Photo by Christian Belgaux

Starter offers introductions to artists, scenes, styles, or labels of the past, plus a playlist.

Nearing a decade on from his earliest singles, Norway’s Terje Olsen is finally readying his debut full-length, It’s Album Time. But in the dance music underground, Olsen is better known for his releases under a string of cheeky nom de produce, be it Tangoterje, Chuck Norris, Pitbullterje, Wade Nichols (a reference to the birth name of 70s porn stud-turned-disco crooner Dennis Parker), or—in deference to New York house master Todd Terry—Todd Terje. He built his reputation on the strength of a dizzying, shadowy portfolio of singles, remixes, and unofficial “disco edits” that have powered dancefloors from New York to Norway, Tokyo to Slovenia.

The expert craftsmanship found on Terje's original productions is a result of all those years spent splicing together disco edits—isolating and reveling in a track’s finest aural treasures and extending them to infinity. Or, as disco edit maestro Prince Language once put it to me, the edit fulfills “the wish you always have when you hear something great: you want it to continue, you don’t want it to stop.”

The disco edit has been around as long as modern dance music itself, with the man who helped invent disco, producer Tom Moulton, carefully splicing magnetic tape on master recordings of Philly Soul in the early 70s in order to isolate the most body-moving moments of a song. The greatest DJs of the disco era, from Larry Levan to Francis Grasso to François Kevorkian, all used their own personal edits of popular dance tracks to stamp the music with their own sensibilities. And that tradition carried on to the 80s, with house/acid/techno DJs like Ron Hardy, Frankie Knuckles, and Carl Craig all tweaking and whetting their favorite dancefloor weapons to a sharp edge. Yet the edit fell out of fashion soon after, replaced by remixes and the like.

In the early 2000s, though, the technique once again became a DJ’s best friend on the strength of disco edits from the likes of Theo Parrish, Moodymann, DJ Harvey, and the Idjut Boys, enchanting a new generation of dancers. In the hands of a master like Todd Terje, the recognizable was suddenly rendered mysterious. Yes, one might trainspot a song by Michael Jackson or the Bee Gees, or snap to that "Knight Rider" synth line, but was that labyrinth of echoing percussion in the original? Did that sweet stab of symphonic strings really go on and on? Were those telltale vocals always that trippy and psychedelic? Can just four bars of an old disco song become as body-melting as a jacuzzi soak?

In its finest expression, the disco edit is disinformation, a way to scramble the signal of the familiar into something uncanny, a means by which to mis-remember the past, to pull a switcheroo on memory, to suggest parallel dimensions to its dancers. And no one was better at tweaking tracks both known and obscure—or applying such skills to his own remixes—than Todd Terje. Around 2010, he started to focus on his own productions more and more, moving on from the disco edit, perhaps never to return. But the following is a selection of choice Terje remixes and edits from 2004-2009.

Todd Terje: “Reinbagan”

Terje’s start seemed auspicious enough: His debut “Eurodans” single was slated to come out on the Soul Jazz imprint in November 2004. But there was a fall-out along the way, and the single was pulled, with only a handful of promo copies entering into the world. While the A-side saw release the next year on fellow kosmiche-disco countryman Prins Thomas’ label, the B-side “Reinbagan” only cropped up on compilations. With a slow, cavernous metallic beat, Terje and Thomas screw down the hen’s-tooth-rare disco single “Don’t Let This Rainbow Pass Me By” and overlay a melodica line, suggesting a sweet spot in-between disco, dub reggae, and highly melodic pop that Terje would continue to inhabit.

Todd Terje: “Bodies”

The first time Terje appeared on wax was on this 2004 split with Akwaaba, remixed by Prins Thomas yet again. Already, so much of Terje’s template is in place: that disco-stomp beat, a bassline limber enough to touch its toes, Copa Ca-bananas amounts of percussion, even a dubbed out Robert Plant mewl at this track’s caramel core.

Bee Gees: “You Should Be Dancin” (Todd Terje Edit)

When the DFA celebrated their 12th anniversary last year at Brooklyn’s “distinctly elegant” Grand Prospect Hall, James Murphy’s set waltzed through crowd pleasers of the early 21st century, reaching a peak when the fidgeting upstrokes of guitar and filtered synths of this ecstatic edit of the Bee Gees’ Studio 54 screamer emerged in the mix. An outright classic in its own right, Terje proves the beauty of a great disco edit: He holds back the falsettos, instead letting the bass, symphonic strings and incessant rhythm sway in open space, only letting the hook creep in after nearly four minutes.

Chris Rea: “On the Beach” (Todd Terje Edit)

Todd Terje’s penchant for smooth jazz verges on the “step-dad” variety, as evinced on his edit of UK silk sheet guitarist Chris Rea, whose licks are for folks who find the likes of Sade to be too edgy. Hailing from Norway, there’s always this sense of Vitamin D at the base of Terje’s productions, as if they might radiate sunshine during the darkness winters. Here, the producer takes the supremely Balearic title track from Rea’s 1986 album, gently pulls at the parameters, and makes it perfect for a hammock in a Corona commercial.

Double: “Woman of the World” (Todd Terje Tangoterje Edit)

The elegant 80s Swiss pop duo Double may erroneously scan as one-hit wonders stemming from their inescapable 1985 single “The Captain of Her Heart”, but the year prior, they released an Ibiza staple in “Woman of the World”. It doesn’t really need any major surgery, but Terje’s scalpel is deft and playful. He loops “don’t you play that conga” as a slurred trombone slides around the hand drums, before swan diving into the track properly.

KC & the Sunshine Band: “I Get Lifted” (Todd Terje Edit)

No matter where you are in the country, turn on any Golden Oldies station and KC & the Sunshine Band are almost certain to be on at that exact moment, with hits like “(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty,” “Get Down Tonight”, or “Boogie Shoes” acting like a trepanning device on your evening commute. It’s rare to hear their version of the George McRae hit “I Get Lifted” though. Again, there’s seemingly not much that the song needs, but at only three minutes, its groove ends right as it gets going, so Terje teases the guitar lick and organ riff, loops KC’s “chk-ah-chk-aaaahhhh” into a mantra, and lets that shuffle go on for twice as long, making it a floor-filler.

Michael Jackson: “I Can’t Help It” (Todd Terje Rekutt)

A deep cut on an album that sold more than 20 million copies, the dreamy Quiet Storm of “Can’t Help It” might be familiar to even the most casual of MJ fans. Audition Todd Terje’s expansive edit and it might even seem just like the original. But was there that alacrity in the tempo? Did its electric organ always feel this weightless? Did the snare and high-hat have that slink? And was there always a corridor in the middle section that led into a cavernous wonderland of clanging, ecstatic, echoing drums? Or is it all just a disco dream?

Isaac Hayes: “Zeke the Freak” (Todd Terje Rekutt)

Terje’s love of spidery, hurrying funk organ knows no bounds (there are at least three Terje edits celebrating Stevie Wonder’s left hand). He accentuates both the church and brothel tones of it on this melted-butter disco from Hayes. Hear how Terje brightens everything with the horns, a precursor to the upward shifts of singles like “Inspector Norse” and “Strandbar”.

Paul Simon: “Diamonds Dub” (Todd Terje Tangoterje Dub Remix)

The same week that Paul Simon fanboys Grizzly Bear released Yellow House in 2006, Terje also paid tribute to Rhymin’ Simon. Or rather Rhythmin’ Simon. This edit turns the Graceland single into an epic as shimmering as the diamonds themselves. A career highlight, Terje skips rope through a rainstorm of dubbed-out Afro drums and Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s celestial voices.

Chic: “I Want Your Love” (Todd Terje Edit)

Five years before a pair of robots hitched their wagons to Nile Rodgers’ sleek inverted chordings, Todd Terje took an upstroke or two from this well-known Chic hit and dilated it for over seven minutes (though he has no Grammy to show for his work). Running that guitar riff through every sort of FX imaginable (showing a lineage that runs from François K.’s early 80s dubs through Kenny Dixon Jr.’s playful and funky edits), Terje then uses that angelic vocal of “I can’t kick this feeling when it hits” as a garland. An exceptional rework of a disco classic, like adding a mink interior to a Rolls Royce.

Canned Heat: “Wanda Rode Again” (Wade Nichols Edit)

Using the surname of Wade Nichols, Terje contributed this cheeky disco edit to RVNG Intl.’s Rvng of the Nrds vinyl series. One side has him doing little more than adding a kick to America’s “Horse With No Name” (perhaps the most intentionally lazy yet oddly effective edit ever) while the flip reveals that this droning, skuzzy roadhouse chugger from Canned Heat could move the shiny-shirt crowd at New York’s Cielo, too.

Gichy Dan's Beachwood No 9: “On a Day Like Today” (Todd Terje Edit)

The suited swagger of Todd Terje owes a great debt to the zoot-suited disco stylings of August Darnell (in addition to the tropical feel that permeates even the most Italo of Terje’s beats). Perhaps it makes sense then that Darnell has spent the last 20 years living in Scandinavia, as his sunshower-infused tracks are revered in the hinterlands of Norway. Whether it was as a member of Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band or as Kid Creole, Darnell re-imagined 70s disco and 80s pop as a 40s musical with Carmen Miranda front and center, and Terje pays tribute to his faux-tropic roots with this edit/remix, a swaying track that emphasizes those joyous kid choruses.

José Gonzalez: “Killing for Love” (Todd Terje Brokeback Mix)

This early remix for Swedish-Argentinean folk singer José Gonzalez shows how the nu-disco don could take almost anything and run it through his Balearic Machine to sublime effect. As the gentle nylon string guitar gets a bit more muscle and the subliminal bass and hand percussion is pushed forward, the concise tune turns cosmic, dialating to three times its length. The coup is how Terje recasts Gonzalez’s Cat(nap) Stevens vocals as if he’s a lost member of the Alan Parsons Project.

Studio: “Life’s a Beach” (Todd Terje Beach House Mix)

While the Swedish duo of Dan Lissvik and Rasmus Hägg made but one album as Studio before parting ways, they nailed a crepuscular-yet-mid-afternoon beach vibe on their West Coast album from 2007, equal parts Sade, the Cure and Ashra. For remixing “Life’s a Beach”, Terje conjures, yes, a beach—albeit one abutting cliffs, everything bouncing and echoing to the point of mesmerism.

Dølle Jølle: “Balearic Incarnation” (Todd Terje’s Extra Doll Mix)

With a beat less than a mile away from the one on Chris Rea’s “On the Beach”, this edit finds Terje once again soundtracking how a change in latitude means a change in attitude. For remixing his friend Jørn Georg Sannes Knutsen’s lone track as Dølle Jølle, Terje resorts to his usual tricks: the synched handclaps and closed hats, the synths that are echoplexed and stretched like taffy, giving the backdrop an increasingly psychedelic swirl, allowing the melodies (and those ethereal wordless voices) to carefully waft higher and higher. There are many such Terje remixes that move similarly—between Italo-disco and house, between Balearic and disco—yet something intangible gives this track a truly sublime feel.