Warlord Part Two By The Immortals

Ultimate Warlord by The Immortals is a Canadian disco record that was released in 1979. Willi Morrison and Ian Guenther (The Immortals) were a prolific songwriting and production duo based in Toronto. They were basically studio wizards (or some may say nerds) with great wizarding skills.

A Ron Hardy Signature Track

Warlord Part II is the B Side of Ultimate Warlord. It might be the heaviest beatS of the 1970s disco era (before heavier house beats came in). Warlord Part II takes the already heavy beat of Ultimate Warlord, strips away other elements, and makes it even heavier. This is whay the B Side was a Ron Hardy favourite.

Warlord Part II was released in 1979, and Ron Hardy was already playing this before he became resident at the Music Box. He continued to play this track in the Music Box heyday, and the energy and intensity was perfect for his Music Box sets. This is a track that doesn't get old.

Warlord Part Two By The Immortals

The Canadian Disco Scene

Canadian disco deserves more credit than it gets in the history of house music. Canadian disco is sometimes confused with Italo disco because it often appears on Italo compilations. Canadian disco had a similar futurism to Italo, and it was popular across Europe, so the confusion is understandable.

Canadian disco wasn't just an imitation of Italo. Although there are stylistic similarities, Canadian disco had its own unique characteristics. Canadian electronic disco was slightly earlier but it was eclipsed by the Italo disco wave. The earliest Italo cosmic sound was actually a DJ scene, which makes the origins of Italo similar to those of house music, i.e. it was a DJ culture first. Many Italo producers copied the Canadian sound.

The Mix Tool As A Track

Putting the beat front and centre is one of the characteristics of Canadian disco. Canadian disco liked to emphasize heavy machine rhythms for maximum dancefloor impact. This makes Canadian disco one of the most important and overlooked influences on house music. Warlord Part II decentres the traditional elements of a disco track and puts a massive electronic pulse front and centre. Warlord Part II is almost house in its DJ utility focus. Another example of this style is The Break by Kat Mandu.

There was an interest in DJ mixing utility by Italo (e.g. Pink Project's mash up format) and also the USA (e.g. Mach) but I think Canadian disco pushed this DJ logic further than any other disco. House developed this logic further still, with bare bones drum tracks being a final product (e.g. 5A by Jesse Saunders or Don't Dis The Beat by Gherkin Jerks) and looped hooks being considered finished tracks (e.g. Shout by Jack Frost And The Circle Jerks). The extreme DJ utility of early house music proved that all you needed was a beat or a hook.

The centrality of DJ utility is one of the main discontinuities that separates house music from disco. It's not a coincidence that DJ utility is also one of the defining early characteristics of house music. Canadian disco was a big influence on house producers in the early days. All the big names in early house culture played Canadian disco, and Warlord Part II was championed by Ron Hardy at the Music Box.

It's an interesting tangent that DJ utility wasn't purely aesthetic in Chicago house music. It was also structural. Chicago created an early DJ scene that meant there was a market for DJ focussed tracks. Another factor is that disco was made with studio budgets, whereas early house was made in producers' homes. The economic and structural constraints of early house meant that it made a clean break with its disco roots and took the logic of DJ utility to its logical conclusion. Chicago producers didn't have studio budgets or major label expectations, but they had a scene that made releasing records viable, a drum machine maybe even a synth, and they knew how to make people dance.

The Canadian School For Wizards

You might assume that Canadian disco producers were DJs, like early house producers. That's not the case. The synth driven Canadian disco scene came from studio techies with a love for electronics and synths. The immortals had early access to synths and sequencers via their role as studio technicians. This allowed them to be at the cutting edge of electronic music, but it also prevented them from breaking free of studio conventions in the way that house did.