Horse Meat Disco is the best weekly party in London – regardless of genre, gender, sexuality or anything else, for that matter. That’s big talk, granted, but those hard-working horses James Hillard, Jim Stanton, Severino and Luke Howard can back it up – just head down to The Eagle in Vauxhall every Sunday and you’ll see for yourself. It’s as close as you or I will ever come to legendary NYC gay disco clubs like Mancuso’s Loft or Nicky Siano’s The Gallery but it’s still very much a modern London club – they’ve been a popular addition to the Rinse FM family lately which has only served to increase the wonderfully mixed-up crowd you’ll find on the HMD dancefloor. ‘A queer space for everyone’, its co-founder James Hillard called it a few years back and it still is; providing a haven from other more homogenous (read:’dull’) London dancefloors, be they gay or straight, with a soundtrack of proper vintage disco – from the Cosmic sounds of Balldelli etc to the soulful strains of Donna Summer or classic Philly, via Gino Soccio or Sheryl Lee Ralph, this is the stuff that Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan went dancing to…
This compilation, their fourth, comes after a break of two years which has seen London’s favourite disco quartet kicking up their heels in style all over the world. They have residencies in Berlin (at Prince Charles, fast-becoming one of Berlin’s craziest spots for a wider range of genres than you usually get locally, plus no attitude on the door which is a blessing) and Lux in Lisbon, regular gigs at festivals like Electric Elephant in Croatia and Bestival on the Isle Of Wight, plus they regularly send both gay and straight venues into scenes of serious disco panic at their club dates.
But while a night at Horse Meat is as likely to include a touch of early, Jellybean Benitez-era Madonna (‘Holiday’ has never sounded as right as it does at The Eagle) alongside some deeper flavours, this comp goes more heavily for the latter. And granted it’s easier to licence some of that stuff (read: ‘not cripplingly expensive’), but this still represents the driving, melodic side of HMD.
This 2-CD mix (mixed on the first, then unmixed on the second, but also available on 2 unmixed LPs and digitally) jumps off to a great 80s boogie start with Opal’s ‘Ain’t No Way’, present in a shimmering, sexy club mix. The vocal is pure HMD – camp; yes, but knowingly so and with plenty of style and just the right degree of substance(s) to soundtrack a rhythmic throwdown over a man that starts out throwing shade and ends up busting out the synths. This driving theme continues on the second track, with K.S.B’s ‘Misaluba’ combining vocodered chants with moody Italo basslines to simple yet wonderful effect.
My next favourite has to be Valery Allington’s ‘Stop’, which combines some seriously funky strings with a vocal that could be vintage Motown; it’s only the bass that hints at its true 80s Italo origins. Next, with Horse-tongue firmly in cheek, we get seminal Miami label T.K. Disco ‘Don’t Stop’, a piece of falsetto gold if ever there was one. As a counterpoint, Phreek Plus One’s La Spirale (J’s loveboat mix) is a contemporary track that I might be tempted to call nu-disco, but won’t as it sounds so classic, just with some extra fx worked in courtesy of Justin Vandervolgen (ex of !!!).
Winner’s ‘Get Ready For The Future’ takes us back to the 70s, with that eternally positive vocal and sublime orchestration behind it, plus the added tribal space funk workout at the end, but I think the final highlight has to be Joey Negro vs Horse Meat Disco’s own ‘Candidate For Love’, HMD’s mix that is a jacking disco number which perfectly defines the craziness of the HMD dancefloor – cosmic sounds, hypnotic bass and a perfect lean-in to the string-led, wonderfully-arranged ‘Bee Sting’ by Camouflage. This comp might have its fair share of modern sounds, but it’s good to see them end on a classic, as befits Horse Meat Disco’s classic yet contemporary disco vibe.
Words: Manu Ekanayake