Jungle Music Strut ****

Walter Gibbons is a sometimes overlooked link in the chain between disco and house, and he certainly earned his place in the pantheon of DJs who ruled the roost (and the lofts) of New York in the 1970s. The inventive Gibbons mastered his DJ-ing style at venues as diverse as Kool Herc’s Bronx block parties, a gay bar in Queens called the Outside Inn, and after-hours joint Galaxy 21. He took his talent for on-the-spot remixes into the studio and fired up storming disco edits tape by extending breaks and finessing grooves. You get a flavour of Gibbons’s skills on this double- disc anthology, as he recasts and remixes cuts by Bettye Lavette, Gladys Knight and many more into beautiful, shimmering dancefloor symphonies. Add in some excellent sleevenotes from Tim Lawrence and you’ve a fine document of how one man believed music could set you free. See strut-records.com

Download tracks: Bettye Lavette , Doin' the Best That I Can;Arthur Russell, Calling All Kids;Dinosaur L , Go Bang