All Night

Here's an exclusive edit of last night's edition of Atmosphere Strutt, the hottest radio show in town. Lots of great funk for the kids, including an ultra-deep Shep Pettibone remix of First Choice's loft classic, "Doctor Love", completely reworking the bawdy charm of the original into a faux-italo luster of epic proportions. And the Masters At Work track has me itching to do a feature on this formerly huge, lately forgotten NY duo...Hypnotic house remixes of sophisticated 70s disco and ritzy 80s electro? Yeah, that's funky.

1) Gayle Adams - Stretch In Out
2) Masters At Work - All Night (I Can Do It Right)
3) Brooklyn Express - Change Position
4) First Choice feat. Rochelle Fleming - Doctor Love (Mega Dub Remix)
5) Yazoo - Situation (Dub Version)
6) Sun La Shan - Catch (Dub Version)

Body Music

After a long hiatus, Atmosphere Strut is back with another cosmic mix of dubbed out disco. This week's playlist focuses on club remixes with a particular emphasis on outlandish instrumental b-sides. If I ever heard any of these spacey dubs at a club, I'd probably be wondering what was in my drink. Show starts at the 6 minute mark. Sweet fades all over.

Go Bang

Every week or so I get reminded of how pumped I am for the upcoming Arthur Russell documentary. Arthur is one of those rare musicians that never seems to disappoint (with the possible exception of the dated lounge-soul instrumentals of the First Thought Best Thought 2xCD), and whose reputation as one of NY's most luminous art-funk angels has been a major selling point for everyone from epicurean club boppers to thesis-toting disco scholars. And while most famous for underground disco hits of the early '80s like "Is It All Over My Face" and the Francois K re-mixed "Go Bang", Father Russell left behind a vast terrain of experimental recordings that are being slowly harvested by the meticulous folks over at Audika Records. Their diehard releases cover both out of print and unreleased material, and contain frequently illuminating liner notes and photographs. They're also behind the aforementioned documentary to be released sometime in 2008.

Probably the best starting point is the World of Arthur Russell compilation released on Soul Jazz a few years ago, which contains pretty much all the disco smashes, plus some of his langourous music for voice and cello. If it turns out you really like the tranquil side of Arthur Russell, definitely check out World of Echo, one of my favorite albums and sure to be the subject of its own post in the near future. It's a sprawling love-space of wandering cello and abstract prose, and comes with my highest recommendation.

Oh, and do yourself a favor and pick up the Springfield EP. Not only is all of its jittery proto-house downright essential, but it contains a club-killing remix of the title track by the DFA. Plus this dreamy slice of funk:

Arthur Russell - Corn #3 from the Springfield EP

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