This week the sound is about tension. Each album has tension of it’s own, all of them are disco or punk influenced, but it’s also about the tension of the genres on each other. We begin with balearic disco, move into dark wave, look at albums from the beginning and end of disco and round it out with an instrumental album inspired by Danish seventies porn. That being said, each album and the playlist is a blast that inspires hefty dancing.
We begin with Stella, Parisian-born producer and DJ based in Berlin. Détends-toi is a deep house disco dream of an album, with deep baselines and glam, shimmering synth. In 2022, I wrote, “The album isn’t afraid to take hold of genre tropes and fully go there, taking advantage of the big sounds of the seventies and eighties.” It is a dark and sultry soundtrack.
On the note of darkness, we turn to Bauhaus, a pioneering goth rock band out of the UK. The group, named after the artist movement, stays true to form with austere sounds and a focus only on what is needed to craft the song. One member said, "One of our loves is to make each single totally different from the last, not to be tied down by a style or sound." Perhaps an inattention to style births its own.
On the other side of inattention to style, we get disco. Crown Heights Affair, a Brooklyn group, had a #1 track on the dance charts in 1975, at the height of it all. They are disco kings and Dreaming a Dream is a quintessential disco album, created at the very beginning of that glamorous, flash-in-a-pan era that has seemingly transcended time.
William DeVaughn is another musician that has transcended time — his album Be Thankful For What You Got was released the year before Dreaming a Dream and continues to have status as one of the great R&B albums of the seventies. It’s almost like a pre-cursor to disco, that funky rhythm and blues that eventually gives way to the decadence of dance music.
We end with the peak of decadence: an album from Alex Puddu inspired by something mysteriously recognizable — seventies porn music. The album goes there. If you are having a crush over for dinner, put this on.
Enjoy.
The playlist is here.
Monday
Détends-toi - Stella (2022)
Bandcamp/ Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Tuesday
Mask - Bauhaus (1981)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Wednesday
Dreaming a Dream - Crown Heights Affair (1975)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Thursday
Be Thankful For What You Got - William DeVaughn (1974)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Friday
The Golden Age of Danish Pornography - Alex Puddu (2012)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Pair with:
Roasted chicken with fennel and salsa verde. This recipe is from a female-led, Michelin-starred, New York City restaurant. The trick is to marinade it for a day or two, so the skin dries out and gets extra crispy when you cook it.
Juliet boxed orange wine. I haven’t tried this, but it’s very charming. Seems perfect for parties or a gift. Plus, a nice orange goes great with roast chicken.
A red sweater. Trying hard not to buy this one from Cordera. I also really like this simple cashmere from Reformation and this button-up from Uniqlo.
Thank you, thank you.
Have a great week.