Mighty Mouse – Disco Circus Volume Three (Cheap Thrills)
Buzz disco duo Mighty Mouse have caught many ears quickly due to their comprehensive knowledge of disco and all its disguises. This third edition of their ‘Disco Circus’ compilation proves how disco can thrive as much in late 70’s New York punk funk as it can in dubious mid 80’s pop right the way up to modern day electro and house music, it’s now a proven fact that it was in fact DISCO that would never die.
The best thing about this compilation is how it encompasses the many different facets of disco from long forgotten nearly rans to up to date 2012 shit; the material these guys have sourced is a real ear opener; Matt Van Schie’s ‘Drifting Down The Sidewalk’ is reminiscent of half a hit wonder Belouis Some, L’Equipe Du Son’s ‘Lesson 1’ is a sassy slab of new wave set to a lesson in how to say you love someone or something, yes, in French and the slinky sax and horn laden funk on Deodato’s disco take on Henry Mancini’s ‘Peter Gunn’ is way beyond genius.
Elsewhere 80’s italo disco tracks such as Droid by Hypnosis steals the classic Moroder riff from ‘I feel love’ and adds a pounding piano hook to it with jaw dropping effect and synth pop rears its head through Angela Paris, think an even less tuneful Madonna circa 1983, on its own the tune is obviously a stinker but within the context of their impressive mixing and sequencing, they take a bad song and make it better.
The second CD is a more modern electronic music affair containing plenty of their own material alongside recent tracks from The Magician, Shake Aletti and the butt-shaking genius of Todd Terje’s ‘Inspector Norse’ (2012’s finest tune thus far), there’s still time for disco in its purest form though such as the psychedelic space disco of African Suite’s In The Pocket and the outrageously camp ‘African love song’ by Gepy and Gepy which has a bassline so funky it should be made illegal.
One of the reasons mix compilations have lost their magic is with the dull but perfect mixing of predictable track. ‘Disco Circus 3’ is a perfect example of how with a bit of imagination and a bunch of obscure gems you can put together a compilation that can open up so many other avenues of music while transporting you right back into the heart of the dance floor. This is the whole point of a compilation and on this showing Mighty Mouse have totally got the point. 9/10
Chris Todd