Disco Discharge: Classic Disco

Known most for its artist-curated Life:Styles and jazz-funk-fusion Pulp Fusion series, the London-based Harmless label goes back to the club music of the late '70s and early '80s, just as it did with the two-volume Jumpin' series back in 1997 -- a time when compilations treating disco as something more than a guilty-pleasure fad were all too rare. Just as Harmless did before, it pulls out classics and secret weapons alike. Disco Discharge: Classic Disco, released at the same time as three other volumes in the series (Disco Ladies, Euro Disco, and Gay Disco & Hi NRG), is a double-disc set that actually features a number of unlikely DJ favorites, like the Manhattan Transfer's "Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone" and Johnny Mathis' Gene Page-arranged "Gone, Gone, Gone," over the enduring platinum-sellers. On the other side of the spectrum, there are a few well-known cuts that even the average disco-phobe would know, including Dr. Buzzard's "Cherchez le Femme/Se Si Bon" and Cheryl Lynn's "Got to Be Real." That said, this one's definitely for the more seasoned disco fan -- one familiar with Change's oft-compiled "Paradise" and "The Glow of Love" but not 1984's "It Burns Me Up" (which maxed out in the sixties of Billboard's U.S. R&B chart and didn't even touch the club chart). ~ Andy Kellman