One of the most interesting things to come out of the FAWM 2007 event last year was a “genre” called Strangle Disco. It originated as a challenge in an anagram-themed thread of the forums. More specifically, there was a long stream of posts anagramming “February Album Writing Month” into things like “Bring Beautiful Worm Hymn Art” or “I am the Flabby, Nurturing Worm.” At some point, someone (referring to all these anagrams) said: “Wow, those could all be lines in the same song. A very disturbing song!” To which Tim Wille (at that time a first-time fawmer) replied:

“May I suggest that the disturbing song is written in the disturbing genre “Strange Disco”? as “Wow, those could all be lines in the same song. A very disturbing song.” anagrams to “Beethoven's howlingly melodious new bass guitar 'n' Strangle Disco.” 10 points to anyone who writes a song that makes the above line make sense

This accidentally sparked a phenomenon within the community, generating 52 songs by the end of the month. Additionally, websites were launched, a brief “mythology” developed, and several of the tracks were later compiled into a ten-minute “dance megamix” featured as a bonus track on Volume 3 of the fawmpilation CD series (which is definitely worth hearing).

The time line above summarizes how things unfolded during FAWM 2007. The hallmark of Strangle Disco music is the fusion of classical samples (Beethoven preferred) with disco/dance/hip-hop beats. Finally, wordplay often features prominently in any lyrics (particularly anagrams and palindromes). Thematically, songs hover around sinister lyrics and references to Beethoven, bass guitars, and (naturally) discotheques.

Strangle Disco gave way to other songwriting games like crucio and explore the core in 2008, but this is a primer here for any new and confused fawmers by way of explanation. (The whole thing can seem a bit strange and inaccessible… and we try to avoid being too insular.) For more, visit http://myspace.com/strangledisco to listen to a few of last year's compositions, or http://strangledisco.com/history for an archive of the collaborative “mythology” (i.e., tongue-in-cheek history) that was begun. In addition, fawmer Jenna wrote an article that details three sub-genres: Experimental Strangle Disco, Post Strangle Disco, and Post-Apocalyptic Strangle Disco. (A work of true scholarship.)