San Francisco’s disco revival

San Francisco’s disco revival

15 February, 2008 | 11.49AM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: PhilG

It’s questionable whether disco ever really died in San Francisco, but looking out over the club scene these days it’s remarkable how alive it is and how much light is thrown off from its rhinestone-bejeweled gear. From dive bars in the Tenderloin to the basement of 1015, crowds turn out to groove along to classic hand-claps and walking basslines, horn sections and vocals that exhort us to “dance, dance, dance” and love a little too. In this revival you can feel people reaching back to an idea that moves them as much as the music, attempting to re-connect with something that, in hindsight at least, represents an ideal era of positive vibes and open sexuality.

There are probably as many disco nights, or at least nights that use that word to describe themselves, as techno nights in San Francisco.There’s Gemini Disco and their Electric Boogie night at Club 222, Remember the Party with their celebrations of the legendary Trocadero Transfer, Bus Station John has had Double Dutch Disco at the Transfer, and just recently celebrated three years of The Rod, his monthly retro spin of rare disco b-sides, NRG, and Italo-Disco, at Deco Lounge. Just before Christmas, Mezzanine hosted the Paradise All-Night Disco Party, complete with a performance by Brooklyn’s disco orchestra Escort, while Honey Sound System threw the Mineshaft party at Club 1015 as a celebration of the San Francisco disco label Megatone Records (home of Sylvester) and the famed Mindshaft club. And disco has certainly caught on as descriptive term with groups as diverse as Frisco Disco and Ghetto Disco at The Endup, while we also see it in the names of local music blogs like Disco Workout (which often features a Disco Sunday track), and Disco Clique.

To be fair, not all disco is created equal, and, despite whatever affection they might have for a certain era or sound, not all those who might be associated with this term really accept it. Robot Hustle of Honey Sound System, in describing one of his own nights at Deco Lounge, described it as “pay[ing] homage to WBMX’s Hotmix 5 as well as to their modern counterparts, The Cybernetic Broadcasting System. It was about bringing the past in line with the present, taking bits and pieces from dance history and combining it all into one big mix. It was a process of reinvigorating old tracks with new ones,” and goes on to add, “ . . . this trend is not disco. It is dance music of a holistic nature that spans across generations and continents (is there a name for this? recombinant house?).” His associate DeeJay PeePlay echoes the idea that this isn’t about disco, or even a revival, but rather contemporary clubbers making the connection between the present and the past. As he sees it, when kids started raving, they became interested in the foundation of dance culture that had been built by disco: “A new generation of DJ’s who listened to their parents soul and disco records while growing up were inspired by it. Hip Hop fans dissecting their favorite songs realized the impact it had on their heroes. 1970s fashions are back, cocaine never left the club, and dancing at 124 and 128 tempos is cool again.” He also points out how the sounds of disco have proven their worth to today’s producers: “For fifteen years or so, the genre produced so much music that it has fueled musicians and dj samplers for another fifteen. The fidelity of recording at the time was good enough to keep it current for future generations and the fact that after disco, musicians would use technology to further develop its sounds and production quality, made disco an extremely valuable bubble in music history.”

Whatever the term “disco” might mean in a specific context, it does seem to encompass an idea that many want to embrace, whether for its recombinant musical potential, its connection to the foundations of modern dance culture, or just its evocation of good times.  In gay cultural memory disco brings to mind a time before AIDS when gay liberation was enjoying its first bloom, and in the larger American cultural memory it has similar associations with the last throes of 60s sexual liberation, openness, and tolerance before the crushing weight of cultural conservatism descended upon us during the Reagan era. And then there’s the sound of the music itself; though often given to fits of excess, especially with strings and horns, there’s no denying that it has a certain uplifting quality. As Robot Hustle describes it, “I think disco has a lot of moments where you feel euphoric. Think about the kinds of drugs Disco producers were taking - there are a lot of psychedelic elements to disco, like space sounds and laser beams, that have an intoxicating effect on the listener. It gives them joy where they’d want to dance even more - even if they don’t recognize these songs.” Derrick Love of The Gemini Disco calls disco “the perfect party music . . .it can unify so many different kinds of people because its beat is the common thread of all dance music.”

If we’re going through a disco revival right now, it can perhaps be chalked up to the need people have for an experience that takes them out of their mundane lives, away from the world of impending recession, ongoing war, and the stark political polarization that has marked the past eight years. More than just a night out, they want an experience, one that lifts them up and connects them to other people.  If that’s what disco ultimately means, then by all means, let’s have more disco nights.

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