21 Apr 2017

Bobby V. - Disco Baby (Floating Points Edit)



Don't let the title fool you. So far as the internet is concerned, a track called Disco Baby by a dude called Bobby V does not exist. The identity of this Bobby V character is equally as mysterious, with plenty of speculation and barely any hard facts being thrown around in youtube comments sections and forums alike. All we do know is that a few copies of this do exist, albeit I'd speculate its nothing official, probably just a gift from FP to close friends like Hunee and Red Greg who have both supposedly played this one out.

Its hard to put an exact value on how much the feeling towards this song grows once it's rarity renders it the stuff of legend, or at the very least shrouds it in a thin veil of mystery that even in the age of information is frustratingly elusive. Whilst you can't own the track (just yet, fingers crossed), a rip from FP's Essential Mix is on youtube so its not all bad, if you do find that it is released one day or happen to stumble on the samples used/original tune holla at ya boy, it would be much appreciated!

UPDATE!!! (29 Apr 2017)



So! If you are following our facebook page, you may have noticed that earlier today I managed to stumble upon the original of this track! And its lead me to make some interesting conclusions about the FP edit (if you can even call it that).

Firstly, the original is called Disco Baby (so I was wrong above, it was literally called Disco Baby) by a dude by the name of Yaron Gershovsky, a keyboard player who's output (or at least all of it that is recorded on discogs) is quite short, and also quite different to this track. So far as I can tell, it was only ever included on one library music record put out by Major Records in 1979. Listening to the two I can't find any differences between the original and the supposed 'Floating Points edit' which leads me to believe that in fact, a Floating Points edit doesn't exist. As to the reason why give it a different name if no editing has actually been done, I'm none the wiser. A few theories I have are that Sam (FP) is trying to keep the track a secret, or that legendary bassist from the Fania All-Stars, Bobby Valentin, had something to do with this track (there are probably a million more Bobby V's in the recording business around the world so this one is a real long shot). Regardless of that, the story behind the label that released this tune is quite interesting.

For those who are familiar (I certainly wasn't), Major Records (and its parent/sibling label Valentino Inc Production Music Library) is somewhat of the go to library music label. And if you don't think you're familiar with the label, then I can assure you that you've most likely heard one of its many releases before.

Perhaps its greatest musical talent/writer/producer was Walter Murphy. You probably know Murphy as the dude for the disco classic A Fifth of Beethoven which featured in Saturday Night Fever and also snagged a grammy. Head honcho at Major Records/Valentino Inc, Thomas Valentino,

That said, a good deal of the label's output features unknown names, generic sleeves and untitled releases, which I guess is the norm for library music catalogs/labels. It is, however, a treasure trove of samples, many of which you have probably heard before. Nicholas Flagello's Wailing Wail is perhaps one of the most sought after of these tunes, with its horn shrieks and general tense vibe being repurposed in Wu Tang Clan's Unpredictable as well as probably a bunch of other tracks.