When it first started pressing vinyl Unidisc Canada released original material, but not for long. They went on later to specialize in re-editions, and re-presses. The Stranger by Shining Star was their 15th 12" single release back in 1979. Likely it was one of their best releases. Definitely one of their most coveted.
I absolutely love Unidisc's early sleeve graphic. It featured a woman in high heels with her panties dangling all the way down just above her ankles. The hole for the label was where her crotch would be. They also had another hot sleeve that was a graphic of a hot pink curvy naked female body behind open venetian blinds. This was used on many of their high NRG releases.
My The Stranger 12" had the dangling panties sleeve and I nearly didn't want to give it up for that reason alone. But back to the record itself. It was produced by Orlando Mazzoli an Italian who also worked on the classic Erotic Drum Band debut Action '78. Which incidentally had a sexy sleeve too. The Stranger is the perfect mix of carefree late 70's disco with a deep foreshadowing of what was to come with early Italo Disco, real heavy on the space theme. The deadpan vocals also kind of give off a Kraftwerky new wavey feeling. But the drums are really what give Shining Star it's umph. They carry on! It's one brooding, dark, psychedelic disco odyssey. Disco magic.
LISTEN TO THE STRANGER
WAVY
Apparently The Stranger was also released on a small Italian label but I have never seen that pressing and I'd imagine it's worth a mint. The Unidisc 12" is rather highly coveted itself.
4 comments:
Wow, your blog has everything! I have been looking for a decent rip of this track for a long time, I have a 192 rip and I play that to death..this is one of the best tracks ever made, 10 minutes and 50 seconds of perfect dubbed out cosmic bliss..from the deep vocals at the start then the low brooding synths and guitar and man, I agree, when those drums kick in! Talk about attacking the dancefloor like a bulldozer! Its such a timeless record and its hard to believe its over thirty years old!
I totally agree with the above comments, I wrote them after all!
I noticed you are posting again so I hope it's a good time to request a repost of your 320 rip of one of my all time favourite tracks The Stranger by Shining Star as I lost my copy of your rip in a terminal hard drive crash... those drums just get me every time!
I did find a rip of the Unidisc reissue backed with Divine's Native Love, just in case you can't re-up it and someone else comes looking, it's better than nothing!
http://dfiles.eu/files/onl1vgn49
Hello
"The stranger" was released on Black Sun Records under a different title "Song of the Wind. Black Sun Records was the label of my brother, Orlando Mazzoli but I've found that somebody has copied not only the name, but also the logo. I have few copiesof this and others of his production, as well as thousands of vinyls he used for work.
How cool, they had some great records.
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