Back in the groove

We had a great time seeing legendary post-disco group The Whispers at Laborfest in San Antonio over the weekend. If you ever get the chance to attend Laborfest, billed as "The Biggest Old School Festival in Texas," I highly recommend you do. You'll be surrounded by mostly African-Americans in their 40s and 50s grooving to the jams of their youth, and you'll get to experience first-hand the energy of bands that laid the groundwork for much of the electronic music and hip hop you hear today.

So let's start off with some old school. René & Angela were an R&B/disco duo that were around mostly in the early 1980s. Their 1985 track "I'll Be Good" made it up to #4 on the U.S. R&B charts. The DJ/producer L'Enfant, whose new EP is coming soon on the Amsterdam label Silhouette Music, released this edit of the track. Free download!



The French producer Oxford applied his special nu-disco touch to a new track by Paris indie pop trio Portland. The group's new EP is coming out on boutique record/fashion label Kitsune on September 15.



I have been loving the Japanese producer Bazz, but somehow missed that he released a free EP on the independent Parisian record label Yeah! Dish Records last year.  Bazz is a new disco envelope pusher who belongs in the ranks among Breakbot and Shook. Here's the title track from his EP.