When the Club Sound Changed: MP’s Disco Top 15 Part 6 – Late 80s Dance & Early House
By the end of 1987, dance music was changing fast. Funk, electro and polished dance-pop were still filling the floor, but drum machines, samples, jack tracks and the first waves of House and Hip House were pushing club music somewhere new. MP’s Disco Top 15 Part 6 captures that crossover almost as it happened.
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If Part 5 was the high-energy peak, MP’s Disco Top 15 Part 6 is where things start getting tougher, funkier and more rhythm-driven. It is the sound of the late-80s dancefloor in transition: established funk and R&B rubbing shoulders with sampling, electro, jackin’ beats and the rapidly developing House sound.
The opening stretch says plenty about where club music was heading. Wee Papa Girl Rappers and the ’88 remix of I Want You Back lead into “Pick Up The Pieces” by B.E.W.A.R.E. featuring Toni Scott. From there, Simon Harris, Jack Factory, Project Club, Bam Bam and Kraze take the mix deeper into the raw acid house sound that was rapidly becoming impossible to ignore.
Then the borders start disappearing altogether. Sample-heavy productions sit next to dance-funk, New Jack Swing and soulful club records. Bomb The Bass, Pebbles, Johnny Kemp, The Brothers Johnson and Narada Michael Walden all belong on the same dancefloor, even though they came at it from very different directions.
That is what makes this period so interesting. Nobody had neatly divided everything into genres yet. DJs simply played records that worked. Part 6 is another snapshot of that short but hugely influential period when 80s dance music was turning into the club culture of the 90s.
Turn it up and go back to the point where the old school was becoming the new school.
- Tracklist:
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1. Wee Papa Girl Rappers - Faith -
2. Michael Jackson With The Jackson 5 - I Want You Back '88 Remix -
3. B.E.W.A.R.E. featuring Toni Scott - Pick Up The Pieces -
4. Simon Harris - Bass (How Low Can You Go?) -
5. Was (Not Was) - Spy In The House Of Love -
6. Jack Factory - Jackin' James -
7. Project Club - How Low Can You Go? -
8. Bam Bam - Give It To Me -
9. Kraze - The Party -
10. Roger - Thrill Seekers -
11. Bomb The Bass - Beat Dis -
12. Pebbles - Mercedes Boy -
13. Nia Peeples - Trouble -
14. Johnny Kemp - Just Got Paid -
15. The Brothers Johnson - Kick It To The Curb -
16. Narada Michael Walden - Divine Emotions -
17. Dale - Simon Simon -
18. Will Downing - A Love Supreme -
19. Thomas Dolby - Airhead -
20. Princess and Starbreeze - Baby It's Over - DJ Bio: Marko got infected by the music virus at a young age, listening to the top 40 and Ferry Maat’s soul show. He played school parties at 12 years old, was a DJ at a pirate radio station, started playing in discos at 16, and got booked for his first international gig at 17 years old. His passion for telling a story and his ambition of taking the audience on a journey does not make him the most accessible, but more of an acquired taste. His mix tapes became quite popular both in Holland and abroad. Now through the magic of the Nakamichi, we can enjoy those sounds again like they were recorded yesterday.
- What track takes you straight back to the late-80s dancefloor? Was it the funk, New Jack Swing, Hip House or those first raw House records? Leave a comment and let us know!