Disco, funk, boogie, italo, Balearic, proto-house, cosmic… whatever you want to call it, it’s been inescapable in the past couple of years: a strain of classic dancefloor groove that’s moved away from the cheesy nostalgia of ‘Carwash’ disco nights attended by your aunt, and provided the soundtracks to all manner of the coolest basement, warehouse, back-room and loft parties. Indebted to the new wave of disco-influenced acts emerging out of New York in the early 00s (DFA; !!!; The Juan Maclean; LCD Soundsystem) – and accelerated by blog culture’s constant unearthing of previously forgotten gems – the various strains of disco have led to a vibrant and exciting time in dance music culture. Named after ‘balli da discoteca’ – the original term for italo (the synth-based Italian strain of disco pioneered by Giorgio Moroder), DISCOTECA brings together a gargantuan disco line-up, all of whom share a love for disco and funk that’s helped make them what they are.

 

 

While DFA Records is widely acknowledged as the key label of the early 00s re-emergence of disco onto the dancefloors, it was the emergence of Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani’s Metro Area that did as much as anyone to connect the dots between the Studio 54 heyday and modern house and techno DJs. With a love of everything from boogie-funk to italo to techno, the duo’s string of 12” releases on Geist’s own Environ imprint from 1999 to 2001 (eventually collected together on their first self-titled LP in 2002) took in the sparser, stripped-down sounds of techno and married it with the warmth and groove of classic house and disco.

 

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As the influence of Metro Area and the DFA stable of artists grew, a European reaction was stirring: In Germany, Munk were collaborating with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy on their debut album as they evolved an italo take on the DFA sound, while Murphy’s LCD bandmate Al Doyle and his band Hot Chip combined it with a soulful 80s electro-pop style on their second album The Warning – conquering the world’s dancefloors while they were at it. In a similar vein, Warp’s Berlin-based Brighton boy Jamie Lidell melded his Prince and funk influences with house and techno to create his own inimitable style, which casts him as Motown crooner, beatboxer and techno producer all at once in his celebrated live performances.

 

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The advent of Web 2.0 meant a generation of new DJs were being handed a whole artillery with which to arm themselves, with Bumrocks, Lovefingers and 20JazzFunkGreats being among the premier cratediggers, dusting off disco rarities and obscure italo records so you didn’t have to. This coincided with the rise of italo-influenced live acts such as the Chromatics, Glass Candy and Desire, all of whom are signed to New Jersey resident Mike Simonetti’s Italians Do It Better – from whom DISCOTECA attendees will be privileged to enjoy a showcase featuring live performances from Glass Candy and Desire as well as a DJ set from the label’s chief.

 

DOWNLOAD MIKE SIMONETTI ‘BACK TO AFRICA’ MIX

DOWNLOAD MIKE SIMONETTI + JOHNNY JEWEL (GLASS CANDY / DESIRE) ‘ALBUTEROL’ MIX

 

With disco now one of the blog world’s genres of choice, it was inevitable that it would translate to an underground party scene. As house, electro, techno, D&B and breaks were the staples of the clubs, this scene made its home in pub back rooms and restaurant basements: Horse Meat Disco’s monthly Soho Thursday night eventually became a weekly Sunday party in Vauxhall, while over in Dalston, Disco Bloodbath were slowly outgrowing their pink-walled surroundings of a Carribean restaurant basement to become stars in their own right, eventually making the move into production with remixes for Little Boots and Franz Ferdinand. Their monthly parties have become as much a part of London nightlife as the clubbing institutions they regularly guest at, and have welcomed the likes of Erol Alkan, Todd Terje and Serge Santiago.

 

Little Boots (Disco Bloodbath remix – dub) by matterlondon

 

DOWNLOAD DISCO BLOODBATH’S BEATS IN SPACE GUEST MIX

 

Fittingly, Disco Bloodbath’s guests in Room 2 on 30th January will be Glaswegian duo Optimo, who themselves had forged a formidable reputation off the back of their own subterranean clubnight north of the border, at Glasow’s underground venue Sub Club. Two vastly experienced DJs, Optimo were among the first DJs to illustrate the potential of Ableton as a DJing tool, as they took genre-hopping DJ sets to a new level with their legendary Sunday night parties, as well as creating one of the single most influential DJ mixes of the decade with their entry in Tigersushi’s How To Kill The DJ series.

 

DOWNLOAD THE OPTIMO ‘SYNTH SUMMER’ PODCAST

 

And so, with such a vast array of talent to be inspired by and to aspire to, yet further DJs and producers are breaking through, with the likes of The Cosmic Truth, ToTheBone, Minkioni, Electric Minds and Disco&Mercy among those putting on their own nights in the capital, always on the lookout for that perfect space to throw a party for like-minded friends to enjoy their own personal Paradise Garage.

 

January 2010 Promo Mix (Disco&Mercy) by Disco&Mercy

 

All of those mentioned above are forever in the debt of the originators of the disco sound – the artists, producers, engineers and DJs that cracked a formula for dance music that would endure for decades, and possibly forever. So many dancefloors fads have come and gone, but funk endures and disco lives on. DJs like Larry Levan, Greg Wilson, Frankie Knuckles and Francois Kervorkian were there in the beginning, with FK himself working in the studio on some of the greatest discofunk records ever made as engineer for Prelude Records in the late 70s/early 80s. Still going strong at 56 and possessing an insatiable appetite for new music that deserts many DJs as they reach a certain level of adulation, we couldn’t think of anyone better to help us celebrate the legacy of dance music’s DNA.

 

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