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Disco Not Disco - Post Punk, Electro & Leftfield Disco Classics 1974-1986
Strut
****

Volume 3 in the Disco Not Disco series is a mouth-watering prospect, almost eclipsed by the fact that this bag of classics is released on Strut Records. The label, which closed in 2003 and has now risen from the ashes, had a canny ear for lost gems across a wide spectrum of past dance music. Strut’s compilations were a goldmine of rarities and sample- spotting, and its third outing spans a 12-year golden age of funk, Afrobeat, disco and breaks from New York clubs to the prog noodling of the UK’s Isotope. Original riot girl Vivien Goldman opens with her two-fingered anthem ‘Launderette’, and Shriekback’s classic ‘My Spine Is the Baseline’ (you’ll know it when you hear it) appears as a 1982 12-inch edit. As a reference point, this is an impeccable slice of music history, so ditch the modern counterfeiters for the original gold.

Download tracks: ‘Launderette’, ‘Seoul Music’, ‘My Spine Is the Baseline’

Website: Strut Records

This review originally appeared here, in The Ticket, The Irish Times on Friday, January 4th, 2008