1. Wheel Me Out 2. Busting Out 3. Drive My Car 4. Annie 5. Emile (Night Rate) 6. Control Yourself 7. Funky Stuff 8. French Boys 9. Deputy Of Love 10. Cowboys & Gangsters 11. Blame It On Disco 12. Encore L'Amore 13. Disco Clone 14. Que Pasa/Me No Pop I 15. I'M A Wonderful Thing Baby 16. Out Come The Freaks 17. Fire 18. Spooks In Space 19. Tell Me That I'M Dreaming 20. Narcissique 21. I Know What Boys Like 22. Mission Impossible 23. Re Bop Electronic 24. French Disco Boys Edit 25. Faites Le Proton
It is probably difficult to imagine that Club culture was born in a small underground room in the Latin quarter of Paris during the period of German occupation in the Second World War. The Nazis had prohibited jazz and closed the Clubs where musicians performed thus forcing music lovers to meet in secret in cellars to listen to their favorite music on 78s. One such place was on Rue de la Huchette and was known as ¿La Discoth?que¿. Historically this was the first time that the name was used to designate a club where people could go to listen to recorded music.
Next came the ¿Whiskey a Go-Go¿ created by Paul Racine, which introduced the concept of a public dancing on a dance floor to music played by ¿Disc-Jockeys¿ with two turntables. Racine developed his concept throughout Europe. When R?gine opened her first club ¿Chez R?gine¿ in Paris in 1960 this was frequented by the American jet set and immediately inspired ¿Le Club¿ in New York, quickly followed by the ¿Peppermint Lounge¿ in 1961. The rest is history!
In 1981, when ZE Records first published the vinyl LP ¿Mutant Disco¿ there were only 6 tracks on it. In 2003, when I decided to relaunch the label that Michael Zilkha and myself founded in New York in 1978, I transformed this mini album into a double Digipack CD with 25 tracks. It was as if Mutant Disco had become a style of its own in which musicians from different cultures and nationalities could find common ground. Between 1978 and 1983 in New York City, music from a wide range of styles developed based on a common denominator ¿ you could dance to it. The title of ¿Garage¿ comes from ¿Paradise Garage¿, the now mythical club at 84 King Street, which was one of the focal points for New York gay and disco culture for 10 years (1977-1987). The turntables were under the magic touch of Larry Levan, one of the pioneers of NY Dance Music that some began calling Garage, while his childhood friend Frankie Knuckles did pretty much the same in Chicago where certain began to call his style House music.
I have never really been too fond of labels, which are often stuck on for marketing purposes in order to sell more products. I have always believed that there is good music and the rest¿ The ZE Records back catalogue is proof of the eclectic approach that Michael Zilkha and myself have in our musical tastes. For an adolescent who had the privilege of growing up in the 60s there is no difference between James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Sly Stone, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Jimmy Hendrix, nor between Norman Whitfield, Brian Wilson or Phil Spector.
Larry Levan also promoted open and eclectic musical sources and many DJs today have drawn inspiration from this. The Sound System at Paradise Garage developed by Larry and Richard Long was reputed to be the best in NY. Many producers would test their mixes on the dance floor at the Garage. Many of the remixes at ZE, especially those by August Darnell were first played at the Garage before being produced. Larry remixed for August and KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS: Something Wrong in Paradise, (...) which certainly has its place in this third volume of MUTANT DISCO. In addition to this remix, ¿GARAGE SALE¿ includes several jewels from the ZE Records¿ back catalogue: the long play version of the sublime Dream Baby Dream by SUICIDE; a remix of Alan Vega¿s Outlaw by August Darnell; Techno-Freqs by Junnie Morrison, founder member of Funkadelic who brought out an excellent album, Evacuate your seats, on ZE in 1983; a mix by Don Was of What¿s a Girl to Do by Cristina. Don was also involved in the production of Dance or Die by Sweet Pea Atkinson (singer of Was (not Was) from his solo album Don¿t Walk Away (ZE Records 1982) this can almost be considered as a WNW album given that virtually the full band is present. Also present are Man VS The Empire Brain Building from the second album by Was (Not Was) for ZE in 1982, Born to Laugh at Tornadoes and Read my Lips, another production by the Was (not) brothers under the pseudonym of ¿A THOUSAND POINTS OF NIGHT¿. There is also the underground classic He¿s the Groove by Snuky Tate, released on ZE in 1979 as a single and 12¿ single, plus the classic No time to Stop Believing in Love, by DAISY CHAIN, in the international version. There are two excellent tracks from RON ROGERS, a very active member of the ZE dream team in the early 80s. Ron also took part in the sessions with AURAL EXCITERS, BOB BLANK¿s After Hours Party Band, with Maladie d¿Amour.
As Kevin Pearce wrote in the liner notes in MUTANT DISCO Volume 1 & 2: ¿Yes, the urge to let our imagination run riot, and the need to dance to twisted sounds remains. The MUTANT DISCO, the haunted dancehall will never close down¿. This new selection is a step towards perpetual motion!
Michel Esteban Paris, October 2004
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