1980: Lofts (Patreon)

In the 2001 poll, the draft name for the bracket with the electroclash stuff in was “Hipster Nightclub”. Something similar applies here - this is my hindsight-infected idea of what a particularly chic NYC party might have been playing. A conception I then immediately abused by dropping Paul McCartney in. He just points up the anachronism involved, though - the quirky electronica of McCartney II is now probably the hippest thing he ever did post-1970, but did it land that way among 1980 bohemians? I doubt it.

In the “Party” write-up I was critical of the idea of ‘post-disco’, but some of the tracks in these groups fit the idea better - what happens when disco stops aiming for mass appeal and goes in other directions. Not weirder ones - a music as voracious as disco will always have room for weirdness - but something like Coati Mundi’s “Me No Pop I” feels more aggressively, consciously, outsider-ish than disco had been. Arthur Russell’s Loose Joints nom-de-production turn up too with both mixes of “Is It All Over My Face”, similar ideas but with different emphases.

Famous people drift through this imaginary party, trying on new things. Studio 54 diva Grace Jones adopts dub with the imperious “Private Life”, Debbie Harry goofs around with rap’s liberating cadences, David Byrne and a balding friend stand in the corner talking African percussion. Daryl Hall is here, without his record company’s approval. And this is one of the many places Prince finds a home, with “Uptown”, one of Dirty Mind’s funkiest cuts.

Plenty of the tracks here could fit into other groups - Sylvia Striplin and Eighties Ladies could have easily dropped into the Funk bracket, for instance. But there’s always something about them - some shimmer of cool - which puts them here too.

POTENTIAL WINNER: Ultimately I think most of the tracks here will be pushed out by more populist numbers from the same acts - but assuming it gets out of its group the giddy fun of “Rapture” should make a very strong run through the competition.

DARK HORSE: There’s not an awful lot of Italo in the poll, but Kano’s spacey, robo-voxed “I’m Ready” is addictively catchy and well-placed to escape this bracket and perhaps make it further in.

BEST TRACK: I remember being gobsmacked when I learned “Private Life” was a cover version - Grace Jones’ steely, surgical disdain is so absolutely her. And even in a tournament with a lot of dubby tracks which sound amazing, its sound design is phenomenal.

DISCOVERY: Sandii’s “ZOOT KOOK” is a gem - from the Japanese artist’s YMO-produced LP, it’s charmingly aqueous electro-disco with an ethereal, almost shoegazey vocal.

DON’T MISS: Sylvester was the master of the disco cover, and his big-band style take on “Cry Me A River” is quite something. I don’t know if I like it yet, but I’m very glad it’s here.