West End is my favorite old school New York dance record label, and its output in the post disco era, that being arguably the early nineteen eighties onward, is my favorite material from the label. Sparque's 'Take Some Time' is my favorite track from that period of West End, so maybe therefor by that logic it's my favorite ever dance track.

Sparque's 'Take Some Time' comes from a time when disco was in deep mainstream decline, the shunning of disco by popular radio in effect gave it back to the underground, beaten, sick and in terrible shape. With the spotlight turned away the genre was given a chance to breathe, convalescing in the wharehouses and clubs of a few of the world's big cities. Evolving with newly injected creativity spawned from limited resources and ever cheaper technology, eventually to re-emerge with a new face and several new names, boogie, electro, house etc
. 'Take Some Time' is straight out of that transition, its still has the traditional elements and live instrumentation of disco, a very minimal but soulful vocal, some of the stripped down groove of boogie and the synthy punch that would mark the rest of the decade. Its great to mix, has a slow to mid tempo and it gratifyingly hookey with the disco bell curve sine wave 'booo' sound all over a mix that typifies the idiom "less is more", the arrangement and build up also utilize every lesson learned at the what was then the tail end of the first generation of disco producer's decade long journey.

Sparque was the project of producer Larry Joseph, a prolific but mysteriously uncelebrated figure who created some of the best works on West End under his Sparque moniker, all tastefully energy filled dance floor movers, and who made a very natural progression into Electro and hip hop as the decade wore on (one of which I know Larry himself raps on), eventually even releasing a couple of house records as the nineties loomed. What happened to him, what he looked like, what his deal was at the time, I have no idea whatsoever and the fact he is so undocumented is a shame as his creative contribution to that important formative era of modern dance music is as important (to my mind at least) as many of the other much hailed production giants of the genre.

Sparque - Take Some Time