trying to scrounge up some space for new albums, i decided to clean up some of the crap that accumulates on my hard drive and stubled across some songs i had grabbed a while ago and never listened to. lo and behold out of the half dozen i found, three of them KICK ASS.


take off by harlow (~1980) is damn near a lost disco classic to me after two listens. peppy, poppy, slightly spacey horn'n'string disco. as good as most of the songs on the salsoul comps i have, and worthy of much wider recognition (to my generation at least, i'm guessing that it was rather popular in the clubs upon release). i had never even heard of harlow, and still can't find out a whole lot about them. but holy shit, this song is hot.


luna square by boytronic (~1983) reminds me of early depeche mode, mostly because of the bouncy, propulsive synth groove and melody. add vocodered vocals and how could i not like this?


i see stars by roboterwerke (~1979) is really odd. another group i had never heard of, they were apparently early synth music pioneers (built ther own synths 'cause they weren't yet comercially available, how hot is that?) and inspired kraftwerk, bambaata, hancock etc to get into the sound. i was expecting more obtuseness from folks with such experimental cred, but shit is catchy. i need to find out more about these guys.