Comments on: What Do You Call It?

By: chris keys

chris keys — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:31:24 +0000

hey all, it’s really interesting what you guys are discussing and good points have been made from both sides. the fact is the media struggle to understand a particular musical style without labeling it something, this way they can talk about it, and usually on their own terms - so nu disco as a term is a load of rubbish (i have to say i’ve used it as a short cut too). but there are far too many sides to this coin, there’s beatfanatic who does a lot of bright, feel good stuff, prins thomas who does slo mo, greg wilson who is a real disco dj from the past who cuts things to get his dancers going, lindstrom who has done many things (check out his earlier things for jazid under the name slow supreme for diversity), tod terje who is a true party dj who will move across all kinds of genre’s, detroit and disco head Trusme’ oh and on and on.

i recon dj’s who play in any one style arent moving forward, there are too many good things around to hang onto a nu disco tag. i dont mean one should play different styles for the sake of it, but rather create a feeling or set of feelings with a variety of sounds, u know the old take em on a journey thing - check Kelvin Brown for the master of such things …. anyway nice to read all this & Ronan i really like your thinking perspective!!

By: reds

reds — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:20:12 +0000

Only get to hear bits of this as it seems hard enough to get digitally. Its a bit like all music..ie there’s good and bad but I agree with the idea of small doses of it in the midst of a bigger picture.

PS Is there any digital stores that really stock much good nu-disco

By: icaro

icaro — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:24:32 +0000

try get the new pilooski re-edits, the greg wilson ones. take a look in aeroplane stuff, discodromo, 40 thieves, lee douglas, todd terje, enzo ponzio, mutant disco, tensnake, faze actions…

By: Anders

Anders — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:44:58 +0000

@ Tim F

So true! In general I’m actually really tired of producers and dj’s who are conscious of and pay “respect” to the music history. I’m, of course, not saying that you should be ignorant towards music history. Sometimes I just wish that there would be another approach towards it. Like Tim says, more based on a feeling and (I think) not so much based one the actual sounds that were used.

By: Ronan

Ronan — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:34:45 +0000

Perhaps I should! I wonder which got a better review on Pitchfork

By: George Cromarty

George Cromarty — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:30:33 +0000

perhaps you should start listening to Whiskeytown again?

By: Tim F

Tim F — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:18:34 +0000

Perhaps contra other posters responding to this, I often feel like I like this stuff when it’s LESS, rather than more conscious of the history of disco.

Like, the reason that Aeroplane seem to stand out so much as great producers is that it’s like they heard one amazing italo-disco record while at a club on good drugs five years ago, and all their production work to date has just been roundabout ways to try to remember and recreate it (this very same thing kind of happened to me in my first year of clubbing when a DJ played Patrice Rushen’s “Haven’t You Heard” and it stuck in my head, unknown, for about four years).

Reverso 68 are similar actually, their records never feel particularly respectful towards a certain notion of disco.

Same is almost-but-not-quite true of Prins Thomas and Todd Terje: obv. both have a massive awareness of and respect for original disco but they’re at their best when they choose to ignore that - e.g. on Thomas’s remix of Windsurf, or Terje’s edit of Paul Simon.

By: freezer

freezer — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:07:16 +0000

Dont know a huge amount about this but was at Todd Terje in RiRa a few months back and it was great.

By: rhak

rhak — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:51:38 +0000

“They just have to have been around long enough to have dj’ed it the first time around. ”

Can’t say I agree: Tim Sweeney, Todd Terje and Aeroplane. Check their podcasts on RA or on Beats In Space, and you’ll hear some great stuff. And although he is definitely more housey than disco, Dixon is a great dj within this paradigm as well. All of them pretty young motherfuckers though.

By: Rain

Rain — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:39:07 +0000

The funny thing is that on our blog our official stance is that there is no such thing. We also don’t believe there’s such a thing as a separation between disco and house, since it’s all been a natural historical progression of forms over time. A progression, I might add, that some of our staff experienced first hand, so they laugh at the younger generation at their gullibility and ignorance.

This animal called “nu-disco” is more precisely labelled “retro”…i.e. the reworking of the original roots of disco and house BACK into modern dance music.

For many, like myself, who grew up on the original, well…much of it pales in comparison. But there are a few worthy exceptions and a few worthy DJs that can do it justice. They just have to have been around long enough to have dj’ed it the first time around.

Cheers…

Rain
exModia