Disco Circus: The Unexpected Dance Anthem of Martin Circus
From French Progressive Rock to Surf Covers to Global Dance Floors, a Band That Did It All
I really do keep meaning to make all of these music pieces shorter, but when I start looking into some of the songs, I find it fascinating and then I’m down another rabbit hole. Really, I wonder if some of these careers could even happen like this anymore.
Martin Circus is one of those bands. I have no idea where the name comes from, for example. It doesn’t seem connected to anything else. But their biggest hit, without question, was “Disco Circus.”
Martin Circus - Disco Circus (1977, remixed 1984)
"Disco Circus" by Martin Circus is a disco anthem breaking away from almost anything else that they’d ever done, covering a broad range from surf rock pop and surreal prog rock pieces, to some disco and even new wave. In 1977, they released an over 14 minute track of extended grooves, intricate arrangements with a hypnotic bassline that became their biggest hit. It’s almost hard to believe that the same band recorded any of the other songs.
“Disco Circus” epitomizes the late '70s and early '80s disco era, even acting as a bridge, then remixed by fellow Frenchman in NYC, François K, for a renewed dance floor revival after crowding dance floors in the city for 6 years.
The track was a constant staple in clubs like Chicago's WBMX and New York's Paradise Garage. The mid-point breakdown inspired decades of DJs.
François K (François Kevorkian), a French DJ & producer living in NYC at the time, remixed and releveled "Disco Circus." He then and pressed a limited vinyl series shared only with select DJs, including Larry Levan and David Mancuso. With a deeper groove clear in the remix with more isolated vocals, the version became legendary - again.
Disco Circus was Martin Circus’s biggest hit, but they did have others, including some covers of The Beach Boys and Surf City by Jan & Dave.
Martin Circus’s other music
“Drague Party,” (drague means flirting, more or less) their version of Surf City, was released in the same year: 1977. The same band; the same year. Wows.
It also seems like every gram of their energy went into coordinating dance moves: there is no effort to make it look like they are playing those instruments.
The year before, they released another Beach Boys cover, sort of, of “I Get Around.”
Same song, but a stranger video.
Nothing seems to have changed about the band through all of the genre switches: it’s all the same members, all the same producer. The only thing that changed for this disco set was a new keyboardist, but he had worked on other tracks in the years before and after.
In 1971, they released the prog track "Je m'éclate au Sénégal,” which is their 3rd most played track on Spotify, or “I’m having a blast in Senegal” with a video about Senegal that seems to avoid having any black people in it at all… And, like a lot of prog, it gets experimental and a bit strange.
This band is stylistically either enormously flexible and talented without any A&R types directing them or they were wildly chasing hits.
I think it was the first.
If you pay close attention to their version of Barbara Ann, for example, you have a kind of funky drum and bassline that’s a bit more interesting than the original and foreshadows some disco potential. Like many bands that ventured into disco, whatever genre they did before it was nothing like it.
Most French folks seem to know this song from Babybel cheese ads over the years.
Martin Circus did a few more disco tracks after “Disco Circus.” “Shine Baby Shine” came out the following year and wasn’t a global hit, but was popular in France. Today, “Shine Baby Shine” has about 40,000 plays on Spotify to “Disco Circus” at 3,000,000.
And then “Number One Woman” in 1979 including some kind of Bee Gees notes.