Feel the Music

A much-loved and missed figure in house music, Johnson created a superb discography before his untimely passing in 2021. He was known internationally for his massive international piano-house hit “Get Get Down” in 1999, but as his 1996 album amply demonstrates, he’d already been producing super-charged, dancefloor-friendly, jacking Chicago house before worldwide stardom. A producer with a diverse house musical range, he could effortlessly turn out the rawest, sleaziest underground tracks as well as popular crossover hits, but this particular album showcased Johnson’s melodic, disco-flavoured side. It’s a series of club-targeted Chicago House tunes built around solid, overdriven kick drums and crisp, crunchy percussion that underpin chopped, looped and filtered disco samples, along with whatever synth, sample and effects magic he worked in his studio. It’s a straightforward, uncomplicated formula, and as ever with these things, generic music can be superb if you’re one of the expert exponents of it, and that’s what you get with Johnson’s Feel The Music, an expert exponent, unashamedly and confidently doing what he does very well.