M - Pop Musik (12" Full Length Disco Mix)

M - Pop Musik (Full Length Disco Mix) / 12 Inch Extended Remix (HQ Audio)

M was the studio project of Croydon-born musician Robin Scott.

He chose the name to deflect attention from himself and present the act as a conceptual collaboration, bringing together a range of musicians. The letter itself isn’t intended to mean anything specific, though the idea was partly inspired by Scott’s time living in Paris during the 1970s, where metro stations are marked with large 'M' signs.

This conceptual approach aligned with the sort of ideas he had been exposed to while attending Croydon Art College in the 1960s, where he studied alongside Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood.

In the early 1970s, McLaren and Westwood invited Scott to join their now-legendary fashion store SEX on the King's Road in London. Scott declined, choosing instead to focus on his music career.

Though this pioneering synth track was far and away his biggest hit, Scott’s earlier musical output had been very different.

His first album, released in 1969, was backed by the progressive rock band Mighty Baby. He also spent several years performing at folk clubs alongside the likes of John Martyn, Ralph McTell and a young David Bowie. Scott even worked briefly as a singer-songwriter at Bowie’s Beckenham Arts Lab.

In 1978, he co-founded Do It Records, which released the debut LP by Adam and the Ants. While producing a punk track by The Slits, a friend suggested he try writing a hit of his own.

Scott developed Pop Muzik as a homage to 25 years of pop, also recognising how disco had recently emerged as a unifying global sound. He had initially imagined the track in an R&B or funk style, but remembered that a friend, John Lewis, had a state-of-the-art studio in Covent Garden. Scott travelled from Paris to record a parts for a synth version of the track there.

He described the recording process as piecemeal, with elements recorded by different musicians in different locations, then assembled at his own studio in Paris.

The song’s main hook was delivered by Scott’s partner Brigitte Vinchon, whom he had met in a Paris nightclub. “She was the last dancer on the floor. I asked her to sing ‘Pop, pop, pop muzik’ like the Andrews Sisters, so she put down a four-part harmony one by one.”

The recording also featured Scott’s brother Julian on bass, keyboardist Wally Badarou (later part of the Island Records in-house team, working with Grace Jones, Tom Tom Club and Mick Jagger), drummer Phil Gould (who went on to join Level 42), and saxophonist Gary Barnacle (who played with The Clash and appeared on numerous hit records in the 1980s and 1990s).

Pop Muzik shot to the top of the charts – #1 in the US and #2 in the UK.

Though originally intended as a throwaway pop single, the track has endured. It opened U2’s PopMart tour in 1997, was covered by industrial metal band Powerman 5000 in 2011, and has been remixed and re-released numerous times.

The 12-inch single is a unique affair.

Side A features a rare "double-groove" cut – two separate tracks run parallel on the disc, so when the needle is dropped, it randomly plays either Pop Muzik or a different track titled M Factor.

The flip side, referred to as the "seaside" (a play on C-side), is more conventional, containing only the Full Length Disco Mix, the longer and louder version that is featured here.

Year: 1979 Label: MCA Cat no: 12MCA413