www.zerecords.com MUTANT DISCO # 1 A SUBTLE DISCOLATION OF THE NORM 01 • Was ( Not Was) • Wheel Me Out • 7:08 02 • Material & Nona Hendryx • Bustin’Out • 6:40 03 • Cristina • Drive My Car • 3:21 04 • Kid Creole & The Coconuts • Annie I’m Not Your Daddy • 6:30 05 • Aural Exciters • Emile (Night Rate) • 6:48 06 • James White & The Blacks • Contort Yourself • 6:18 07 • Lizzy Mercier Descloux • Funky Stuff • 4:12 08 • Garçons • French boy • 3:08 09 • Don Armando’s 2nd Ave. Rhumba Band • Deputy Of Love • 5:29 Featuring Fonda Rae 10 • Gichi Dan • Cowboys & Gansters • 7:28 11 • Cristina • Blame It On The Disco • 7:57 12 • Garçons • Encore l’Amore • 8:55 COMPILATION SELECTED AND PRODUCED BY MICHEL ESTEBAN P & C ZE Records Mundo Ltda © 2011 www.zerecords.com MUTANT DISCO : A Subtle Discolation Of The Norm In 1976 a record was released which could have changed the world. It was by the Disco Dub Band; on the Movers label; an extreme reworking of the O’Jays’ For The Love of Money. Ar- ranged and produced by journalist Davitt Sigerson, it featured steals of James Brown gui- tar motifs, free jazz traces, and stripped down, dubbed out disco. Its reverberations would be felt for many years. Five years on, consciously or not, it could certainly be felt haunting the dancehall that was home to ZE’s Mutant Disco revolution. ZE by that time was ready to burst overground in a riot of colour. A perverse over-the-top Hollywood musical spectacular to complement the grainier, underground pop that could equate to the black and white French new wave films of tortured New York noir novels. So, Mutant Disco acknowledged that disco music circles were creating sounds as absurdly adventurous and radical as anything emerging from those fighting rock orthodoxy with more traditional instrumentation. We now know of course that disco alchemists like Arthur Russell and Larry Levan, labels like West End and Prelude, to use ZE’s own words subtly discolated the norm in as spectacular way as say The Pop Group and A Certain Ratio, Rough Trade and Factory. What it boiled down to was that imaginations could soar and people could dance. The two were an irresistible force. The same as it ever was. ZE just gave us the best of all possible worlds, and opened up all sorts of new vistas. ZE’s original Mutant Disco compilation came after the label’s first few years of quiet artistic defiance, steadily releasing records from the US and French underground resistance. By 1981, however, ZE’s records had caught the imaginations of the hungry pop press and dar- ing DJs; and there was no turning back. And like any Hollywood spectacular, ZE had its own superstar-in-waiting in August Darnell. The pop press twisted itself inside out to find the right words to pay homage, and Darnell’s Kid Creole persona lit up the pop sky. It’s easy now to forget this man co-created the greatest disco song ever in Machine’s There But For The Grace Of God Go I, and wrote the Aural Exciters’ Emile (Night Rate), which was down- beat dub disco ten years before Massive Attack. Darnell’s fingerprints were all over ZE. It’s impossible not to play join-the-dots with the broad brush of Mutant Disco, and trace connections. Some of the artists involved with ZE went on to record and produce many a thing elsewhere. Myself, I thought some like Was (Not Was) and Material never produced anything as glorious and life affirming as their contributions here. Material’s Busting Out, with Nona Hendryx on vocals links us back to Labelle and hence Laura Nyro ! the original New York poet-princess creating unique pop by paying her debts to inventive black dance music. ZE had its own unique contenders to be New York’s disco queen in Cristina and Lizzy Mercier Descloux. Exotic and quixotic, sexy and sassy, as they were, it’s impossible not to imagine Madonna waiting in the wings taking notes ahead of the pop perfection of Holiday, Into The Groove, and Like A Virgin. And it seems only natural that the works of French disco experimentalists Garçons should be collated for Other Records by A Man Called Adam, unsung UK techno adventurers with a fevered imagination ZE would have approved of. Per- haps more than any other Mutant Disco artifact, the Aural Exciters’ record features a special spider’s web of links and lineages. Besides, the aforementioned August Darnell connections, the record was a side project of Bob Blank, ZE’s in-house studio scientist and a man who can boast of being involved with Sun Ra’s immortal Lanquidity set. The Aural Exciters also featured Taana Gardner, who later song on Heartbeat, her awesome West End disco clas- sic, and Pat Place the sometime Contortion and Bush Tetra. It is irresistible to mention the Mutant Disco records she would produce with the Bush Tetras for labels like 99 and Fetish, homes to legends like ESG, 23 Skidoo, Clock DVA, and Liquid Liquid. Her Contortions’ band leader James Chance (or James White) played a part too in the Aural Exciters, and no excuse is needed to mention his signature tune Contort Yourself. It has everything: the twisted James Brown guitar motifs, the free jazz colour, the taut minimal funk, and tortured screams. It was a record so extreme it would utterly inspire Edinburgh’s Fire Engines to create a new pop form. And ZE would ultimately destroy new pop groups like the Fire Engines. MUTANT DISCO BOX SET 01 • WAS ( NOT WAS) • Wheel Me Out • 7.08 07 • LIZZY MERCIER DESCLOUX • Funky Stuff • 4:12 Written by Donald Was & David Was. Published by Island Music Ltd. Written by Kool & the Gang. Arranged by Mercier Descloux & Steve Stanley. Produced by Donald Was & David Was. Remix Version. Published by Universal Music. From the original WAS (NOT WAS) album « The Woodwork Squeaks. Produced by Steve Stanley & Lizzy Mercier Descloux. Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1980. From the original album « Mambo Nassau ». Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1980. 02 • MATERIAL & NONA HENDRYX • Bustin’Out • 6.40 Written by Laswell / Beinhorn / Maher/ Hendrix / Scott / Draton. 08 • GARÇONS • French boy • 3:08 Published by Cri Cri music / Mez. Written By Vidal / Fitoussi. Published by E sound. Produced by Material & Martin Bisi . Mixed By Tee Scott. Produced by Michel Esteban & Michael Zilkha. Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1980. Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1979. 03 • CRISTINA • Drive My Car • 3.21 09 • DON ARMANDO’S 2ND AVE. RHUMBA BAND • Deputy Of Love • 5.29 Written by Lennon / Mc Cartney. Published by Norther Song. Featuring Fonda Rae Produced by August Darnell & Michael Zilkha. Written By Ron Rogers. Published by Chapell Music. Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1980. Produced by August Darnell & Andy Hernandez. Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1979. 04 • KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS • Annie I’m Not Your Daddy • 6.30 Written by August Darnell. Published by Cri Cri Music . 10 • GICHY DAN BEACHWOOD ≠9 • Cowboys & Gansters • 7.28 Produced by August Darnell. Remix version. Written By Ron rogers. Published by Chapell Music. From the original album « Tropical Gansters ». Produced by Ron Rogers. Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1982. Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1979. 05 • AURAL EXCITERS • Emile (Night Rate) • 6:48 11 • CRISTINA • Blame It On The Disco • 7.57 Written by August Darnell. Published by Unichapell Music Written by August Darnell. Published by Cri Cri Music. Produced by Bob Blank. Mixed by Tom Savarese. Produced by August Darnell Arranged By “Sugar Coated” Andy Hernandez. From the original album « Spooks In Space » Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1980. Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1979. 12 • GARÇONS • Encore l’Amore • 8.55 06 • JAMES WHITE & THE BLACKS • Contort Yourself • 6:18 Written By Vidal / Fitoussi. Published by E sound . Writen by James Siegfried. Published by Copastatic BMI / Zem Sound. Produced by Michel Esteban & Michael Zilkha. Unreleased Italian version. Produced by James White. Remixed By August Darnell. From the session of the original album « Divorce ». From the original album « Off White » Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1979. Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1979. MUTANT DISCO # 2 A SUBTLE DISCOLATION OF THE NORM 01 • Cristina • Disco Clone • 4:10 02 • Coati Mundi • Que Pasa / Me No Pop I • 6:23 03 • Kid Creole & The Coconuts • I’m a Wonderfull Thing Baby • 6:15 04 • Was (Not Was) • Out Come The Freaks • 7:11 05 • Lizzy Mercier Descloux • Fire • 5:16 06 • Aural Exciters • Spooks in Space (Discomix) • 5:44 07 • Was (Not Was) • Tell Me That I’m Dreaming • 5:03 08 • Caroline Loeb • Narcissique • 3:36 09 • The Waitresses • I Know What Boys Like • 3:16 10 • Lizzy Mercier Descloux • Mission Impossible • 2:37 11 • Marie & Les Garçons • Re Bop Electronic • 2:55 12 • Garçons • French Boy Disco Edit • 5:10 13 • Casino Music • Faites Le Proton • 5:18 COMPILATION SELECTED AND PRODUCED BY MICHEL ESTEBAN P & C ZE Records Mundo Ltda © 2011 www.zerecords.com 13 • CRISTINA • Disco Clone • 4.10 Written by Ronald Melrose. Published by Rabbit Rabbit Music company (BMI). Produced by Michaek Zilkha,Bob Blank & Cristina. Male Guest Vocal : Kevin Kline Mixed by Chris Blackwell. Original sound recording made by ZE Records © 1978. 14 • COATI MUNDI • Que Pasa / Me No Pop I • 6.23 Written by Andy Hernandez. Published by Cri Cri Music. Produced by « Sugar Coated » Andy Hernandez.