I Tried To Walk, But How?

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Was (Not Was) - Tell Me That I'm Dreaming (Traditional 12" Remix)

Sympho State - You Know What I Like

For a bit now we haven't been able to stop playing 'ZE 30,' a compilation that came out a few months ago celebrating the 30th anniversary of New York no wave cult label ZE Records. The super-stylish label, run by Michael Zilkha and Michel Esteban (Z + E), was home to a totally eclectic array of artists like afrobeat-meets-post-punk French babe Lizzy Mercier Descloux and Latin-funk-pop goofball Kid Creole. The way ZE brought all these seemingly random artists together into a cohesive, avant-garde unit of funked-up weirdo disco-tized post-punk was fucking awesome, and we find it hard to think of a comparable label today (sorry).

Anyway we want to share two of our favorite tracks from the compilation, one you've maybe heard and one you maybe haven't. The first is Was (Not Was)' 1982 Reagan-sampling post-disco/funk track 'Tell Me That I'm Dreaming'... totally essential. The second is by a lesser known ZE artist, Sympho State, with a more traditional super-sexy disco number 'You Know What I Like' from '79. But it was seriously stressful trying to streamline our selection, and these honestly aren't a sufficient representation of how dope this comp, and ZE in general, is, so please just do yourself a favor and grab that shit if you haven't.