Super Disco? None of the songs here will look remotely familiar to people who think only of
Donna Summer,
the Bee Gees, and
Gloria Gaynor when the subject of favorite disco artists is brought up. The group names listed on the back cover of the packaging --
Cloud One,
Ahzz,
Shift,
Johnson Products,
Paper Doll -- hardly had any hope of attaining mainstream popularity during disco's late-'70s heyday. These groups aren't just tied together by obscurity; they were also overseen and released by
Patrick Adams and
Peter Brown, two producers, arrangers, songwriters, and label owners from Harlem. Through the duo's several labels, a number of spectacular disco singles were released that continue to be featured in house DJ sets and influence producers of dance music. This double-disc set, released by Landspeed in late 2002, simply combines the two volumes of Counterpoint's
Disco Juice compilations, released earlier in the U.K.; the first volume of
Disco Juice was issued in 1997, while the second followed in 2002, just a couple months before this pairing. Though
Super Disco makes it convenient for those in the States to obtain the music, the
Disco Juice discs hold an advantage with much better packaging. The majority of the contents are spectacular and prove to naysayers and latecomers that disco had an underground that was just as fertile and revolutionary as its underground rock counterpart of the same period. This only covers a small portion of that underground, but it's just as potent as any other compilation, despite the narrow focus.