Did you miss the Donuts Party last Saturday night featuring the dirty disco edit wizard Pilooski? The French based deejay made his only West Coast appearance--clouded in the spring fog of San Francisco and smoke machines of 103 Harriet's handsome basement gutter--for a night of cosmic travelin and blapping disco percussion. So if you did sleep on dude on the local tip, then unless you travel to / live in Europe, it might be a minute til he drops in on our wavelength again. My solution: go comb through the internet waves to enjoy some of them flipped inside out, baring the internal flesh like a dog's stanky horse food tooth, jams.
Pilooski gained fitting acclaim on the blogosphere and in underground jams the world over for his grainy cosmic edits of disco classics and surprising choices from the ranks of Elvis and Franki Valli. After releasing Dirty Space Disco in 2007, the beat conducta released a series of 12 inches off the deep crate digging label, Dirty Sound System. The collective just finished sifting through the nebulous depths of France's psychedelic grooves for a new volume of dank mind expansion.
If you're unfamiliar with Pilooski, I wrote a Sound Lesson on him a year ago. There might be some free shit still linked to it.
On a side note: I was more impressed with opener Derrick Love's galactic gamma-ray picks. Lucky enough for us locals, he spins the far out disco jams that give the genre a bold ass name at the monthly shaker Gemini Disco.
The art of re-editing songs comes with many dangers. The craft demands not only enough skill to conjure up an innovative song that pushes music forward but also the mastery to match if not surpass the quality of the original track. The re-editor must breathe life into dusty bones. He faces the challenge to make the old sound new.
Paris based DJ, Pilooski, who also is known by his Polish name Cedric Marszewskihas, achieveds just this pinnacle style of re-editing shelved classics into body rocking dance party jams. Last year Pilooski gained international recognition in nerdy DJ / blog communities for his re-edit of "Beggin'," a pop hit dating back to New Jersey's legendary Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
Pilooski cleanly cuts up the guitars of ESG's "UFO" (does any ESG sample not sound amazing?) with a boom bap drum break that propels the vocals into hyperspeed and defy sonic laws by sounding damn smooth if not James Brown soulful. "Beggin' " is one of those tracks that reaches toward the sweaty, adrenaline rushed climax of the party when everyone is wildly dripping the music.
The flipped up video of Beggin' succeeds just as well in resurrecting the dead with some new superpowers.
Part of Pilooski's genius is that he reaps forgotten or neglected elements out of older joints that were never gilded the status as classics. These songs have not been dogmatically hardened into our collective minds by their incessant replay on nostalgiac compilation albums seen on late night infomercials or kitschy diners or oldies radio stations.
Pilooski's proud defiance of codified genres and exceptional digging powers opens up an overflowing reservoir of history to inform his ever growing taste. Listen to how Pilooski transforms the powerful croons of Nina Simone into a slammin' dance thumper in his newly released remix of "Take Care of Business" on the 4th Verve remixed compilation.
Many of Pilooski's edits (and he has many) can be found on the rare and highly sought after limited vinyl releases by Dirty Sound System. Dirty is a group of Parisian selectors that pride themselves on comin' up with the dusty diamonds that inspire and break expectations. These tracks are released with some edits (by the likes of Pilooski) on compilations that fittingly go by the name "Dirty Diamonds." From ominous space disco to thumping krautrock drum breaks, cruising past the euphoric Balearic islands to the syncopated gardens of Northern Soul, dirty does not fear geographical or psychological walls.
Following the numerous "Dirty Diamonds" EPs came a full length Pilooski compilation, dirty edits vol. 1. It also includes a couple surprising covers that will bend your ears backwards.
01 . Mono Puff - Pretty Fly 02 . 99 Frames For Prince - 1999 03 . Alan Parsons Project, The - I Robot (Pilooski edit) 04 . Edwin Starr - Get Up (Pilooski edit) 05 . Pointer Sisters - Send Him Back (Pilooski edit) 06 . Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme - Black Hole Sun (Dirty Reissue) 07 . Unknown - Untitled 08 . Ari Boulogne - Le Petit Chevalier 09 . Can - Mothersky (Pilooski edit) 10 . The Human Beinz - Nobody But Me (Pilooski edit) 11 . Pipilotti Rist - I'm A Victim Of This Song (Wicked Game)
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