Various - Techno 3: Still Tripping (Compiled By Chris Sheppard)

Quality Music: 1992

Before Club Cutz, before Groove Station. Before Love Inc., before Destination Dance Floor. Hell, even before Pirate Radio Sessions, though about the same time as Rock Em Sock Em 5, there was The Techno Trip. Or Trip To The Moon. Or Have A Nice Trip. Or... just Techno (2)? Is that really what you're labelling this series, Lord Discogs? Whatever. To all Canadians, the compilations were simply known as Chris Sheppard's Techno Trip, and it was our first real taste of rave music on a commercial level. Sure, there were enclaves and outlets savvy heads knew about (mostly in Montreal and Toronto), but none had the national exposure Quality Music provided (MuchMusic ads helped).

And yeah, despite the name, there isn't much in the way of techno on these CDs, mostly exercises in old school rave and hardcore tracks. Give Shep' some slack though, the early '90s still a wild west of genre breeding, with only a few established, accepted terms around. It was called techno because it certainly wasn't house, and rave was the place you went to, or something. Look, there wasn't any internet (much less a music guide) to hash out these debates – heck, there was barely even any 'journalism' going on regarding this scene. It's not Shep's fault Canada was seriously lagging behind on rave music (but oh, did we ever have it goin' on with EBM!).

As for his third 'trip' into 'techno', it's an average affair of vintage tunes, with the usual assortment of overplayed samples and hoover sounds. The opening cut from Shep's BKS project (with his DJ moniker Dogwhistle on the rub) even nicks the bleepy goodness of LFO, plus throws in a couple children rhymes, because that was the trendy thing to do at the time. It honestly isn't that bad, provided you haven't much exposure to rave music before, and I reckon the Canadian audience that bought this hadn't.

Notable acts such as Acen, Shut Up And Dance, Joey Beltram, N.R.G. (they never lost their hardcore) and Voodoo Child (aka: Moby) also show up, with a few lesser known acts rounding things out. Dream Frequency's Feel So Real and Rhythm Quest's Closer To All Your Dreams gets in on those rolling piano anthems, while Bass Construction's Dance With Power and Project One's Roughneck will get your Prodigy triggers going.

And then there's the back-end of Techno 3 – Still Tripping, where all the novelty tunes are lumped. Apotheosis' apocalyptic choir anthem Obumbratta makes another appearance, sans booming gabber beats, while Poing from Rotterdam Termination Source hints where Dutch hardcore would eventually go (sadly). And let's not forget Harajuku, who made a career of doing dance covers of famous opera and musical numbers, breaking out here with Phantom Of The Opera. And what's this Back To Jack Your Body from Steve “Silk” Hurley at the end? It doesn't sound like rave or techno – much too slow, what with that funky acid groove and all. It sullies this compilation's genre purity!

Legowelt - TEAC Life

Nightwind Records: 2011/2017

In the era of electroclash and music that wasn't electroclash but was getting called electroclash (*whew*, what a mouthful), one of the biggest anthems of the time was Legowelt's Disco Rout. Looking back, one could make the argument the tune was a precursor to the outrun branch of synthwave, though I'm sure Danny Wolfers would be rather embarrassed by such a claim. In any event, Disco Rout was definitely a fav' for yours truly, after which I promptly digested any and all Legowelt mus- no, wait, that's not right. As the tune never appeared on a subsequent album, I promptly forgot about Legowelt, moving on to other things. Well, no more. Time to get me caught right the fuck up on his music proper-like, and I remember hearing good things about this here TEAC Life album when it came out in 2011. Sure, let's see what sort of Bandcamp deal I can get with this. Oh... oh my! Dude's literally giving it away!

Even when it was brand new, The Teac Life was a free giveaway, which boggles the hindsight mind. A double-LP of vintage Detroit techno would fetch ludicrous sums of money in physical formats, and has in the few vinyl runs Mr. Wolfers has released over the years. Still, the fact it remains a free download in digital suggests one of two things: either ol' Danny is just a real generous guy, or he didn't think it would garner enough interest to warrant regular financial compensation for his efforts.

I'm honestly kinda' leaning towards the latter, at least initially, because who'd ever want to hear a two-plus hours of throwback Detroit techno when minimal, dub, and the tough, functionalist Berghain sound were the dominate forces in Technoland. Seems to me that Legowelt just had a bunch of tracks he made for fun and gave it away since ain't no way DJs would play these in all the Very Important clubs. Funny thing is not only did he underestimate people's desire for pure, true-blue Detroit techno in the modern era, but he may have released his best album in the process.

There's not a duff cut in these seventeen tracks. Not one! This is Detroit techno that sounds as sourced from its early '90s heyday as it does plucked from the futurelands it draws influence from. It's retro in all the right ways, never navel-gazing so much it sacrifices solid songcraft, but never deviating from what makes Detroit techno so beloved in the first place. The simmering electronic funk, the sci-fi synthy leads, the singing soul of the robot underclass, it's all present and correct.

My only complaint is that even seventeen tracks of mint Detroit techno does get tiring. Mind, that's a complaint for any singular genre exercise extending beyond ninety minutes, by which point I usually tap out. TEAC Life though, it makes me want to keep pushing for those extra few cuts, those extra couple miles, those extra dozen reps. You know it's worth it in the end.

Geometry Combat - Tanz Der Schatten

Werkstatt Recordings: 2014

The appeal of ancient industrial is just how grimy it sounds compared to most music. You get the sense it's a total grass-roots scene, musicians with little technical know-how making use of whatever third-hand gear they could get their hands on. Obviously this isn't always the case – ain't no way Trent Reznor is forced to cheap-out on his studio any more – but like its sister scene punk, industrialists take pride in how under-produced their music comes across.

It does make me wonder, though, whether it's grown ever more difficult to 'keep it real'. For sure it's possible if you use authentic gear from the '70s and '80s, but that shit don't come cheap anymore, and modern versions will always carry some upgraded polish with them, no matter how much gravel you think throwing in the chassis will help. Compounding things is the fact so much music production is done digitally now, with no amount of plug-ins hiding the fact that the music's being made on a computer. Okay, so anything electronic is technically being made on a computer, but you know what I mean – circuit boards with knobs versus DAWs. It just seems to me that EBM dudes, dudettes, and everyone in-between have to work harder than ever to sound authentic, lest they find themselves in the realms of futurepop.

Not to say Geometry Combat is one such chap dealing with such issues, as such. I honestly had little success finding any information about him (I'm assuming He, because it's quite clearly a very masculine voice going on about darkness and hammers and shit), not even a name included with liner notes, Bandcamp write-up, Lord Discogs text, or Facebook blurb. Thus, I'm not sure what his set-up is. I wouldn't be surprised if he's using old-school machines for his EBM beats, but man, hearing how low in the mix these vocals are, I'd almost be more impressed if he's using computer programs to get that sound. Anyone can bellow and snarl into a crappy mic and claim it's being vintage – try doing it with spiffy-new devices and get the same result.

When not pitting the fates of Pythagorean Theorems and Arc/Circumference Ratios against each other, Geometry Combat specializes in a fun blend of EBM and darkwave. We get the aggressive sounds of the former, with lyrics that come off more melodramatic as befitting the latter, titles like Silent God, Darkest Sins, and Deadly Armour Ceremony pretty clear in their intent. A couple pure EBM cuts make their way in the back half (Body Hammer, Striding Command), which is a nice little monotony breaker.

Most tracks are brisk and to the point, as good EBM usually is. The big outlier is a seven-plus minute long 'downtempo' cut called Teeth Of Steel Grasp At The Barriers Of Humanity, which sounds closer to the realms of proper industrial than everything else, sludgy, meandering with growling vocals and crusty guitars. All a bit too pretentious for my liking, though.

Wednesday Campanella - Superman

Warner Music Japan: 2017

The cover art to 水曜日のカンパネラ's Superman doesn't seem like much at a glance. If anything, it reminds me of Garth Brooks' weirdo-concept Chris Gaines album, and given this group's predilection towards famous people references, I can't help but suspect that's deliberate. The image, however, is but one piece of a larger canvas ...or rather, the top corner of a huge, 3x4 panel poster, revealing lead singer KOM_I (I think?) suckling a foot's large toe. Oh, and when I say huge, I mean it, one panel looking like it could hold a 7” record rather than a CD. Also, Superman didn't even come in a regular jewel case, but rather as a fold-out with a little rubber nub in one panel to hold the CD, and a cardboard insert so it doesn't flop about. This is one of the few times I've actually kept the wrap cover, just so it doesn't get damaged. And boy howdy, could I ever go on about the backside of this poster, if I had any hope of reading geometric shapes and swirling pools of kanji.

After their kinda-sorta debut mini-album Rashōmon, Suiyoubi no Campanella found themselves a fair bit of fame in their motherland, and a growing following the world abroad, such that one of the Big Important Labels came a'knockin' to hear what the fuss was about (and whether they may capitalize on it). Definitely a surprise it was Warner Music that took them in – was Sony not available?

Anyhow, bigger, slicker label backing means Wednesday Campanella's proper sophomore LP is... well, not exactly bigger, but definitely slicker. Their previous album Zipangu stood out for its free-wheeling genre fusions, and while Superman indulges itself in similar fashion, it's got a cleaner, poppier sheen to it too, smoothing out many rougher edges, as though fully expecting to capitalize on an audience in Western lands. It didn't surprise me the slightest when a co-worker heard some playing and remarked it sounded like Kygo.

And the peppy, anthem house that's marked much of their work returns in tracks like アラジン, 一休さん, and オードリー. Elsewhere, the house beats go more chill, as in チンギス・ハン and アマノウズメ. They're fine, with Kenmochi's production maintaining a solid groove while throwing in tons of little sonic fills without being obnoxious about it. I'm still more interested in the tunes that break the beats up some, even getting tribal at times as in チャップリン and カメハメハ大王. Reminds me I'm listening to something authentically foreign, rather than something trying to sound local. Not that KOM_I's playful raps and Far East harmonies don't constantly remind me either, still resolutely Japanese even with a few English words thrown in. Despite having some translations, I still don't have much idea of what she's singing about, but that doesn't really matter, the band freely admitting their lyrics are less about their content than what just sounds good for the tune. Hey, works for jazz, man.

Marnie - Strange Words And Weird Wars

Disco Pinata Records: 2017

It was never outside the realm of possibility that the members of Ladytron would strike up solo careers. A four piece synth-pop group would undoubtedly get offers to work independent here and there, especially one fronted by two ladies. It's a testament to their commitment as a band that they resisted the allure of individual fame for as long as they did. However, as the years wore on, so did the time between albums, their current hiatus since Gravity The Seducer now lasting seven years. Plenty room there to pursue some solo projects then, which members of Ladytron have done. For some reason though, I never thought Helen Marnie would try her hand at it.

I mean, if either of the frontwomen of Ladytron would go solo, I expected it to be Mira Aroyo. She always seemed the more animated of the two on stage, even back in the band's 'dispassionate synth-bots' phase. When they broke away from the unisex outfits, Mira's fashion was extroverted compared to Helen's more conservative look. Heck, Ms. Aroyo was sporting a skull bikini on the cover of Softcore Jukebox! Then again, such a pursuit would have undoubtedly further conflicted with that whole genetics studies thing, plus becoming a mother kinda' takes away from music time.

So it falls to Ms. Marnie as the great 'breakout solo star' hope of Ladytron's legacy, a narrative that seriously doesn't exist but oh you know some lazy scribes are itching at creating. Nay, seems she wanted to keep the creative fires going while Mira was doing motherhood and Reuben was doing photography. Fellow Lady-member Daniel Hunt helped her out on her first album, Crystal World, which lent it some Ladytron aesthetics, just in case the old fanbase wasn't too sure about a solo outing. For her sophomore effort though, she brought in fellow Glasgowian dummer-producer Jonny Scott, who supported her first solo tours. He's also played in groups such as Olympic Swimmers, Strike The Colours, and Take A Worm For A Walk Week. Dear Lord, are those ever some indie-sounding band names.

And that's about where we find Strange Words And Weird Wars, an indie-leaning synth-pop outing of ten tracks, each mostly in support of Ms. Marnie's pipes. Right, Helen's vocal range was never huge to begin with, so don't go expecting some power-pop diva singing here. She has her lane, she knows her lane, and she drives it as expertly as she ever has. Meaning, I'm listening to a Marnie solo album for more of those bittersweet tales of people fumbling through life, lyrics that appear simplistic on the surface but pack remarkable emotional punch should you dig further, and that cotton-candy lisp. *swoon*

Musically, we get the sort of big, shiny contemporary synth-pop that I don't often partake in (Bloom, G.I.R.L.S., Electric Youth, Invisible Girl), some slower, tasty synthwavey cuts (Lost Maps, Summer Boys, Heartbreak Kid), and, oh man, what a haunting ballad in A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Northern lights catch her coming down indeed.

Tholen - Sternklang

Cyclic Law: 2007

I've been collecting CDs for a quarter-century now, a good two-thirds of my lifespan. In most of that time, they come in standard jewel cases or digipaks, with an occasional spiffed-up box-set thrown in for good measure (cardboard, vinyl, wood). About the oddest things I've gotten were the metal tins from Fabric and the recycled jackets from Silent Season. These past couple months though, my God have the packaging variations ever exploded. The weird plastic cases from Spiritech, the stitched cover photos from Slaapwel, not to mention a truly bizarre offering in Wednesday Campanella's Superman (soon...).

Of all my recent hauls, however, Cyclic Law has proven consistently inconsistent, running the gamut from thick hardcover photo book (Vortex's Morloch), ultra-shiny digipak (Psychomanteum's Oneironaut), and now this for Tholen's Sternklang. What is this, exactly? I've never seen anything like it before, a simple six-panel cardboard sleeve, with an extra inch of height. Dear me, that'll never fit in a CD tower! Good thing I've long since converted to open shelving for music storage. Impracticality aside, I cannot deny it does provide better cover art.

Enough about packaging – what do we have here in Tholen's Sternklang? For that matter, what does sternklang even mean? *seven... minutes... later...* Geez'it, that Wiki page sure is filled with highfalutin music theory. Apparently “Star Sound” is a three-hour piece composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen, to be performed in an outdoor setting and involves five choirs, intoned harmonic sounds, ninth partials of the overtone series, and in proportions of the constellations Boötes and Coma Berenices. I... think Tholen's piece just uses the title as his own point of inspiration. It's definitely not as long as the Stockhausen composition.

According to Lord Discogs, Tholen – previously Rostiges Riesenrad to the folks at Grottenvolk Rundfunk – hasn't released much, this being his debut album under the alias. It's an ambitious outing, a single seventy-one minute long track taking up the CD, though the Bandcamp option breaks it up into three Parts. It probably could have been indexed further, clear segments and passages different from one another as it progresses through, but then you wouldn't be forced to hear Sternklang as a whole, as intended by the artist.

Throughout it all, Tholen takes you on the sort of dark, cosmic sojourn I've come to expect from Cyclic Law (and, er, Cyro Chamber): droning, cinematic, claustrophobic, empty, enthralling. Most of the early portions are taken up by spaced-out dark ambience, with ghostly whispers and distant sounds echoing from the infinite black. Things grow more tense by Part II, with heavier emphasis on abrasive guitar tones and piercing sonics. Part III returns to the drone for a while, indulges some minimalist mechanical menace (no, I don't want to go into cryosleep!), eventually capping off with prominent forlorn synths and melancholic melodies, as though whatever sights we saw on this cosmic journey forever fade from memory, lost to the ravages of an indifferent universe. So it goes with dark space ambient, doesn't it.

Lars Leonhard - Stella Nova

Ultimae Records: 2013

I liked 1549. I liked Passengers At Night. Why haven't I gotten any Lars Leonhard musiks since? Dude's gone mostly independent, is why, which mean self-releasing his work now. Fine and dandy, but that also means he no longer has that label backing for manufacturing hard copies, and for too long I was a stubborn bastard about buying digital. I'm now a new man though, with new perspectives and new facial hair, including lightening my spending reigns on Bandcamp options ...if there's a discount code involved at least. Thus it's only appropriate that when Ultimae offered one, I picked me up a non-physical copy of the EP that first introduced me to Lars Leonhard, Stella Nova. Finally get to hear what's behind those shiny reflective spheres!

And if anything, holy cow do these three tracks mark as close to a 'ground zero' in the label's shift into dub techno's domain as any. Right, the spacious, dubby downtempo sound was already part of Lars' style, but glancing over the surrounding releases in Ultimae's catalogue is illuminating in hindsight. Prior to this, you had stuff like Solar Fields' Origin #2 (to date still his final release), Aes Dana's uptempo Pollen, and final entries from Carbon Based Lifeforms (plus Sync24), Cell, and Hybrid Leisureland (as Connect.Ohm). After Stella Nova, you find that Passages compilation, Aes Dana's collaborations with Miktek, and eventually Martin Nonstatic. Circular's Moon Pool feels like an outlier where Ultimae went after this EP.

The titular opener is about as you'd expect of downtempo dub techno, reverb and echo tones drifting in endless space with sub-bass frequencies a guiding rudder. There's a tiny, spritely melody some two-thirds deep, reminding me of an old Alter Ego tune called Chinese Eyes. Wow, Stella Nova's a modern minimalist-dub version of that, now that I think about it.

Whispering Colors has more breathing room at nine-minutes in length, and follows in a similar path as Stella Nova, though with a flowing, swaying swing to its rhythm. There's also more melody present in this tune, but the dubby stabs still dominate most of the frequencies. Hidden Places gets on that bleepy techno vibe with cascading echo effects pinging about. It's about as far from what you'd expect from the Ultimae sound of yore, but definitely what you'd expect from Ultimae of yeh'e. I don't know what the present-tense of “yore” is.

That's all there is to this EP. If you're at all familiar with Lars Leonhard's brand of dubby downtempo techno, you're in safe hands here. Stella Nova comes more off as an introduction of the man to the Ultimae faithful, testing the waters whether his sound would jive with a label known more for its psy-chill output. He did release another EP with them the following year (Burning Clouds), but by the time he came out with another full-length, he'd gone back to BineMusic for the deal. Kinda' feels like ol' Lars was one that got away from Ultimae in the end.

Ishqamatics - Spacebound

...txt: 2013

Finally focusing on two projects for the first time, for the price of one! ...kind of. Lee Norris, I've obviously talked up plenty now, but haven't gotten into the alias that started it all for him: Metamatics. Maybe I will at some point – it's not like he's put it into mothballs – but dude's got so much music out there, I gotta' prioritize a little. As I've only 'discovered' Mr. Norris a couple years ago, of course his recent projects get my attention first. As for Ishq, I've heard a track or two over the years, have seen the name dropped in many familiar labels and compilations. The main guy behind the project, Matt Hillier, was something of a journeyman in the early '90s before breaking out with Ishq, and has had a rather productive career ever since.

So, Ishqamatics, yet another Norris pairing from that fruitful year of 2013, when he was hooking up with nearly everyone for some collaborative work if they released music on his ...txt print. That included Ishq, so naturally Lee looked over in Matt's direction and said, “That's a mighty fine sound you have there – wanna' connect?” So they did, even contributing a track to the indispensable Pete Namlook tribute set Die Welt Ist Klang (it always comes back to that, doesn't it). By the end of 2013, two albums resulted from the Ishqamatics sessions, one for the label Anodize (Earthbound), and another for ...txt, Spacebound. The latter sold out quickly, because of course it did, but demand was so high that another run of copies was manufactured. Hurrah, I could get me a copy as well! I mean, I ought to check it out, what with it being the default music on the ...txt homepage and all. Must be Very Important Music for such an honour.

Well, it's space ambient, that much is sure, which is something of a surprise where Ishq is concerned, having built a rep' for Earthly zen music and all. Hillier's tones do come through often, contrasting quite nicely with Norris' more frigid electronics. Sometimes the Ishq stylee dominates, as in the lengthy Bound To Earth featuring sitar drones for much of its duration (whoa, getting Shaikh flashbacks). Lots of noodly, droney, spacey ambient follows that track, field recordings coming and going before being sent back out into the cosmos. Sometimes there's glitched-up radio chatter, and a little jazz ditty plays from an overhead speaker in Round The Ringstone, but if I'm honest, there's little to detail, droning synth tones and minute melodies the name of the game here.

Spacebound is alluring, engaging, and flowing as an album, always leaving me like I'm drifting out in space while remaining tethered to terra firma. At the same time though, not much really leaped out at me either. It's an odd one, where everything I hear is exactly what I like to hear, but imprinting little upon my brain afterwards. Maybe there's something to be said for the unexpected.

Various - Sounds Of The Seventies: The Late '70s

Time Life Music: 1993

This was volume thirty-four out of a series of thirty-seven, and don't this come off like the crusty teat of a withered cow. Sounds Of The Seventies had already given the late '70s ample representation with two rounds of yearly spotlights. Following that, titles such as Seventies Top Forty, Guitar Power, Dance Fever, Punk & New Wave, plus several featured looks into FM Rock and AM Pop rounded up the stragglers, plus three more CDs of AM Nuggets after this. No other compilation in this series highlighted such nebulous ideas like “early '70s” or “mid-'70s”. What gives?

Time Life Music gives their reasoning as thus: “The late '70s was a schizophrenic time for pop music.” Basically, this CD is intended to showcase the myriad genres hitting the airwaves, much of which had little to do with each other. When your opening three songs include Donna Summer's true-disco hit Last Dance, The Village People's camp-disco hit In The Navy, and Boston's silly rock anthem More Than A Feeling, it does impart a sense that things were going a little kooky towards the end of that decade. America, if you thought that was weird, you should have heard the synthy sounds emanating from Europe and Asia too!

Seriously though, there are some interesting contrasts on this CD. The theme to Happy Days is on here, and that's followed by the MTV defining Video Killed The Radio Star from The Buggles, which I always assumed was a 1980 tune because of MTV. Nope, 1979 was when it was released, a technicality but still fits with a Late '70s theme. Punk gets a look-in by way of Blondie's Dreaming, which is followed upon by the... country soft rock (?) of Dave Mason's We Just Disagree. The sultry side of funk-n-soul gets repped by Marvin Gaye's I Want You and The Manhattans' Kiss And Say Goodbye, and rockier outings from John Stewart's Gold, Andrew Gold's Lonely Boy, and Bob Welch's Ebony Eyes show up. Um, yeah, most of the kick-ass rock tunes were already used up in prior Sounds Of The Seventies CDs.

That's one thing I'll give some props to this series though, always featuring fresh tunes with each volume. I sifted through each one, and didn't spot a single repeat, a remarkable feat considering not one instance of Neil Young showing up (da'fuq!??), not to mention nearly no synth music included – Hot Butter's Popcorn did show up though, because how could it not? I suppose there's a couple examples of synth on this CD too, like The Buggles, and the Moog solo on Alan O'Day's Undercover Angel. And let's not forget Minnie Riperton's Lovin' You! While that tune's about as un-electronic as it gets, it found a new generation of interest after The Orb sampled it in their breakout A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That you know the rest of it. So in true 'begging-chosing' fashion, rave music finally gets its nod in Sounds Of The Seventies.

Various - Sounds Of The Seventies: 1977

Time Life Music: 1990

Anyone remember those mail order music collections? They'd advertise on TV with a huge, scrolling playlist, and you'd hear some familiar tunes that they just don't play on the radio anymore, plus your original record or tape of the album has kinda' deteriorated over the years, but you never bothered to buy that new-fangled CD replacement because you just weren't sure of the format yet? Yeah, those ads. At least, I assume that was the pitch with them, letting Boomers regain all their favourite music for a low-low price of $6.99 per CD (or tape), with a new one being shipped every month, like music Christmas every thirty days. I'm not saying Time Life Music's series of The Sounds Of The Sixties/Seventies/Eighties was an example of this – I honestly don't recall any ads of the sort back then – but it sure comes off that way. Lack of barcode on these discs suggests so.

And no, I haven't come into possession an entire collection of these, but a former owner was offloading some, so being the CD hoarding-whore that I am, nabbed a couple because why not. Logically, Sounds Of The Seventies started off with a rundown of music per year. It then went on to a Take Two round of yearly options, giving twenty volumes of '70s music. The initial run lasted up to thirty-seven releases, and the excuses to keep feeding you music from this decade ran lame towards the end, believe you me. According to Lord Discogs, they stretched things even further past the original thirty-seven, because why end a steady revenue stream, eh? Since most of these tunes were coming from the Warner Music Group, they could keep milking it into the new millennium. They didn't, thankfully, but they could have!

So let's dig into the year 1977. Of the twenty songs in this track list, there's no Kraftwerk, no Vangelis, no Tangerine Dream, and no Can. Well, so much for keeping my interest. Fail.

Haha, just kidding. Of course weird, experimental synth music from Europe has no place in a compilation such as this. We're only after the tunes Americans were digging in the year 1977, which includes rock, funk, country, and soul. Maybe a dash of disco too.

There aren't many surprises then, most of the songs the light-weight, easy-going stuff that's impossible to offend on the radio. Fleetwood Mac's Dreams, Steve Miller Band's Fly Like An Eagle, Foreigner's Cold As Ice and Feels Like The First Time, Linda Ronstadt's It's So Easy and Blue Bayou, and Manfred Mann's Earth Band's Blinded By The Light (“revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night”). The filler stuff features artists like Glen Campbell, 10cc, James Taylor, Al Stewart... a lot of songs I've probably heard before, but don't get my blood pumpin', y'know?

Frankly, 1977 is rather milquetoast, save the glorious opening beat of Bee Gee's Stayin' Alive towards the end. Astounding how that rhythm can carry such a punch forty years on.