Known most for its artist-curated
Life:Styles and jazz-funk-fusion
Pulp Fusion series, the London-based
Harmless label goes back to the club music of the late '70s and early '80s, just as it did with the two-volume
Jumpin' series back in 1997 -- a time when compilations treating disco as something more than a guilty-pleasure fad were all too rare. Just as
Harmless did before, it pulls out classics and secret weapons alike.
Disco Discharge: Classic Disco, released at the same time as three other volumes in the series (
Disco Ladies,
Euro Disco, and
Gay Disco & Hi NRG), is a double-disc set that actually features a number of unlikely DJ favorites, like
the Manhattan Transfer's
"Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone" and
Johnny Mathis'
Gene Page-arranged
"Gone, Gone, Gone," over the enduring platinum-sellers. On the other side of the spectrum, there are a few well-known cuts that even the average disco-phobe would know, including
Dr. Buzzard's
"Cherchez le Femme/Se Si Bon" and
Cheryl Lynn's
"Got to Be Real." That said, this one's definitely for the more seasoned disco fan -- one familiar with
Change's oft-compiled
"Paradise" and
"The Glow of Love" but not 1984's
"It Burns Me Up" (which maxed out in the sixties of Billboard's U.S. R&B chart and didn't even touch the club chart). ~ Andy Kellman