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Anteater · 12-28-2009, 07:29 PM

Cerrone – Cerrone 3: Supernature (1977)

"Disco from the Depths of The Screaming Space Time Continuums...With Flavor"

1. Supernature (10:20)
2. Sweet Drums (3:30)
3. In the Smoke (4:40)
4. Give Me Love (6:10)
5. Love Is Here (5:20)
6. Love Is the Answer (6:00)

For many of us, Disco is one of those genres that's generally far too obnoxious for its own good. Like much of today's club music, the genre was just a plain snoozefest; unlike the pseudo-electronic crap around today though, most Disco was more often than not just watered down funk with cleaner bass for the musically sedated masses, and hence had very little durability on the charts when the beginnings of what would become New Wave hit big in the late 1978 or so.

Still, even the most unimaginative profit mongering music categories generally have a couple of gems that get buried amidst the commercial garbage, records that were more than definitely accessible but had that little extra something to make them stand out, such as much of the early material of French musician and dancefloor maestro Cerrone. Incorporating psychedelic and space rock influences into poseur funk that thrived on mediocrity, the man's experimentation and his commercial ambitions eventually clicked together in 1977 with the release of his third album Supernature, and thus his reputation as an artist became solid.

"But what makes Supernature so good?" you might say. Well, whereas most disco is boring and dated, full of cheesy horns and a general lack of energy, this work seethes, grooves, and perhaps best of all is actually varied in content; although the 10-minute opening title track is quite the hypnotic club number, tracks such as 'In The Smoke' provide a spacey quietness that has more in common with Pink Floyd than Earth, Wind & Fire, while 'Give Me Love' has a razor sharp jazz-funk bent, emphasizing some fantastic drumming and guitar rather than the pulse of a club beat.

Another fun fact is that this is actually a concept album, mostly told through the title track and based around the story of animal-human mutants who are created by science to put an end to world hunger, but end up rebelling against their creators. Pretty camp, but nevertheless a nice touch to an album that already sounds leagues better than 99% of the disco that came out in the mid to late 70's.

So for those of you afraid of anything with the word "disco" attached to it, fear no longer -- this is one of those things you'll want to get your paws around and your ears on standby for. Thirty some odd years later, Supernature can still bust a move where it counts, and that's what makes it grand. Bon appétit!