Back in stock: Disco/Reediciones

Review: Arp Frique & The Perpetual Singers come together for this most personal gospel funk album which was inspired by the birth of Frique's daughter, Jesamy. It finds the Amsterdam-based multi-instrumentalist mixing up organic funk with obscure synths, bubbly basslines that are always on the move with swirling guitars that add the colour and all make for an unusual and interesting mix of P-funk and gospel-disco. There are plenty of universal messages throughout which all emphasise the need for unconditional love while legendary vocalists like Dennis Bovell, Muriel Blijd, Mariseya, Brandon Delagraentiss and Rocq-E Harrell contribute to the powerful sound. Delagraentiss's choir, The Gospel Experience, also do their bit by adding big, rich, heartfelt vocals. It's quite the listen.

Review: Hamilton Bohannon's debut Stop & Go, first dropped back in 1973 and is a raw and essential slice of early 70s funk. Though maybe more known for his later disco hits, here Bohannon delivers something earthier-looser grooves, soulful vocals and inventive arrangements that simmer rather than explode. This album offers a deeper, more nuanced sound compared to his polished, high-energy disco work and highlights include the blissed-out 'Singing a Song for My Mother,' the deep funk of 'Happiness,' and the widely sampled 'Save Their Souls.' A crate-digger favourite and funk connoisseur's gem, Stop & Go is a percussive, spiritual, and downright nasty record that holds up start to finish.

Review: Originally released in 1983 on the B-side of a House of Music 12", 'Stop' is a raw and iconic Italo-Disco anthem that helped define an era. Now, four decades later, Stop 4 Remixes breathes new life into the cult classic with four dynamic reworks. Woody Bianchi delivers a masterclass in mixing with 'Pushed Up' while Danilo Braca (aka Danyb) offers two deep, expansive edits tailored for discerning dancefloors. Dirtyelements & Drunkdrivers bring the fire with their 'Acid Re-Solution Remix' that's full of passion, precision and some nice wild energy. These are great tributes to a track that helped launch the Italo-disco movement into orbit.

Review: Nearly half a century after The Glow Of Love lit up dancefloors from Bologna to New York, Change return with Embrace: a sleek continuation of their post-hiatus revival, carrying the modern Italo dance group's name after early designs to release it as a Tanya Michelle Smith solo project. Produced by Stefano Colombo with input from founding maestro Mauro Malavasi, who also oversaw the title and artwork, the record builds on 2018's Love 4 Love with a dozen tracks folding disco, soul, and modern boogie into a freshly polished polygon of sprightly designer disco. While just 500 copies of the vinyl edition exist, the CD edition here exists in droves, and is sure to set any missed trick right.

Review: Bologna, 1979: Change begins as a studio braintrust linking Mauro Malavasi, Paolo Gianolio and Davide Romani, with production steered by Jacques Fred Petrus. Nearly half a century on from their debut LP The Glow Of Love, cut between Italy and New York - blanketing the mean dancefloor in Euro-import modishness - we're now met by the sweet sonic hug that is Embrace, carrying the group's name after early plans to release it as a solo project of Tanya Michelle Smith, longtime vocalist member of the band. Maruro Malovasi's tender hand is given most productive airtime here, building on but reworking many of the same elements heard on 2018's Love For Love, and enlisting a sneak remix of 'Sunrise Forever' by Michael Gray, already a Traxsource chart-topper. Just 500 copies of this one, so hold tight before it's gone in a neon flash!

Review: Italian trio Colours shared only three singles with the world, and all were made in the hotbed period of 1985-86, when labels such as Discomagic monopolised the roost. 'Lonely Night' was their manifest magic trick; its poking, reverb-slurried lead is a slick staccato, upon which a lonesome vocal line by singer Mauro Santoro calls out into the night from the picture window. A kind of emo efflux is at play, where the 80s fascination with vulnerability is set to the brunt-borne, sublimated beat of the discotheque. Little is known about this band save for Santoro, making this a collectors item less concerned with band BTS or making-of shenanigans, and more the inherently appreciable shape of a sound.

Review: Samosa Records delivers another funk-fuelled feast with Vol2, a double-vinyl delight bursting with disco grooves. Dirty Elements & Drunkdrivers open with 'Koko,' which is a clavinet-driven, string-laced dancefloor gem and then Macchianera's 'Gotta Dance' gets the De Gama re-groove treatment-soulful, brassy and endlessly playable. Niels F.'s 'Trying To Love' grooves with filtered strings, brass and a slick vocal hook that is nicely enhanced by De Gama's re-drums. MP Soundworks closes with the Afro-tinged 'Gotta Get It,' a tribal-infused banger powered by looped vocals and a bouncing bassline. This is a very useful collection that underlines Samosa's fine ear for cutting talent.

Review: No, this is not a long-lost jam from popular British songsmith David Gray, but a sought-after underground Italo-disco anthem from 1987 fronted by an uncredited Italian singer and produced by a duo called Scarface. In typical Thank You/Sound Metaphors style, this fine reissue boasts all three versions from the original 12": the glossy, synth-pop 'extended mix', a vocal-free instrumental, and the 'special mix'/DJ friendly dub mix style 'extended instrumental' - a version that sounds like a tweaked and extended backing track to a Shep Pettibone produced Pet Shop Boys album track from 1986. We also get a fresh, effects-laden 'Bonus Dubeats' take from label affiliate Castro which is arguably the best of a strong bunch.

Review: Giorgio Lopez makes his debut on Cosmic Romance with a shimmering collection of groove-heavy daydreams billowing between French boogie, Mediterranean funk and 80s yacht pop. 'Sud Des iles' is framed as a sonic journey aboard a fictional sailboat captained by Georges Taty, but beyond the concept lies a sharply crafted suite of eight tracks that shimmer with nostalgia and escapism. Tracks like 'Voyager Sans Bouger' pulse with sun-dappled demeanour, while 'Toujours Distante' leans into ennui and longing. With vocals from Stella, Master Phil, Amanda Roldan and Bernardino Femminielli, plus contributions from a seasoned crew of Berlin and Naples-based musicians, the album foregrounds Lopez's lush keyboard textures and breezy melodic sensibility.

Review: Originally tucked away on a 2020 12", Quiroga's 'Snaporaz' EP gets the treatment it always deserved with this expanded, four-track edition from Balearic archivists Archeo. Based in Naples, Quiroga stretches his original into a languid, Rhodes-soaked jazz-house glide on the A1ifull of crackling percussion, soft-focus pads and a bubbling low end that carries the melodic line into increasingly heady territory. A loose hand drum finale seals it with flair. 'Escorpiao' on A2 is subtler but no less vibrant, a slick fusion jam where keytar and cowbell meet over a featherlight grooveibalancing restraint and virtuosity in equal measure. The B-side belongs to Rome's Francesco de Bellis, appearing under his L.U.C.A. alias. Known for his Edizioni Mondo material, he warps 'Snaporaz' into a dreamlike new age dancer, slowing the tempo and steeping it in hazy atmospheres and woozy melodies. His 'Quirky Beat' version strips it further, letting skeletal drum edits carry the mood alone. Bridging Neapolitan warmth and Roman oddball finesse, this is a limited edition reissue that more than earns its second life.

Review: Reborn Italo-disco label Fulltime Production's ongoing remix series, in which contemporary producers tackle gems from the vaults, reaches its tenth instalment. Da Lukas steps up first, re-imagining Rainbow Team's lightly funk-fuelled, string-laden 1982 disco jam 'Bite The Apple' as an action-packed disco-house anthem, before long-serving Italian producer Massimo Beradi turns Michael Baker's 1983 workout 'Don't You Want My Loving' into a hybrid boogie-soul/deep house treat. Over on side B, Souls Groove successfully 're-vibe' Say When's 'Save Me', an early house era European synth-pop anthem (and yes, you'll know it), while GAMM regular Black Truffle's take on Ma Gi C's 'Shampoo' is a gritty disco-funk delight.

Review: Back by popular demand comes this four track revisitation of the famous 80s synthpop classic, which emerged in December 2024 with the kind of slightly Euro twist in the vocal department you might expect from the Netherlands-based Random Vinyl stable. The Master Mix is perhaos the most poignant, given that its airy, lush pads were put together by the late producer Marc Hartman who very sadly passed away in August 2024 at the far too young age of 58. But all four show due reverence to this monolithic moment in electronic music history, without resisting the temptation to add a little new. Grey-t stuff.

Review: After the seismograph shattering success of their last 45, 'Samba De Flora', in the summer of 2024, Argentina's Romero Bros (Xavi and Remi) have since followed an unignorable inspirational impulse, that is and was, to finish a collection of jazz and Latin-infused club tracks, ones that had been in the leftover works for years. The result is a seven-tracker of gracefully cosmic proportions, incorporating drunken piano house and a percussively soft excitability, not to mention a remix each of the very track that sparked the entire duo project, 'Samba De Flora'.

Review: Most dance heads know a thing or two about Donna Summer and 'I Feel Love', but what else do they know about her legacy? Don't get caught off guard by the honorarily-named troupe Dina Summer, whose latest remix EP on 12" here follows up an already-storied full-length LP of the same name. The Berlin synth-wave riders' second LP, Girls Gang, hears a new take on dark disco and EBM, not pioneering or sultry hi-NRG, suggesting a seedy underside to the artist who inadvertently *made* dance music dance music. Contrasting the original, telephone filtered, distorto-diced armageddons heard on the Girls Gang LP, this remix set is a chintzier grab bag of forensic club architectures, with a banging extended version of the title track serving a bright four-minuter in gothic, bodying technicolour.

Review: Pam Todd & The Love Exchange's 'Let's Get Together' dropped in the golden disco era of the late 70s and is one of our all-time top jams. The percussive breakdown at the mid-section is magic, and it all oozes funk, as well as having a proper singalong vocal up top. Mr K maintains the care of the original while tweaking the drums for modern floors across three subtly different mixes here on the Shrylden label. We found this one in the warehouse, so don't sleep, cause it won't be around long.

Review: Donna Washington, a legendary soul singer from LA, is known for hits like her duet with The Dramatics' LJ Reynolds, 'I'm Into You.' However, just as good is 'You Can't Hide From The Boogie' is a disco classic that got revived amongst heads after it featured on Boogie Times Presents The Great Collectors Vol. 8 in 2008. Now, it's getting its own standalone 7" pressing and is a high-energy, funky gem complete with powerful horns and driving drums, all perfect for the dancefloor. On the flip side, Linda Clifford's 'Build A Fire' delivers a more seductive, deep boogie sound, showcasing the enduring allure of 1980s disco and boogie music.

Review: An obscurity from Belgium's fertile late 80s new beat scene, The Zodiacs' only release is a curio that fuses eeriness with unlikely dancefloor power. Originally a 7" single, it now re-emerges in expanded form with an original mix, instrumental and a haunting remix from Athens-based producer Anatolian Weapons. The A-side feels like a lost transmission-urgent synth stabs, robotic funk and children's chants chanting "Move & Dance To The New Beat!" at a slightly uncharacteristic pace for the genre. That faster tempo, combined with the spectral vocal samples, gives it a strange and potent edge. The instrumental brings the textures into sharper focus, while Anatolian Weapons slows the tempo and draws out its more sinister qualities, transforming it into a ritualistic slow-burner for the darkest corner of the club. Oddball, effective and totally singular-this is new beat gone rogue. with modern dancefloor menace baked in.