Various Artists, Permanent Vacation: Selected Label Works 3

Kids these days – they think “disco” lasted all the way up until house music came along. Thing is, musically speaking, they’re not wrong. From Michael to Madonna to underground labels like Prelude and West End, disco never really went anywhere, and in mainland Europeit’s essentially what pop music was until – you guessed it – house music came along. That wider sense of what constitutes the genre means that a lot of club producers are playing with a big swathe of stuff, and the third collection from one of the best of the ’00s disco labels, Permanent Vacation, is a showcase for just how big.

Sometimes it goes well past house music’s birth, too – note the “Ashley’s Roachclip”-style breakbeat, ubiquitous in the late ’80s and underpinning Tensnake’s remix of Torontonians Azari & III’s nouveau classic “Reckless with Your Love,” or the appearance of none other than Mr. “What Is Love” [http://www.emusic.com/listen/?search_context=music&s=haddaway#/album/haddaway/what-is-love-single/11761349/] (from ’92) himself, Haddaway, on Wolfram’s “A Thing Called Love (Legowelt Remix).” Todd Terje, as Chuck Norris, even covers Ace of Base’s “All That She Wants.”

There’s plenty of synth-driven new wave here, too – Candyblasta’s “Black Cloud” has Dave Gahan’s vocal cords written all over it, as well as a tiny, hooky riff that sounds like a keyboard dying. <I>Permanent Vacation: Selected Label Works 3</I> is a decent survey of the current state of disco.