notes toward a post-disco canon

been threatening to make this thread for a while and now i'm hungover and listening to street called desire so it feels right. as other ilx threads that i can't find have probably documented: unbelievably rich genre/stretch of music, right? something i discovered in the last few years of listening though is how well a lot of the albums qua albums hang together. there's just not much information out there about it, i think? or if there is it's not very organized. so this is kind of an attempt, and also maybe a method of hearing other post-disco records that are secretly unbelievable. so essentially, anything that tries to maneuver funkily around a drum machine. bad not thriller, chaka not rufus. those sweet elliptical guitar phrases. bunch of jam/lewis records. thread also an excuse to confess my belief that angela winbush deserved to become sort of genius svengali, the isley brothers record she entirely wrote and played synths on is incredible

off the top of my head kinda:
rené and angela: street called desire
debarge: in a special way
patrice rushen: now
alexander o'neal: hearsay
evelyn champagne king: get loose
nona hendryx: nona
imagination: in the heat of the night
cherrelle: affair
jody watley: s/t
sos band: sands of time
gap band iv
one of the '80s melba moore records, never been able to pick just one

If you're talking about immediate post-disco, there's lots of gems in the genre that's usually called "boogie", i.e. the synth-driven dance music with soul-influenced vocals that disco mutated into in the early 80s. There's discussion (plus a boogie mix I recently posted) on it in this thread:

www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?action=showall&boardid=41&threadid=61910

Out of the albums you mention, the Evelyn King one is definitely boogie, and I would count the Imagination and Patrice Rushen albums under it too, though they're somewhat removed from the genre's heart. Boogie (like disco) wasn't really an album-oriented thing though, a lot of the best tunes are singles by artists who never released a full album. The best place to get a lot of that rarer stuff is Unidisc's Star-Funk compilation series, the first 25 or so volumes in it are essential for boogie and post-disco lovers.

Sorry, here's the direct link to that thread:

the term 'boogie' as referring to early 80s post-disco R&B, C or D

"there's just not much information out there about it"

google.com

:)

Brad, why must you and I be on the same wavelength

I cited "Your Smile" in the US #2 thread.

"there's just not much information out there about it"

google.com

by information i meant like, sustained music writing about these albums that also tie them together? admittedly i didn't google that either

also thanks tuomas i know what post-disco and boogie are

and alfred, you mentioning "your smile" caused me to make this thread! which i now regret

Ignore the haters brad

andy kellman's work on allmusic is extremely crucial but ime he's more singles and charts-oriented, which is completely understandable. but i don't necessarily care post-disco isn't album-oriented, or that the albums are essentially vehicles for singles, get loose is like eight banging tracks in a row, and it moves like a deeply considered and crafted album

i lost my computer from back when we had an 80s R&B thread & i was digging for a lot of this stuff

Kashif's S/T is dope obv: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdnmCBGj7qo

Get Loose is a totally great album and weirdly not talked about much. Some of the grooves are so ~heavy~

This thread will help u greatly: Electro R&B/1984-1986 S/D

lol of course i was searching incorrectly. incredible thread

also really looking forward to listening to that kashif record

i have a bunch of these records too but none of them with me in new york :( feel very detached from my soul

i couldnt remember that thread title either, just remembered there was discussion about the (awesome) destination boogie comp so i searched for posts w/ that in it

PADLOCK BY GWEN GUTHRIE

haha of course

i've had a few drinks tonight so i'm not feeling sharp enough to contribute meaningfully to this thread, but i just want to say YOU RULE for starting this.

and yes, andy kellman is god incarnate.

i love this kind of music and am eager to learn more from whatever this thread becomes

yeah this is very welcome. been digging into this stuff lately thanks to the threads mentioned above and would love more album/comp recommendations.

i cant BELIEVE that thread was 8 years ago ...

tbh 2007-2009 was PEAK ILX for me

decent Groove Armada compilation comes from a similar place..

http://images.junostatic.com/full/CS549525-01B-BIG.jpg

One of my favorites:

EW&F - Raise!

I love the band's thin early eighties sound: excellent filling of space with vocoders, synths, and horns.

This is my data-driven attempt at post-disco: http://open.spotify.com/user/glennpmcdonald/playlist/7bjylsluQSusp02vR4vrjY

And if you like that, you might also enjoy this: http://open.spotify.com/user/glennpmcdonald/playlist/00Fkh4vUrxLatt8LJWwFhj

D-Train. D-Train. D-Train. D-Train. D-Train. D-Train. D-Train. D-TRAIN. D-Train.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWmteg9guoo

All of this.

yeah I think this music will always be for me MUSIC, the ideal, because it was the music of my youth. like I don't even know most of the songs that come up when we talk this over, but the ones I do know, are like my flesh, my bones. like I could be happy if this were all I could ever hear again.

lso an excuse to confess my belief that angela winbush deserved to become sort of genius svengali

otm x 1000

wrong thread but I wanna pimp the Isley-Winbush collab:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ogu2nptuG0

Scritti Politti and Arif Mardin listening closely to Kashif's "Stone Love" when arranging "Wood Beez."

Surely a dumb question, Brad, but when you and Tuomas talk about boogie are you talking about stuff like Jonzun Crew and Bambataa, cuz I've mostly understood that stuff to be known as 'electro'...that stuff is totally not what this thread is about?

NEVER FORGET:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aMudiylPiw

if you listen to records the dollar bin is your treasure chest. cuz 90% of 80's r&b in the u.s. is in the dollar bin somewhere. which is great if you like 80's r&b. the entire 80's skyy discography for 7 dollars plus tax.

That's how I discovered Maze.

I'm on record (ha) as being obsessed with this stuff. to my ears, postdisco occupies a sweet spot between high-disco and electro. never completely understood the "boogie" distinction. does boogie stretch to include bass-heavy midwestern funk like slave? OTOH steve arrington solo is totally post-disco. back in the day my buddy james hunter tagged groups like imagination and loose ends "techno-soul" and that works too.

speaking of former members of slave..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHS8pJ_iZ2E&list=PLAyt9ZTZT_RuVnFCGbJTAA_LqCes7YDkd

I just played EWF's Raise! recently and remembered why it's one of their best. I would include Quincy Jones' The Dude here too, though it's wide-ranging.

like thiiiiiis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY3rVwGe5LY

Oh man I love Slave. I used to play stuff off Just A Touch Of Love and Show Time all the time back when outloud was operational

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHpFGfxYZkk

i guess i just never called stuff post-disco. though it makes sense. but where do you stop? you can call house music post-disco. lots of synth pop had a disco beat. i guess r&b works best for me. or soul. or dance music! dance music is a good term. though i do call things electro. but not really when the SOS Band had an electro song or whatever. post-soul. though "modern soul" seems to be the thing to say these days. at least in my selling world.

i mean there was plenty of actual disco in the early 80's...that's where i get confused too. it didn't end in 1979...

http://www.electrofunkroots.co.uk/articles/what.html

^scroll down to the bottom & there's a compendium of tracks pretty much outlining the beginning of the electro-funk Henderson one of the first DJs in England to embrace the music. Curt's D-Town track is the first song on there.

Lol Henderson = genre. Spellchecker on the kindle is a pain

80s r&b

I figured Henderson was an autocorrect on "boogie."

those playlists are awesome glenn, thanks for sharing

thanks for this thread; I know just enough about this music to know I'll enjoy exploring the recommendations here

(and very parenthetically, I guess this music is a big reference point for what artists like Phaserland and Sebastian Gampl are doing today)

point of this thread was strong *albums* not tracks

The D-Train album is solid throughout

Aurra - Live and Let Live is another favorite, album-wise

Oh and uh Michael Jackson - Thriller

i used post-disco as a term bc it actually sounds the best to me like phonetically while i guess being the least descriptive/exclusive. definitely recognize the differences btwn boogie and later electro-funk/electro-r&b but i feel like one evolves into the other seamlessly enough that they almost seem to talk to each other. i feel like that's precisely what's happening on, say, in a special way and now. agreed that it's probably too inclusive. it's also possible i'm just straight up misuing the term "post-disco" to include electro stuff. "'80s r&b" a little too bland for me, no action

Scritti Politti and Arif Mardin listening closely to Kashif's "Stone Love" when arranging "Wood Beez."

mostly replying to this thread to thrill at this observation

our boy Matos wrote something really good recently sorta on this topic:
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/chic-in-the-80s

just momentarily delurking to thank Brad for starting this and to mention bentleyfunk funk bombs which mines this area and is up to more than 150 volumes, only the most recent 4 or 5 needing passwords.
I know mrbentley has a rep for thieving others vinyl rips and I guess pointing at fileshares here isn't always welcomed but in an area where there's loads of stuff still just getting ripped from vinyl it felt worthwhile.

i couldnt remember that thread title either, just remembered there was discussion about the (awesome) destination boogie comp so i searched for posts w/ that in it

― deej loaf (D-40), Thursday, January 1, 2015 11:02 PM (6 days ago)

man records like this make it clear why everyone back then was like let's put synthesizers on our records, they just wanted liquid rainbows cascading and bouncing all over like any sensible musician would

haha otm

That D-Train is so good......

Does Solo George Clinton fit in here?

solo Clinton is his own genre. I can't think of other boogie or post-disco records that sound like "Quickie" or "Last Dance"

This thread is more than mildly arousing. I will sit back and soak in the knowledge.

* puffs languidly on cigarette *

i thought there might be a Solar Records thread but i guess there isn't. this sounds nice to me right about now.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10931265_10153629772247137_1943905827424966889_n.jpg?oh=8eeb981746c2fe32cdb955ab25b0cc99&oe=553BD994&__gda__=1433320897_6a991099b690d8781f3f526181cf8b37

reminded of how much i heard "Dead Giveaway" on the radio at the time. definitely sounded like NOW in 1983.

oh yeah i fucking love the look, really solid record

belatedly lounging in some of my favourite music ever via this thread. i discovered the first and only album by khemistry at a party last year and it's become integral to my understanding of post-disco (that synth flute!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Xtk0Ig7L0

and of course

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OzjzWQS25w

amazing thread

nothing on it reaches the heights of 'hangin on a string' but

loose ends - a little spice

"Why don't you-ou pick up the telephone - Why don't ya why don't ya, pick up telephone!"

yeah unfortunately i find all the loose ends records to be really spotty

Imagination have two great albums

got my shuffle on and "don't look any further" (surely a pinnacle of this) sent me back here.

own experience was that I'd buy a street sounds or upfront comp for killer tunes rather than an album - import albums were expensive! - no streams then... I'm guessing that outside of local scenes this was still true in the US and particularly worldwide.

It wasn't til i had some semblance of a job that i invested in albums other than comps - say 86-87 - and the thing I remember is loving a single side usually. Could be attention span probs but it seems the albums had a killer side and a filler side (which usually had the single on too, for balance)

Obviously a small percentage of R&B albums fit the categorization from start to finish -- can't think of anything beyond Padlock and Logg that are 100% R&B post-disco, 0%-quiet storm/ballads, 100%-great/excellent. (Apart from "Stop! Don't Tease Me," "Strange Romance," and maybe a couple other tracks, wouldn't consider DeBarge to be all that post-disco.) Anyway, off the top but alphabetized, some so-far-unmentioned '80-85 R&B albums with at least three (if memory serves) post-disco jams:

Atlantic Starr - Brilliance
The BB & Q Band - The BB & Q Band
Change - Change of Heart
Gene Dunlap - Party in Me
5 Star - Luxury of Life
High Fashion - Feelin' Lucky
Howard Johnson - Keepin' Love New
Kleeer - Intimate Connection
Logg - Logg
Stephanie Mills - Tantalizingly Hot
Mtume - You, Me and He
Rene & Angela - Wall to Wall
Shalamar - Friends
Twennynine - Just Like Dreamin'
The Whispers - Imagination
Xavier - Point of Pleasure

The parent album isn't all that hot but this has Rufus & Chaka & Rena & Angela at the same damn time (and was written/recorded around the same time as R&A's "Secret Rendezvous," released the same year on Wall to Wall):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4rCL1cqM6Q

(I wish I could devote months to enhancing the data/editorial of older R&B albums, but almost all of my time revolves around new releases. The year-by-year R&B features are done specifically for the site, technically a client of my employer, outside work hours.)

Ive wanted to check out some Kleer for a while now tbh

the womack & womack albums are all good to great imo, i mean i guess i've only heard "love wars" (great) and "conscience" (very good) but i'm sure the others are solid.

oh yeah true

feel like this is definitely worth a dollar:

http://cdn.discogs.com/b78nJThJOrL6f4NMJhN5FPhw9Bc=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb()/discogs-images/R-1069261-1349908994-3979.jpeg.jpg

high rise from 83

n.b. i don't really have anything to contribute re "post-disco canon" or anything.

looking through the salsoul page on discogs is crazy, god they put out a lot, i guess everyone did.

anyone heard this?

http://cdn.discogs.com/5fgOvmUgir0vGN1J2bHWjN_-Pow=/fit-in/447x445/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(96)/discogs-images/R-412055-1163280106.jpeg.jpg

maybe

Bohannon - The Bohannon Drive
B.T. Express - Keep It Up
B.T. Express - 1980
Patrice Rushen - Straight From The Heart

All the Gino Soccio albums

Along with giving extended airtime to the new local sounds in Detroit, Mojo continued to embrace electronic music from techno and electronic music pioneers around the world like Kraftwerk, Philip Glass, New Order, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Afrika Bambaataa in his sets.

Dinosaur L ‎– 24→24 Music
Joyce Sims - Come Into My Life
Nocera - Over The Rainbow
Mantronix - The Album

gino soccio bears repeating, face to face is incredible

Nona Hendryx - Nona
Grace Jones - Nightclubbing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CpfZfyTClY

"This Beat Is Mine" by Vicky "D". It's the hook that makes you cook.

Each of the four Aurra albums on Salsoul (or Salsoul offshoot Dream) has at least two grade-B+/A- singles.

Sorry to stray from albums again, but D Train's Hubert Eaves was involved with some other great boogie/post-disco around the same time (inc. the Strangers' "Step Out of My Dream," Glenn Jones' "Love Intensity"). (He's also on almost all James Mtume/Reggie Lucas sessions, '73-'82 -- including the Stephanie Mills, Marc Sadane, and Spinners albums that could be loosely categorized as post-disco.)

i used to see that Aura album all over the place, as I recall it's not the most consistent LP exactly.

do Jones Girls have too many ballads to fit itt?

because "nights over egypt" is the first thing that pops in my head when i read the OP

PhillyMotown back again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8JLcFrbQ7w

Does this canon only include r & b? Because my favorite r & b station at the time (WBMX in Chicago, which started life as a disco station) played the above records but also played stuff like "White Horse" and this club classic:

http://youtu.be/XX88XJaJ_bg