Disco/Nu-Disco charts

Review: Shannon's 'Let The Music Play' is a stone cold classic that still bangs. As such it doesn't really need updating bu business tech bossman Alan Fitzpatrick has a go anyway, labelling his new version a 6AM Terrace mix. He does a decent job of reworking the tune for modern dancefloors - or terraces - with his signature style of big drums and arresting, strobe lit synths. The original is also included, which is good, because it is hard to beat, and so is a dub mix for those who want it.

Review: Family outfit Ingram first burst through in the late 1970s as a funk and disco vocal outfit, but it's arguably their 1980s work that's retained its allure. While they made numerous classic cuts in this period, little has lasted the test of time quite like far-sighted 1983 single 'DJ's Delight'. Light on their usual group vocals, the original mix features various subtle alterations of the same melodic motif clustering around a killer bassline and boogie style machine drums. It's a stone-cold boogie classic all told. This reissue pairs the Ingrams' original take with a tooled-up, subtly housed-up remix from Mark Knight and Michael Gray. We still prefer the original mix, but it's tastefully done and offers a decent update for those who prefer slicker beats and more low-end weight.

Review: Canadian imprint Unidisc continues to celebrate its 40th birthday by delivering desirable, coloured vinyl editions of back catalogue gems featuring fresh remixes. The label's latest pick, which lands on vibrant pink wax, is Canadian chanteuse France Joli's boogie-era disco classic 'Gonna Get Over You', which originally appeared on NYC imprint Prelude in 1981. As well as the vocal, instrumental and Spanish language versions of the mid-tempo treat first featured on the original release - all of which boast killer horns, crisp guitars and pleasingly rubbery bass - this edition also boasts a more energetic revision from A-Trak and Wev. They speed it up, slam in some house beats, add TB-303 squelches aplenty and cut up selected snippets of Joli's vocal. It's a top-notch remix all told.

Review: Initially established by disco polymath Patrick Adams as a "low budget" studio band, Musique briefly burned brightly, releasing two albums and a handful of genuine dancefloor anthems. Their story started in 1978 with this double-header - produced by Adams and mixed by a youthful Francois Kevorkian - on Salsoul Records. This reissue has naturally been fully remastered for club play and is presented on rather fetching translucent fluorescent green vinyl. A-side 'In The Bush', an infectious and high-octane slab of restless disco-funk full of clipped guitar licks, propulsive bass, punchy horns and hybrid whispered/sung lead vocals, is the more celebrated and much-played of the two tracks, though the heavily orchestrated and Salsoul Orchestra style 'Keep On Jumpin' is also excellent.

Review: Bohannon's biggest dancefloor hit, 'Let's Start II Dance Again', has been remixed umpteen times over the years, with several reworks of the slamming disco-funk classic released in the early-to-mid-1980s. Here it gets another new lease of life as part of Unidisc's 40th anniversary celebrations, with disco remix maestro Dimitri From Paris at the controls. The Frenchman delivers two tasteful, club-ready tweaks: an 'Extended Remix' that wisely utilises all of the familiar elements of Bohannon's original, while subtly beefing up the beats and adding a few drops and breakdowns, and an even longer, more dubbed-out 'Super Disco Blend' revision. Over on the flip there's a chance to enjoy Bohannon's original version and the raw and heavy 'Part 2' mix from 1981 album Alive.

Review: Trans-X was Pascal Languirand, but the fantastic vocal from his biggest single, 1986's 'Living on Video,' was performed by Laurie Ann Gill, a Canadian who never got the credit at the time. This reissue will put her in the spotlight and rightly so - this is pure dance effort gold, with hi-nrg disco beats, flashy synth-pop styles and a native retro-future tint that still bangs. It's rather unusual source material for Claptone who normally favours deep and soulful sounds, but he does a fine job of flipping into a big, cheery, chugging, tooting Italo-disco stomper. A dub mix is also included for a more raw vibe.

Review: It's an oldie but a goodie; Patrick Cowley and Sylvester's 1982 electronic disco classic 'Do You Wanna Funk' receives another worthy vinyl repress featuring two timeless remixes. The two versions on the A side are the most commonly heard ones, with Sylvester's unmistakeable falsetto underpinned by Cowley's adrenaline fuelled and trance inducing production. Over on the flip, we have the sweltering disco inferno of 'Don't Stop'.

Review: There can't be many out there who aren't familiar with Geraldine Hunt's 1980 single 'Can't Fake The Feeling', a genuine disco-boogie anthem whose Chic-style groove, tasty orchestration, gnarled guitars and sing-along vocals are so familiar they're almost iconic. Whether it needs remixing is open for debate, but Carl Cox has at least done a sympathetic job. His full vocal 'remix' adds a little house bounce to the track while retaining most of the original elements, while his 'rework' re-imagines it as a stomping disco-techno slammer of the sort that Dave Angel used to be famous for. Throw in the peerless original mix and a hard-to-find, late-'80s 'dub' mix and you have an excellent package.

Review: First released in 1981 in the wake of the muscular, robo-disco epics 'Megatron Man' and 'Menergy', 'Get a Little' has long been one of Patrick Cowley's most underrated singles - or at least far-less celebrated. As this reissue proves, the track has lost none of its lustre over the years. A full-vocal number featuring a super-catchy chorus, the original mix (B1) and contemporaneous remix (B2) sit somewhere between electrofunk, Cowley's own brand of electronic disco and what we'd now call Italo-disco. It's a far-sighted sound that still sounds fresh all these years on. The A-side of this edition also boasts two contemporary updates from Alan Dixon, who adds subtly beefed-up house beats and a tidy nu-disco feel on both the 'Love Attack' and 'DJ Friendly Mix' variations.

Review: Definitely one for the collectors, Lime was Canadian duo (then husband and wife) Denis and Denyse LePage, and 'Angel Eyes' was originally the second single from their third studio album, 1983's Lime III. Almost 40 years later, the track has returned as a short form release, offering the original synth pop anthem, and a clubbier dub mix.

For many, though, not least Unidisc Canada, the label carrying this re-release, the major selling point is a remix - and something of a remodelling - courtesy of Turbo Recordings boss and dance music icon Tiga. Forsaking the rather smiley and bouncy original work, in favour of something grittier and altogether more dystopian, it's a masterclass of rough, gnarly broken electro, reworking and chopping vocals into disorientating loops, before finally introducing a kind of warehouse synth pop sound.

Review: Canada's Unidisc has got a bunch of classic disco reissues arriving this summer and they don't get much more classic than Jocelyn Brown's Somebody Else's Guy. Not only is this the name of one of her biggest ever smash hit singles but also of her debut album from 1990. The lead single climbed high in US and UK charts and still soundtracks drunken wedding parties and parochial club nights up and down the land every single weekend. The rest of the tracks on the album are no slouch either, with Jocelyn's belting soul vocals front and centre over plenty of catchy grooves.

Review: Buffalo, New York born artist Patrick Cowley is well known as one of the most revolutionary and influential figures in electronic dance music of the seventies and eighties. He studied it in San Fran at the City College of San Francisco then mastered it in the studio over the ensuing decades. Megatron Man was his second studio album , released in 1981, and is a standout of the era thanks to the gliding and funky main tune 'Get A Little' with its great use of vocoder. The rest of the record in true Cowley fashion takes in hi-nrg disco, slow cosmic, electronic funk and boogie all with an erotic and libidinous overtone.

Review: Indeep's 'Last Night A D.J. Saved My Life' is one of the most recognisable disco tunes of its generation, but also the title of the group's 1983 album. The New York outfit never had a tune as big as that one again but when something is such a fine mix of boogie, funk and soul as that and loved by everyone universally, does that even matter? The rest of the album which is now being reissued is packed with plenty of other more than useful dancefloor cuts with big hooks, buoyant drums and colourful synth work.

Review: Unidisc knows what's up with this one, a reissue of an irresistible disco classic tinted with UK street soul vibes. Wish & Fonda Rae's 'Touch Me' has it all - the chilly 80s drum sounds, a raw and hooky chord sequence and a fast and squelchy bassline all topped off with a singable vocal that is hella emotive and heart swelling. As well as the almost ten-minute All Night Long mix there is a more wonky remix full of mad filter work and a second tune from Wish, this one with La Rita Gaskin. Their 'Nice & Soft' is another belting disco banger for pure good vibes only.

Review: Closer is the second album by disco producer and singer Gino Soccio, originally released in 1981 on Atlantic Records and RFC Records. The album features six tracks of catchy and groovy disco music, with influences from funk, soul and pop. The album includes the hit single 'Try It Out', as well as 'Street Talk', a smooth and soulful track with its guitar riff and a saxophone solo. This is one of those truly classic disco albums and showcases the legendary Canadian producer's talent and style.

Review: Lakeside's Fantastic Voyage dates back to 1980 and is also the name of the number one hit the Dayton, Ohio group had in 1981. The song topped the r&b chart and marked their one and only ever entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 55. Sample hounds may know that hip-hop star Coolio used parts of this song for his own hit of the same name in 1994. The rest of the tunes are just as much a great and funky fusion of soul, disco and r&b with great vocal harmonies, guttural male growls and infectious drums.

Review: Lakeside - perhaps the unsung counterparts to Kool & The Gang (though they were just as great) - are routinely hailed as one of the earliest purveyors of funk-disco in its entirety, and we can more than believe that when taking in their fifth album from 1981, Your Wish Is My Command. Hugely ahead of its time, the production on this album is unmatched, with bombshell beats and ultrafilterswept synths making for unparalleledly glitzy backdrops for the Ohio nine-piece's watertight ows and yowzas. Our faves from this classic have to be 'Something About That Woman' and 'The Songwriter', the beats on which land like shoulder-slaps. Also, notably, this album features a rare hidden rerub of the Beatles' 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', which sets total fire to the original.

Review: French Canadian disco producer Gino Soccio is the man behind the disco studio group Witch Queen whom he assembled and produced having first dropped this solo album Outline in 1979. He had a US Hot 100 entry with his 1979 tune 'Dancer' and 'Dance To Dance' both off this album, then hit top spot on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart with later single 'Try It Out' in 1981. His electronic blend of disco, funk and soul is embellished with horns, percussion, drums, flute and guitar from an array of musicians who joined him in the studio. This version comes on purple marble vinyl.

Review: Canadian soul and boogie man Goldie Alexander dropped his most well-known hit 'Knocking Down Love' in 1981 on the TGO label. It now lends its name to this longer collection of his work which takes in all the tracks off his one and only studio album - 1983's Fool In Love - as well as various different club and dub mixes of those tunes. It makes for a heartwarming mix of disco, electronic grooves and smoochy soul sounds with Goldie's, well, golden, tones front and centre. A great one to have for more intimate dancefloor moments.