The dream team collaboration of vocalist Leroy Burgess with producers Greg Carmichael, and Patrick Adams yielded so many amazing recordings between their many different musical projects. The Universal Robot Band's tenure began in 1976 with the "Dance and Shake Your Tambourine" single and ended in 1982 with the release of the boogie masterpiece "Barely Breaking Even". The majority of Burgess's releases in the early 80's came out on Salsoul, but this single was released on the fairly obscure Moonglow imprint, which makes an original pressing much harder to come by. The 12 inch was reissued in recent years due to the track's high demand and influence in the disco universe.

Universal Robot Band - Barely Breaking Even (Club Version)

The Funhouse was one of the great discoteques of New York, it went head to head with the Paradise Garage with a mixed gay and straight disco crowd, but as the early eighties came around it became known as a niche dance club for early breakdancers and electro.

Jellybean Benitez was the resident DJ, and second only to sleeping with Madonna and bringing her onto the scene, this 1982 edit of Kaso's Key West is my favorite of his achievements. As the eighties wore on he rocked a look not unlike Kenny G's or Michael Bolton's, but this was just for the press and to help maintain a career image as a big pop producer, his roots were actually still deep in the underground disco scene. Key West is an italo number highly popular with the first body poppers, you can hear the crossover and emergence of tradional dance electro, this would have been played at volume from the Funhouse's giant clown head booth as circles formed on the dancefloor beneath ..behold.. the clown head..



Kaso - Key West (Jellybean re-edit)

Here are a couple of rare tracks from 1982 by the Italian group Amin Peck. Amin Peck was George Fyron, Leonard Parker, and Max Marne. The track Anxiety is particularly interesting with its crazy chorus drenched slap bass and comical synth line. It is a really well built track with a nice 808 breakdown in the middle with porn guitar and saxophone that rides out to the end. Girl On Me has a very unique, iconic sound that is wedged between pop and avant garde.

mp3: Amin Peck - Anxiety
mp3: Amin Peck - Girl On Me

Thanks to my good friend Alicia, I acquired about 40 Todd Terje Edits yesterday and I thought it would only be appropriate to drop a few of the best ones here for y'all to enjoy. Dig it.

Chaka Khan - Fate (Todd Terje Edit)
The Brothers Johnson - Ain't We Funkin' Now (TT Miks)
The Emotions - Love Vibes (Todd Terje Re-Kutt)
Afro Cuban Band - Something's Gotta Give (TT Re-Kutt)

Abaco Dream was a one off project circa 1970 by Bay Area soul legend Sylvester Stewart AKA Sly and the Family Stone. Not much is known about the project, but it is assumed that it was a way to try out a different sound. This is funky soul tune is proto-disco at its best. It comes on with so much authority and kills. I have no idea what G and A stands for so if anyone does, please let us know.

mp3: Abaco Dream - Life And Death In G And A

Starvue were a collective out of Chicago. The Upward Bound LP released in 1980 featured the slow burner single and 12 inch "Body Fusion" (which I am not going to share with you just yet as it is on a forthcoming mix that Black Shag and I have just completed) as well as the more upbeat "Love Affair". Released on the private label Midwest International Records, Upward Bound is a very sought after record and the Body Fusion 12 inch is even more rare. Credit has to be given to my friends at Lotus Land Records in Milwaukee as they turned up 15 sealed copies of the 12 inch and several of the LP a few years back. I managed to find my copy in a Chicago thrift store, but probably would have ignored it in the first place as the cover is arguably rather hideous (save the band name Starvue) and looks like a bad born again christian folk LP to me.

Starvue - Love Affair

In the past I've done some mixes for the weekly Laid Back Show on the local radio station FM Brussels as well, for instance 'Slow Disco 2' (http://www.laid-back.be/download/eddy14.htm or http://tinyurl.com/42fywq). But the weekly Laid Back Show has now become a 24 hours radio station on the web.

The idea behind 'Summer Grooves' was to make a sunny disco mix. Some joyful tracks from the late sixties to the mid eighties."
(intro)
Michael McDonald – I Keep Forgettin’ (1982)
Don Blackman – Heart’s Desire (1982)
Creative Source – Good Lovin’ Is Good Livin’ (1976)
Sugar Hill Gang – Apache [12”] (1982)
Mongo Santamaria – Get Back (1969)
Gene Chandler – Get Down [Rick Giantos Special 12” Mix] (1979)
Joubert Singers – Stand On the Word [Larry Levan Remix] (1985)
Jeff Perry – Call On Me (1977)
Sunrize – I Need You More Than Words Can Say (1982)
Cool Notes – Why Not (1985)
ABC – King Without A Crown (1987)
Five Star – System Addict (1985)
The Jacksons – Walk Right Now (1980)
Tony Orlando – Don’t Let Go (1978)
Theo Vaness – I Can’t Dance Without You (1979)
Heaven & Earth – I Really Love You (1981)
Jimmy Williams – All Of My Lovin’ [Eddy’s Edit] (1983)
Serge Gainsbourg – Sea Sex And Sun (1978)
Leo’s Sunshipp – I’m Back For More (1978)

Its time for another Paradise party. This time me and BT Magnum will be playing after Holy Ghost (DFA records), our friends from the Gemini crew and a live show from Sister Sledge. If you happened to come by for the last Paradise with Escort then you will remember what a great time it was, it was easily my DJ highlight of the year and I cannot wait for this one.

Saturday, May 17th, at the Mezzanine on Jesse street.

Above is the flyer, and below is my blog haus remix of Sister Sledge's He's The Greatest Dancer.

See! now Beat Electric is just like every other blog, shameless self promotion plus choppy nu disco remix mashup laptop edits. If this bums you out I do understand, all I can do is apologize and reassure you that its all for a good cause..

Sister Sledge - He's The Greatest Dancer (Black Shag's Greatest Bloghauser remix)

Fever was a SF Bay Area group that centered around Dale Reed, Joseph "Joe" Bomback and Dennis Wadlington. The group got together in 1978 and put out a 12" that was a cover of the Motown hit Standing In The Shadows Of Love. Their LP that followed is owned by at least 75% of your Beat Electric hosts and features the late, great Patrick Cowley on synthesizers. These posted tracks are from their last 12" on Fantasy Records from 1980. The guitar line in Dreams And Desire is so familiar but I can't think of where I have heard it before. There is a lot of Bay Area talent present on these records and this particular one is signed by the record's producer and Bay Area DJ legend John Hedges. I apologize for the recording of The One Tonight, I gave up after digging the groove 7 times. Tim apparently loved the track!

mp3: Fever - The One Tonight
mp3: Fever - Dreams And Desire (Jim Burgess Mix)

There is Eurofunk and then there is Euro Funk and they are the same group but they do not quite share the same sound. Hailing from Miami and fronted by Louie Shameea, Euro Funk released two 12 inches in 1981 on their own Eargasm Records. Besides the ridiculously amazing sleeves (only the sleeve for "Everybody's Dancing" is pictured here) the tracks are pure boogie gold.

Everybody's Dancing is a raw and funky rewrite of Jimmy Ross's "First True Love affair" complete with the same guitar and basslines, but layered with a new vocal melody and lyrics. "Dynomite" is my personal jam. Check the hypnotic guitar and synth melodies as well as the dubbed out bomb drop effects.

In 1983 Euro Funk became the one word Eurofunk and finally lived up to their moniker releasing the somewhat cheesey Italo track "Manshortage" on Pantera Records. Reissued as part of Morgan Geist's "Unclassics" series, "Manshortage" is much more ubiquitous, but doesn't hold a candle to the earlier releases on Eargasm.

Euro Funk - Everybody's Dancing
Euro Funk - Dynomite

Chemise released this track, "She Can't Love You" on Emergency Records in 1982. This track was mastered by the notable Herb Powers Jr and was written and produced by Rickie and Ron Muldrow. For the year it was made, this track has a very contemporary feel.

mp3: Chemise - She Can't Love You

This is a boogie monster.

Jimmy Williams was from Philadelphia, lead singer of Double Exposure and bass player with the O'Jays, as well as session bass man on countless big disco era records. Jimmy is no longer with us, passing away in 1995.

'All Of My Lovin' is his most well known solo single and harks from the beginning of the boogie era, it is one of my all time favorite modern soul records and it is an absolute dancefloor smasher. Its a little rare to find, although it has seen CD re release by salsoul a few years ago, this mp3 is recorded from my virgin ramshorn release. If you can find it pick it up as the instrumental on the flip is also a useful tool for making other DJ's cry.

The French group Voyage has been covered here before when we featured their 1980 tune I Love You Dancer. Souvenirs is from 1978 and is a glamorous pure disco dance floor burner. This rare Hot Tracks remix from 1983 on Power Records attempts to put a modern spin on the sound and removes the vocals. While it is at a more gentle tempo, they removed a lot of what made the original track so great. On the end of the track it seems they added a bit of a Muzak version for good measure.

mp3: Voyage - Souvenirs (12" Version)
mp3: Voyage - Souvenirs (Hot Tracks Mix)