The term "sleaze" as applied to disco goes back to the mid-70s, and was used to describe the slower, often vocal-lead tracks that DJs would spin toward the end of a party, in many cases in the early hours of the morning. The always informative Horse Meat Disco guys used the sub-genre as an inspiration for one of the discs on their third compilation with us, and there is of course an ongoing and healthy debate taking place online as to what technically is and isn't bona fide "sleaze."

As Dennis Citizen Kane (the man behind the Disques Sinthomme / Ghost Town labels, one of our favorite DJs in New York, and another great source for disco history and information) is launching a new club night at the Soho Grand this Friday featuring some authentic sleaze sounds, we thought we'd take the opportunity to have him share some of his favorites.

Says Kane: "These songs are not ranked in any specific way, they are just 10 great sleazy jams, they all have tremendous atmosphere and great sonic palettes. All of them convey such an intense mood and intimacy, elegant, erotic, exotic, and modern."

Kane's newest release is a remix for Liz Torres out this week on Luxor records, and we highly recommend checking out his Disques Town podcast.

Sleaze to Please - 10 sleazed-out jams selected by Dennis Citizen Kane

10 Pino Presti - Disco Shitan

9. Shock Taktix ~ Morocko

8. Puccio Roelens - Northern Lights

7. Jo Dassin - Le Jardin Du Luxembourg ( TeeTwo Mariani Edit )

6. Night Creatures - That's the night

5. Crystal Bird - Tunnel

4. Francis Lai - #1

3. Marti Cane - Love the way you love me

2. Bob Chance - Jungle Talk

1. Double Fantasy - Food for fantasy

The dance floor has always served, at least in part, as an ideal location for a potential romantic conquest. On the classic yet somewhat overlook track "Chit Chat," Cajmere goes slightly meta, showcasing his pick-up skills over classic house beat which likely provided the background to a number of real life conversations along the same lines. The Chicago producer (born Curtis Jones) recalls, "Chit Chat always makes me think of Tony Humphries because he showed that song so much love. It’s really because of him that the song became as popular as it did.” The track, along with two discs full of equally essential productions from the Cajual Records catalog, appears on Only 4 U: The Sound Of Cajmere And Cajual Records 1992 - 2012, out October 30th.

One of the joys of working with a connoisseur like Richard on putting together a collection like This Ain't Chicago is being hipped to some great tracks that might have flown beneath the radar. Colm III's "Take Me High" (Mansion Mix) didn't make the biggest splash for the West Midlands production duo, but it's a hell of a track, and we're happy to share it with you. We'll let one half of the group, Mike Evans of Ruby Red Records, contextualize it for you:


(from the album notes)
“Ruby Red was one of the best known shops in the West Midlands for many years – we did well with dance music and catered for whatever anyone wanted, really. We sold a lot of bootleg Northern soul records. Colm III was myself and a DJ called Malcolm Heath who also worked in the shop and 'Take Me High' was one of the first records we released. It was really only picked up by Midlands and Northern DJs at the time. The follow-up single which had a track called 'Acid Cracker' was picked up by a couple of shops in London.


“It was the early stages of that type of music. After that, we did score a chart hit with ‘Addicted To Love’ by Powerzone and I started Cleveland City Records (Ruby Red was in a road called Cleveland Street in Wolverhampton). We had some big records there – Tony Di Bart ‘The Real Thing’ was a national Number One and we scored dancefloor hits by Chubby Chunks, Direct 2 Disc and a few others.”

Colm III - Take Me High (Mansion Mix) by Strut

Here's the first bit of audio we have to share from the upcoming Arthur's Landing project. We picked their version of Arthur's well known Loose Joints classic "Is It All Over My Face" because it really shows the effects of their approach, though several of the songs on the record are built not from fully formed songs, but expanded ideas, melodic fragments, and performance techniques that that the members of the band worked on with Arthur when he was alive. Looking forward to sharing music music!

Arthur's Landing- Love Dancing (Is It All Over My Face) by Strut

It's been a long time coming, but we're extremely pleased to announce that our Next Stop... Soweto project is out this week. Compiled by the always incredible Duncan Brooker and Francis Gooding, the three part release covers a wide spectrum of South African music from the traditional Mbaqanga, Township and Jive featured on Volume 1, to more modern takes and fusions on Vols. 2 & 3. The album is streaming all week on AOL Spinner, and we're confident that once you hear it, you'll know why we're so excited. CLICK HERE to stream.