Black Devil Disco Club sleeve art

Black Devil Disco Club, Eight Oh Eight (Lo)
I like the kinky sheen of Black Devil Disco Club, and that like just might become full-on love with the arrival of this third and seemingly final entry in a discography that spreads three six-song recordings over thirty years. Miss Piggy-esque vocals! Synths to spare! The second one, 28 After (Lo), zombie-danced onto the scene in 2006, 28 years after the first one, Disco Club (Rephlex), was allegedly recorded. For more on the strange story of Bernard Fevre, you can refer to the always on-point Philip Sherburne. Fevre is an enigma, but Black Devil Disco Club has live dates set in NYC, Dublin and Barcelona.

Cut Copy stand and deliver

Cut Copy, In Light Colours (Modular)
Admittedly, it requires a rubber-band man’s stretch to fix the disco label to Australia’s Cut Copy, who rock a lot better than they gawkily dance if their music vids are any indication. Their second album really delivers on the tunefulness front, though. “Feel the Love" is like Jeff Lynne in a Daft Punk costume. How can that be anything but great? “Far Away” is the best OMD cut OMD never made. The singles “Lights and Music” and “Hearts on Fire” bring the superior Low-Life version of New Order’s “Perfect Kiss” to mind – that is, until “Hearts on Fire” unpacks some vintage Roxy Music horn fanfare. In fact, if Cut Copy ever go for makeovers, Bryan Ferry disco crooner personas would fit them as well as a well-tailored suit. Hercules and Love Affair are getting the lion’s share of the critical fanfare, but I prefer this album's gem-cut thematic classicism.

The cover of Hercules and Love Affair

Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair (DFA/EMI)
The first good thing about this year’s most lavishly praised album is its sleeve art, which makes excellent use of fluorescent color. Very unique. As for the music, the strutting live bass sound and swank syncopated string and horn arrangements of “Hercules Theme” and “Blind” are as great as the best expensive ‘70s disco, and more inventive. I think I prefer them to the deluxe sounds of Escort, who’ve yet to release an album. Though I’m not a fan, Antony is in fine voice on those songs. I also like “Athene,” to the degree that I wish that Hercules ringleader Andrew Butler had stuck strictly to the mythological themes. But c’mon -- some of the lyrics and vocal performances here are pretentious, without a necessary wink. “I must examine my breath.” Must you?

Keep an ear out for Low Motion Disco's Keep it Slow

Low Motion Disco, Keep it Slow (Eskimo)
A lot of groups or artists don’t practice what they preach, but Low Motion Disco do on Keep It Slow, which begins with a pastoral scene (“Born on the Low Wind”) not far from the KLF’s early ambient house adventures and then shifts into a sedated interpolation of the Five Stairsteps’ anthem of reassurance, “Ooh Child (Things are Gonna Get Easier)” that drops the “Ooh Child” and the use of parentheses. Some say Low Motion Disco are Swiss, but like many new disco forces, they have an air of mystery and myth about them. Their presence on the Eskimo label makes sense – one can easily see Lindstrom and Prins Thomas enjoying these slow-baked Balearic grooves, not to mention the witty, name-themed song titles (“Talk Low When in Space”; “The Low Murderer is Out at Night”; “Low Italian Dessert”; “At Last I Am Low”). Lovely, lovely, lovely stuff. Look for it later this month.

Brrr! Kelley Polar gives Hercules and Love Affair a run for their pretense

Kelley Polar, I Need You to Hold On While the Sky is Falling (Environ)
Smitten from some fragmentary listens, I’ve been trying to find Metro Area member Polar’s 2005 debut album Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens (Environ) for a few years now. He amps up the vocal affect on his follow-up, while still keeping some of the Arthur Russell-like stringed instrument touches – especially on one standout, the duet “Entropy Reigns (In the Celestial City).” I like the many-voiced intro of “A Feeling of the All-Thing,” and the jump-y vocal high notes of “Satellites,” just one moment where Polar evokes the honeybee soul of Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside, another studious songwriting talent. This layered work will deliver some enjoyment until Metro Area puts out another collection – regardless of how long that takes.

Cover art for Disco Italia

Various Artists, Disco Italia: Essential Italo Disco Classics, 1979-1985 (Strut)
Steve Kotey aka Chicken Lips compiled this newest shorthand guide to Italo disco, which reaches a three-fold peak with: the Michael Zager Band-ian hand claps and Kraftwerk-ian synths of Kano’s “Now Baby Now”; the Giorgio Moroder-like elasticity and bass twang of Freddy the Flying Dutchman and the Sistina Band’s “Wojtyla Disco Dance (Part 1),” which is as good and wacky as the circus aerial act reference in its title; and Firefly’s “Love (Is Gonna Be On Our Side),” which should either have Nile Rodgers scared of being outdone or rotary-dialing his lawyer. This comp also features two contributions from Claudio Simonetti, who dove into disco after Goblin first disbanded. It wasn’t a stretch: Justice’s new DJ Mix Leur Selection proves that Goblin’s theme for Tenebrae is as dance-floor friendly and as bloodthirsty as anything in the original version of Prom Night.

Still from Wild Combination

Past, Present, Future -- Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell
In an upcoming issue of the Guardian I’m going to talk with Matt Wolf, whose new movie Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell fills the extremely tall order of giving disco and new music innovator Russell -- who I wrote about in 2004 -- the documentary he deserves. (Though Russell deserves a written biography as well.) Since the past few years have seen a wealth of Russell reissues and newly-released old recordings, plus other unrelated disco crate-digging discoveries such as Numero Group’s Don’t Stop: Recording Tap, I hope all the momentum causes a new wave of Larry Levan devotion as well.