Back catalogue: Disco/Nu-Disco

Review: Electro Wayne's mid 80s-focused Circuitry project get busy on Peoples Potential Unlimited with two starlit synth boogie originals; "She's Just That Type Of Girl" is a playful east coast funk flex with a slight freestyle touch to it. Harmonies, light touches on the keys and exceptional drum production, it's a sassy slice that will warm-up any floor. "Under Pressure" lowers the tempo but thrusts up the sensual urgency with great percussion and come-to-bed spoken word. Authentically done.

Review: As far as the Juno Records review team care, the DC based Peoples Potential Unlimited have been on a run of 100% boogie heaters roughly since their inception in 2008. The latest transmission from Andrew Morgan's label sees a 12" presentation of disco funk holy grails from Milwaukee act Dazzle ahead of a PPU released long player Made In The Shade. Not to be confused with the Patch Adams and Leeroy Burgess fronted group of the same name, Dazzle was the work of Donald D. Smith and this 12" presents three tracks originally recorded in 1981. "Explain" is the outright jam here, heavily stacked with thick analogue leads and brisk funk riffs. All hail PPU!

Review: As always, Washington DC' Peoples Potential Unlimited have resurfaced another rare-as-hens-teeth boogie number and, while we are madly in love with this label, we need to appreciate more just how important they've been to the survival of funk music in recent years. This time, it's Donald Walker's only EP to grace their catalogue, an artist who went by the name of Dohnnie on his solo projects. "Dancin Is Your Love" exudes funk from every corner, backed by a badman bassline, some freaky guitar strings, and Walker's own seductive disco tone. It's a one-track EP precisely because this tune deserves to grace a whole side of a 12". Utterly unmissable, and heavily recommended.

Review: More quality grooves from Washington DC label specializing in reissuing obscure and unknown 70s and 80s dance music. This time around is Dreamcast who are Davon Bryant in conjunction with Swedish guy Sasac aka King Al. "Liquid Deep" is sexy late night deep funk the way it was always intended and Bryant's smooth as silk vocals are just like... Wow! So with Dreamcast on the vocals and Sasac on the beat, we are hoping there's more things on the way from this trans coastal duo in 2017.

Review: ** PPU REPRESS ** Following the killer Moon B album II, the peerless Peoples Potential Unlimited wind back the clock to bring us some unreleased late '80s material from Evans Pyramid. The alias of Boston musician Andre Evans, the disco and boogie project was the subject of an extensive retrospective a few years ago, but PPU have managed to uncover these two further gems regardless. "Where Love Lives" is the killer cut here, an "accelerated funk anthem" whose vintage synth bass sounds particularly relevant in today's retro-obsessed musical climate. On the B-side is "I Want Your Body", from Evans' side project Royale, a more classic disco number that still hits all the right notes.

Review: This week on Peoples Potential Unlimited we have '1 2 3 Stella' which is the debut release by Alex Fernet - an artist from Bassano del Grappa, near Venice, Italy. A breezy and neon-lit boogie down affair from the late night that gives a brazen nod to the '80s, it is complemented on the B side by the romantic late '70s easy rock vibe of 'Tornerai' which is an Italian cover version of 'In your Eyes' by Badbadnotgood featuring Charlotte Day Wilson. Fernet impressively walks the fine line between undeniably kitsch and impressively cool.

Review: The first in a new series of split 12 inch releases from the Peoples Potential Unlimited camp, with both sides containing some exceptional 80s boogie action. The piano heavy croon of Hill's ''Delicate Rose'' features on the A Side due to popular demand after featuring on the PPU DVD. On the flip current ABC Wisconsin news anchor Roshell Anderson gets a reminder of former soul glo glories.

Review: DC archival masters Peoples Potential Unlimited first shone the light on Dwight Sykes and his Jahari project on the must grip Situations cassette late last year, revealing the work of a key player in Michigan's underground boogie scene. Those selectors out there without the means to play tapes in a club setting will no doubt be very thankful to PPU for this 12" that brings together some unreleased demo cuts from Jahari along with a newly remastered version of the superb title track from that cassette. So up top you get two alternate takes on "Fire & Desire" with the studio version a real funk gem, whilst "Situations" sounds all the more sweet and soulful in newly remastered form.

Review: It's well known that People's Potential Unlimited boss Andrew Morgan has some serious crate digging skills. Even so, he continues to amaze with the obscurity and quality of the releases he chooses to reissue. Serious collectors have long sought out "Let's Ride" by guitarist Willie Lee Jnr under his occasional Junei alias. Originally released on 7" back in 1987, it's a killer chunk of synthesizer-heavy electrofunk blessed with some serious eyes-closed guitar solo action. Flipside "You Must Go On" - originally the A-side of the '87 release - is fantastic, too, offering a near perfect blend of sun-kissed Balearic attitude and smooth '80s soul grooves.

Review: Peoples Potential Unlimited comes through with more reissue gold! Were you to invest in an original copy of "I Like The Way You Do It" you'd need a spare couple of hundred quid in the sky rocket. PPU present the original sultry boogie version and a Tom Noble edit either side of an orange stickered 12 inch.

Review: DC-based label Peoples Potential Unlimited aka PPU is a real favourite for us here. It's got a signature lo-fi funk sound and deals in perfectly ageless sounds with a big heart. Robbie M has been a frequent name in the label's catalogue and is back on this new 7" next to Midnight Express. The latter kicks off with big cosmic disco synths, hip-swinging claps and great vocals. Robbie M's brilliantly boogie-fried 80s electro-funk then appears in the form of 'I Need Good Lovin'' with its seductive vocals and catchy broken beats.

Review: PPU may have expanded its remit to issue contemporary acts like Pender Street Steppers and, soon, Beautiful Swimmers but the label is still digging through the soul and boogie archives of forgotten US acts. The work of George Franklin Smallwood has provided a source of much inspiration for Peoples Potential Unlimited over the years with the archivally minded label issuing several singles, a DVD and a Christmas album from the local Washington DC artist. Here PPU grant Smallwood's soul gem "You Know I Love" it's first 12" release having first surfaced at some unspecified time in the early '80s and is worth investigating for the drum machine heavy dub version on the flip!

Review: Sultry street soul/R&B from two otherworldly underground names, intro'ing Vol. 1 of their 'Grown and Sexy Music' series. Sudi 'Space Ghost' Wachspress handles the production on these three swaying, sex-soul tidbits, while Teddy Bryant aka. Urbyne tops things off, adding melismatic croons to the affair. A-sider 'Heaven Sent' is a glistening, ecstatic exercise in digi-R&B moods, as Bryant sings of excited imaginations and loving fantasies. 'Little Bit Of Love' spices things up to a boom-bap flavour, with thoughts of neediness prevailing - of course, they just "need a little bit of your drug". 'Relax Your Mind', finally, ushers in a safe space / comedown after the high.

Review: American label Peoples Potential Unlimited has cared out its own superb niche in the world of heart aching, lo-fi funk. But here a new catalogue number seems to suggest a new series. It kicks off with French collective Spaced Out Krew and their timeless, boogie driven disco funk. The music was written during 2020 by Spleen3000 and Marius Cyrilou of Ceeofunk and right from the first note of 'Doudou Bourbon' it is pure class. There are starry-eyed melodies, rasping basslines and curious vocals that all add up to a nice cosmic disco sound.

Review: Amidst recent praise from a variety of individuals including Ben UFO, Legowelt and the Juno review team, the Peoples Potential Unlimited label keep up the brilliant work with yet another killer disco boogie oddity from the early 80s. This Westwood / Cash twelve is the first of two twelve's from the Washington imprint to switch the focus to the career of Detroit producer Danaan Potts who can count on studying alongside a young Juan Atkins as well as spending close to 100 hours a week studio time alongside George Clinton as influences. Here he adopts the anonymous Westwood tag to add some bizarre P Funk to the delightful Orlando Cash jams "Psycho For Your Love" and "Work Those Joints". Additional PPU tweaks of both make this one of the labels best twelve's to date!

Review: The Peoples Potential Unlimited quest to unearth the Atlantic boogie that time forgot continues unabated - this time reviving a1983 gem from Detroit's The X Man. Wrapped in an excellently presented sleeve, the somewhat mysterious X-Man supposedly had what should have been a fruitful musical career cut short by a 30 year stint in a Motor City psychiatric hospital. This was no obstacle for PPU however, who were granted the master tapes to press up "That Body" and "Fired Up" at 45rpm on a nice fat twelve! There's an undeniable funk swagger to "That Body" which sounds like Jimmy Edgar if he was a child of the 70s - in a word, killer. The B Side proto hip-hop bump of "Fire It Up" proves to be just as infectious, driven by some loose limbed synth flourishes.

Review: Shiny boogie reissue action from Peoples Potential Unlimited, the undisputed kings of disco digging. This label has to be recognised for what it's done, for the amount of material that it's made available to contemporary boogie addicts, and for the style with which they've done it. Here we have some glorious material from 1980-1981 by Mark J's Freeway project. If there truly is such as thing as 'blue-eyed soul', then this is your 'green-eyed boogie', a marvellous, uptempo collection of funky tunes with a subtle electro edge running through the lower ends of the mixes. Also, it'll surely appeal to a variety of 'soul' lovers, from the ones who like that slight electro edge to their disco, to others who are into their vocal solos, piano keys and yes, even some organs. All in all, this is a timeless piece of music which had been lost in the depths of time and into the pockets of the second-hand market cats. Don't miss it.

Review: Moon B's next mini-LP offering to PPU, entitled III, is a varied affair. The a side offers up the older taped track "Realms", a semi-muted yet chuggy number for the dance floor overwrought with moon-roasted synth progressions that coat the ears. "Neither Here Nor Where" is an ode to forgotten spaces and places, wrapped tightly in synth bazz and creamed pads that emanate from Moon's favorite synth, the Alpha Juno 1. Flip the record to find Moon's most "instro-spective" offerings to date. "Art Direction" bottomed out tempo conjures up images of 1984 Prince replacing Appalonia with Inga Copeland as his motorcycle passenger after a neon lit love-making session. "Moonda"'s slow fluctuation and linn drum echoes paired with sorrowful yet hopeful chords attempts to warm you in the coldest of polar vortices. "Polywarp" rounds out the affair with syruppy vacillating instrumentation paired with unforeseen wobbly bits and foreign percussive hits. -

Review: Moon B takes it back to the old school that is PPU! Atlanta-based analogue funkateer Wes Gray made his debut proper as Moon B back in 2012 on People's Potential Unlimited, and has since found further acclaim with a killer EP for London label Going Good and releases as Vaib-R and Sean Sanders for Nous and Hot Mix. Andrew Morgan's PPU has always been something of a home base for Moon B material however, with several other cross format releases in recent times. The suitably titled II is the second Moon B long player and pulls eight tracks from the home studio recordings of Wes Gray made over the past few years with that signature "slank rhythms and cutting basslines you've grown accustomed to" present and correct!