists formerly known as Crazy Penis have toned down to appeal to the popular market. ‘Yeah, the Penis has gone,’ says singer…

Sophistifunk

12 Feb 2007

John Hutchinson (Tokyoblu) has been in charge at Sophistifunk over the last three years. A party week in week out with its mix of funky house, disco, electro, accessible remixes and mash-ups. However on Saturday 17 February they up the glamour and glitz…

Burn

The Buff Club, Glasgow, weekly, Mondays

19 Dec 2006

DISCO/FUNK/ELECTRO/HOUSE If you were to walk into Burn at the Buff Club, the first thing you may notice is that it doesn’t seem like you are at a Monday night club and the second thing is the freshness of the night after 12 years of partying. Burn…