Disco Dream Album? Almost, still worth having

I needed an incentive to wake up this morning. I stayed up reading last night and it was cold out, so I made sure that, apart from my alarm, I had something I had to wake up for besides work. Last night, after I had found an album on Amazon mp3, I made myself wait until the morning to put it on my iPod.

This little trick worked! I was out the door and listening to my new tunes. New OLD tunes, that is. Click here for the Amazon mp3 album.
Donna McGhee was a singer who got the Patrick Adams/Greg Carmichael treatment. These two produced disco that truly has no peer. There are many lights in Disco's heyday, but these two made music that, I believe, doesn't even sound like disco.

Oh, it's disco. A big kick drum, walking bass line, and occasional string section can be found on their tracks, for sure.

Donna McGhee had two big songs with them: "It Ain't No Big Thing" and "Love Bug." The first is something transcendent, wrapping the entire space in a huge, warm blanket of sound. It's so amazing that it doesn't really inspire dance, instead it invites contemplation. There's a guitar part on this song that sets it apart from all other disco. Listening to it today, it struck me as something that a 70's jazz guitarist might play, definitely not a rocker. It hangs back in the song, slowing it down a little more.

I feel "No Big Thing" and "Love Bug" are most likely to be danced to with the hustle, slowly. Perhaps when no one's around. Perhaps when someone's practicing for the next night after everone's left. Perhaps, even if no one will ever come back, because the night is over, maybe the last night disco will ever have.

The album has a third single, "Make It Last Forever." No hyperbole, this song joins the others in high Disco style.

One thing on this album, moreso than other Patrick Adams/Greg Carmichael stuff, is that the sound is really mixed together. It's so mixed that it comes near to the random anonymous Eurpoean disco tracks that sound like a waiting room in West Germany. Those records sound like background music and usually have a skinny, soft backbeat. BUT, but, it's not that mixed. It's just about as good as it gets. Again, you won't hear music like this anywhere else, ever.

The one thing that drags on the album, sadly, is a song that needed a bit of restraint. Clocking in at 10:10, Do As I Do starts with such a wicked bass line and chanting chorus. For most of the song, though, Donna McGhee is making orgasmic sounds. There's nothing wrong with a little enticing whisper, moan, or chuckle that's made to sound like the real thing, especially in Disco. Many of the best disco songs have it (Salsoul records seemed to be very OK with putting this in the mix). But 10 minutes of it? It starts to worry me. This would be a good song to mix in/mix out of though.

I haven't met someone who doesn't love the Patrick Adams stuff. (That is, once they hear it!) If you're interested, you should check out the compilation "The Master of the Master." The CD version has two CDs while the mp3 version compiles it to one CD. Trust me, get the 2 CDs. It has the classic Black Ivory track, "Surrender," and more of the early Patrick Adams stuff. Oh, and ignore the comment that it doesn't sound good b/c it's vinyl rips. I'm not sure that they are vinyl rips, and anyways, it does sound good!

Yes, this is music that people nerd out on, but at least there's a really good reason why. Like King Tubby on Dub, like Brian Eno on New Wave, records that were worked on by Patrick Adams and Greg Carmichael are frequently sensational and unique, raising the standard for others to achieve.