Love Dancing Playmate

Playmate - Love Dance (1978, Salsoul/RCA)
Playmate - Oriental Explosion (1978, Salsoul/RCA)

A little something I'd picked up in Vancouver a couple of years ago, this seems to have been one of the more obscure Eurodisco offerings released by Salsoul at the time. With the production credited to an incognito outfit called "Cup Production," it even seems a little more anonymous than most.

Written by Christian Bensch, Peter Wagner and Uli Roever, all three seem to have some credits in the realm of German pop music, with Uli Roever having what seems to be one of the more significant disco connections, having been credited as an arranger on Pamala Stanley's "This Is Hot" (1979, EMI) LP. Quite unexpectedly, I'd also come across this song's entry in the ASCAP database, where it credits Roever and 'Roever Wagner Bensch' as the performers, so I'd venture to guess that they (or at the very least, Uli Roever) were most likely also the producers behind this.

A double A-side single, both tracks are mostly instrumental, aside from the very minimal vocals which do little more than repeat the song titles in a light, high pitched coquettish fashion. Aside from that, both tracks on the single have that unmistakable German Eurodisco sound to them, characterized by the familiar sonic backdrop of squelchy synth effects (clavinet?) and Silver Convention-esque string arrangements to name a couple of things.

Mixed by renowned DJ and remixer, Bobby 'DJ' Guttadaro (perhaps the most notable name on here, from a disco perspective) "Love Dance" starts out with a mid-tempo percussion and vocal intro then shortly moves into a horn and guitar laden Spanish/Santa Esmeralda style Flamenco tinged arrangement, with some added horns, kettle drum accents and a sexy break providing some build-up and drama along the way. Given how many mixes Guttadaro seemed to be doing for Salsoul at the time, along with the common practice of US labels in remixing their European-licensed product, I'd venture to guess that there are likely some European pressings (like the UK pressing listed on Discogs which doesn't credit Guttadaro) with a different mix of this track, which I'm going to have to confirm for myself one of these days.

With the cheese factor racheted up a few notches, "Oriental Explosion" on the flip is nevertheless entirely as enjoyable, if not slightly moreso. As with any good piece of Western Oriental fetishism, the track is naturally opened by and punctuated with loud gong crashes, an 'oriental' style wind-section and some random unintelligible chanting in the middle seemingly thrown in for good measure. A kitschy car-crash of delicate disco strings, German oompah and some vaguely Asian sounding interludes, it's every bit as strange and oddly appealing as it sounds..

Either way, while the selections on this single are probably not the sort of thing made to burn up a dancefloor, I'd consider these both to be nice artifacts of a sexy (if not slightly kitschy), laid-back Eurodisco sound of the time..

PREVIOUS RELATED ENTRIES:
THE ONE I LOVE TAKES ME DOWN, TAKES ME THERE.. (THURSDAY DECEMBER 13. 2007)
FAUST WAS RIGHT, HAVE NO REGRET.. (MONDAY OCTOBER 15, 2007)
DISCO DELIVERY #35: MONTREAL FEATURING UCHENNA IKEJIANI (1979, SALSOUL) (WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2007)

LINKS:
DISCOGS: PLAYMATE
ASCAP: ROEVER WAGNER BENSCH - LOVE DANCE
DISCOMUSIC.COM: BOBBY 'DJ' GUTTADARO
DISCOGS: BOBBY 'DJ' GUTTADARO

CATEGORIES: MINI DELIVERIES