Review: Disqo Disco Vol. 1

(By That One Guy)

For those that don’t keep up with electronic music nerdery on the Internets, “blog house” is a term invented in February of last year on a certain DJ message board to derisively describe the not quite electro, not quite house, not quite techno, and, some would say, not quite danceable brand of dance music being produced at the time by the likes of Ed Banger and other assorted Francophiliac hangers-on championed on music blogs like Discobelle, Fluokids, and Big Stereo. For those, some would say, grouchy purists, this was dance music created for the Hot Topic generation, a movement destined to exist via disposable crappy sounding mp3s played through computer speakers by people who might never see the inside of a real dance club.

Over a year later, many of the negative connotations have been removed, and a great deal of the focus has shifted to L.A. and Australia, but “blog house” stills gets thrown around to peg that “I know it when I hear it” tech-y, electro-y, house-y style that makes the crazy kids in $100 dollar t-shirts jump up and down and spill their beers. “What a fascinatingly succinct encapsulation of blog house,” you might say. “I feel like I’ve learned a lot, but I started reading this expecting a review of the new Disqo Disco mix, not a cut-rate Wikipedia entry.” Fair enough, but if someone asked me for an example of what blog house sounds like and where it is in April 2008, I would be quick to point them in the direction of the first 2/3 of this mix.

Disqo Disco Vol. I is mostly a collection of Internet hits from the past few months, featuring blog house (i.e. Calvin Harris and Revolte), blog house remixes of indie rock (i.e. The Twelve remixing Asobi Seksu and Black Kids), blog house remixes of blog house (i.e. Breakbot remix of PNAU and Bag Raiders remix of Bag Raiders), and lots of Australians, all mixed by guys in a band from Dallas. This is dance music democratized and torn free from the culture centers of New York and Ibiza-- it’s a little sloppy, it’s a little noisy, and you probably won’t be compelled to listen to it more than once. But then again, it’s really fun and probably sounds great if you’re drunk and squeezed up next to a sweaty body on the cramped dance floor of a bar. Basically, it’s everything that is good/bad about this whole scene. That’s just the first forty minutes, though.

Around about the time “Disqo Disco, Vol. 1” gets to blog house forerunner Alan Braxe’s remix of Annie’s “Heartbeat,” things take a far more interesting and unpredictable turn in to a nice run of spacey disco tunes by the likes of Supermax, Giorgio Moroder, and Roxy Music cover girl Amanda Lear. Finish things off with a sex disco classic, “More, More, More,” and some Electric Light Orchestra, and you have the fine ending to a night on the tiles. It would have been really interesting to hear these and other similar tracks incorporated throughout the mix, and it seems like a missed opportunity to draw the lines that link these genres of dance music together. Maybe the dance floor isn’t for learning, though. Best blog house mix I’ve heard this week? No. Interesting enough to make me go to Fallout Lounge and see these guys up close and personal in the communal environs dance music was made for? Definitely.

(Disqo Disco spins every Tuesday night at Fallout Lounge)