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Zafsmusic.com continues to bring you the rarest disco & boogie bangers with his new compilation titled "Private Wax" Vol 1. 15 scintillating excursions into the deep disco & boogie world of privately pressed & produced gems. Zaf Zafsmusic is a disco weasel of the highest order. He has, by his own admission, got it bad--losing sleep and suffering physical maladies from the want of certain must-have pieces of stamped vinyl. Fortunately, he also has excellent taste and a lengthy history of wheeling and dealing with other similarly afflicted individuals, a history that has allowed him to sift the wheat from the crap, err, chaff, as it were. As a long-time staffer of the notorious Reckless Records on Berwick Street, a hotbed of vinyl commerce in the Soho section of London, these skills were no doubt put to the test on a daily basis when dealing with the continuous influx of hustlers hoping to offload their by-and-large worthless wax at the shop. Faced with this parade of the common and shoddy, it takes a keen eye to single out the precious stones buried in the seemingly endless expanse of decent-but-ordinary (not to mention the middling-to-awful) records that comprise most collections. Our stalwart selector has also travelled an even more treacherous terrain: the world of online sellers. Without recounting any gory digital battle stories, suffice it to say that the online world inhabited by some vinyl obsessives is a rather scary place. It is without any sarcasm that I offer my sincere gratitude to Zaf for the yeoman's work he has put in discovering the tunes herein.

So, while I still encourage all neophyte disco enthusiasts to get themselves a firm grounding in the classics before attempting to swim in the uncharted waters of small-label, independent releases, if you are ready to do so then Zaf is your man. Like some ancient mariner of disco, with this collection he has artfully navigated from haven to haven, avoiding the immense Sargasso Seas of mediocrity that threaten to bog down the adventurous record digger.

Take, for example, "Smooth Talk" by Mr. Fox. A deservedly scarce early rap tune (the vocal is not going to give Melle Mel a run for his money) that unexpectedly reveals a mesmerizing instrumental groove on the flip side, it is a "Party Track" indeed. Another perfect party track is the offering from Special Touch, a midtempo sureshot that in this case has just the right amount of rap to work. Gregory Jolly's sassy "What'Em Doing Is My Business" takes its bass line inspiration from James Brown, and turns it into a slap- happy, southern-fried sizzler. And I defy anyone to turn their nose up at Chuck Strong's delicious take on the Willie Hutch penned boogie standard made famous by Gwen McRae, "Doin' It." If something more uptempo is your speed, try the frantic "Freex" -- which Zaf gives us in the preferred 7-inch version. The selections even touch on early house music, via the Mickey "Mixin'" Oliver (one- fifth of Chicago's legendary Hot Mix 5 DJ crew) version of 94 East's "If You Feel Like Dancin'." Especially enchanting is the virtually unknown Philadelphia Brite, whose "Never Leave Me And I'll Never Leave You" marries its sweet sentiment with an absolutely titanic mid-song disco break.

But enough of the song-by-song breakd wn, Zaf has done a fine job of that already. Taken as a whole, this compilation is perfect party material, filled with feel-good tunes that take things back to that simple love of music that enticed us all in the first place. Zaf deserves our thanks for making his private wax public.