Back catalogue: Disco/Nu-Disco

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: 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: 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: Hands up, we're longtime fan boys of the Peoples Potential Unlimited label, Whatever they do - mostly heart aching lo-fi funk and soul from artists old and new - it's always class. Next up is a reissue of Glass Pyramid's Country Cowboy on a hand-stamped 12". It came originally on this label back in 2009 having been transferred from the original tapes which were recorded somewhere between 1982-1986 At Studio 7, Oklahoma City. It soon became a bit of a classic that still fetches above the odds on second hand markets. It's a gloriously feel good mix of disco and soul with instrumental grooves and belting vocals.

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. -