Is This Disco? MANHATTAN TRANSFER

[Videoskooter]

No, not "Chanson D'Amour" but

"Twilight Zone" Frequently heard in Belgian clubs these days!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvnvYiEsN6Q

[paul]

Didn't watch the video yet but I guess it's disco. It came out around the final days of traditional disco and I remember liking it's kinda wierd style. I still like it a little though not as much as I used to.

[Videoskooter]

Paul, I can't recall something else real Disco or Funk by 'em but this one strangely enough works on the floors.

[KoolChris]

Yeah, it would certainly apply as Disco-funk; the kind that already sounded "early '80s" in '78-'79.

I loved the theme to Twilight Zone (and the show itself, for that matter), and I thought the bold vocals and the off-beat style made it quite a good track.

But I do prefer MY conception of "real" disco (Remicks?), i.e. with strings, congas, and a proper break...

[qdearl]

Paul, I can't recall something else real Disco or Funk by 'em but this one strangely enough works on the floors.

There is also the song "The Spice of Life" one of my favorites, released around 1982 or 83
A nice mid tempo groove:D

[DiscoDiva]

Hi All,
And also my MT is Who, What When Where Why....very disco.

[Nano]

"Twilight Zone" always sounded to me as a bit "forced", like when a non-disco act try to sound fashionable. But I love some of the other, more traditional vocal jazz stuff.

My favorite track is called "Kafka" and you can find it in the album Mecca for Moderns (1981, the one with the masks). What they do with their voices and timing in this song is incredible, even today.

[Phoster]

I like it! Didn't know there was a video...well, I could say this everytime Videoskooter comes up with a new discovery on Youtube :-D

It has a certain boogie/disco feeling...as far as I know it has been produced by Jay Graydon who was also writing and producing for EW&F and Al Jarreau back then...West Coast Style!

[SandraDee]

Oh 'Twilight Zone/Tone' is fabulous! Brilliant Jay Graydon production & top notch vocals as ever. I recommend 'Down On The Boulevard' from their '81 LP (Mecca For Moderns) too.8-) It's coolness personified.

[garrybcoston]

I never viewed Manhatten Transfer as disco, although I believe they were on the disco charts.

[Tony West]

Twilight Zone worked well downunder.:-P

I even had 2 copies I liked it so much!

[Tim Tam]

It was OK until the gutar solo. I really, really hate guitar solos.
I quite like the harmony work.

And for Australians only. Didn't they show the clip on "Countdown"?

Tim Tam

[White Raven]

Strange things, Dear people… Let’s go to their “Pastiche” released in 1978. Maybe the year of the maximum popularity of disco, I mean that the disco sound was in it’s climax! But THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER sounds absolutely jazzy like Glenn Miller-style in sounding. Where are disco-fashion attributes? Well, maybe, in 1981-83 they sounded near to DISCO, but it was too late, too late. (SHAKATAK was more poppy than THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER, but it’s not DISCO too :) .)


THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER were never DISCO, but very good jazz-fusion band. My most favouruie album is BRASIL, released in 1987. “The Zoo Blues” and “So You Say” are really fantastic.

[SandraDee]

Hi All,
And also my MT is Who, What When Where Why....very disco.

Yes you're right, that is a fab disco-style track DD! Have you heard Dionne Warwick's version from the same year? It's even better!8-) :)

[SandraDee]

Oh & let's not forget ManTran's version of Rod Temperton's song 'Spice Of Life'; OK it was from '83 which is too late for disco but it was still great dance/pop music IMO. I seem to remember it gave Madonna's 'Holiday' a run for its money!

[NickNack]

Great club song. Loved it from the first note (I'm a Twilight Zone tv fan). Record stormed through the Anvil each time it was played. Driving music and tight, tight vocals. Was MT a 'disco' group. I don't think so. Was TZ/TT a disco song --- oh, yeah.:-D

[needlefingers]

It's always good. And perfect for Halloween.

[buckaroo]

THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER were never DISCO, but very good jazz-fusion band. My most favouruie album is BRASIL, released in 1987. “The Zoo Blues” and “So You Say” are really fantastic.

Yeah...They had a #1 hit here (England) in 1977 with Chanson D'Amour . Hardly disco. Also let's not forget their ballad Walk In Love which Buckaroo liked BTW.

I've left a little something for you all on You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBpOES9qAro
I also liked this too. :lol:

[garrybcoston]

Strange things, Dear people… Let’s go to their “Pastiche” released in 1978. Maybe the year of the maximum popularity of disco, I mean that the disco sound was in it’s climax! But THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER sounds absolutely jazzy like Glenn Miller-style in sounding. Where are disco-fashion attributes? Well, maybe, in 1981-83 they sounded near to DISCO, but it was too late, too late. (SHAKATAK was more poppy than THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER, but it’s not DISCO too :) .)


THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER were never DISCO, but very good jazz-fusion band. My most favouruie album is BRASIL, released in 1987. “The Zoo Blues” and “So You Say” are really fantastic.

It's funny though, cause I do remember a lot of DJ's playing "twilight zone" and a couple of other MANHATTEN TRANSFER tracks back then. I think and now believe that the DJ's knew that a different direction and different wind was blowing music-wise, and that disco would not be around much longer.

I had a couple of albums by shakatak, and their stuff was not disco as we knew it, but was danceable, and a lot of their stuff was played in the dance halls (the word discoteque was forbidden after 1979); this was after "disco as we knew it" had died; circa early 1980's.

That was a difficult time for music as the recording industry was left in a void after disco's demeise and was desperately trying to find out what the niche, music-wise was for the industry. Very difficult time after "disco as we knew it" died. Of course 80's pop surface in mid to late 1982 and it was 80's music and dance after that until around 1990.

Garry:-)

[DiscoDiva]

Yes you're right, that is a fab disco-style track DD! Have you heard Dionne Warwick's version from the same year? It's even better!8-) :)

No but I will keep an eye out for it :lol:
Thanks for the 411
DD

[Lajazz947]

Very cool song. I did not know they had a video. They are as someone wrote, the personification of coolness.