(Nu)Disco Is Back
The idea for this mix came a few months back when Francis Mallinson and Ben Clarke, both English friends of mine, were DJing at a Switch gig in Bristol. One of the first tracks Francis played last night was Metro Area - Miura and as soon as I heard it I was bugging him to find out what it was. The next day, on my way back to Switzerland, I picked a copy of IDJ magazine that included a feature called "NYC Disco Special - The Rebirth of New York Disco?" which incidentally talked about the Miura track. At that point I realised that disco/nudisco/NYC-disco, or whatever you wanna call it, was on its way back and that it deserved a mix.
These days, with the growing popularity of acts like Hercules And Love Affair, MGMT, Empire Of Sun...etc, you can see that the sound is here to stay for a while which is very welcomed after a few years of being pounded by a hell of a lot of dull minimal techno. Besides, it's not just disco that is bringing back melody, as you can see from Sasha's Invol2ver mix CD, Guy J's Esperanza album or some of the latest Sven Vath live mixes. Other disco influences in this mix come from Simian Mobile Disco that did a pretty funky set at the end of last year that included a reworked Kebekelektrik track.
Bottom line: melody is back with a vengeance and this is precisely what I'm trying to transmit with this mix. My own personal highlight of the mix is Lee Douglas' New York Story track which is not big. IT IS HUGE. As IDJ put it: "A definite scene (NYC Disco) anthem, and a good summary of where NYC is at right now".
