Discoballs: A Tribute To Pink Floyd

The players responsible for this 1977 release have connections to Magma and sessions for Elton John, to name only two, and its orchestrator -- Gabriel Yared -- would later score films directed by Jean-Luc Godard (Every Man for Himself) and Anthony Minghella (The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley). And, of course, there is Pink Floyd, the band honored throughout the release, a set of Eurodisco reinterpretations involving a studio band fleshed out with a Polymoog, an ARP, and some string arrangements, as well as a vocalist -- a Miss X, presumably not the naked woman on the cover, who sometimes resembles a less blues-rooted Maggie Bell. Discoballs is well-executed but cut-rate by 1977 disco standards, led by a jutting and strutting "Have a Cigar" that managed to peak at number four on Billboard's U.S. club chart in 1979. The real standout is a rather unfaithful "Interstellar Overdrive" that thrives on twitching and wiggling guitar action. It wouldn't sound out of place in a DJ set next after Talking Heads' "Born Under Punches." ~ Andy Kellman