Environ
2004
Unclassics: Obscure Electronic & Funk (1978-1985)
About This Album
A fascination with otherwise unsought electronic-disco singles of the mostly European persuasion turned into a cause for Morgan Geist, who took it upon himself to doggedly reissue a few of his barely known favorites on Environ. Leave it to him to pluck something like Purple Flash's "We Can Make It," an instrumental mini-anthem recorded several years too late -- and in the wrong country, namely Canada -- to factor into disco culture in the manner of an "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now." Roughly eight months after the third release in the Unclassics series, Geist makes the tracks the basis of this mix album, including several other oddities and curiosities, in effect creating something of a successor to I-F's Mixed Up in The Hague -- a like-themed mix that the DJ/producer acknowledges in the liner notes. Though each track has separating characteristics, they share a couple key traits -- warm, cushiony machine beats and basslines that are consistently as melodic and pleasurable as the fluid electronic piano lines that twinkle, glow, and playfully jab atop (it's no coincidence that all of that factors into a major part of the blueprint for Geist and Darshan Jesrani's Metro Area).
Track List (try tracks 2 and 3)

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