Recipe: Take a classic track that everyone loves from years ago, then mix it up and enhance it for the 21st century. This is the premise upon which compiler blog AOR Disco draws its material, frequently highlighting some real gems.
AOR Disco was started in 2009 by Matthew Hamilton with a mission to rediscover the lost golden age of Adult Orientated Rock. From the beardy acoustic era of late 1960s Laurel Canyon to the white-suited Yacht Rock yuppies of the early 1980s, AOR Disco seeks out the best in vintage Californian drive-time hits, soft-rock disco, psychedelic funk, and the kind of obscure album tracks you might find at the back of your dad's record collection.
Having been misunderstood and marginalised by the music press for decades AOR is finally being given the love it deserves by a new generation of DJs and producers who give the old classics a very modern shine whilst retaining the spirit of the originals.
One very helpful extra aspect of the blog is the submission of podcast-length mixes added from contributors. This makes is so much easier to browse through the enormous catalogue of versions on the site - It's not difficult at all to get completely lost for hours in what can only be described as a very modern form of nostalgia.
And so, without further ado, as the best way to showcase some of this wonderful content, here included is a few of my favourites. Three tasty 'reworkings' of tracks by James Taylor (Fire & Rain), Fleetwood Mac (Dreams) and Queen's Radio Ga Ga.
Fire & Rain (B-Shakes Exclusive AOR Disco Version) - James Taylor
Stevie's Black Van (Toast Soundsystem Edit) - Fleetwood Mac (Dreams)
Radio Ga Ga (Virgin Magnetic Material Remix) - Queen
I came across AOR Disco a few months ago, and since then I quite often find myself loading up the blog and letting my handy browser plugin player (exfm) run through the brilliant reworkings of some classic tracks. It's a brilliant concept for a blog and judging by the fact that the associated Facebook page is maxed out of friends (5000!), that's an opinion I seem to share with a lot of like-minded music-explorers.
A hearty '+1' for the site's tagline:
"AOR is back and you need never say sorry for liking this music ever again."
aor disco links
AOR Disco Blog | SoundCloud | Facebook | Twitter
Related Posts