One of my favorite compilations from last year was Smash Hits’ Disco Dimensions, which presented new house and crossover tracks that employed many of the sounds and styles of classic underground disco records. This 12″ brings three new tunes in the same mold, but falls quite short of its mighty predecessor. All of the elements - squishy synths, wiggling basslines and organic-sounding drums - are present in Ray Mang and Foolish Felix’s “Disco Dementia,” but the track itself fails to achieve enough energy for liftoff. A little more dementia, please. Similarly, Stranger’s “Motorboy” has great parts - the bass in particular is filled with giddy energy and the high-pitched guitar sound is a neat twist - but on the whole it fails at whipping up any kind of dance floor frenzy. The best track here is the last one, Seiji’s “Rubbish,” which contains enough funky live percussion sounds to fill a zoo, but little else besides. While all three songs would make fine mixers, or moments of restraint on a longer compilation, I fail to see why they would be chosen to fill both sides of a 12″ single.

Smash Hit Music / 004
[Mallory O’Donnell]