Up to not so long ago, the return of the disco trend seemed to be just an impossible dream of the disco crazed fans or a sneaky suspicion of the electro music connoisseurs. But it is happening right now: The dead&buried disco has risen from the grave and is back on the dance floor. Fortunately, not everything that was totally disco is back to haunt us: the horrifying fashion must-haves of that age (men's white disco suit and the gowns that resembled an explosion in a florist's shop) are no longer a threat to common sense and John Travolta's (Saturday Night Fever or Pulp Fiction) dance routine shall forever be exiled inside the TV set.

The items that are back are mainly look-related: the Farah Fawcett hair-do, the big&round sunglasses, and most visible of all the resurrected disco avatars, the disco ball, with its mosaic of mirrors. The strangest thing is that the music the Charlie's Angels look-alike women and the Miami Vice-style sunglasses wearing men listen to in the clubs is disco… but not quite disco...

Depending on their personal preferences, the artists and music reviewers call it electro-disco, disco-revival, nu-disco or disco-house, but in fact it is just electronic disco-flavored music, that can as well be labeled as progressive, electro-pop or even trance.

The first visible (and audible) disco resurrection took place in 2000, when former pop girl sensation Kylie Minogue re-invented herself with the Light Years album that was "easy", electronic, very vocal-based music perfect for dancing and having fun... so it was a huge (and totally well deserved success). But disco wasn't back in the biz so easy... the first years of the new millennia were ruled by electro-clash, brand new (I mean as brand new as anything can get in today's music) that was more electro than dance or disco.

Artists such as Miss Kitten or Felix the House Cat are as electro-clash as it gets and use and display the essential show-off of the disco era: shallowness, self-sufficiency, glamor&glitter, strong neon colors.

Besides electro-clash's schizoid sequel to the '80's, another strange phenomenon occurs: artists that had nothing in common with the disco vibe&style suddenly change course and their music collides with the disco. The results are spectacular: Goldfrapp`s cinematic eerie trip hop-ish dark sound changes into decadent 30's cabaret flavored electro-clash that some call nu-disco. The British duo even goes further, their third album, Supernature, does not only sound like disco, it also stresses out the disco imagery: the video-clips contain dance routines similar to Olivia Newton John's Let's Get Physical, the outfits are just flashy, flamboyant half-men half-animal creatures appear, and Alison Goldfrapp rides a mirror-mosaic-covered horse.

The new disco influence reaches even the far North, where the Swedish group Alice in Videoland create their music as they were living in the '80's and Royksopp give up the ambiental, downtempo feeling in favor of a 100% retro disco album, The Understanding.

In the second half of 2005, Madonna proves, beyond any shadow of a doubt that disco is back: the first single of her latest album, Hung Up is built up around a very expensive (the singer paid 7 million $ to use an) Abba Sample from Gimme, Gimme.

With the disco look&attitude, Madonna's Confessions on a Dancefloor, Scissor Sisters' self-titled debut album and Fisherspooner's Odyssey mark the uprising of the new disco... enjoy it while it lasts.