ZE SHOP

ORIGINAL MUTANT DISCO

ZE’s catalog has been repackaged, digitally and physically, in more shapes and sizes, than any reasonable person could keep track of — several increasingly unwieldy volumes of a compilation called Mutant Disco, eventually combined into the four-disc Mutant Disco Box and updated by 21st Century DJs into 20 Mutant Disco Uptown Edits (itself only the tip of the ZE edit iceberg); a couple volumes of ZEtrospective; a 14-track set known as ZE 30: ZE Records 1979-2009 or ZE Records Story 1979-2009 depending on your time zone; probably more. You can’t go wrong with most of them. But for sheer replayability into eternity, none of those has matched this original, deceptively modest, American sampler of six maxi-singles. Briefly: the best and most expansive track of ex-Labelle tough gal Nona Hendryx’s entire long solo career (“Bustin’ Out” with harmolodic New York jazz-punks Material making a funk move that’d soon reel in a young Whitney Houston); Was (Not Was)’s weirdest and probably best track ever (“Wheel Me Out,” pure Motor City beat-science that would go on to inspire Detroit techno originators); the best and most hilarious track ever from Coati Mundi (“Que Pasa/Me No Pop I,” one of the first Spanglish rap records). Plus, Don Armando’s hit “Deputy Of Love,” fellow August Darnell sideman Gichy Dan’s likewise Western-themed “Cowboys And Gangsters,” and Cristina’s cutesie-poo come-on cover of the Beatles’ “Drive My Car.”

Chuck Eddy : "Designed to Kill: 8 Essentials of ZE Records » : SPIN Magazine Sept. 2012