I have loved the Comeme label since the get go. Born from the BumBumBox street parties on the sticky streets of South America, a sweet, sweaty break from the norm. Fun, vivacious and almost a little simplistic in their approach – but in the best possible way. Their releases are truly designed to make you move.
Five here to get you going…
We love Ron Hardy and have done ever since we found out about him in our teens and always will due to the timeless nature of his productions. Everyone bangs on about Larry Levan & Paradise Garage, no doubt those nights were incredible but If we could fire up the time machine for one night only though, The Muzic/Music Box (delete as applicable) circa mid eighties would be the destination. We love the period when the disco era was moving towards the rawer sounds of early house music.
Ron Hardy was great, versatile in the mix, a master of the edit and generally in the blending of disco, house, acid and 80s pop favs, exactly what we’d be after. He would have been 59 this month, if we’ve done our calculations properly, so in respect of the man here are some firm favourites.
Slice and lock baby!
The kind of disco we love, raw and switching around like crazy. This Hardy edit is still good to go.
Robert Owens, Chip E, Larry Heard and Hardy, if you can get more house royalty gold on a disc we’ve yet to hear it.
Raw as you like, real as you like. There is a reason why tracks like this have outlasted the super polished stuff that came after.
Opening sets with this, then smashing the place to pieces with, acid, 909 drums and disco vocals. Come on that’s bound to have been insane and ridiculously fresh at the time. True innovator!
R.I.P Ron Hardy.
What a strange and interesting band.
Q – What kind of music are you into? Me – I like Hot Chocolate. Q – What, really?
Yes a lot of their material isn’t great but I’m always drunkenly going on to people about how they have some of the best, cheapest, deepest, weirdest tunes out there. Fact. The production is amazing, his voice is pure sex and the lyrics at times surprising, dark and political. Makes me think what else they have sitting in the vaults that was never released. Some of these records are obvious but it’s worth listening to them in a row to appreciate how good they sound.
Surely one of the finest, long standing imprints that’s come out of Europe is the French power house, Versatile Records. It releases absolute gold and style wise it pretty much touches on everything I love in modern electronics. Here are just a few favourites from their vast back catalogue.
Label owner DJ Gilb’R & DJ Sotofett joined forces on Foliage and show how to make jazz flecked conga house that doesn’t sound shit.
I:Cube is a VR mainstay, this could have so easily been a top five from him alone.
Here he is, getting all hip house on our asses.
This track does very little but at the same time does everything, hypnotic and timeless it’s exactly the kind of thing I look for in a house record and rarely leaves my record bag.
You can’t beat a bit of acid, especially on the Arabic tip.
Joakim is a firm BB favourite, everything he does is gold. He can’t be placed in a nice little genre specific box and we love him for it. A vintage Joakim number here, first heard on an Ivan Smagghe mix many moons ago and still sounding fresh to these ears.
I’m away from home working in London at present and the best thing to do with any spare time is obviously go digging for records.
There has been a fair bit of press recently on new shops opening in the city, also a bit of a revival for others, so I was up for seeing what it had to offer. Over the years I haven’t been overly fussed on record shopping in London, it felt like a city well picked over and what it did have to offer was often overpriced. Anyway, that aside my plan was to go to five or six shops in different areas and at least that way I could get to walk around parts of the city I hadn’t been to before, look at the architecture, people watch and shake my head at the number of coffee shops per square inch.
Below is a list of 5 stores worth a visit and what I bought.
Picked this up in Reckless Records, Soho. It’s Weatherall and Co. remixing one of my favourite bands. This being a lesser known remix perhaps.
Next stop was Casbah records in Greenwich, where I found tucked behind the door this copy of Metronomy, doing a sort of library music disco instrumental.
After that it was Vinyl Deptford as recommended by Music and Video Exchange in Greenwich (also worth a visit). I liked this shop, a little bit ramshackle but very friendly and relaxed, with some interesting characters floating about. When I went downstairs to the basement part I felt that I might chance upon something a bit special. That didn’t quite happen but it is worth making the effort to visit. I felt I had to leave with something, so I took some vintage TT with me.
Flashback Records in Shoreditch was up next! Not a particularly interesting area to take a dander but Flashback is good for a browse. Picked up an old Vex Ruffin thing on Stones Throw.
Finally, Love Vinyl in Hackney, where I bought a few bits and pieces. Like the rest of the shops be prepared to pay for the records (London rents and rates can’t be light). It’s well stocked for new and old and I had good fun with the guys behind the counter, when trying to describe what kind of records I was after.
Me – ‘You know the kind of records made by people getting it a bit wrong, nothing too musical or nice, percussive, naive, like they were just learning, poss a bit poppy. Does that make sense?’
Five tasteful edits we feel every decent collection should own on the black stuff…
Records come, records go. Want lists expand as your bank balance diminishes.
Always remember they are only records, really fucking good ones! Here are a few I’m currently after…
I love a good disco chugger especially one from 1982 that’s still good to go. This is making we want to drink cocktails in white linen on a boat.
This EP is solid gold, it’s been on repeat around my gaff for months and another that has summer written all over it.
Love a lot of this guys music but this one kind of blew me away. File under something from a forgotten 80s soundtrack or a lost Simple Minds dub?
A sneaky find when rifling through one of best back cats recently was this electro gem by Aksel Friberg on Running Back. Good electro, like good acid is for life!
Picked this 2017 slow burner by Simoncino up in Berlin last weekend and it’s sounding like it could have been lifted from the Trax back cat. Slow brooding and drenched in the soul so many machine music tracks lack, this is a beauty!
The Vinyl Factory select BB1 in their top ten records of the week.
Well worth the growing hype, this one’s gonna be top of your Discogs want list unless you act now
– The Vinyl Factory
Orange Juice – Tongues Begin To Wag
I picked this up in a local record shop for a couple of quid (big up Dragon Records). It wouldn’t be out of place on a disconotdisco type comp and hard to fathom it was a B-Side. It just goes to show there’s plenty out there for cheap. Possibly well known but completely passed me by until a few months ago.
Napoli Disco Club – Balla Sigaretta
How do you like your cheese? Tweaked and edited? I’m a total sucker for these types of pianos.
It’s a Fine Line – Grease
This has recently turned up on the new (ish) album by IAFL. However it first came out on the great I’m a Cliche label in 2009. So good they put it out twice! This is the sound of Smagghe and co having fun – more of this please.
Gesloten Cirkel – Chasing Away The Night
For some unknown reason the less I play out the more ‘dance’ records I buy. Clinging on to distant clubbing memories or the fact there is a plethora of great electronic music to be greedily consumed, maybe a bit of both. Here’s a prime example of a total banger I like to play to myself of an evening. More quality from one of the most consistent labels around.
Beyond The Wizards Sleeve – White Crow (Erol Alkan Dub)
If I was to listen to this blindfolded I would have said (with hope) it was a lost early Pye Corner Audio track. When he was at his pomp. It isn’t. It’s Erol Alkan turning his hand at one of his own. The dub, always check the dub! The way it opens up in the last third, better for me than anything on the recent album.
