A Few Half-Baked Musings
1) Space disco's further diffusion, I think, was one of this year's causes for rejoicing, despite its retrogressive undertones and occasional proggy ramblings. In a way the genre is a continuation of the soulful, lounge-y, and slightly bland dance sounds (deeeeeep house) fronted by Faze Action (who actually have a track named “Space Disco”—a mere coincidence?), Incognito (in their instrumental mode), the Svek stable, and a farrago of others; but where the space discoits trump their antecedents, I think, is in the way they manage to not only mimic the imperial productions of the disco era, but to actually surpass them—if not in virtuosity and funkness then in the sound design department.
The genre still needs a few extra injections of talent before it's ready to take on the world, though, most urgently skilled singers and song-writers—more pop! That being said, with Dennis Parker's heart-rending “Like an Eagle” allegedly getting canned by the space disco confraternity, my hopes for them getting the right ideas are high. More recent, vaguely space discoish, pop examples could be Annie's Shakatak-sampling “No Easy Love” and the original version of Wamdue Project's “King of My Castle”, just to name two. Both of these (and also “Like an Eagle”) are quite subdued, and that's partly what makes poppy space disco alluring to me: it's melodic, hummable, traditional in its song-structure, and all that jazz, but the songs are never overblown, never ephemeral, and almost always sonically interesting (actually, objectively speaking, most of the time they're not, but I think a well-recorded acoustic instrument is always a sufficiently sonically interesting complement to a captivating melody—if not a terribly imaginative one). In short: space disco is the one genre I can think of that's the most predisposed to elevate a great pop tune to unforeseen heights. What do you others think, do you want space disco to go pop? Is it even that good in the first place?
2) After a grand 2006 I think minimal is in for trouble in the coming year: if it evolves in an organic/latino/jazzy direction it risks losing its menacing qualities, ending up as foppish boutique muzak; if it takes the maximalist route (perhaps coupled with “real” song writing) it likewise runs the risk of losing its uniqueness; lastly, if it chooses the path of escalating minimality it risks disappearing up its (manly) posterior (à la tech-step, say). I really can't think of any viable next steps. Anybody?