Louie Vega

Tucked away on Louie Vega’s fantastic – and vast – Expansions in the NYC album were a handful of tributes to disco legends Patrick Adams and Larry Levan. This double-pack brings those tributes to the floor. Vega opens with his Elements of Live band cover of Sine’s Patrick Adams-produced 1978 B-side ‘Chimi’, turning the four-minute cut into a driving-but-bouncy, near 14-minute disco epic rich in restless bass, attractive vibraphone solos and spacey synths. On ‘Change Your Mind’, which is presented in both full vocal and instrumental forms, Vega recruits the voice of the Peech Boys, Bernard Fowler, and turns down a sparse, heavily electronic workout reminiscent of Larry Levan’s early ’80s mixes. It’s genuinely great, as is the DJ Spinna-sporting, hybrid disco/organic house cover of Adams’ classic ‘Atmosphere Strut’. In a word: essential!