Tout Petit La Planete

Belgian born Plastic Bertrand (aka Roger Marie François Jouret) had an international hit in 1977 with the song "Ça plane pour moi" a rocking number with a great underground sound. But lately I have been bumping a lesser known of his space disco number, "Tout Petit La Planete." The crunchy clavinet and spacey synth leads are very fitting for 1978, harnessing a cosmic sound and tastefully integrating the vocoder with subtlety. And you got to love those guitars, time to bust out the distortion pedals. He is still active musically, check out his website to catch up.

Dream Machine and the Orlando Riva Sound

Orlando Riva Sound, or O.R.S., was a disco outfit from Germany in the late 70s that put out some serious heat. "Body to Body Boogie" is slow and sensuous but to me the real star is the B-Side to the Ariola re-release of "Body to Body," "Dream Machine." "Dream Machine" is a great space disco number that has a little more depth in my humble opinion, but you can be the judge of that yourself. I guess it depends on whether you feel like an evening of back rubs or contemplating singularity.

Both tracks were produced by Anthony Monn who did some wonderful work in the genre through the 70s and 80s and he apparently produced Bolero's "Hold Me in Your Arms" which is a staple in my rotation (See podcast 01).

Orlando Riva Sound - Body to Body Boogie
Orlando Riva Sound - Dream Machine

Milkways Intergalactic and the Superstar

Happy 2010! I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe celebration this New Year's Eve. Took me a while to get back on the horse but I have some fun tracks up my sleeve starting with some space disco from Spain. Milkways launched this cerebral funk into the ionosphere in 1978 for Barclay. A thought provoking track for a long and lonely drift through space.

Milkways - Love for NR Part 1
Milkways - Love for NR Part 2 (Ecstasy)

And here is a fun, funky track from The Boomerang Club Band, "Dee Jay Superstar." Italo-Boogie-Hip-Hop from 1983. Funky synth leads, chunky disco bass, and thick accented raps make this a one track party.

Boomerang Club Band - Dee Jay Superstar

Starbow - Voyager II

AVI Records launched this Canadian disco in 1978 by Starbow. Voyager II is a funky ride through the cosmos, named after the American unmanned probe that launched in 1977, the first to visit Neptune and Uranus.

Funny thing about this song is that it was produced by Daniel Vangarde (Daniel Bangalter) the father of Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk fame. Daft Punk produced a killer track with a very similar title. I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Vangarde was busy in the 70s and 80s doing a lot of work with disco super label Carrere so its easy to see what a tremendous influence he was on his son. All very fun stuff.


Daft Punk - Voyager

Starbow - Voyager II (download)