Various Artists
Strut
Rating: 7/10 

Waay Back when the decade just started, before “electroclash” became the catch-phrase to describe anything danceable, electronic, and a little fucked-up, DJs and artists didn’t exactly know how to categorize some of the more experimental jams coming up from the underground clubs of New York, London, and other metro hubs. Some of these tracks found their way into the emerging hip-hop scene (“Cavern,” by Liquid Liquid became Grandmaster Flash’s “White Lines”) while others (by mainstream artists like, Steve Miller, even) found a home in the gay clubs, but you could bet the music makers had no idea that one day people would be in orgasm, saying things like, “Wow, it’s so electroclash!” Sure, even the term electroclash sounds a bit played now, don’t it? But when Strut put together this collection of post-punk, no-wave, electro-pop, avant-jazz, Kraut rock, Italo, and beat (from afro to –b-boy) music they knew there was some common link; and it didn’t matter if the song came from the Mudd Club or The Marquee, they were disco . . .. But not disco, and as far as umbrella terms go, it’s ambiguous enough, which means it’s also less presumptuous and pretentious than electroclash.

You may be thinking that the term disco not disco is restrictive (disco usually refers to dance music made between 1974 and 1980) and even more confusing than electroclash - while electro + clash seems to say it all, people tend to get hung up on wondering if it’s the electro of Suicide, Kraftwerk, Newcleus (wikki wikki, jam on it, and uh, no whammys!), Add N to (X), Miss Kitten & the Hacker, or FannyPack - but don’t let the “disco” fool you, it really doesn’t signify much more than music that wouldn’t get played at Studio 54 but would still probably make the record burning at Comiskey Park. Like when Bowie ventured into his Berlin Trilogy and introduced some tight-grooves and cold synths to his repertoire, dogmatic long-hairs (how ironic) would say something like, “I used to like Bowie, but now he plays that disco shit,” or that “faggy shit!” And that could be after listening to “V2 Schneider.”* For many, anything that is isn’t rock, is disco, even if it’s NOT disco, so while that doesn’t exactly pinpoint the artistic bent of disco not disco, you can see how the term actually invites more than it alienates.

Even though my set-up casts a wide net, the folks who compiled the tracks made sure Material made it on all three volumes - but this time Bill Laswell is on an electro-hop kick where his vocoder, in addition to being a missed opportunity for Rhino’s “Street Jams” series, could still show Daft Punk a thing or two about “Robot Rock.” Strut seems to be playing leap frog with Soul Jazz and their “New York Noise” comps, where they beat them to the punch in some cases, but followed their lead when it came to including James White & The Blacks, “Contort Yourself” (albeit, it’s got a Kid Coconut remix).
Klaus Nomi’s cosmic opera is conspicuously missing on these comps, but Konk’s New York-punk version of Afro-beat (go rent Downtown 81 for the Basquiat connection), is very much present. The Normal’s, “Warm Leatherette” may be the cornerstone of any good electroclash retrospective, and would fit in just fine, it’s the cold “Launderette” where music journo Vivien Goldman gives us a fresh look at Ladbroke Grove. The credits here are impressive: Aswad’s bassist, George Oban, provides a dancing yet dubby bassline; Robert Wyatt, formerly of Soft Machine and a brilliant solo artist on his own; John Lydon and Keith Levine of PiL (If you didn’t know Oban was aboard, you’d think their bassist Jah Wobble was in the studio); Steve Beresford from Flying Lizard added some quirk, but it’s control-master Adrian Sherwood that brings in the signature On-U Sound System production.

One of my favorite inclusions is “Mind Your Own Business,” by Delta 5, a group that was part of the Leeds with the Gang of Four. The chick vocals are riotous (incidentally this number was covered by Chicks On Speed), the aggressively funky guitar recalls youthful angst of Andy Gill, but the roller-boogie bassline makes you forget that you’re supposed to be gobbing. Speaking of the Gang of Four, bassist Dave Allen, only needs a steady drum machine to give you his anticipation of the action-packed big-beat culture to come. “Los Ninos Del Parque,” by Liaisons Dangereuses is another back-to-the-future glimpse for the likes of DJ Hell and other producers that love the industrial strength of EBM. An offshoot of DAF and Einsturzende Neubaten, the project was recorded at Conny Plank’s (Kraut rock’s Über-producer) studio and features a German group with a French name that sang in Spanish, English, and French.

It’s not the last track on the compilation, but Sharevari” by A Number Of Names is a good indication of how far this “disco” had come since 1974. Nothing like Van McCoy’s “Hustle”, yet not too far removed from the sequencing of Giorgio Moroder, the new disco had evolved into a nearly completely automated art form ready for mass production/consumption. “Sharevari” came out alongside Juan Atkins’ Cybotron releases, and it’s a good example of how by volume 3 of this compilation (with extensive liner notes by Bill Brewster, author of Last Night a DJ Saved My Life) I really believe that it doesn’t matter if you call it electro, italo, house, dance-punk, or neu wave – it’s still disco not disco to me.

*Actually, now that you brought Bowie into this, “It’s No Game Pt. 1” (with it’s Yoko like yelling) and “Ashes To Ashes” from Scary Monsters are both great examples of disco not disco.

Here are some YouTube videos I got from the Stut site.