Chez Damier's "Can You Feel It" is one of those records that doesn't need an introduction if you've spent any real time on a deep house dancefloor. Thirty-four years after it first surfaced, Balance is putting it back on wax on November 27, and this time Underground Resistance gets to put their hands on it.
What's actually on the record?
The 12" (cat. no. B0001) runs four versions across two sides. Side A keeps the original "Can You Feel It" alongside the New York Dub, where MK (Marc Kinchen, the man behind the original dub decades ago) is credited for the remix and additional production. Side B is the new piece of the puzzle: Underground Resistance supply both a Club Mix and a Radio Active Mix, according to the release copy on ColdCuts // HotWax's product page. Both versions are confirmed on Juno Records' listing for the same pressing, with the November 27 date and Balance credit matching across both retailers.
Why does a Detroit crew remixing a Chicago record matter?
The lazy read is "Chicago meets Detroit," but Chez Damier's own history already blurs that line. He grew up dancing at Chicago's Warehouse, then moved to Detroit, where he co-owned the Music Institute club and recorded with Kevin Saunderson, whose label KMS put out the original "Can You Feel It" back in 1992. Chez Damier has spent his career standing in both cities at once, and Balance, the label he now runs as the sister imprint to Prescription Records (which he co-founded with Ron Trent in 1993), is the natural home for a reissue that puts Detroit's Underground Resistance on the back half of a Chicago deep house standard.
Underground Resistance supply the Club Mix and Radio Active Mix on side B.
That's not a vague pairing for collectors. Underground Resistance built its name on militant, stripped-down Detroit techno, so hearing that machinery applied to a gospel-tinged, piano-and-organ deep house vocal cut is exactly the kind of cross-pollination that made both cities' scenes what they are.
Who should actually care about this?
Anyone who already owns an original pressing probably isn't buying this for the A-side. The reissue earns its keep on side B, where two mixes that have been collector-only for years finally get a wide, affordable pressing attached to a record that shaped what deep house sounds like when it's played with any soul at all.
