LOUIE VEGA レコード& CD

Review: It would be fair to say that post-disco outfit Unlimited Touch's 1980 single "I Hear Music In the Streets" is one of the greatest boogie/electrofunk records of all time. Louie Vega clearly agrees, because late last year he decided to gather together the remaining members of Unlimited Touch and record a fresh 2020 version. The A-side "Touch Mix" is the bomb. It features a more organic-sounding disco-boogie groove than the 1980 original, with delicious guitars, bass and electric piano/organ underpinning seriously good group vocals from the sometime Prelude-signed outfit. Over on the flip, Vega serves up an electric piano solo-laden dub mix, as well as a "Classic Boogie" take that naturally sounds very similar to the band's much-loved original version.

Review: It may come with an eyebrow-raising price tag, but what's on offer here is undeniably alluring: a box set of 10 seven-inch singles containing all of the songs from Louie Vega's brilliant Expansions In The NYC album - an all-star affair in which the Masters at Work man celebrated his love of New York disco, boogie and house. The album itself is incredible, with fantastic musicianship, arrangements and vocals, while the cast list - which includes original electrofunk outfit Unlimited Touch, Peech Boys main man Bernard Fowler, Honey Dijon, Cindy Mazelle, Moodymann, Kerri Chandler and his son Nico - is similarly impressive. It's a great product, packed with brilliant music: a fitting finale to this portion of the ongping 'Expansions NYC' project.

Review: This fine double-pack features more alternate takes of tracks from Louie Vega's vast Expansions in the NYC album. The headline attraction is the epic extended mix of the Rod Temperton penned jazz-funk/disco classic 'The Star of a Story', which not only boasts fine lead vocals from Lisa Fischer and shuffling samba-house beats, but also strings (arranged by Leroy Burgess) performed Kelley Polar and his colleagues in the Apple Hill quartet. The EP also includes instrumental and chunky 'Vamp Dub' passes of that track, plus alternative versions of two other tracks: the organic deep house roll of 'A Place Where We Can All Be Free' and a superb string-laden dub of 'Love Has No Time Or Place', featuring Vega's Elements of Life band, which showcases the orchestral arrangements of Leroy Burgess and the late Patrick Adams.

Review: The Master at Work that is Louie Vega has been a music-making machine all his life but in recent years has continued to reach new heights with various different projects. Here he is back on regular label Nervous with various different versions of his tunes 'Joy Universal' and 'Igobolo.' 'Joy Universal' (feat Two Soul Fusion) is classic Vega - soulful house music awash with Latin influences, loose-limbed percussion and funky basslines. And that template is tweaked over the ensuing tunes, with glorious pianos, jazzy grooves and tropical rhythms all making for a fine EP.

Review: Tucked away on Louie Vega's fantastic - and vast - Expansions in the NYC album were a handful of tributes to disco legends Patrick Adams and Larry Levan. This double-pack brings those tributes to the floor. Vega opens with his Elements of Live band cover of Sine's Patrick Adams-produced 1978 B-side 'Chimi', turning the four-minute cut into a driving-but-bouncy, near 14-minute disco epic rich in restless bass, attractive vibraphone solos and spacey synths. On 'Change Your Mind', which is presented in both full vocal and instrumental forms, Vega recruits the voice of the Peech Boys, Bernard Fowler, and turns down a sparse, heavily electronic workout reminiscent of Larry Levan's early '80s mixes. It's genuinely great, as is the DJ Spinna-sporting, hybrid disco/organic house cover of Adams' classic 'Atmosphere Strut'. In a word: essential!