Brazil / Mondo Disco / Let's Get It Together / Cocomotion - Four Albums On 2CDs 

When session musicians Laurin Rinder and W. Michael Lewis were first dragged to a disco by their employer Ray Harris of AVI Records, they were skeptical and wary of using their skills to create music they deemed to be a novelty. They got past those feelings -- making music was their job after all -- and the very next day sought to re-create the sounds theyd heard the night before. The song they came up with was "Lets Get It Together," a strutting disco track anchored by Lewis rock-solid drumming and Rinders alternately lush and funky keyboards. That session was the start of the duos career as disco musicians and of their group El Coco. They issued eight albums between 1975 and 1982, and four of them are gathered on this collection: 1975s Brazil and Mondo Disco, 1976s Lets Get It Together, and 1977s Cocomotion. The pairs style leans toward a sparer sound than many of the other disco studio bands of the era, relying on horns and synths to fill out the sound rather than orchestras. They split the songs between instrumental and vocal, often writing their own melodies, but also trotting out disco-fied versions of standards like "Caravan" or easy listening tunes like "Quiet Village." Their hit-to-miss ratio is pretty good, though with that many albums being cranked out in a short time its no surprise that there was a fair amount of filler bolstering the running time. At their best, El Coco were able to combine their skills as musicians with the template of disco to come up with something suitably danceable, and even close to magical at times. Their first two albums relied fairly heavily on novelty tracks like "The Count of Monte Disco" and "Yakity Yak" and cheesy synth sounds, but careful culling uncovers a handful of gems like the title track of Mondo Disco, a slinky late-night groover replete with the sound of the vocalist really enjoying herself, their intense take on "Caravan," and a brisk run through "A Cancao Do Nosso Amor." The duo really hit their stride on the next two albums, where there are more vocals, fuller arrangements, and more time taken overall to make the songs sound good. The lead track of Lets Get It Together is proof of how far they came; "Just Be You" has some extra zing in the playing, the vocals are insistent, and the musicians sound live and excited. This feeling runs through both albums, and there are some really nice tracks such as "Under Construction," "Love to the World," and "We Call It Disco" on offer, as well as one classic. "Cocomotion" is the high point of the set, with ten-plus minutes of gauzy disco where El Coco pull out all the stops as the songs dynamics make for a giddy roller coaster ride. It shows just how good the pair could be when they gave 100 percent to the song, and if sometimes they gave less than that, at least their lesser efforts are still a lot of fun. Certainly, its fun enough to inspire fans of Love Boat-style disco to snap this collection up as soon as possible. ~ Tim Sendra