Fingers Inc Featuring Chuck Roberts: Can You Feel It

Desire Records 1988.  WANTX 6

Discogs

Fingers Inc, Mr Fingers or any number of other aliases involving Fingers was a nom de groove of Larry Heard, house music pioneer.  This is the best known version of his best known track; an absolute classic slab of deep house.  Heard himself didn’t approve of this version because he didn’t like sampling without permission – but it didn’t stop it becoming huge.  This track though goes beyond sampling.  It takes Heard’s original track with it’s monster bassline and superimposes a spoken word piece by Chuck Roberts where he’s talking about the significance of house music in an almost biblical way.  The combination is much more than the sum of its parts.  What works less well are the samples from a live Jacksons album, but they’re no more than occasional embellishments.

The B side is a bit odd.  Chuck Roberts’ words stripped of backing just sound absurd.  Better to ignore the words and concentrate on the mood.  When Chuck stops talking and the music kicks in it works rather better but doesn’t bear much relation to the A side.

I’ve got quite a few singles on this label and I’m a particular fan of the covers.  It’s not just the design, which to me is an icon of late 80s house music, it’s because of how they’re made.  It’s an old record cover turned inside out and re-glued.  I guess it was done to save cash, but printing on the wrong side of the card gives them a weird matt finish which works really well with the art work.