DARKSTARR’S PSYCHEDELIC DISCO-TECH COMP
Hey Peeps,
We are releasing our comp “DarkStarr’s Psychedelic Disco-Tech: They Live By the Night” in late May. Be our 500th fan on our DarkStarr Facebook and win yourself a free copy. You can catch our DarkStarr special on Cosmodelica on Ministry of Sound Radio, Samurai FM and Deep Frequency.
Here’s the deal:
Psychedelic Disco-Tech: No, its not must another lame ass musical genre coined by a journo for trainspotting anoraks (like ourselves?). As DarkStarr is about melding musical styles and fusing different sounds, Ash and I could not put a label on it. How do we cdescribe the amalgamation of trippy, far-out tunes we play at our nights? What term can depict the variety of moods and emotions we portray without locking us into a certain category? We needed an illustration that was all encompassing and “psychedelic disco-tech” just seemed to cover it.
Ashley and I both had seminal club experiences conducted by renegade musical selectors but in different settings. Ash came of age in late Seventies/early Eighties London but it was a Northern DJ who sparked his interest. Colin Curtis of Blackpool Mecca and Berlin was a legendary Northern Soul spinner who opened his ears to the new “disco” sound coming from the States and gave those records time on his turntable. He then seriously got into jazz funk, hard jazz and the house sound of Chicago. Ash dug the man’s blend of tunage and was officially inspired.
My dancefl,oor odyssey started in late Eighties New York City but it wasn’t until I was brought into The Loft that I tuned in and turned on. The Loft was party and musical host David Mancuso’s home and in the course of his twelve-hour sets he would take us from funk rock to orchestral disco to minimal house played on his own audiophile system. These far reaching sounds all had a connection and told a sonic and sometimes literal story. As I grew up listening to albums rather than MP3 singles, this made sense to me. I was aware that a musical journey was taking place and I jumped on for the ride.
With DarkStarr, Ashley and I try to express our musical heritage and its innate eclecticism. Overall, this collection of songs represents music for the dancefloor as that is its usual setting. However, we hope you will find whilst listening to this compilation that the Darkstarr sound is easily translatable into other environments. This compilation is not a stream of faceless aural wallpaper mixed seamlessly at the same BPM where the introduction of a high hat is equated with an orgasmic climax. It is a more challenging collection (and hopefully more fun and inspiring) of dance music that will hopefully move your body, mind and soul.
So forget about the title of this compilation. Don’t trouble yourself where any of this “fits” into today’s dance music scene or how it all relates to each other. It will become evident in its own organic way. Just press “Play” and let yourself enter another musical stratosphere where there are no genres - just music.
- Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy
