BOO-YAO! BBE has been teaming up with Al Kent over the past few years to put out some mind blowing compilations of lost disco heaters, but this one takes the cake! For their latest collaboration, the label has compiled all 5 volumes(!) of Kent's Disco Demands series into one massive 5 CD set (and you know if anyone has enough rare disco gems to fill 5 CDs worth of material, it's Al Kent). Along with impossible to find original cuts the compilation features a ton of exclusive re-edits that Kent has made a name for himself with. Here's what he had to say about the release: "The Disco Demands series started sometime in the early 2000s - I couldn't give you an exact year because it didn't feel like a big deal, so I never noted it. I simply wanted to put out a compilation of some records I really liked and maybe make a little of the money back I was spending on them. Buy some food and stuff. There's always been Disco comps around of course but there was rarely anything that strayed too far from the standards; the same songs kept appearing over and over again, or the comps would feature records you could pick up anywhere for little money. I've never seen the point in that. I gave up judging a record on its value or rarity a long time ago but surely there's more to disco than Exodus, Martin Circus, Mass Production and all those Salsoul, West End and bloody Prelude records. So it was a nice surprise to find that there were other people out there who thought the same way. Volume 1 was pretty straightforward - just some nice records, with the only edit being an instrumental of "Disco Socks"; a strange, thinly veiled reference to the disco sucks movement. Then on Volume 2 I included a few of my edits and introduced the cover up concept to the disco world. That caused a bit of controversy, which of course I loved. And so it continued for five volumes. What we have here then is the full series, give or take one or two cuts, all remastered, many re-re-edited, with lots of nice naked pictures to boot." 45 tracks spread over 5 CDs and housed in individual sleeves with sexy cover art. Must-have release for the disco heads, RECOMMENDED.

• music label: bbe

reviewed by The Voice 01/2012