Last Updated on 25/09/2022
What’s that? “Gimme, gimme gimme some disco other than ABBA?” Funny that, as this week we’ve got you five underrated disco albums that you may have never heard of.
5. Keep On Jumpin’, Musique (1978).
Patrick Adams’ pioneering contribution as an arranger and producer of R&B, hip-hop and disco has earned him no less than 30 gold/platinum records and yet he is still not fully recognised for his work. Although Adams’ philosophy wasn’t particularly thought-provoking and mostly concerned f****** about and seeing what worked, it would be this beatitude that would allow him to form a perfect marriage with the liberated, coke-fuelled, mid-70s New York disco scene. Resultantly, what culminated was the birth of Keep On Jumpin’, a four cut studio project briskly brought to life in just three weeks with the help of Christine Wiltshire, Angela Howell, Gina Pickens, Mary Williams and Jocelyn Brown, who together formed the group Musique. Commercially speaking, the album didn’t break records, peaking at No.62 on the US Billboard Hot 100. However, don’t let some square radio DJs put you off great songs such as “In the Bush”, just because of its unmistakable sexual references. After all, disco was essentially synonymous with sex. Don’t believe me? Just read up on some of the stuff that went down in Studio 54, the home of disco that made Amerstam’s red light district look like a nunnery.
“In the Bush” is the first of the four tracks on Keep On Jumpin’ and has a punchy bass line which lays the path for Adams’ proto-house synth and horn instrumentation. Stretching nearly eight minutes, it’s the perfect opener, giving you enough time to throw on those flares (without the need for the puffer xo) and get into a groove. The tempo of the bass drum then carries on into “Summer Love”, another great song with awesome rhythm. It’s not as hardcore as, say, Donna Summer, but more on the same wavelength as the effortlessly cool KC & The Sunshine Band. That leaves us with “Keep On Jumpin’” and “Summer Love Theme”. Whilst the last track on the album is essentially just a reprise of the second and nothing new, the title track is worth a listen and is a cult favourite for lots of disco heads.
4. Chic, Chic (1977).
One night, a postman and a guitarist walk onto a train. It sounds like the beginning of some sort of shitty joke you’d find stuffed inside a christmas cracker (what would be the punchline? The postman asking, “Can I be the mail lead”?). Instead, what the world got was Chic Organisation Ltd. Not only would guitarist Nile Rodgers and postman-turned-bassist Bernard Edwards become the two geniuses behind Chic’s entire discography, but they would also go on to write for and kickstart the careers of artists such as Sister Sledge and Diana Ross. The duo are known for their quintessential disco numbers such as “Le Freak”, “Good Times” and “I Want Your Love” and should be recognised for their composition of “He’s the Greatest Dancer” and “I’m Coming Out”, to name a few other gems. This being said, Chic shouldn’t just be considered a disco band (despite that not necessarily being a bad thing). They’re raison d’etre stretches much further than that, as evidenced by their underappreciated debut album Chic. Only peaking at No.27 on the US Billboard Hot 100, it is nonetheless cluttered with composition as imaginative as the intelligent dance music being produced concurrently by the men-machines over in Germany (well … almost).
“Everybody Dance” would be the first single released by Chic, secretly cut after closing hours at Sound Ideas studios. To think, if the band were caught we might never have heard the now highly-influential, tightly spirited bass line that Bernard plays to accompany the now-hit. The song also features candy-coated vocals provided by Norma Wright and a young Luther Vandross, as well as slices of Nile’s never-aging, wailing guitar. “Dance, Dance, Dance”, the first track on the album, is equally as groovy and, included with “You Can Get By” and “Strike up the Band”, completes a quartet of disco wonders listed on the album’s sleeve. For those not necessarily feeling the urge to work up a sweat, but rather a dose of mellow magic instead, try out “Sao Paulo”, “Est-Ce Que C’est Chic” and “Falling in Love with You”. Very … um … chique.
3. Part 3, KC & The Sunshine Band (1976).
Choo choo! All aboard the groove train! Harry Wayne Casey was, and still is, a disco icon and one of the first to convert the soul wagon into the disco locomotive that we all know and love today, lust for coal and sweat for steam. It all started with KC (Casey -> KC, get it?) and his session men producing and writing George McCrae’s “Rock Your Baby”, a single that is considered by many as being the one of disco’s first. From then on, KC went on a roll, adding his signature rhythm and beat to the KC and the Sunshine Band (1975) album. With smash hits like “That’s the Way (I Like It)”, “Get Down Tonight” and “Boogie Shoes”, the album rocketed up to No. 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The same sort of success was expected for Part 3 (1976) but, despite having two No. 1 singles (“I’m Your Boogie Man” and “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty”, the album itself would experience mediocre success, charting at No.13.
The whole album offers an animalistic experience that unceasingly pumps your soul. “Baby I Love You (Yes I Do)” opens the track listing with inviting drumming and racy harmonies, which are gratefully then littered throughout the rest of the record. The brass sections then take centre stage on “Wrap Your Arms Around Me”, ensuring no loss of momentum. It’s clear given the accelerated tempo on each track that KC never wanted the party to end. No wonder his catalogue is so celebrated by that weird Uncle that rocks up at your cousin’s wedding, Carlsberg akimbo. Don’t treat Part 3 as if it’s a couple of singles swamped by a bunch of filler. Sure, the meaning behind the album’s lyrics may be thin and the songs repetitive, but that’s not to say it’s existence is trivial. It is simply infectious.
2. Never Can Say Goodbye, Gloria Gaynor (1975).
“I Will Survive” superseded underground status. Its depiction of a woman’s defiance in the face of adversity, spurred on by filigree piano tones and subtle guitar licks, led to the song having a massive cultural impact. The single flew to No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and transformed Gloria into both a gay icon and a figure of female empowerment. Since, hundreds of others have recorded their own renditions, most notably Diana Ross and later on that ugly dog Frank in Men in Black II. If it was me I’d have thrown the pug out of Will Smith’s window, but let’s leave my small dog hating thoughts for another day. The point I want to make is that, as important as “I Will Survive” was, it’s popularity should not limit Gloria to one-hit wonder status. It’s criminal to turn a blind eye to her other work, especially the debut album Never Can Say Goodbye (1975). It itself has grounds for being given legendary status, despite only charting at No.25 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Gloria saw early on what disco was missing. The emerging scene was beginning to boom with great dance numbers, but there was one problem – they were all too short. Just as you were about to get into a groove, the songs would finish. The first side of Never Can Say Goodbye puts an end to this by stringing together a marathon of dance music lasting eighteen minutes long. “Honey Bee” opens the album with a buzz representative of the title of the track. The strings on it are pulsating and Gloria’s voice assertive. There is then no break between it and “Never Can Say Goodbye”. You physically have not got the time to press pause for a breather. Besides, there is no reason why you’d want to with the track’s bass and rhythm guitar spurring you on to keep dancing. Gloria’s rendition of the Four Tops’ “Reach Out I’ll Be There” is another favourite of mine, adding more tempo and grit to the original. Don’t forget to listen to the latter half of this album too, ending with “Real Good People”, another tune that’ll give your hips a blast.
1. From Here To Eternity, Giorgio Moroder (1977).
If someone was to ask you which musician defined disco, the name Donna Summer would probably come up faster than a mandy’d rat. Songs such as “I Feel Love”, “Love to Love You Baby” and “Hot Stuff” not only fully echoed the lusts of the age, but changed the course of music itself in much the same way that Chuck Berry’s ”Johnny B. Goode” and The Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” did for their own respective eras. When David Bowie first heard “I Feel Love”, he himself labelled it “the sound of the future”. The ‘Queen of Disco’, however, cannot take full responsibility for such hits. Instead, she owes a lot of her success to a producer she met in Munich in the early seventies whose name has largely vanished from the annals of music history: Giorgio Moroder. Although we may now have forgotten who he is, Giorgio himself was very influential, his sound going onto influence many acts, such as New Order and the French electro duo Daft Punk, to name just two. Daft Punk even paid homage to Giorgio with their … subtly named track … “Giorgio by Moroder” on which you can hear the Italian himself speak.
The shame of not knowing who Giorgio Moroder is is made worse by the fact that his solo album From Here to Eternity has mostly fallen upon deaf ears. Despite being very similar in theme to the smash-hit “I Feel Love”, released just two months prior, the album only managed to climb to No. 130 on the US Billboard Hot 200 Chart. Don’t let this deter you, however. It’s Kraftwerk-esque synthy simplicity and nippy clicks and snare beats make it an excellent, high-energy dance classic. The album is split in two, with the momentum on the first side peaking at “Utopia”. Let me tell you, the rush of reaching its climax is second-to-none. Side B may not be quite as well constructed, but it still contains tuneful moments, such as with “First Hand Experience in Second Hand Love” and “I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone”. Give it a whirl!
