Disco Delivery Mix #12: Wheels Begin to Roll

Photo: Stuart Reif photographed by Kenn Duncan - After Dark Magazine, 1981.

On a bit of a roll with these at the moment, so deciding to just post this instead of holding it back for another time.

This one is more straight-ahead disco than the last mix I posted. Visited family recently which also gave me an opportunity to take more records back from storage, so a few of those appear here. At least one selection has been the subject of a past blog post, however all of them are songs that I've been enjoying re-discovering and grooving to for the last few weeks.

That being said, I hope that you, dear listener, enjoy as well!

Disco Delivery #12: Wheels Begin To Roll (Download)

Tracklist and track notes below.

Tracklist:

Must - Sado Maso Disco (Instrumental)
Fern Kinney - Love Me Tonight
Macho - Roll
Mystery - Hold On To This Moment (Instrumental)
Love Robot - Slaves of Pleasure
Blo - Back In Time
Beverly Johnson - Don’t Lose The Feeling (12” Version)
Chuck Cissel - Cisselin Hot
Tony Rallo & The Midnite Band - Burnin’ Alive
Plaza - Let’s Do It
Champs Boys Orchestra - Tubular Bells
Gino Soccio - Rhythm Of The World

All the records used in this mix

Track Notes:

Must - Sado Maso Disco (Instrumental): A single I had retrieved from storage recently, one that I had bought some years back based on the cover and on the sheer notion of a song called Sado Maso Disco. Upon listening to it again, I found that the instrumental version on the B-side was much more to my liking. While the whips, chains and moans on the A-side are good for a little sado maso kitsch, the instrumental track is strong enough on its own and could sit alongside anything Cerrone was doing at the time. I suppose that's just as well, since the writers behind this - Célestin Ganou, Michel Gouty and Pierre Naçabal were involved in a number of French disco and pop productions in the 1970s and early 80s.

Fern Kinney - Love Me Tonight: From Fern Kinney's second album, Fern from 1981, this is perhaps my favourite track on the album. Produced by the same team behind her hit cover of "Groove Me" - Carson Whitsett, Wolf Stephenson and Tommy Couch, her coquettish high falsetto and the light and lovely synths make a perfect combination. This track was originally recorded by Malaco labelmates, Sho Nuff as "Tonite," the title track of their second LP from 1980. Fern Kinney's version here doesn't deviate too far from the Sho Nuff original, just with a little extra charm and finesse.

Macho - Roll: Taken from the second Macho album from 1980, sometimes titled Macho II, the same outfit which had a disco hit with a cover of "I'm A Man." Jacques-Fred Petrus turned much of this record over to Celso Valli, the man behind the disco projects Azoto and Tantra, where he goes for a more rock-disco sound, which seemed to have a brief moment in the turn of the 80s. While this second album is somewhat uneven, this track is to me one of the better ones. Like many other J-F Petrus and/or Celso Valli productions of the time, music tracks were recorded in Italy, and vocals recorded with American session singers in New York. Unfortunately the singers themselves aren't credited on this album, however, I can clearly hear the ever-reliable New York session vocalist, Gordon Grody as one of the leads on this particular track. On a visual note - if you thought the first Macho album cover was homoerotic, this second one is perhaps even more so.

Mystery - Hold On To This Moment (Instrumental): A track I had posted on the blog years ago (see A Moment or Two..). The combination of those pots-and-pans style drums and string arrangements place this squarely in that early 80s Lime-adjacent Montreal disco sound. It's perhaps just as well, since this was arranged by Lime's Denis LePage himself and has his sonic stamp all over it. As I recall, the vocal on the A-side was especially terrible, but thankfully the instrumental is good enough on it's own to redeem this single. Interesting fact, this was released in the US on Tommy Boy, one of the first releases on the fledgling label.

Love Robot - Slaves of Pleasure: From a curious album I picked up sometime last year called Love Robot. Frenchmen Gérard Salesses and TV producer/impresario Jean-François Porry (AKA Jean-Luc Azoulay) appear to be the principals behind this. This particular track, "Slaves of Pleasure" always seems to go over well whenever I play it. Add this to the list of curious disco songs about robot love - Dee D. Jackson's "Automatic Lover" being a prime example, with lyrics promising a future where "men are only a memory." My favourite line: "we are slaves of pleasure, a new kind of leisure, and your only program, is to love you madame."

BLO - Back In Time: Picked up a reissue of this single (on PMG) from Nigerian band BLO a few years ago. An acronym for the members' first names - Berkley "Ike" Jones (guitar), Laolu "Akins" Akintobi (drums) and Mike "Gbenga" Odumosu (bass), BLO was a rock band formed in the early 70s taking inspiration both from Afrobeat and American psychedelic rock. By this time, the lineup was Berkley Jones, Laolu Akintobi and Otu Lemmy Jackson and they were recording more straight-ahead disco tracks like this one. Though apparently the version of this song on the PMG reissue is shorter than the original release, I couldn't possibly pass up this groove once I heard it for myself.

Beverly Johnson - Don’t Lose The Feeling (12” Version): A solid disco single from supermodel (and first black woman to grace the cover of American Vogue), Beverly Johnson. Apparently the theme song from the 1979 action-adventure film Ashanti, which starred Michael Caine, Peter Ustinov and Beverly herself, it would also be the title track to her full-length album released the same year. Johnson may not be a vocal dynamo but with all the heavy-hitters involved here - like Betty Wright who co-produced this with Robert White, Michael Melvoin who is one of the co-writers, Horace Ott as arranger, complete with "Midnight Mix" by Richie Rivera, Johnson sounds good on this catchy little groover.

Chuck Cissel - Cisselin Hot: Oklahoma-born Chuck Cissel was a theatre performer in the 70s, landing plum roles in hit musicals like Purlie, Hello Dolly! and perhaps most prominently, in the Broadway production of A Chorus Line. His work on stage and in commercials led to various recording opportunities, the biggest of which was a record deal with Arista. This song is, for better or worse, one of the defining moments of his recording output. With a groove that's as hot as the title proclaims, I'm somewhat surprised this wasn't a bigger hit. Produced by Skip Scarborough and David Crawford (not to be confused with the Dave Crawford who produced hits for Jackie Moore, Wilson Pickett and Candi Staton) this groove is unstoppable, peak-1979 heat!

Tony Rallo & The Midnite Band - Burnin’ Alive: Guitarist and one of the most in-demand arrangers in France at the time, Tony Rallo appeared on many records by French luminaries like Dalida (including the one featured on the previous mix), Charles Aznavour, Sacha Distel, Catherine Ferry and others. Rallo also appeared on French disco productions like Madleen Kane's Rough Diamond and Theo Vaness' Back to Music under the alias Tony Lexter, reasoning that French audiences were more likely to buy disco product with an American name than with a French name, something that friend and arranger Raymond Donnez also did, under the alias Don Ray. Alec R. Costandinos, someone else who likely moved in many of the same musical circles in France, offered to record an album with him in London with top-flight British and American session players. This was the title track and the undisputed standout on that record. Love how this song packs a lot of dancefloor energy, yet still has enough room for the session players to add some jazzy solos to the mix. Probably one of Costandinos' best outside productions, this one still lights up dance floors.

Plaza - Let’s Do It: I had long wanted a copy of this elusive (at least to me) album by the disco project, Plaza. Finally got a copy of it late last year - recorded in the UK but only ever released in France and Venezuela (according to Discogs). Produced by Mike Thorne and ex-Soft Machine members Karl Jenkins and Mike Ratledge, vocals by an uncredited Claire Torry, the album is chock full of elegant, hyper-delirious disco goodies like this one.

Champs Boys Orchestra - Tubular Bells: An early mash-up of sorts, this record is ostensibly a cover of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" combined with the bassline of Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby." Produced by Patrick Bocéno with yet another well-travelled French arranger and conductor, Hervé Roy, it's an intriguing and clever disco combination.

Gino Soccio - Rhythm Of The World: From Gino Soccio's second album S-Beat from 1980 which to me was a bit of a mixed bag. Many of the tracks saw him incorporating elements of new-wave which was increasingly making itself heard on disco dancefloors by the turn of the 80s. It didn't always work to my ears but sometimes it did, like on this song. Somehow sounding slower than it actually is, the combination of ambient-style synths with rock guitar touches and an "I Feel Love"-style bass-line comes together quite sublimely.


CATEGORIES: DISCO DELIVERY MIXES, CAN-CON DISCO

Disco Delivery #24: Love & Kisses (1977, Barclay/Polydor)

Love & Kisses - Accidental Lover
Love & Kisses - I've Found Love (Now That I've Found You

Forgive me, I know it's been a while.. No, I haven't run out of disco records yet, I've just been neglecting this blog this past month.. As usual, busy at work and just plain lazy at home. Consider this past July my summer holiday from blogging if you will... Anywho, I've actually been planning to put some of Alec R. Costandinos' work up here for some time, I figure I've invoked his name enough already, I might as well put something up.. For those who may not know, Costandinos was undoubtedly one of the Eurodisco auteurs. In the span of about three to four years in the late '70s (from '75-'79) he managed to put out some of the most amazing, intricate, complex orchestral (master)pieces of disco artistry ever put on vinyl. Starting with his work on Cerrone's "Love In C Minor" to what many consider his most inspired moment; his disco rendering of Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet" (1978, Casablanca), to his other studio projects like this one (Love & Kisses), Paris Connection, Sumeria and Sphinx. Not to mention some of his more obscure works like Tony Rallo & The Midnite Band and (yes, believe it or not) Tina Turner's disco LP "Love Explosion" (1979, United Artists).

Costandinos' Love & Kisses project is probably best known for the title track/theme from the movie "Thank God It's Friday," which peaked at #22 on the Billboard Pop charts.. Prior to making a name for himself in disco, Costandinos had worked primarily in France as a songwriter/producer for and with the likes of Dalida, Vangelis, and most prominently Demis Roussos. In 1974 Costandinos would become involved with a group called Kongas, whose drummer was none other than future disco auteur Jean-Marc Cerrone. Later in 1975, the two would collaborate on Cerrone's first solo project "Love In C Minor" (1976, Malligator), one of the greatest disco classics which inevitably launched both of their careers as disco producers. The two original tracks off Cerrone's three-track "Love In C Minor" LP (the title track and "Midnite Lady") would unfortunately be the last products of the Cerrone/Costandinos partnership. As for as the reason that was, it's a bit of a question mark. In the past few years there have been a few discussions about this particular subject on the discomusic.com forums. One of the things that was claimed, based on old interviews and such (none of which I have seen or read, mind you), is that their collaboration ended after a subsequent "misunderstanding" about credit. Costandinos apparently claiming he was not credited appropriately for his contribution to the "Love In C Minor" project. Again, I'm not 100 % sure how true this is, although I've always found Cerrone's "Midnite Lady" to sound more like a Costandinos production than a Cerrone production, so it certainly seems plausible.. Whatever the case, by 1977 he had enough clout to release his own disco project, which leads us to this LP..

Essentially this album, with it's deliciously playful and racy cover, was something of a glorified 12" single. Consisting of only two tracks, each taking up an entire side (both tracks running around 17 minutes each), it cemented Costandinos' signature production style. His brand of European orchestral maximalism (as some might put it) was in full display on the A side - "Accidental Lover." After a brief conversational intro, it breaks into a full tilt 4/4 beat with glorius staccato strings on top. In some ways "Accidental Lover" recalls both "Love In C Minor" and "Midnite Lady". It's almost a fuller, faster version of both.. Going back to the speculation about the Cerrone-Costandinos misunderstanding, it's been said that the similarities were not some sort of formulaic accident, but a deliberate attempt by Costandinos to prove his involvement in the Cerrone record. Creating something similar enough to draw comparisons, yet distinct enough to be an original.. Getting back to the music though, one other thing that I found striking was not just the strings themselves, but how Costandinos uses them. The strings have a full, almost relentless, powerful sound to them, being even rhythmic in places. They're constantly alternating from a smooth, gentle sound to a striking staccato sound. They're so dynamic, they almost talk to you.. Point being, I don't think I've heard any other disco producer use strings quite the way Costandinos does.

The story on Accidental Lover I found a little perplexing initially.. At the beginning of the song the lyrics are a little feisty "...who'd you think you're fooling with your mystery tale, accidental lover, you're just trying in vain, don't wanna love you.." then later the vocals go.. "you know I love you... you know i love you..I wanna love you" Although as the blanks get filled in with the intro at the beginning and Alec's own vocals towards the end, it seems like a kind of one night stand story.. The man meets the woman, the woman is the one who starts off reluctant, who "doesn't want to love him." They sleep together, then the woman changes her mind and it's the man who wants to move on.. Alec's vocals towards the end go, in part.. "just close your eyes when I walk out that door.. and life will go on as it used to before.." A pretty intersting narrative, kind of gives the song a useful tension I think..

The track on side B "I've Found Love (Now That I've Found You)" doesn't quite have the tension of "Accidental Lover," but it makes a nice flipside/continuation to it.. After the tension of side A comes the euphoric release of side B.. The lyrics and female vocals are much more cheery and chirpy, not to mention Alec himself takes a lightly more prominent role as a vocalist.. Let me just say after hearing him here, I'm glad he didn't make it too much of a habit.. Still, it's not so much the vocals that win me over but the complex layers and changes throughout the song.. How it switches from layered orchestral strings, horns and harps to a strong percussive section with some great drum breaks and back again.. Not to mention some of those tense, frantic strings close to the 10 minute mark..

The singers on the album are anonymously credited as "Sue, Stephanie, Joanne, Vicki, Sunny and Alec." While Alec is, of course, Costandinos himself, the ladies include some of the most prominent session singers in the UK at the time. Sunny & Sue are actually Sunny Leslie & Sue Glover who aside from recording as a duo (as Sue & Sunny), were original members of Brotherhood of Man. The two would also sing on some other disco projects, including albums for Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Madleen Kane, Ian Levine and other Costandinos projects like Sphinx and Sumeria.. Similarly the other three session singers were also quite prolific in their own right. Vicki Brown and Joanne Stone would each be on records by some very prominent artists as did Stephanie DeSykes who would also (like all the other ladies) be involved in other Costandinos projects among many other things.. Some of the other notable personnel include Slim Pezin on guitar, who was a member of the group Voyage, as well as Raymond Donnez AKA Don Ray on keyboards and as arranger and conductor. Don Ray was of course a ubiquitous name on albums by Cerrone, Costandinos and Santa Esmeralda to name a few..

That said, as impressive as this record is (to me, at least), the best of Costandinos was yet to come. For the record, I'd probably agree with the the majority in saying that his most inspired moment was probably his landmark "Romeo & Juliet" album.. Even though that is largely considered his peak, like many of the great disco producers, he was one of those that managed to make many great records in what was really a remarkably short time.. The complexity, spendour and certainly the ambition of his records were something unique to it's time.. It's been said on the discomusic.com forums, and I'd agree, that the likes of Costandinos' productions are unlikely to be heard again, certainly not today anyway. Which makes it even more unfortunate, that according once again to many of the discussions on the forum, Costandinos himself (who apparently owns or controls most of his masters) doesn't seem to have any interest in reissuing his work on CD. Lord knows why, but for someone who put so much into his productions, it's a shame that much of it can't be enjoyed and preserved on CD.. Still, there have been bits and pieces of his work that have been reissued though. One of them being a "best of.." CD of his work on Unidisc in the late '80s. Apparently poorly mastered with shoddy artwork and to top it all off a misspelling of his name ("Constandinos" instead of "Costandinos"). Perhaps that is one reason why he is reluctant to authorize any CD reissues.. Also, there was a very limited Japanese CD release of his "Romeo & Juliet" album in the late 90's and a budget reissue of the Tina Turner album he did. All are long out of print and go for pretty good money these days..

After his disco efforts, Costandinos seemed to scale things down considerably. He would release one more album in 1981 called "Americana," ironically not released in the US. He would also have some sporadic writing and production credit here and there, one of them being a 1982 album for Swedish singer Tommy Nilsson. Later on he would become more involved in the film industry scoring films and more recently producing... These days he is apparently married with children, living in Los Angeles largely involved in making commercials.. A couple of notable recent credits have been as a writer and executive producer on a movie called "True Vinyl" from 2000 and as Executive Producer on another movie called "King Rikki" (2002), an East L.A. adaptation of Shakespeare's "Richard the III"..

In closing, I must credit the discomusic.com forums for introducing me and educating me on Costandinos and his work. Over the years it has been a great resource for me on pretty much all things disco. As far as info on Costandinos is concerned though, info on the rest of the 'net is often fairly vague compared to many other prominent disco producers. Searching many of the discussions on the forum have certainly helped fill in a few blanks in his story..

LINKS:
LOVE & KISSES @ DISCOMUSEUM.COM
LOVE & KISSES @ ALL MUSIC GUIDE
LOVE & KISSES - S/T LP (REVIEW) @ ALL MUSIC GUIDE
LOVE & KISSES - S/T LP @ DISCOMUSIC.COM
ALEC R. COSTANDINOS @ ALL MUSIC GUIDE
ALEC R. COSTANDINOS DISCOGRAPHY @ DISCOMUSIC.COM
ALEC R. COSTANDINOS @ DISCOMUSEUM.COM
ALEC COSTANDINOS @ IMDB
ALEC R. COSTANDINOS @ RATEYOURMUSIC.COM
DISCOMUSIC.COM FORUMS - COSTANDINOS VS. CERRONE

CATEGORIES: DISCO DELIVERIES, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO..