VMP Magazine

Since the mid-’90s, there has been wave after wave of “disco revival,” either in music or pop culture at large. Still, the genre can be a difficult one to navigate without the ideal context: on a good system in a good DJ set. Music lovers who get deep enough into soul or more recent dance music will eventually have a hard time ignoring disco. While the “(re-)edits” craze of the 2000s saw every producer /DJ and her dog bring ‘70s classics and obscurities more into line with contemporary dance sounds, there are staples whose original versions are well worth hunting down.

The disco era aldo gave birth to the 12” single, which spaced out one track across an entire side, resulting in a much louder product than an LP. As such, the format, catering to DJs, soon took over the genre. Accordingly, disco LPs run the gamut from those with one hit and mostly filler, to albums split between sappy ballads and dance grooves, to strong and sometimes overlooked full-length statements. Exploring these mixed bag recordings can often be more rewarding, and easier to come by, than that elusive $250 original promo 12” the disco nerds are fawning over. Here are ten foundational disco albums to give your collection a solid footing.

When the Beach Boys’ recording career got started in 1962, the long player album, as opposed to the single, was still gaining clout as an artistic ...