This is a Recording

Having acquired the soubriquet "the walrus of love", Barry White thereafter became something of a figure of fun, something that misled me (and presumably others) into disregarding his music. Only within the last few years have I begun to pay it more attention. After picking up a copy of his '74 album Can't Get Enough last summer, which I loved, I sought out some of the music by his protegés Love Unlimited. From a Discogs seller I ordered well-used copies of Under the Influence of... ('73) and In Heat ('74) for only £6.25. The only unappealing thing about In Heat is its awful title. The songs and the singing are strong; the arrangements rich & warmly enveloping. As one would expect from White, the thematic focus is firmly fixed on amatory matters. The opening number 'Move Me No Mountain' (the only one on the record not written by White) offers a refreshing rebuttal to the kind of lyrical hyperbole in songs like 'Ain't No Mountain High E...

I have relatively little disco music on my shelves. I used to have damaged copies of Herbie Mann's Discothèque and Car Wash by Rose Royce, but now I'm left with some records by Barry White and his protegés Love Unlimited (which might be considered proto-disco); a couple of 7" singles ('Funky Town' & 'Supernature') and this glorious 12" one, which brings together three tracks by those masters of the genre, Chic: 'I Want Your Love', 'Le Freak' and 'Chic Cheer'. A 6:53 re-mix of 'I Want Your Love' occupies the A-side, with the other two tracks on the reverse. The label helpfully gives the BPM values for all three: 116, 120 & 113 respectively. I did enjoy some of Chic's music when it was new, 'Le Freak', in particular, though as disco was falling sharply out of favour by the time I reached my teens, I wouldn't have admitted as much to my peers.  Back then I would have been responding to the overall ...