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Editorial Reviews

A fascination with otherwise unsought electronic-disco singles of the mostly European persuasion turned into a cause for Morgan Geist, who took it upon himself to doggedly reissue a few of his barely known favorites on Environ. Leave it to him to pluck something like Purple Flash's "We Can Make It," an instrumental mini-anthem recorded several years too late -- and in the wrong country, namely Canada -- to factor into disco culture in the manner of an "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now." Roughly eight months after the third release in the Unclassics series, Geist makes the tracks the basis of this mix album, including several other oddities and curiosities, in effect creating something of a successor to I-F's Mixed Up in The Hague -- a like-themed mix that the DJ/producer acknowledges in the liner notes. Though each track has separating characteristics, they share a couple key traits -- warm, cushiony machine beats and basslines that are consistently as melodic and pleasurable as the fluid electronic piano lines that twinkle, glow, and playfully jab atop (it's no coincidence that all of that factors into a major part of the blueprint for Geist and Darshan Jesrani's Metro Area). The production level, in most cases taking cues from the likes of Giorgio Moroder and early synth pop, is impeccably clean, yet far from the point of sterility. Even when the tracks aren't particularly good, they're potentially charming, amusing, ridiculous, even flat-out absurd. The protagonist in the "Radio Edit" of Victor's "Go On Do It" -- produced in part by Alexander Robotnick -- believes effective foreplay involves an affable line like "C'mon little lady and spread them hams, gonna put it to you baby 'til you understand." Gaz Nevada's closing "Special Agent Man" one-ups the surreal scenarios within the average Was (Not Was) song: "When I'm working or washing my hair, you kill all my lovers on your new electric chair." Some of the best tracks, including the ones mentioned above, carry their fair share of gimmicks but would remain just fine without them. Margueritas' "Margherita" is one other example, on which a mariachi horn section is grafted, yet the central keyboard melody remains the far more memorable component of the track. Disco purists beware: if a set of heavily orchestrated Salsoul classics is like nibbling on gourmet chocolate, Unclassics is more like ingesting the colored sugar dust of a colossal pixy stick (we're talking at least five feet in length and at least as many inches in diameter). There are enough piew-piew-piew zaps during these 55 minutes to wipe out a small nation of roller skaters. And, yes, the sequencing and mixing are both spectacular. Andy Kellman, All Music Guide

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