Feel Like Dancing Riddim – Midnight Rock

Midnight Rock’s Feel Like Dancing riddim has that lean early-’80s groove that sits somewhere between rootsy pressure and dancehall’s sharper turn. The cut list keeps it tight: Anthony Johnson and Toyan on the title tune, Jah Thomas with “Dance In The Area, ” Ranking Toyan on “Proud At Me, ” plus Tristan Palmer’s “Raving” and the Roots Radics’ “Combination. ” Jah Thomas produced the set, and the lineup fits neatly with the label’s run of hard, bass-heavy one-riddim work from that period, where the arrangements leave plenty of room for the singers to ride the groove. Anthony Johnson’s later revisit to “Feel Like Dancing” on a different Midnight Rock rhythm only underlines how durable this song idea was for Thomas’s catalog.