Chuffed to bits when the Viking passed on a promo copy of this, the latest instalment in Fabric’s Live series, a mix by DFA/LCD Soundsystem brains James Murphy and LCD drummer Pat Mahoney.  No surprise to discover that it’s killer.  Literally a race through some of the duo’s favourite club records of the last thirty years or so and a few newies, with what some may consider to be a surprising dearth of the punk funk LCD Soundsystem have updated so cleverly over the last four years.  And what a relief that it is, since just about every man with a drum machine and a guitar of late decided that this is the style du jour.   

Ok, there’s a couple of newish DFA tracks, including the Still Going Theme by new act Still Going (which is more like electro disco) and North American Scum B-side Hippie Priest Burn-Out (which sounds like an old Liquid Liquid out-take with some crazy synth fx and the kind of flawless production aesthetics we’ve come to expect from Murphy and co) plus Keep On Move by DFA and Juan Maclean cohort Eric Broucek.  And there’s a couple of old nuggets from ZE Records (the label behind original New York punk funk/no wave/mutant disco types James White, Kid Creole and Lizzie Mercier Descloux) – namely Was (Not Was) and Gichy Dan.  In short, though, it’s just crammed with obscure classics by legendary people you probably have already heard of (Donald Byrd, Chic, Instant Funk, the aforementioned Was (Not Was) and Lenny Williams), alongside some more recent but equally under-appreciated gems by others you probably haven’t.  New Yorker Daniel Wang’s awesome early Nineties debut on his own Balihu label, Like Some Dream, crops up and Mudd’s Adventues In Bickett Wood (from the Rong music label, which always puts out those great dubby disco records) is on here, too, plus some other just wild, wild, weird shit it’s doubtful many people have ever heard before – namely Tablakone’s City Of Women from the super-esoteric Finnish Puu label.  

As a mix, it is tighter than a nun’s chastity belt and bounds forward relentlessly, hardly pausing at all for breath (until it winds down towards the end, just like a proper night out), with one speedy edit rolling after another, rarely more than four minutes afforded to any of the tracks and often just two or three.  The effect of this is to tease you with a little bit of everything they love, as opposed to allowing you to feast indulgently on any of the material in its entirety, which, lets face it, is what every good DJ should do but often doesn’t, usually because some bird/bloke is hassling him/her to play X or said DJ is getting off on a personal favourite.

It’s impressive that they were able to get licensing permission for all these great old tunes, but presumably once you’ve got the might of EMI behind you as an outfit this kind of thing becomes less tricky, and no doubt Chic take more kindly to someone phoning up and asking if they’d mind them putting out I Feel Your Love Comin’ On, instead of Good Times (again).  Anyway, who cares about all that?   There’s a strong New York feeling running throughout and, eschewing contemporary fads, apart from the one they helped create, in favour of classic dance music, the party happening on this disc is all the better for it.