Tony Valor, Touch and others part two

Today I'm going to highlight a rather unusual album that found its way to me through a reliably serendipitous source: my current roommate, dj partner, and brother to the Ambassador, Charles. This dude knows jams! He also has this way of finding rare shit without even trying and has bragged to me on several occasions that he has never spent more then 20$ on a record. Now don't get me wrong, he works for it. Whenever we walk into a spot together I always scan the pricey wall records and check the new arrivals, while Chuck immediately gets on his hands and knees and starts getting dirty with the crates on the floor. He has a thing for K-Tel comps and house band disco cover albums. I believe he picked this gem up during his tenure in Detroit. Its a triple (!) LP disco instructional record complete with foot charts and overdubbed voices giving cues on when to move your feet. Thank God the producers of this album were kind enough to provide a third record with just the songs for you to dance to. Imagine my delight when I noticed the producer of this album was none other then Tony Valor! This was released in 1976 (prior to the majority of his creative output) and featured Touch on several tracks as well as MaryAnn Farra, The Tony Valor Sounds Orchestra (TVSO), and several other no-name Valor produced acts.


Santos - Amore Santos This is one of those no-namers. Anyone out there ever see the "Santos" album? Didn't think so.


Touch - Positively Positive This song just KILLS me. We had been really into the Santos song for a while before Charlie flipped the record over late one night saying he thought there might be something else good on the other side. Was there! BTW if anyone out there recognizes the vocalist please let me know. It might be Maryann Farra, but I kind of don't think so for some reason...

Tony Valor and Touch part one

Tony Valor - singer, producer, DJ, manager, engineer and apparently a NYC cop for a while, he certainly made his mark on disco music. For one thing he was buddies with disco remixer number one Tom Moulton, forming T.N.T. productions with him. He had hits both with his scions Fantasy, Soccer, and Jeanne Napoli as well as under his own name with the Tony Valor Sounds Orchestra. Early in his producing career he also put together an album by a little band called Touch that was released on Brunswick in 1977. Here are a couple of jams off their debut "Energizer"


Touch - Everyday is Just Another Day This one gets stuck in my head a lot. Its bubbly dark rhodes and slow funk guitar plus the kind of depressing lyrics really set the tone for this band.


Touch - You Don't Know (how to do the hustle) More of the ubiquitous rhodes. This song was released under a different title with a different vocalist in a slightly earlier version I will post over the weekend.


Touch - Love Hangover (breaking down) Breaking down indeed! This instrumental version of the classic is the reason most people would want to own this album. I first heard it on Dmitiri from Paris's "Disco Forever."