Nobody from New York is going to speak to me again but my favorite disco label wasn’t from the Big Apple. Take in the whole of the TK Disco catalog, from mainstream pop hits to underground jams – dig through a crate until your fingernails turn black from the years of accumulated and cultured disco grime and you might find yourself agreeing with me.
Henry Stone‘s Miami-based label was a magnificent shambles, in the way that all truly groundbreaking labels are. Like Factory in the UK, they stumbled over hits, overpromoted some bombs, attracted massive talent and repelled them later but most importantly TK Disco provided just enough leeway for some amazing artists to do some crazy shit by artists, singers and bands that dropped their shoulders down and pushed the genre forward one inch at a time.
“Ghetto Disco” is disco gold in that catalog, and here it gets a legitimate reissue. Erstwhile blues singer Ted Taylor brings all the soul and pathos of a modern day electric troubadour, with production by another strange bedfellow, New Orleans buttoned-up funk broker Wardell Quezergue.
There is a TK Disco re-edit record released just after this that I haven’t yet heard, but if you’re into the remixes it features a Norman Jay Edit of “Ghetto Disco” along with other remixes from TK by DJ KON, Todd Terje, Danny Krivit and Dimitri From Paris.
Ted Taylor: Ghetto Disco (TK Disco)
A1. Ted Taylor: “Ghetto Disco” (8:43)
B1. Ted Taylor: “Ghetto Disco” (part 2) (7:03)
