Back catalogue: Disco/Reediciones

Review: Nigerian disco-boogie act Galaxy's sole, self-titled album has become a holy grail for Afro-boogie collectors over the last few years, so it's no surprise to see Italian crate diggers Mondo Groove giving it the reissue treatment. It was produced by Jake Sollo - one of Nigeria's premier funk and soul musicians of the '70s and '80s - and recorded in the UK, though it was originally only ever released in his home country. Full of killer grooves (Randy Taylor's bass playing stands out), spacey synths and group vocals from the trio known as the 'Galaxy Girls', the set is packed with highlights. Our picks include a sublime, slow-motion reggae-boogie cover of the Police's 'The Bed's Too Big Without You', the intergalactic, club-ready brilliance of 'Galaxy' and the unbridled, life-affirming sweetness of 'Next To You'.

Review: Bostonian DJ, producer and crate digger Serge Gamesbourg has spent much of the last two years slavishly digging into the history of Massachusetts' little known underground disco scene. Here, over mixed and unmixed discs, he presents the results. Naturally, there's little you'll have heard before, and plenty of high-grade dancefloor fire, much of it re-edited or subtly reworked by Gamesbourg himself. Highlights include the fuzzy, lo-fi funk of Gypsy's "Keep It Comin' On", the turn-of-the-'80s, synth-laden disco-funk dazzle of Portable Patrol's "Cop Bop", the celebratory release of "Fire Funk" by Hypnotics and the smooth, blue-eyed soul shimmer of "Wait Until Dark" by The Chris Rhodes Band.

Review: The album format suits some artists more than others. On this evidence, it's a snug fit for producer Ben Williams' Gatto Fritto project. Like his previous exemplary 12" singles for Dissident, Electric Minds and International Feel, this self-titled debut album quietly tiptoes between claustrophobic paranoia and dream-like bliss - on some occasions even within the same track (the calming and uneasy "Solar Flares Burn You"). These central themes underpin a beautiful and occasionally unsettling mix of tracks that draws on everything from Radiophgonic Workshop synth-experimentation, classic Balearica and evocative ambience to smacked-out pop (see "The Curse" and "Lucifer Morning Star"), evocative ambience and groggy new wave disco.

Review: Christian Gaubert's 'Last Exit' is a French soul masterpiece. It has been carefully remastered from the original tapes and reissued here so standout rare groove gems 'Sweet Maryline' and 'Sweet and Fool Like a Child' sound better than ever. It's an album that showcases the great skills of the prolific arranger and composer Gaubert alongside guest spots from some of the key contemporaries in the French jazz scene of the 70s. Boogie and funk help colour the grooves with the likes of 'Going Ups & Coming Downs' being deep down and delicious jams with killer baselines and lavish strings that cannot fail to light up your life and swell your heart.

Review: The Reflex's multi-track re-edits are always on point, but those he's created for Salsoul Records have generally been impressive even by his high standards. This third double-pack of 'ReVisions' (as he calls them) contains two of his best Salsoul reworks yet: a thrillingly stretched-out take on Gazz's 'Sing Sing' that sees him cannily showcase some of the track's key elements in turn before unleashing the familiar bassline, breaks and vocals, and a fabulously spaced out 'Cosmic Dub' of Rafael Cameron's early electrofunk classic 'Boogie's Gonna Get Ya'. That too, has a big build, making the introduction of the bassline and Cameron's chorus vocals a genuinely breath-taking moment. The EP also contains a solid take on a lesser-celebrated Cameron tune, the more disco-fied 'All That's Good To Me', and a Tom Moulton-esque take on Edwin Birdsong's 'Win Tonight'.

Review: With the capabilities of modern discology allowing for the current deluge of disco 'edits', most of which do little beyond extending an intro for ease of mixing, it would have been an intriguing prospect to see what disco edit progenitor Walter Gibbons thought. Sadly we'll never find out, but current edit profiteers could do worse than check out this retrospective of Walter Gibbons remixes compiled by Strut. Nominally split between the 70s and 80s, the first section documents the imaginative reworks of the Salsoul catalogue that helped cement Gibbon's reputation whilst the second focuses on the mid eighties period where he worked closely with Arthur Russell. It was a chance encounter at the Salsoul office which afforded the then 22-year-old Gibbons an opportunity to remix Double Exposure's "Ten Percent", which became the first commercially successful 12inch release. That mix is one of seven tracks which aptly demonstrate the percussion heavy style Gibbon's branded Jungle Music, with the closing 11 minute mix of Betty LaVette perhaps the most impressive example. The second section provides more sonic intrigue, starting off with a previously unreleased remix of Arthur Russell's "See Through", which is followed by Gibbons seminal take on Dinosaur L's "Go Bang" and perhaps the masterpiece of his career - a nine minute remix of Strafe's "Set It Off". Strut have delivered yet another superlative retrospective here. Released on a double LP with a limited bonus mix CD, this is not to be missed!

Review: Following swiftly on from their deluxe issue of the Mathematiques Modernes album, Seattle label Medical Records continue their endeavours to reissue their ways into the hearts of the Juno review team with this essential reissue of the Gina X Performance album Nice Mover. Gina X Performance was composed of the charismatic front woman Gina Kikoine along with famous German producer/musician Zeus B. Held and this 1978 LP contains many a well revered weapon for the more knowledgeable DJs out there. Spotters will no doubt recognise the slow burning "Nice Mover" from Andrew Weatherall's immense Nine O'Clock Drop mix whilst "No GDM" was edited by Joakim for an early highlight of the Tigersushi catalogue. It's a pleasure to hear this controversial record in full once again - subject matter includes transgenderism and exhibitionism amongst other fetishes - and Medical excel themselves in the presentation stakes, reproducing the original iconic artwork whilst including an insert with liner notes and interview by Kurt B. Reighley. Bone coloured vinyl too....

Review: Despite earning his reputation as a composer of religious music and cinematic soundtracks in the 1970s, Marcello Giombini was also something of an electronic music pioneer. He began to use synthesizers heavily in his work from the early '70s onwards, embracing early music computers at the dawn of the 1980s. It was in this period that he recorded Computer Disco, an album featuring a suite of all-electronic dancefloor instrumentals created using some of the earliest music computers. All these years on, it remains a thrilling release; a stripped-back, Italo-disco-era take on Kraftwerk or Yellow Magic Orchestra featuring all manner of intergalactic melodies, spacey synth sounds and off-kilter drum rhythms.

Review: Italian's Do It Better drop another super cool release - "Beatbox" by Glass Candy. This is cool synth driven pop with vocals from Ida No.

Review: Italians Do It Better seem to have initiated some sort of three yearly reissue cycle for Glass Candy's amazing second LP Beatbox, with this 2013 edition coming after the label initially reissued Jonny Jewel and Ida No's 2007 masterpiece in 2010. There's a reason it keeps getting reissued and that's because Beatbox is a classic in the IDIB canon along with Night Drive by Chromatics, the After Dark compilation and Farah's helium voiced Gay Boy 12". From the opening "Introduction" it's impossible not to fall under the thrall of Ms No once again and tracks such as "Etheric Device", their cover of Kraftwerk and the monumental "Rolling Down The Hill" are wonderful reminders of how important Mike Simonetti's label were in that 2006-9 period of excellence.

Review: Riding high on the buzz he has generated in the last twelve months, Max Graef delivers this album to Tartelet as a man very much in demand. His style, fuelled on the foundations of sampling funk and soul to a brilliantly modern end, has more space to breathe on this LP, but still the fundamentals remain. "Itzehoe" struts on a lazy jazzed-out sizzle of drums and beautiful Rhodes notes while "Tamboule Fudgefunk" punches its way through woozy synth work and a righteous beat and "Drums Of Death" struts on a perfect disco groove replete with live instrumentation, but there's a wealth of other tempos and styles all shot through with the homespun jazz charm that Graef has made his own of late.

Review: The Grasso is greener in Bologna: home to two of the most well-connected collectors in Italy. Suppliers to the likes of Kenny Dope, Phil Asher and Dimitri, Gino and Federico have carved their crate craft to insane levels over the last 30+ years... As shown on this detailed, widescreen boogie, funk and disco collection for BBC. Splattering the vibrant collection with a handful of their own edits (TB Funk's salubrious struts on "Free Blow", fly-by boogie falsettos on Living Color's "Plastic People"), the Grasso bro's have put together a package that's eye-opening, enlightening and damn fine to party to. See you on the other side.

Review: Mr Bongo's launch their new Cuban Classic Series with this reissue of a sought-after, psychedelic funk masterpiece: Yoyi. A fusion of traditional Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythms meets disco, jazz, and funk, with hints of 70s soundtrack productions, this much-loved cult album by Grupo Los Yoyi hears nine predominantly instrumental tracks. Together, they were originally released in 1977 on Areito Records, a sublabel of the state-owned label Egrem, it has become one of the rarest (even in Cuba) yet in-demand albums to be procured by the label. It is the sole album from Grupo Los Yoyi and was composed, orchestrated, and produced by the mysterious, Jorge Soler Leo.

Review: Not all dusty obscurities are worth revisiting, but library music ensemble Gruppo Sound's 1987 set Dreams For Sax most definitely is. Rooted in mid-80s jazz-funk, 'pages from Ceefax' easy listening, glossy electrofunk and early '80s disco, it's a genuinely joyous collection of jaunty instrumental workouts that should delight Balearic crate diggers, sample-hunting beat-makers and synth-loving disco heads. Given the title, you'll be unsurprised to find that saxophone features prominently, but it never dominates; in fact, the range of virtuoso piano solos and the loved-up nature of the Gruppo Sound's approach makes much more of a lasting impression.

Review: Having previously provided BBE with two killer compilations of obscure old Windy City sounds, Chicago DJ, crate digger and record dealer Mark Grusane returns to the London label with his first "headline" release: a killer collection of personal re-edits that have never before seen the light of day outside his DJ sets. As you might expect, all of the edited material is exceptionally obscure and on-point, with Grusane variously touching-up slamming disco, celebratory jazz-funk, slick boogie, sax-sporting disco-funk (see the brilliant "Do It" by Shabadoo), sleazy slow jams (Daniele Patuuchi's sublime "Sacrifice") and, more surprisingly, steel band funk (Macho's fine version of "Mucho Macho").

Review: Brazilian musician, songwriter and producer Pedro Guinu debuts on the Razor-N-Tape label with a rich new album that mixes up MPB, samba, Latin disco and international sounds into something brilliantly vibrant and colourful. Vocals embellish each tune, with wriggling basslines and funky percussion all designed to get you dancing. It's a mix of classic Latin influences and contemporary production which makes this record so hot. Echoes of Marcos De Valle and Jorge Ben ring through samba shufflers like 'Portao De Ferro' and immediately appeal as a result.

Review: Renowned around the world for his iconic sound, disco legend T-Groove teams up with one of the greatest street drummers of all time, George Kano, to form the foundation of an 18 man jazz-funk-disco experience! Moody but sweet. Soulful and groovy. Recorded live, these ten songs are perfect whether you're in the club or sitting in your favorite armchair. The only certainty is you won't be able to stop yourself from dancing like nobody's watching.