Back in stock: Disco/Nu-Disco

Review: Hamilton Bohannon's debut Stop & Go, first dropped back in 1973 and is a raw and essential slice of early 70s funk. Though maybe more known for his later disco hits, here Bohannon delivers something earthier-looser grooves, soulful vocals and inventive arrangements that simmer rather than explode. This album offers a deeper, more nuanced sound compared to his polished, high-energy disco work and highlights include the blissed-out 'Singing a Song for My Mother,' the deep funk of 'Happiness,' and the widely sampled 'Save Their Souls.' A crate-digger favourite and funk connoisseur's gem, Stop & Go is a percussive, spiritual, and downright nasty record that holds up start to finish.

Review: Originally released in 1983 on the B-side of a House of Music 12", 'Stop' is a raw and iconic Italo-Disco anthem that helped define an era. Now, four decades later, Stop 4 Remixes breathes new life into the cult classic with four dynamic reworks. Woody Bianchi delivers a masterclass in mixing with 'Pushed Up' while Danilo Braca (aka Danyb) offers two deep, expansive edits tailored for discerning dancefloors. Dirtyelements & Drunkdrivers bring the fire with their 'Acid Re-Solution Remix' that's full of passion, precision and some nice wild energy. These are great tributes to a track that helped launch the Italo-disco movement into orbit.

Review: Bologna, 1979: Change begins as a studio braintrust linking Mauro Malavasi, Paolo Gianolio and Davide Romani, with production steered by Jacques Fred Petrus. Nearly half a century on from their debut LP The Glow Of Love, cut between Italy and New York - blanketing the mean dancefloor in Euro-import modishness - we're now met by the sweet sonic hug that is Embrace, carrying the group's name after early plans to release it as a solo project of Tanya Michelle Smith, longtime vocalist member of the band. Maruro Malovasi's tender hand is given most productive airtime here, building on but reworking many of the same elements heard on 2018's Love For Love, and enlisting a sneak remix of 'Sunrise Forever' by Michael Gray, already a Traxsource chart-topper. Just 500 copies of this one, so hold tight before it's gone in a neon flash!

Review: No, this is not a long-lost jam from popular British songsmith David Gray, but a sought-after underground Italo-disco anthem from 1987 fronted by an uncredited Italian singer and produced by a duo called Scarface. In typical Thank You/Sound Metaphors style, this fine reissue boasts all three versions from the original 12": the glossy, synth-pop 'extended mix', a vocal-free instrumental, and the 'special mix'/DJ friendly dub mix style 'extended instrumental' - a version that sounds like a tweaked and extended backing track to a Shep Pettibone produced Pet Shop Boys album track from 1986. We also get a fresh, effects-laden 'Bonus Dubeats' take from label affiliate Castro which is arguably the best of a strong bunch.

Review: Giorgio Lopez makes his debut on Cosmic Romance with a shimmering collection of groove-heavy daydreams billowing between French boogie, Mediterranean funk and 80s yacht pop. 'Sud Des iles' is framed as a sonic journey aboard a fictional sailboat captained by Georges Taty, but beyond the concept lies a sharply crafted suite of eight tracks that shimmer with nostalgia and escapism. Tracks like 'Voyager Sans Bouger' pulse with sun-dappled demeanour, while 'Toujours Distante' leans into ennui and longing. With vocals from Stella, Master Phil, Amanda Roldan and Bernardino Femminielli, plus contributions from a seasoned crew of Berlin and Naples-based musicians, the album foregrounds Lopez's lush keyboard textures and breezy melodic sensibility.

Review: Originally tucked away on a 2020 12", Quiroga's 'Snaporaz' EP gets the treatment it always deserved with this expanded, four-track edition from Balearic archivists Archeo. Based in Naples, Quiroga stretches his original into a languid, Rhodes-soaked jazz-house glide on the A1ifull of crackling percussion, soft-focus pads and a bubbling low end that carries the melodic line into increasingly heady territory. A loose hand drum finale seals it with flair. 'Escorpiao' on A2 is subtler but no less vibrant, a slick fusion jam where keytar and cowbell meet over a featherlight grooveibalancing restraint and virtuosity in equal measure. The B-side belongs to Rome's Francesco de Bellis, appearing under his L.U.C.A. alias. Known for his Edizioni Mondo material, he warps 'Snaporaz' into a dreamlike new age dancer, slowing the tempo and steeping it in hazy atmospheres and woozy melodies. His 'Quirky Beat' version strips it further, letting skeletal drum edits carry the mood alone. Bridging Neapolitan warmth and Roman oddball finesse, this is a limited edition reissue that more than earns its second life.

Review: After the seismograph shattering success of their last 45, 'Samba De Flora', in the summer of 2024, Argentina's Romero Bros (Xavi and Remi) have since followed an unignorable inspirational impulse, that is and was, to finish a collection of jazz and Latin-infused club tracks, ones that had been in the leftover works for years. The result is a seven-tracker of gracefully cosmic proportions, incorporating drunken piano house and a percussively soft excitability, not to mention a remix each of the very track that sparked the entire duo project, 'Samba De Flora'.

Review: Most dance heads know a thing or two about Donna Summer and 'I Feel Love', but what else do they know about her legacy? Don't get caught off guard by the honorarily-named troupe Dina Summer, whose latest remix EP on 12" here follows up an already-storied full-length LP of the same name. The Berlin synth-wave riders' second LP, Girls Gang, hears a new take on dark disco and EBM, not pioneering or sultry hi-NRG, suggesting a seedy underside to the artist who inadvertently *made* dance music dance music. Contrasting the original, telephone filtered, distorto-diced armageddons heard on the Girls Gang LP, this remix set is a chintzier grab bag of forensic club architectures, with a banging extended version of the title track serving a bright four-minuter in gothic, bodying technicolour.

Review: An obscurity from Belgium's fertile late 80s new beat scene, The Zodiacs' only release is a curio that fuses eeriness with unlikely dancefloor power. Originally a 7" single, it now re-emerges in expanded form with an original mix, instrumental and a haunting remix from Athens-based producer Anatolian Weapons. The A-side feels like a lost transmission-urgent synth stabs, robotic funk and children's chants chanting "Move & Dance To The New Beat!" at a slightly uncharacteristic pace for the genre. That faster tempo, combined with the spectral vocal samples, gives it a strange and potent edge. The instrumental brings the textures into sharper focus, while Anatolian Weapons slows the tempo and draws out its more sinister qualities, transforming it into a ritualistic slow-burner for the darkest corner of the club. Oddball, effective and totally singular-this is new beat gone rogue. with modern dancefloor menace baked in.