Carl Carlton - Dance With You (1982)

One look at the year should tell you that this is a special track. 1982 completely predates digital synths completely, yet the entire backbone of this insanely infectious track is synth bass mixed fat and prominently. It's also played live, by a real player, which I can not stress enough how much I enjoy.

This is a track that is enjoyable on it's own. I am sure even if there were a real bass player this would still be a banger. But the fact that it has synth bass mixed right along side a real brass section for example, really just takes it over the top for me. That is a reverence and respect for the sound that is completely gone now. a track like this becomes an embodiment of that era. it's essentially still 70s funk mentality and even mixing techniques, just with 80s tech. Synth bass and vocoders? What a wondrous era to have been making music, haha. Those poor recording engineers though. They all had no idea how to record that stuff, which makes every track and every artist just that much more distinct sounding. So much today sounds like it came from the same studio. Same techniques.

With a name like Carl Carlton, you know it's not gunna let you down.