Billie Ray Martin – Sweet Suburban Disco

Written by Manu Ekanayake

Disco -

Delicious disco sounds from Billie Ray Martin, plus some ace remixes from Vince Clarke, Ray Grant, Luke Solomon and Horse Meat Disco’s Severino too.  

Billie Ray Martin’s voice will always remind us of her 90s pop dance anthems like Your Loving Arms and Running Around Town, but here she proves that she’s not lost a step yet. Sweet Suburban Disco’s radio edit is just a lovely piece of vocal disco - perfect chart stuff, with any luck. But as ever this one comes to life with the remixes, with Severino’s remix adding some tracky bass to give it a clubbier, HMD-type feel. The drum fx work perfectly and add another dimension to the quality vocal… and Severino’s dub appears to do the same thing, but with a much more spaced-out version of the vocal that gives the whole thing a more 90s NYC vibe.

Otherwise we’ve got to mention the darkly menacing style of the Vince Clarke remix, which shows its producer’s 80s Depeche Mode / Yazoo roots clearly with its combination of huge basslines and delicate keys. Ray Grant’s Neon Disco Dub provides just the kind of echoing, big-room 80s synth-fest you’d expect (stuttering vocals ahoy!) but the prize for the most varied mix goes to Luke Solomon, whose remix takes the track into pumping house territory that changes tack half way through, stripping out all the previous FX and becoming quite jazzy. Of them all, it’s definitely the hardest to pin down.

1. Sweet Suburban Disco (Radio Edit)
2. Sweet Suburban Disco (Vince Clarke Remix)
3. Sweet Suburban Disco (Severino Remix)
4. Sweet Suburban Disco (Severino Dub)
5. Sweet Suburban Disco (Luke Soloman’s Suburban Dub)
6. Sweet Suburban Disco (Ray Grant Neon Disco Dub)