- Oh lord, what a score. If you have even a slight interest in disco and this compilation doesn't quicken your pulse, you should consider getting a pacemaker. Dmitri From Paris selects two discs worth of essential '80s disco dub mixes, the Idjut Boys transform them into a disc-long meltdown, and Francois Kevorkian, Paul Simpson and John Morales lay out an extended liner-notes backstory. Nightdubbin' sounds so current it almost feels belated—it's about damn time, you want to say, that someone traces where contemporary cosmic disco derives some of its experimental attitudes and psychedelic intensities.
The dub version never really constituted a separate scene or style. Instead it was largely consigned to an existence as b-side closer, not often digitized, the quarry of the vinyl DJ. Despite this ghettoization, dub mixes represent a crucial phase in the manifold mutations of disco in the '80s. It was where, in a spirit befitting dub's Jamaican roots, tracks became fodder for wild studio transformation, with pioneers like Francois K. playing mad-scientist, with disco's flamboyant boogie as the helpless guinea pig, a wild laboratory project played fast and loose with splices, loops, edits, an arsenals of analog effects. It's disco transformed but not transformed into anything in particular. Instead the disco dub represents a distinct style exploded open into a wide plane of weird possibilities.
Wide and weird enough that space prohibits giving a sufficient overview of the comp's delights, trust me when I say that it's two discs of stand-outs. You've got vocals shredded, swaying tattered in the wind, drifting unmoored across time, like on "Such a Feeling" by Aurra. Then you've got the rise of the machines, blasting unbound in open space, like the Tesla-coil lasers firing on Sandy Kerr's "Thug Rock," or the dense flutters of handclaps in the void like on, well, almost everything. Then there's just general wonk and eccentricity, like Raw Silk's "Just in Time," a lysergic Halloween party with infinite piano clusters, warbling saws and gleeful, spooked-out hoots. Oh, and don't forget the Idjut Boys straight crush it on the album-length mix, whipping the raw material into equal parts heady mash-up and long-form party train. Despite being legends of trippy disco, the Idjuts keep a relatively low release profile, and this mix is a reminder of their ridiculous game.
With the compelling free-for-all vibes on display here, you can see how dub disco fulfills the promise of dance music as a place for populist experimentation. In cutting (or re-cutting) a dance track, you've got to meet a single expectation: Get bodies to move. Nail that and the rest is up to you, don't be afraid of the unknown. It's a lesson in track-making that never goes out of style.
TracklistCD1: Mixed by The Idjut Boys
01. Aurra - Such A Feeling (Part 2)
02. Sandy Kerr - Thug Rock (Dub)
03. Serious Intention - You Don't Know (Special Remix)
04. Michael Wilson - Groove It To Your Body (Instrumental)
05. Lenny White - My Turn To Love You (Dub)
06. D Train - D Train (Dub)
07. Paul Simpson Connection - Treat Me
08. Wuf Ticket - The Key (Dub)
09. Radiance - You're My Number One (Dub)
10. Raw Silk - Just in Time
11. Mikki - Dance Lover (Dub)
12. Electric Dred - Butter Up (Instrumental)
13. Cloud - Steppin Out Jam (Dub)
14. Rah Band - Clouds Across The Moon (Super Nova Mix)
15. Wham - Enjoy What You Do
CD2: Unmixed – Compiled by Dimitri From Paris
01. Trammps - Whatever Happenned To The Music (Dub)
02. Michael Wilson - Groove It To Your Body (Instrumental)
03. Jamaica Girls - Somebody New (Dub)
04. Serious Intention - You Don't Know (Special Remix)
05. D Train - D Train (Dub)
06. Cloud - Steppin Out Jam (Dub)
07. Wham - Enjoy What You Do
08. Radiance - You're My Number One (Dub)
09. Sandy Kerr - Thug Rock (Dub)
10. Imagination - Changes (DFP Dub Mix)
11. Aurra - Such A Feeling (Part 2)
CD3 – Unmixed – Compiled by Dimitri From Paris
01. The Winans - Let My People Go (Dub)
02. Third World - One More Time (Dub)
03. Wuf Ticket - The Key Dub
04. Lenny White - My Turn To Love You (Dub)
05. Paul Simpson - Treat Me
06. Raw Silk - Just In Time
07. Mikki - Dance Lover (Dub)
08. Elektrik Dred - Butter Up (Instrumental)
09. Affinity - Don't Go Away (DFP Dub Edit)
10. RAH Band - Clouds Across The Moon (Super Nova Mix)