Back in October, HERC featured Backbeats #003, Philly Disco and it quickly became one of the most viewed posts here at The Hideaway. Today, HERC returns to focus on three more volumes in the Backbeats series that shine the spotlight on music from the City of Brotherly Love and the deliciously distinctive sound of Philadelphia International Records (PIR). For those of you playing along at home, today's post covers the following Backbeats volumes:
- 015 Philly Freedom - 70s Dance Floor Anthems From The City Of Brotherly Love
- 024 Philly Busters - Underground Philly Dance Floor Gems
- 037 Philly Gems - More Philly Disco Floor-Fillers
The first thing that comes to mind when looking at this disc is that it has the exact same tagline as Philly Disco ("70s Dance Floor Anthems From The City Of Brotherly Love") yet in all online references to this album the tagline is "The Foundation of 70s Disco". Hmmm. As he has for most of the initial volumes in the series, Ian Dewhirst gets credit for conceiving and compiling the tracklist. Track #7 stands out in particular as one of HERC's all-time favorites and a song that MRS HERC is very, very good at dancing to with HERC. For his Spotify playlist recreation of this disc, HERC included a few authentic Tom Moulton Remixes in place of the original single or album versions. Feel free to be more true to the original tracklist in your own playlist.
Philly Busters was conceived and compiled by Kev Roberts and it goes deeper into the PIR catalog than the other three Backbeats Philly-themed and titled discs. Consequently, all of the songs were new to HERC but that didn't stop him from listening through a couple of times.
The opening song on Philly Gems sent HERC off on an extended Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes tangent. Credit for the compilation goes to Ralph Tee, who manages to pull out both familiar and fresh grooves out of the PIR masters vault. And wouldn't you know it, the closing song launched HERC into a M.F.S.B. binge. C'est la vie.
No comments:
Post a Comment