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Website Review: Disco-Disco.com
Written by: Noah Robischon
Featured: NY1 News [TV] on April 15th, 2003.
Disco still isn't dead. At least not at www.disco-disco.com, a website full of hustle and mirrored globes.
Before strutting onto the multicolored dance floor, read up on the history of the music and Tom Moulton, the man who
invented the 12-inch mix. There are also pages about several of the New York-based labels that got the disco ball spinning
back in the 1970s, like Casablanca, West End Records, Prelude, and SalSoul.
The creator of the site, a 37-year-old Swede named Claes, interviews some of the founders of these record labels along with
well-known artists of the era like Gloria Gaynor and Anita Ward. There's even a tribute page to Nile Rodgers and Bernard
Edwards, better known as Chic, one of the most successful song-writing teams of the day.
Their song "Dance, Dance, Dance" was the first to use sub-bass, that low-end speaker rumble that is still heard in nearly
every dance club. But the best known song by Chic is "Le Freak," and it was written one night after the duo were turned
away from Studio 54 in freezing snow. The tune would ironically become the first track on the compilation album, "A Night
at Studio 54".
That famous nightspot isn't the only discotheque profiled on the site. The "Clubs" section features rare photos and
anecdotes about Paradise Garage in Greenwich Village, and the 26th Street dive with a happy clown logo called Fun House,
which was home to a remix artist from the Bronx known as Jellybean Benitez. In 1983, he went on to produce the first record
for his then girlfriend, Madonna.
Every stop on the website has a selection of classic disco tunes that you can listen to as accompaniment by using Real
Audio. Discoguy also offers a comprehensive list of recommended CDs and books, including a few box sets that will keep you
shaking your groove thing with Peaches & Herb until the dawn.
And just in case you've forgotten how, the "Disco" section of the site even has illustrated instructions on how to do the
California hustle.
-- Noah Robischon |
