Disco Discharge - Euro Disco

Euro Disco has had a undeservedly bad reputation over the years. Like any genre there are some very poor Euro tracks but they also produced some of the most memorable and well loved Disco tracks ever. This is the third in Harmless's excellent Disco Discharge series and it showcases some of the absolute best Euro Disco. Disc 1 covers the 70's and highlights include "Margherita" by Massara, "From Here To Eternity" from Disco God Giorgio Moroder and the cosmic "Extraterrestrial Lover" by the UK's Sylvia Love. The CD 2 track listing is all culled from the 80's and stand out tracks include the soul weekender style "Take Me To The Top" by Advance, the Italo Disco flavoured "Dancing In The Dark" by Mike Mareen and the awsome "P Machinery" by Propoganda. The rest of the track listing is really strong and although there are a couple of more obvious choices like "Angel In My Pocket" by Change and "Space" by Magic Fly,they all fit perfectly into the playlist along side the more rare nuggets like "Fear" by Easy Going, "Garden Of Love" by Don Ray and funky Dutch number "Live It Up" by The Time Bandits. And any album that includes the full original album side of "That's The Meaning/Boogie Motion" By Beautiful Bend get's the thumbs up from me.

Lovely Stuff!

This is a great compilation of Euro disco from 1977-88, the vast majority of the tracks originating from Italy or Germany. The tracks aren't in chronological order (the compilers have presumably based the running order on what they thought flowed best), but the first disc deals with the 1977-80 tracks, and the second disc is exclusively '80s material. The mastering is generally excellent - loud and clear without over-compression. The Mike Mareen track sounds as if it's been mastered from vinyl - this doesn't bother me personally, and it's still a good quality recording.

I personally bought 'Euro disco' for the '80s tracks, not the '70s ones, and I can imagine this compilation polarising listeners as to which style you prefer. But it's still great to hear what the later material evolved from. It's interesting to note, for instance, the use of vocoder on the Giorgio Moroder, Easy Going and Kano tracks. Some of the '80s pieces are inevitably more electro-influenced, especially Fun Fun's 'Happy station' - here it sounds like the producer has been listening to early New York electro such as Hashim, Tyrone Brunson et al.

Highlights for me include: Propaganda's 'P Machinery', which the compilers have intelligently included in the over-the-top 'polish' version. As far as I know, this mix is otherwise unavailable on CD - it wasn't among the mixes included on Propaganda's 'Outside World' compilation. Then there's 'Self Control' by the late, great Laura Branigan. This isn't exactly Euro disco - more straight-up USA disco-rock, but it was a big hit in Europe, and has the best vocal on the album. And there's the Patsy Kensit/Pet Shop Boys collaboration 'I'm not scared'. This version is even better than the PSB rerecording on 'Introspective', and has a beautiful coda with synthesized strings. It also includes all of Patsy's French spoken version of the lyrics, otherwise known as 'J'ai pas peur' on the B-side of the original 7". The only real low point is Massara's 'Margharita', an awful slice of cheese which repeats on itself again and again. My only other criticism might be that there's an absence of anything from 1986-87, which was a rich period for Euro disco. Spagna's 'Call me' and Sabrina's 1988 hit 'Boys (Summertime Love)' come to mind, although Spagna does appear here twice (as vocalist on 'Happy Station' and under the pseudonym Yvonne Kay on 'Rise Up'), and Sabrina's track is included on the forthcoming 'Euro beats' edition of Disco Discharge. But overall, for a budget compilation of Euro disco from this period, you won't find better.

If you want to listen to 'Euro disco' in chronological order, then the playlist should run as follows. I've divided the tracks by year of release only; I don't know which month each track came out.

1977
Space - Magic Fly
Giorgio Moroder - From Here To Eternity
Silver Convention - Love In A Sleeper

1978
Don Ray - Garden Of Love
Beautiful Bend - That's The Meaning/Boogie Motion

1979
Massara - Margharita
Sylvia Love - Extraterrestrial Lover
Sparks - The Number One Song In Heaven
Vivien Vee - Give Me A Break
Easy Going - Fear (an album track in '79; released as a single in '80)

1980
Change - Angel In My Pocket
Kano - I'm Ready

1981
Time Bandits - Live It Up

1982
Advance - Take Me To The Top

1983
Gaz Nevada - I.C. Love Affair
Fun Fun - Happy Station (Scratch Mix)

1984
Change - Change Of Heart
Laura Branigan - Self Control

1985
Propaganda - P Machinery (Polish)
Mike Mareen - Dancing In The Dark
Yvonne Kay - Rise Up (For My Love)

1988
Eighth Wonder - I'm Not Scared (Disco Mix)

I'm not sure I'd categorise either Eighth Wonder (Patsy Kensit) "I'm Not Scared" or Laura Branigan "Self Control" as Euro Disco (surely that's Silver Convention. Giorgio Moroder etc?) but in their full length versions they are stunning and presented here in superb sound quality. Great compilaton, worth it just for the 2 tracks I have highlighted.

If the compilers of this series should read this: what about the full length version of "Get on the Funk Train" by Munich Machine? Now that really is Euro disco!