Workin’ it together

>>Loose Joints and the All-Rounder get down for their first tag-team Body Work party

DISCO PUSHERS: David Shaw
and Davey Lahteenmaa of Loose Joints

There’s very little quite so satisfying and stress-relieving than a whirling throng of sweaty young revellers boogying down to the visceral, thumping sonic serotonin that is old-school disco, from the sweet strings of New York to the synthetic revision of the Italo set to the dark, guttural psychedelia of groups like Black Devil.

It’s an uplifting style of music that ranges from foolish and flippant to deadly serious, but one thing reigns it all in: every single funky bass line, twinkling synth, catchy verse and cheesy string line is engineered to get your booty movin’. And that’s just what two of the city’s key disco pushers, Loose Joints and the All-Rounder, are coming together to do this weekend.

WELL ROUNDED: Jay Watts III

“I had really only been aware of Loose Joints since last summer,” says organizer Jay Watts III, “and was intrigued by what they were doing. At the same time, I started the All-Rounder at Korova, and noticed that people were really responding to disco.”

Attendees at Body Work: Electronic Disco Spectacle can expect ’70s-style oil-colour light projections and tunes by names like Montreal’s Gino Soccio, Creative Connection, Kano, Jimmy Ross and many other classic artists. The resurging popularity of disco on the Plateau has become notably more visible over the past year, aided by groups such as these two. “Not cheesy stuff, necessarily, but not just esoteric Italo either. Earth, Wind & Fire’s ‘September’ and KC & the Sunshine Band’s ‘Give It Up,’ which isn’t strictly four-on-the-floor disco, are popular across the board.”

As with many young disco enthusiasts, Watts had to dig backward though disco’s waves of offspring to appreciate the original. “There’s a certain lack of self-consciousness about the music, even though it’s entirely image-based. I think my appreciation of it was something gradual. I grew up listening to hardcore and punk music, so it was sort of anathema. And by the late ’90s, a lot of the artier bands involved in that were discovering post-punk and more rhythm-based music. That’s very obvious with DFA. James Murphy used to do sound for Six Finger Satellite.”

With DJs David Shaw, Davey Lahteenmaa
and Jay Watts III, and visuals by
Video Droid at jupiter room on
Friday, June 13, 11 p.m., $5