:: Various Artists - Central Station 30 Years (The Early Years mixed by Jo Palumbo & Paul Goodyear)

Various Artists

It's a fantastic achievement for Jo Palumbo and his team to celebrate 30 years of Central Station Records in Australia. Through its independent record label and retail store chain, Central Station has broken many big names in house, hard house, techno, breakbeat, breaks & electronica, all the way through to commercial dance-op music.
Appropriately, a series of compilations double albums have been released. The first of the three is ‘The Early Years’. Jo decides to accumulate the best tracks from around 1975 to the early 1980s, a huge task to bring it down to twenty tracks. Amongst them are Hot Chocolate‘s 'You Sexy Thing’, ‘Atomic Dogs’ by George Clinton, and Eddie Murphy‘s 'Boogie In Your Butt’. Blondie‘s excellent track 'Atomic’ is also there as a big commercial hit, as well as classic gold of Billy Ocean‘s 'Love Really Hurts Without You’. The rest of the 1980s is compiled on disc 2 by Paul Goodyear, who has been a DJ since the mid-80s. His more eclectic selections include ‘Give It To Me Baby’ by Rick James and Donna Summer‘s soothing 'I Feel Love’. There are contributions by Diana Ross, Inner City and Marlena Shaw who covers ‘Touch Me In The Morning’. All round great memories in this first of three special compilations.

A DJ since 1985, Paul Goodyear is well-placed to paw through his collection for the second disc, which dips into the 80s. His is an eclectic and upbeat selection, wending from the ?hot and horny? ?Give it to Me Baby? from Rick James to disco?s undisputed queen and her iconic hit, ?I Feel Love?. I was chuffed to discover Show me Love by Robin S, a track which was still doing the rounds when I first hit the raves in 1994 and one of my favourites of all time, Good Life by Inner City. Nice strings and piano from Sharon Redd, the fab Promised Land from Joe Smooth and Marlena Shaw?s cover of Touch me in the Morning round off this deliciously disco-tipped offering. Ahh, the (borrowed) memories. What a gem.