It wasn't so long ago that disco was the type of music "diggers" stayed away from like it was mid-eighties major label jazz, but times have changed, minds have opened and the "D" word is no longer strictly associated with the Gibb brothers. Case in point is this six track Cloud One LP from 1977. Cloud One was the collaborative brainchild of Patrick Adams (production) and Peter Brown (label), the two men that set P&P Records in motion and helped give birth to a new era of underground New York dance music. This LP is everything you want disco to be; mellow yet danceable, full of spaced out Moog sounds that aren't too "noodly," and there's no diva getting all American Idol on the vocals. Listen to "Spaced Out," "Dust To Dust" and "Disco Juice" and you realize that whether you play house, breaks, hip hop or you just like good soul music, there's a place for this in your crate. Since the recent disco explosion you'll be lucky to find an OG copy of this for less than $25 (thanks Metro Area!). While there have been a couple reissues and comps that contain these tracks, none include the sonic quality and smoked out original artwork of the official pressings.

• black vinyl pressing
• music label: P&P Records 1976

reviewed by JMS 05/2005