Sexually
transmitted disco

By JACK OATMON

Rare is the funky beat these days that does not owe its lineage in some part to the saccharine orgy of escapism that is classic disco. Everything club in North America, from rap to house to techno, sprang more or less directly out of the dumbed-down, sped-up younger sibling of funk. However, upon scrutiny of the culture associated with the original disco explosion of the mid-to-late ’70s, it’s not surprising that the vacuous mentality and sheer self-idolization of disco culture caused such an angry backlash as the near-ubiquitous “disco sucks” movement.

So much so, in fact, that the phrase “disco sucks” constitutes my earliest recognition of the style, having been born after the end of the disco era. But like the legacy of persisting venereal diseases and substance addictions it fostered, disco fever is not an affliction so easily purged from pop culture. Many, many roads in production and DJing eventually lead back to disco, and obsessive influence-hunting is rampant in club culture. No recent artist has exemplified this fact more than New York City’s James Murphy.

MIRRORBALL MACHER:
James Murphy

I won’t rattle on about how refreshing and intriguing it was to hear my first LCD Soundsystem tracks in 2004, or how much DFA Records has mutilated the landscape of everything from techno to electro to indie rock to house in the past few years. But what I will say is that Murphy’s various projects and productions all make a hell of a lot more sense once you’ve heard him DJ.

Murphy appeared at the SAT on Oct. 1, 2006 in anticipation of the launch of DFA Remixes: Chapter Two. Though the party was clearly touted as a disco dance night, I was still somewhat surprised to hear actual, authentic 1970s disco B-sides and crate-bottom rare grooves pumping through the building as somewhere around 200 people boogied down, rather than the revivalist electro for which DFA was famous. But Murphy’s game is showcasing the tree rather than the nearby apple, and hearing the jams he lets loose is both a riotous celebration and a pop-culture history lesson in action.

Such was similarly the case when he and Pat Mahoney appeared for an under-the-radar DJ gig at Zoobizarre on May 10, 2007, giving all the bloodthirsty dancers the chance to really boogie down after a tepid crowd failed to ignite the previous evening’s LCD Soundsystem show. The Zoobizarre night was considerably more exciting than the Spectrum concert, as every single one of the approximately 50 people who showed up was chomping at the bit to cut a rug, and Murphy and Mahoney more than delivered. So here’s your chance to jump on the booty train to Boogietown—catch Mahoney and Murphy this Friday, Aug. 15, at Coda. Dress accordingly.

In other news, less with the handlebar ’stache and more with the fashion mullet, German techno producer Thomas Schumacher drops by Piknic Electronik this Sunday, likely making for one of the more exciting editions of the summer. And that night, for a quirky window into the ADHD-afflicted murk of chip-reclaiming video game techno, get a load of laser beams in your ears courtesy of San Fran’s Eats Tapes at Divan Orange, along with Intercom and Jonathan Parant.

BOOGER NIGHTS… jack.oatmon@gmail.com