Entertained by Simon Lee of Faze Action

[JussiK]

I've always wanted to hear Simon Lee spin disco, and now that I have I got to say he knows his stuff. The Faze Action guy played last week at Disco Sanctuary held at Madame JoJo's of London. We got to boogie to Cocomotion, Sexy by MFSB, Kasso, Deodato's Whistle Bump, The Beat Goes on And On by Ripple etc plus all sorts of cool jazz-funk titles that made us express ourselves. An Asian girl threw incredible shapes and we all watched. Attention those who live in London, next time you read Disco Sanctuary is on, you go.

Salsoul label got relaunched too last week, good news or what! And what about that lost 1979 disco track ARE YOU READY FOR LOVE by Elton John getting realesed now, after some 25 years?

[Forrrce]

Simon's a good bloke and such a nice guy, he's almost inhuman(!).

Why has Salsoul been reactivated, are they going to sign and promote new acts? Can't see the point, otherwise.

The Elton wasn't lost at all, that's just bull and spin. I remember it well from first time 'round (it got played a lot on the radio but I recall one DJ saying that it was only on 12" - a concept far too progressive for Elton's audience at that time perhaps?) and up until a month ago, it was easily found in second hand shops and places like Gemm (there were many originals on there last month - now there's just one for $60+). Ridiculous!

[QUINNY]

The Salsoul re-launch does make one wonder. It must be one of the most heavily pillaged oldies catalogues. Personally, I'm not as convinced of the product these days as I once was. In its time and in its place, yes I used to look forward to hearing the label's output, and spun an awful lot of it, but nowadays too much of it sounds formularised and almost tacky, especially considering the mastery (and jazz pedigree?) of many of the musicians involved. In some ways, Salsoul charts one of the biggest sell outs in music history. I don't say that with any anger or malice, just what I see as an fairly honest assessment. This re-launch will only add to this.

[JussiK]

As they announced at the gala reception the new Salsoul label is going to be putting out house stuff. As for the old records, play us the Orch's fab Yellow Brick Road album any time please, rather than any of their new house titles, good as they may turn out to be...

Interesting about that Elton thing, so it was commercially out! But is it thumbs up or down for the track, re-edit that it is?

[SandraDee]

Jussi, u mentioned that brilliant 'Kasso' track from '82. I have a Dutch Rams Horn 12" ( :o ) of this but the sound quality is awful; does anyone know if their LP has ever come out on CD through someone like Unidisc?

[JussiK]

No Kasso lp on cd as far as I know but a severely edited version of the title track is on a "Best of italodisco" comp cd, along with Silver Pozzoli's "Around My dream" and "Underwater" - I always thought the latter was Canadian.

[Bernie]

Originally Posted by JussiK

No Kasso lp on cd as far as I know but a severely edited version of the title track is on a "Best of italodisco" comp cd, along with Silver Pozzoli's "Around My dream" and "Underwater" - I always thought the latter was Canadian.

Jussi,
Thumann's "Underwater" was originally on Baby Records out of Italy before being licensed by Uniwave/Unidisc in Canada.