Rank the Discos!

[Ramzy]

Genuinely, what is it that people don't like about Disco 2? Those mixes of IWN..., Ab Fab, Yesterday and So Hard are among their best of the 90s. The idea of a continuous mix isn't unusual and Rampling uses large amounts of several of them, a few almost in their entirety - and if they had put out full length versions instead, you surely wouldn't have got three versions of Yesterday, each of which has their merits and together work well as a kind of suite for me. Some of the transitions - DJ Pierre into Go West for instance - are really effective. It isn't my favourite by any means but the hate for it seems to border on pantomime.

[markus]

Genuinely, what is it that people don't like about Disco 2? Those mixes of IWN..., Ab Fab, Yesterday and So Hard are among their best of the 90s. The idea of a continuous mix isn't unusual and Rampling uses large amounts of several of them, a few almost in their entirety - and if they had put out full length versions instead, you surely wouldn't have got three versions of Yesterday, each of which has their merits and together work well as a kind of suite for me. Some of the transitions - DJ Pierre into Go West for instance - are really effective. It isn't my favourite by any means but the hate for it seems to border on pantomime.

It seems trashy, from the cheap looking album cover to the way it sounds. Was released straight to VHSmiths sales bin.

[telys]

Genuinely, what is it that people don't like about Disco 2? Those mixes of IWN..., Ab Fab, Yesterday and So Hard are among their best of the 90s. The idea of a continuous mix isn't unusual and Rampling uses large amounts of several of them, a few almost in their entirety - and if they had put out full length versions instead, you surely wouldn't have got three versions of Yesterday, each of which has their merits and together work well as a kind of suite for me. Some of the transitions - DJ Pierre into Go West for instance - are really effective. It isn't my favourite by any means but the hate for it seems to border on pantomime.

Probably because when it was released, Disco 2 was undoubtely compared to Disco which was regarded highly, if not as a masterpiece. Compared with later releases Disco 2 is not bad at all.

[misterme]

Genuinely, what is it that people don't like about Disco 2? Those mixes of IWN..., Ab Fab, Yesterday and So Hard are among their best of the 90s. The idea of a continuous mix isn't unusual and Rampling uses large amounts of several of them, a few almost in their entirety - and if they had put out full length versions instead, you surely wouldn't have got three versions of Yesterday, each of which has their merits and together work well as a kind of suite for me. Some of the transitions - DJ Pierre into Go West for instance - are really effective. It isn't my favourite by any means but the hate for it seems to border on pantomime.

I agree that some remixes of this era are among the PSB's best, but Danny Rampling made a real mess with these. He accelerated songs like Go West and Liberation to have a matching tempo between the tracks. But there is no pitch correction. As a result vocals almost sound like the mice in the "Babe" movie. Hilarious ! And disrespectful regarding the original material. I wonder what Farley&Heller or E-Smoove thought of this compilation if they ever took the time to listen to it. I don't think they would have been too happy about it.
As far as I'm concerned, I find the transitions between songs to be, for the most part, poorly executed. The "Absolutely Fabulous" bit dropping at the very beginning gave me a heart attack. Does Danny Rampling have any sense of how to start a record ? It's so brutal.
And what are songs like "So Hard" and "We All Feel Better In The Dark" doing on a compilation based on the "Very" era ?
DJ mixing at a party should not translate into an actual record for the home. I would have enjoyed Rampling's megamix and danced to it in a club. But its imperfections are unforgiving when you comfortably listen to the CD sitting on your couch.
Discogs 2 sounds like a bootleg record. How come it managed to be released officially ? This I don't get.

[leesmapman]

Genuinely, what is it that people don't like about Disco 2? Those mixes of IWN..., Ab Fab, Yesterday and So Hard are among their best of the 90s. The idea of a continuous mix isn't unusual and Rampling uses large amounts of several of them, a few almost in their entirety - and if they had put out full length versions instead, you surely wouldn't have got three versions of Yesterday, each of which has their merits and together work well as a kind of suite for me. Some of the transitions - DJ Pierre into Go West for instance - are really effective. It isn't my favourite by any means but the hate for it seems to border on pantomime.

Because it's a compilation of those terrible remixes that plagued the 90s that are songs composed by the remixer rather than the original track. I use the term song loosely, because most of them are your standard house beat with a sample of Neil singing the word "dance" that they lifted from the original song.

[Drico One]

Genuinely, what is it that people don't like about Disco 2? Those mixes of IWN..., Ab Fab, Yesterday and So Hard are among their best of the 90s. The idea of a continuous mix isn't unusual and Rampling uses large amounts of several of them, a few almost in their entirety - and if they had put out full length versions instead, you surely wouldn't have got three versions of Yesterday, each of which has their merits and together work well as a kind of suite for me. Some of the transitions - DJ Pierre into Go West for instance - are really effective. It isn't my favourite by any means but the hate for it seems to border on pantomime.

"Pain. She demands I. Pain. She demands. Meet your. Pain. She demands I. Bicycle. She demands. Meet your pain."

Actually, if only...

That was the good one.

[Boc Hi-Scores]

So, I am one of those people that like "most" of Disco 2. But that could be down to when I first heard it. I didnt get a copy until much later (i just dismissed it as the 'absolutely fabulous' "album", and also by mid 1994, I was gravitating to a lot more darker british guitar music). I got my copy of D2 early January 2003, and was listening to a taped copy on a crappy car stereo whilst driving up country during the onset of a snow storm. I always associate listening to D2 to that drive, and its... nostalgic for me.
Just like a lot of other music, it transports me back to a 'happier' time in life (even though, as a qualifier, I will not argue with anyone that says that D2 is terrible).
But to stay on topic, ranking the Discos... for me.... 1/3 are tied joint, then 2.... 4&5 a very long way at the back, but mainly cause i dont see them as 'PSB' records.

[Ramzy]

Haha ok, points all taken. The observation that it's a bit like a bootleg is so fair, though I think that's part of its charm for me. I think cause I first heard it before I knew Ab Fab, or any of the Very remixes (including the single versions of IWN and Yesterday), I'm just used to it sounding like this - missing sections and speed/pitch shifts and all. But I can see that I probably shouldn't be as fond of it as I am!

I heard it so early in my PSB fandom - the local library was selling off its cassettes around 1999 and I got it for £1 - that I can't help but feel affectionate towards it (if not towards E Smoove).

Not seeing the problem with "she demands/ nigh--/ pain/ she demands/ --mit you're/ pain/ she demands/ nigh--/ bicycle" as a lyric. Surely one of Neil's best.

[Drico One]

Not seeing the problem with "she demands/ nigh--/ pain/ she demands/ --mit you're/ pain/ she demands/ nigh--/ bicycle" as a lyric. Surely one of Neil's best.

The problem is it wasn't on it.

Drico.

[Ramzy]

The problem is it wasn't on it.

Drico.

I'm losing track of my Rollo mixes. Is the dub the one that's just "dance to disco, dddddddddddddddddance to disco"? And wasn't there also a "bicycle dub"?

[misterme]

The "bicycle dub" is by Mark Kinchen and is rare (only available on a promo 12")

[Drico One]

The problem is it wasn't on it.

Drico.

I'm losing track of my Rollo mixes. Is the dub the one that's just "dance to disco, dddddddddddddddddance to disco"? And wasn't there also a "bicycle dub"?

Couldn't tell you. MK was where it was at for me at the time. His remix was one of the most memorable of the 90s mixes - which I generally disliked. That DJ Pierre mix was chronic - and that's before we get to E-Smoove. Then Rampling decided to blend them all together into distilled horror.

For me, Pet Shop Boys were always about the songs. You can call them pop or you can call them dance, but for me they were and are songwriters, first and foremost. Disco can be listened to as a collection of songs. Disco 2 had nothing in common with this. So, for me, it was always pointless.

I hated Pet Shop Boys, 1994. Two weakish singles from Very, Absolutely Fatuous, and Disco 2 the day-glo overprocessed cherry on top. Talk about falling off a cliff.

Drico.

[Ramzy]

Oh sorry of course that's the mk mix not the rollo one! Whoops.

Agree about the mixes you've singled out though that era also gave us the BIR mix of Go West, two good Beatmasters 12" mixes of IWN, the Jam and Spoon version of Young Offender and two good 12" versions of Yesterday so it wasn't all bad on the remix front. (Also I love the Rollo remix of Ab Fab but might be on my own there.) It does rather make you think that Disco 2 could have been, if not a masterpiece, then certainly better if they'd chosen maybe the six best and run them to full length.

The worst and most cringey thing on Disco 2 for me is actually the looped fake orgasm on the last track. Imagine being in the car with your parents and that comes on. Scarring.

[markus]

I think most fans can sense that the Pet Shop Boys went through a moment of megalomania and hubris around 1994 — a counterreaction maybe partly to having been in the closet for so long -simply to explain 1994 without the sugar-coating.

Disco 2 feels like part of that impulse: a deliberately passive-aggressive statement rather than a record to be “enjoyed” in the usual way.

[Danger]

1. Disco 3: excellent min-album, one of their best side projects,
2. Disco: historical
3. Disco 4 or 5: same weak thing
5. Disco 2: non-sense experiment