A Disco Manifesto
On the dancefloor, disco unfolds as a rite of freedom and celebration, intertwined with discovery and communion — a living tapestry where our authentic stories transcend time and circumstance.
Beyond the Beat: Reclaiming the Heart of Disco
In The Afterlife, Barton presents a disco manifesto that challenges the prevailing currents of contemporary electronic music without dismissing them. This project stands as both artistic statement and cultural intervention — a bridge between eras, genres, and emotional landscapes that have become increasingly disconnected in modern music production.
Born from a collection of carefully transformed classics, The Afterlife is not simply a collection of covers, but a philosophical exploration: it is disco as a unified field, where the steady pulse becomes the heartbeat of love’s permanence amid the shifting sands of circumstance. Here, the dancefloor is not an escape from reality, but a sacred communal space where time collapses, memory becomes tangible, and we encounter the eternal now.
Just as these songs find new life through thoughtful reinterpretation, disco itself is resurrected — not as nostalgia but as a living force. The following ten principles outline a vision for disco’s continued evolution — not as a museum piece frozen in time, but as a vital, breathing art form capable of carrying our most profound emotions and stories into the future. Each principle serves as both critique and invitation, challenging us to create music that honours disco’s revolutionary spirit while forging new paths forward.
Emotional Depth Over Technical Efficiency
We reject the reduction of electronic music to its most technically efficient elements. A pulse without a heart is merely a metronome. Disco’s power lies in its ability to carry the full weight of our emotional reality — joy, longing, loss, and love — within the beat.
Translation as Resurrection
Songs never truly die; they enter an afterlife where their emotional essence can be channelled into new forms. Our role is not to replicate but to resurrect, , allowing the past to transform the present.
Authenticity to One's Musical Heritage
Create from your authentic connection to music's lineage. There is no single “correct” approach to disco — only honest ones.
Empowerment Over Escape
True transformation comes not from avoiding difficult emotions and experiences but from embracing them alongside moments of celebration. By bearing witness to our full experience — both shadow and light — we discover the power within ourselves. The dancefloor is not where we flee from reality, but where we claim ownership of it and find the strength to transform it.
The Afterlife as Eternal Present
We create not to retreat into the past but to bring its life-giving waters into our present moment, ensuring that what seemed lost continues to transform those who encounter it. The Afterlife is not a destination, but an ongoing state — a unified field where love outlasts the circumstances.
Narrative Over Repetition
We embrace the complete emotional journey—tension, build, climax, and release — rather than isolated emotional states endlessly looped. Each track is a story, not a loop.
The Bridge as Political Act
Building connections between seemingly disparate musical worlds models how bridges might be built in other domains. This is not nostalgia but necessary cultural work.
Archetypes as Living Forces
The disco pulse, the narrative arc, the emotional journey — these elements speak to something essential about how we process experience through art. They are not relics but renewable resources.
The Dancefloor as Sacred Space
The communal experience of music through dance is not mere entertainment but a form of collective transcendence - — a liminal space where individual identities dissolve, and we encounter love’s permanence amid changing circumstances.
Expressive Freedom Within Form
The constraints of disco's architecture create the very conditions for expressive freedom. Rather than limiting creativity, thoughtful structure provides the foundation that allows authentic expression to flourish.
Self Control — where you lose yourself.
Warm Leatherette —where you find yourself.
The duality IS HERE.
