Any reader of this blog will know that I was a very early writer about Smylonylon tapes. Way back in June 2006 I wrote about an incredible tape I had bought at the Center for the Dull on Lafayette in the 90s. You can read all about it on that post. Over the years I got to know Alex Gloor who made the 30 tapes in the 90s and who is also of band In Flagranti and Codek record label impresario who made the tapes,
You can now buy all the Smylonylon mixes on his Bandcamp. And take a look at this amazing boxset of Smylonylon tapes that Alex made in 1998.
I was very excited then when he offered to post some tracks from a mix that is, in his own words, a continuation of the Smylonylon spirit made in 2024. Alex describes the mix as a homage to "all these great cheesy disgooey-moog soundtracks i've heard in the mid-70's in Basel, Switzerland. As a kid, i checked the local newspaper for new movies every week and went to see the lobby cards and posters in the cinema display windows, including a porn movies theatre called Maxim across the street from my house that had lobby cards with black tape covering any nipples and asses!
Going to the movies was my favourite pastime as a kid, starting in 1972 with a Kurt Russel movie called "Now You See Him, Now You Don't" (a real stinker!) at cinema Royal, i was nine years old. I even played hooky from school to go see Soylent Green at cinema Odeon."
Alex offered to tell me a bit more about some of his experiences after Smylonylon in the following interview.
First of all, how did you get involved with Center for the Dull because I actually bought my first Smylonylon tapes there?
In May of 1994 I was walking around Soho enjoying a lovely warm and sunny spring day in Manhattan when out of the corner of my eye I spotted what appeared to be a Pucci dress hanging in a dark alley called Crosby St. I went up the block to investigate and met Chris Brick, the owner of this boutique called Smylonylon. Chris and I instantly bonded and became friends. I suggested to him that Smylonylon would be the perfect location to sell my mixed tapes. The first batch of 10 tapes sold out within 3 days and Chris kept asking me for more and over the next 6 years we sold over 6000 tapes.
Why did you move to NY from Switzerland?
In 1984, when I was 20 years old, New York City was the epicentre of everything cool & hip and I wanted to be part of it! There is a great book about that period in NYC history called - Yo! The Early Days of Hip Hop 1982–84 with amazing photographs by Sophie Bramly. The book incapsulates the exact moment when I arrived in the Big Apple with all it's glory; it was a unique moment in history, things were not clearly defined yet; it was the post-disco, pre-hiphop era. Back then, you could still go see & hear all the great Oldschool DJs every week like David Mancuso, Larry Levan, Walter Gibbons or Afrika Baambaata: All of them had a big impact on me.
And what were you doing first when you came here?
I was lucky and my instinct drove me in the right direction to a local video rental store called Time Shift Video on Broadway & Bond St in Manhattan. Time Shift Video was my first connection into the booming downtown cultural arts scene in 1984. The shop was buzzing every night around 6pm, you just had to hang out there to meet and talk to people like Madonna's stylist Maripol (She gave me my first job), actor Vincent Gallo, photographer Mike Rock and even Randy from the Village People and countless others; they all went there to rent & return VHS video tapes every evening including Keith Haring who famously redesigned a new logo on a brochure I did for the store in 1987.
I remember I was lucky to meet you and Sasa as In Flagranti for the first time when I was djing at Fabric in London in 2008 and you were playing live. How did In Flagranti get started ?
In 1990, I was visiting Basel from New York and went looking for the Cosmic Music I had heard on mix tapes from Italy. The guy who owned a local record shop told me about Sasa and his collection of Cosmic Music and by chance Sasa walked into the shop and we met and became fast friends.
What was the inspiration behind Codek records and how did it start?
In 1996, Sasa and I wanted to grasp without anybody's interference what we had in mind musically and visually so we founded Codek Records in the East Village 29 years ago while selling records at a fleamarket….amazing how time flies!
What has been your biggest hit and what do you think is the biggest overlooked release you did?
Our biggest hit was appropriately named "Business Acumen" (spotify) and I just talked to Sasa about this; our 30 year label anniversary is coming up and we intend to pick 30 favourite tracks from our back catalog for an anniversary release.
Oooo, I can't wait for that. I love Business Acumen - very much my driving disco sound. Were you at all involved with the Organic Grooves parties? I remember they were held in the belly of the Frying Pan which was a boat anchored off of a pier in Chelsea. The boat is still there, but no more club of course.
Organic Grooves was Sasa (my partner in In Flagranti) weekly party and music production: I just did the graphics for that project like CD covers, party flyers and some wonderful bold silkscreen posters.
Thanks Alex for the awesome interview. And below is a link to buy the mix, listen to a snippet from the mix and a few tracks. My fav track has to be the sped up Cumbia track - Cumbia De Sal from 1979. But Alex in good ole Smylonylon style doesn't play it at original speed :)
El Toston de Chucha - DJ Gloor mix 8/2024 (bandcamp)
Clip from Mix
CUMBIA EN MOOG - Cumbia De Sal (special Alex Gloor version) (discogs)
JAGUAR - Disco Libero 1978
