Disco Circus / Plastic Paradise

Plastic Paradise ...  in some ways, an apt title. 

This 1981 LP follows on the heels of the first Disco Circus LP, which featured a major club hit called "Over and Over." That first one also featured a seven-minute cover of "In a Gadda Da Vida." 

And weirdly enough, not the only disco cover of that tune -- South Africa's Hot R.S. went bigger and did a  15-minute, side-long version. (There's also a Boney M. version that's nine minutes long and will encourage you to sit very still; their producer Frank Farian's mind was obviously somewhere else other than creating a record that encouraged dancing.)

Sadly, the second Disco Circus LP -- a creation of the Munich disco mainstay Jürgen Korduletsch -- picked up on the "cover" thread from the first album and not the "Over and Over" coolness factor. The LP kicks off OK with a song called "Are You Ready?" that desperately needs a longer mix, but it's got some goodness going with a bit of what made "Over and Over" so memorable. After that, the album devolves quickly into some very dull moments and closes out with uninspired covers of "Sunshine of Your Love" and "Gimme Some Lovin'." (That might have cool if it were a medley but -- no -- just one song, then another).

The title would have been quite apt if the whole album were an exposé of the disco lifestyle like D.C. LaRue's brilliant Confessions (go buy it). It's not. It's just a pack of eight medium-length songs -- too long for radio, too short for disco. And the music is a little too rote -- too, well, plastic.

The cover looks like someone stole Michel Polnareff's glasses and then dropped by Dress Barn for some very 1979 style accessories like candy hearts and generic pills (since it was -- after all -- 1981.)  Colorize and -- there you go -- instant time capsule.

Enjoy the rip (from CD). P/W in comments.