Re-Entry

"Re-Entry" is the first mix that I am sharing with you. This mix is an exploration of a wide spectrum of musical styles. From slow, experimental, 80's Paradise Garage Classics, some 80's new wave camp and kitch, mid 70's Discotheque to Animal Collective. The mix is inspired by the dance floor concept of the re-entry. The legendary David Mancuso talks about how the concept of "re-entry" is one of the key ingredients at his Loft Parties. A re-entry means to include songs that are not necessary for dancing but used in other to educate an audience or to use them for primer or to clear the sonic palette and then use the "re-entry" song in other to create explosive reactions on the dance floor! This mix has been rendered with slow and unusual songs that are not made for dancing and yet some others have been reworked making the mix a sonic roller coaster ride. I'm not sure how well it would work on a dance floor but for your listening pleasure here it is. In addition, I am planning to feature a monthly mix with a track listing of all the songs featured in the mixes. Eventually you will be able to listen to some of them separately since some songs might have been previously featured on previous posts.

Enjoy

Re-Entry - Dj Glamjack

Track Listing

1. Intro/Opera Attack-Grace Jones / African Symphony (Glamjack Re-Edit) - Henry Mancini

2. Banshee Beat - Animal Collective

3. Maran Cariua - Los Indios Tabajares

4. Seventh Heaven (Larry Levan Remix) - Gwen Guthrie

5. Sueno Latino - Sueno Latino/E2-E4 - Maunel Gottsching

6. The Love Attack (Club Attack Mix) - Konk

7. Maria Baila - Les Rita Mitsouko

8. It's Impossible - Los Indios Tabajares

9. Drive My Car (Glamjack Re-Edit)- Gary Toms Empire

10. Wow - Andre Gagnon

11. Call Me Mr. Telephone (Dub Version) - Cheyne

12. The Love Is In You (Pat Les Stache Re-Edit) - Nightlife Unlimited

13. I Can't Help It (Dj Mad Mats Intro Edit) - Michael Jackson

14. Nobody Can Do What You Do (Edit) - Chalk Hill

15. This Is It (Mad Mats Rework) - Kenny Loggins

16. Holly - Henry Mancini

17. Stand On the Word (Larry Levan Mix) - Celestial Choir

Re-Entry by Jack Rivas on Mixcloud

After Midnight

A beautiful post snow storm day in the city! The snow melts and I am thinking tropical. This is "After Midnight" from Sergio Mendes and Brazil 77 early 70s great album Pais Tropical. Sergio and crew serves Brazilian bossa grooves and elevate them into more soulful territory with an LA studio feel. Can this be described as Bossa and Afro Funk? This is my favorite song on the LP, specially the break; and the rest of the album with tracks like "Zanzibar", "So Many People", Morro Velho to name a few, are amazing! I purchased this album a while ago rummaging through dusty vinyl bins around the neighborhood junk stores. I just found out that this LP is hard find and its out of print. Enjoy

After Midnight - Sergio Mendes & Brazil 77

What A Fool Believes

Snow day today! I was such a pleasant surprise this morning to find out there is no work thanks to Bloomberg. But enough about him and back to music. The latest trend from DJs is to take Lite Rock/Lite F.M. tracks from the late 70's and early 80's and give them a refreshing feel. The best example I could find is from the Mad Mats' Blue Eyed Soul EP. They have released two outstanding examples of this new trend. One is What A Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers featured here and the other is This Is It by Kenny Loggins. Both are brilliant tracks that have an amazing new feel. The added percussion grooves and slightly house feel gives them that dance floor push without loosing the songs integrity. I can see the beginning of a gold mine here that I am sure will be explored by many DJ's here! I have already heard many samples of such trend by hearing the response of such songs during Danny Krivits' 718 Sessions. These songs are being revised and revamped and it's not a guilty pleasure to love them anymore. Enjoy

What A Fool Believes - Dobbie Brothers

Midnight Is The Time When I Need You

It has been a crazy couple of days with work/life in general and I am glad to be back sharing my love of music with you. Here is a song by legendary Greek/Egyptian singer that stunned the disco dance floors with many disco classics such as L.O.V.E Got A Hold On Me (a Loft Classic) and I Dig You. This is one of his more rare songs from that era that deserves classic status from his 1975 album Souvenirs. I first heard this song on You Tube as a video format and loved it and the video is a must see! Check it out and you'll see. It's like a 70's Egyptian soap opera! This is a re-edit version I found that works pretty well. Enjoy

Midnight It's The Time When I Need You - Demis Roussos

African Symphony

I am sharing with you a new re-edit of Henry Mancini's disco classic "African Symphony" from his album Symphonic Soul. I have just discovered this song from reading Vince Aletti's book The Disco Files 1973/78 which I keep devouring like a disco monk. I am intrigued about this song for it's amazing jungle drums and cinematic orchestration. In this re-edit, I extended the intro and re-shuffled some of the driving metronomic tempos and sprinkled them with some jungle sounds. This is a sweet disco a la Mancini with a cherry on top. Enjoy

African Symphony (Glamjack Re-Edit) - Henry Mancini

A House Classic

Back from the woods and it feels so refreshing to have spent time in nature! In order to start the week I share with you a house classic by the Nightwriters called "Only The Strong Survive". This a house cover of Billy Paul's 1977 disco classic. This is Frankie Knunckles doing amazing work here. Listen to the original by Billy Paul, specially towards the end and it is evident here how Frankie evolved the concept of using disco as a blueprint for house. Bravo Frankie Knuckles, the Godfather of House!

Only The Strong Survive - The Nightwriters (Frankie Knuckles)

Only The Strong Survive - Billy Paul

Wow!

Wow! it seems like I have been listening to a lot of disco instrumentals lately! This is another rare song from early 1976. I have been reading about how during that year disco had arrived and the DJ's where already finding imports that were hard to find and delicious to hear on the dance floors. This a song called "Wow" by a Canadian musician/composer by the name of Andre Gagnon. During the mid 70's he shifted from classical music and made and LP called Nieges, most of the other songs in the album are on the easy listening side but arranged beautiful. He also later released the disco classic "Surprise" and after listening to both of them I said Wow! So my dear readers, I'm going for a weekend retreat to the Catskill mountains so I wont be able to post over the weekend until Sunday. Have a wonderful weekend and Enjoy!

Wow - Andre Gagnon

A Haunting Song

I am haunted by this new discovery of a song from Cy Coleman's 1976 LP "The Party's On Me" named Chloe. Cy Coleman was a virtuoso pianist and composer working mainly in theater among his many compositions he penned for the likes of Sinatra, Bennett and Streisand. This is an old standard classic song with a disco flavor. Filled with heavy and fast percussion (140 BPM) the song starts with a ghost like voice calling Chloe's name. Who is Chloe? Nevertheless, the beats on this song are amazing! and when the piano overwhelms the beat is fantastic making the song exotic and fabulous. This sounds almost like House Music to me. I only know if this song in the whole record but it's high on my list of vinyl must finds. Enjoy!

Chloe - Cy Coleman

Turn On To Love

Turn on to love everyday! This is a brilliant song that I re-edited in its length called"Turn On To Love" by an amazing group called Jumbo. The original is 17 minutes! The song has a nice variety of textures and breaks that make this song interesting considering the duration of the this song and talk about the bass line, it's brilliant. This is disco before it became programmed, sanitized and monotonous. Enjoy!

Turn On To Love - Jumbo

A day off!

I spent the day in Chinatown and it was wonderful to reunite with some friends. This is a song that I remixed a while back using various beats and layered them with Manuel Gottsching famous Loft classic "E2 E4". I know this song has been sampled to death but it goes so well with this track and since I am paying homage to First Choice's cover of "Love and Happiness" which was also a Loft classic. I sprinkled the song using some sound effects from a Larry Levan vinyl of some of his wacky voices and acapellas he used at Paradise Garage.
Enjoy!

Love and Happiness (Glamjack Remix) - First Choice

Happy Valentines Day

It's love and romance day and I though I share with you an amazing cover of Barry White’s 1973 shag anthem "I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little Bit More, Baby", boasting one of the sexiest intros ever; this is a funky romantic classic cover by the fabulous Kellee Patterson from her self titled album Kellee. Kellee was a former beauty queen who competed in various talent shows along the Jackson 5. I hope this puts you in the mood for love with this timeless campy classic. Enjoy!

I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little Bit More, Baby - Kellee Patterson

The Disco Files 1973-78

Happy Valentines Day! Enough said, so back to disco. I'm reading The Disco Files 1973-78 by Vince Aletti and it is the bible of Disco. I am in a decipher mode with this book based on his weekly columns he wrote for the Village Voice from 1973-1978. He was the first voice to write of this genre of music and actually he is credited with having coined the word for this "dance floor spirited music" as Disco. This book is so precise and informative and lot of the songs named in this book never saw the light outside of disco dance floor. I'm diligent about finding some of this rare gems and here is one that I love by a Canadian group called Basic Black & Pearl called "There'll Come A Time, There'll Come A Day".
Enjoy!

There'll Come A Time, There'll Come A Day - Basic Black & Pearl

 

My Heart Belongs To Daddy

This is a mash-up I did about 5 years ago when I was starting to experiment with overlapping songs together. The background beats are from a strange song that I don't even remember the name from a group called Crazy Penis that I found on line years ago. They do this Hollywood musical inspired house music. I ventured to do my own mix using a Marilyn Monroe song and mix it with one of their beats. I hope you enjoy it!

My Heart Belongs To Daddy - Marilyn Monroe (Glamjack Remix)

Wishing you a gracefully good night!

An interesting compare and contrast
Please discuss

A disturbing yet amazing documentary

I just watched this and left me with mixed feelings. I highly recommend it. It was chilling to watch yet couldn't get my senses and emotions aligned. Very interesting.

"The Martyr Mantras" - A 90's Classic of Magnetic Proportions

The Martyr Mantras is truly an amazing record.. Released in 1990, I remember listening to this LP on cassette to death and it became a soundtrack to my life back then. I have revisited "Generation of Love" recently after finding it on vinyl at Junk and loved the remixes but for some reason I lost that cassette of the whole LP, yes a cassette! and had forgotten how brilliant it is a whole. In his third solo effort, Boy George was at his best reinventing himself less as a pop star as he welcomed the 90's  as a cautionary post hedonistic era. It is such a  such a time capsule now! All the songs have a life of their own in this one. "I Specialize In Loneliness" is as beautiful as his voice gets. The other songs such as "After The Love", "Love Hurts", "Too Much Love" are odes to sugary house and disco. "Love's Gonna Let You Down" stands on its own with the Boy doing Smokey Robinson stylings with amazing results. "Siempre Te Amare" is cute and of course the beautiful "Bow Down Mister" and the political infused protest song "No Clause" as well. This is a great LP and needs a new listen and to be revisited. Lush, soulful, well textured sounds without being too cliche. I am loving this rediscovery!

Generations of Love (Totally Outed Mix) - Boy George









Love's Gonna Let You Down (Popcorn Mix) - Boy George

First Post!

This is the first post on my blog! I am so thrilled and excited to finally share with you my love and passion for music. This is dedicated to those who love disco, house, mash-ups, left field and general quirky music that either never saw the disco light of day or deserves reconsideration, revision and respect. I am planning to share with you music that inspires me as an artist and lover of dance music. Having said that, not all the music here will be limited to one genre, styles or periods. Some of this music will be presented in it's original format, re-edited, re-mixed and/or reconstructed.

My intention is to share with you and give proper listen to this kind of music. So here I go:

Here I am on my journey to work and thinking how to keep my head up and face the day with my outmost capacity of embracing it with love. It's a chilly morning and while ridding the subway, I am listening to this amazing compilation that has just been released called The Real Sound Of Chicago, it is truly amazing disco that probably only stayed underground. It's a great release and amazing discovery! There are many gems here and my favorites is Sidney Thomas' "Look, Let's Make Love"

Enjoy.

P.S. If you like what you hear and click on the link you can download it.

Look, Let's Make Love - Sidney Thomas