Amid the bustling dance music compilation market, Harmless’ Disco Discharge series stood out for its care and concepts: luscious encapsulations aiming for disco heaven which reaped well-deserved acclaim and sales, proving there’s still a market for such projects if made with knowledge and love. With UK dance music veteran Ian Dewhirst at the helm, the company has now set its sights on the hallowed vaults of Salsoul: soulful disco’s Holy Grail.
Over the years, there have been many reissues and collections plucked from the epoch-making label’s catalogue (which includes 300 singles released between the mid-70s to the 80s). These have included anything from quad-vinyl box sets to beautifully-presented Strut packages, while Dewhirst was behind the 90s Mastercuts compilations and 2004’s UK reissue campaign. When he heard that the founding Cayre brothers were selling what he calls “the best label of its era bar none” to the Verse Music Group, Dewhirst steamed in and begged for one final shot, compiling the label’s key mixes in chronological order over three CDs.
It’s a simple formula which proves absolutely deadly, starting with a spicy instrumental take on Gil Scott-Heron‘s The Bottle by salsa pioneer Joe Bataan, who both launched the label and coined its name. There then follow a further 30 stone cold classics, Vince Montana Jr and The Salsoul Orchestra (aka MFSB) providing sensual, soaring backdrops on both their own outings (including the risqué boogie of You’re Just The Right Size and Nice N’ Nasty) and many other Philly soul beauties.
The set is packed with milestones, inevitably led by Walter Gibbons’ barnstorming remix of Double Exposure’s Ten Percent: the world’s first commercially-available 12” single, from November 1976. Others include Cuban percussionist Candido’s incendiary Jingo, Ripple’s disco euphoria embodiment on The Beat Goes On And On, Inner Life’s definitive take of Ashford & Simpson’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough and 1983’s Frankie Knuckles mix of First Choice’s Let No Man Put Asunder, which laid the foundations for house music. With remix giants such as Gibbons, Tom Moulton and Larry Levan on board, there seems to be a sonic revolution or serotonin riot going on in every track – notably the latter’s epic treatments of Instant Funk’s I Got My Mind Made Up and its colossal B-side, Crying.
Commendably, along with detailed sleevenotes to explain why, Dewhirst also includes lesser-known items, such as Double Exposure’s controversial album track Everyman, Gibbons’ heavenly rework of Love Committee’s Just As Long As I Got You and Richie Riviera’s remix of Gaz’s Sing, Sing, one example of the label’s German connection. Needless to say, several tracks are much-sought collectors’ items, not least Leroy Burgess’ Heartbreaker from 1983 and I Know You Will, his 1981 boogie blueprint released under the strange pseudonym Logg.
The mini-symphonies here come from a time before computers and Autotune, when soul-drenched anthems were recorded with musicians laying templates which would shape dance music for years to come. Experienced back-to-back up to 35 years after they were created, the effect is exhilarating, inspirational, even oddly poignant – especially as the set has now also become a tribute to the recently-deceased Loleatta Holloway, represented here by career pinnacles Dreamin’, Hit & Run, Runaway and the overpoweringly glorious Love Sensation.
As a Salsoul fanatic for 35 years and the label’s most tireless champion for many of them, Ian Dewhirst has every right to beam like a mirror-ball as he reaches his own career peak with this faultlessly immaculate collection of some of the most seismic, life-affirming music of all time.
