hi-nrg disco

another cue: discotraxx by ladytron

also, if sylvester did anything great other than 'mighty real' and 'rock the box', i'd like to know...

Sylvester: "I'm your mechanical man" weird disco-funk effort without his usual campery, available on Kenny Dope mixtapes and comps.
Also the godlike "Do you wanna funk" and "I who have nothing". Rest of it pretty much filler.

Hi-nrg - search Ian Levine and Fiachra Trench productions on Record Shack label from early 80s -
Evelyn "Champagne" King - "High Energy" (the record that gave the genre its name...)
Sylvester and Earlene Bentley - "Stargazing"
Miguel Brown - "He's a saint he's a sinner"

Left out one of the weirdest records I know - before he invented hi-nrg, Ian Levine was a northern soul DJ. I have a 7" on record shack that he produced which comes across as nothing less than hi-nrg northern soul - it has that bouncy go-go tempo and 60s-style falsetto delivery but with synth flourishes instead of brass, and it's just fucking odd. Don't know if anyone else has heard it - Steve Grant "Run for cover" (cover of the Dells song)

Paul Lekakis, "Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)"

bobby 'o's productions for divine.

patrick cowley - megatron man.

Re. Ian Levine and Hi-nrg. I also have a 70s Northern Soul impersonation 7 inch that he produced (not the one you mention, unfortunately it's not to hand so I can't name it). I think Hi-nrg has its roots in that music - Pete Waterman came out of the same scene I believe.

i frickin love the Ural 13 diktators

"aerojamit" is everything daft punk has been trying to do, knocked into a sleazy bobsled and kicked vigorously downhill!!

«High Energy» was sang by Evelyn Thomas, not Evelyn «Champagne» King.

Good hi-nrg? Try the mighty Patrick Cowley («Megatron Man»), Man 2 Man, Dead or Alive, Lime, any Bobby «O»-related stuff.

"High Energy" (the record that gave the genre its name...)

I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think that "High Energy/Hi-NRG" as a genre dates from the early-to-mid 70s and in this underground phase was actually one of the roots of disco. Which kind of suggests Evely (Champagne) Brown's 80s tune is actually named after the genre, rather than other way around. Although it's fair to say the 80s version of Hi-NRG has a quite distinct "80s" sound.

Re: Hi-NRG tunes suggestions. There's quite a lot of stuff by Bobby Orlando/Bobby O around, (I quite like "Reputation") which Stock Aitken & Waterman ripped off for their early productions (eg Divine, Hazell Dean circa. 1984, and Dead or Alive). Also, look for Man Parrish, and the Man 2 Man Meets Man Parrish (UK top 10 hit!) "Male Stripper". (Try and get either the 12" version or the original UK single edit. There's some duffo edit, obviously aimed at a Chippendale audience, which keeps in some "raunchy" verses, but deletes the references to drag, leather, etc.- which of course won't do!)

Oh yeah, Sylvester did have had another hit- in the UK in the early 80s, there was "Do Ya Wanna Funk", which was still pretty NRG stylee.

I highly recommend You Think You're A Man by Divine ("You weren't man enough to satisfy me").

Hooray!