Susana Estrada - Espacial (Disco Segreta)

One of my daily routines when i have a day off is to brew myself a freshly ground coffee and have a look at online record stores. Right now i'm trying to get through HHV's 114+ page "organic grooves" section. Quite the mountain to climb, but one record caught my eye because of the sleeve: Susana Estrada's "Espacial" on Disco Segreta. I was already familiar with and quite fond of the the label but knew very little about her, so here's a little background info.

Susana is possibly the most acclaimed superstar of the Spanish Destape b-movies era. She appeared in numerous erotic magazines and movies and was one of the first woman to perform fully-naked in Spain. Kind of an affront in 1970s franco era. Flip the record to see why. How times have changed.

Anyway, here we are almost 37 years later. We have Espacial for the first time on vinyl (previously part of Machos, a cassette-only release), fully licensed and in superb remastered quality complete with two ace edits. These edits come from Tiney - one of the og diggers and DJs from the Dresden area but known internationally to a select discerning audience and Nikolaj Birgens aka Nixxon, all part of the Overfitting Disco blog, which is a place for true diggers. I highly recommend the blog to anyone who is interested in more than just the Juno sales charts.

The track itself starts with lots of sci-fi bleeps and blips and a german voice speaking of how electric circuits enable mankind to broadcast language, sound and vision. It's 1980, welcome to the future. When the drums set in you're sucked into the depths of kosmische Welten. Quirky synths, a distinctive bassline and otherworldly sound fx pave the way until Susana's irresistible voice starts working its magic. After a short break she starts seducing the kosmische traveller which leads to a Donna Summer-style climax from another galaxy, lost in the stars, killer grooves and pure madness.

On the flip we have Tiney who works his magic right from the beginning. He adds a squelchy, acid like arp-bassline that works perfectly with Susana's moaning and groaning. Towards the end we're back locked in the original groove. What a journey!

Nixxon's edit sets a darker tone right from the get-go. He avoids the disco-esque drums and uses a distinct drum-machine groove instead. Extraterrestrial sounds, lots of effects and Susana's voice from far far away lead the way into the mysterious supervoid.

Personally i would choose the original or Tiney's treatment, but that's just my taste. Overall another fantastic release on Carlo Simula's Disco Segreta imprint. As usual it's a limited affair, with 250 copies on black vinyl and 100 on red vinyl as numbered "destape editon".

Buy from:
Juno Records
HHV

Listen:
Soundcloud