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Can You Feel ItMr. Fingers

Independently chosen for6 of our lists. Here is what each of them said.

Released
1986
Label
Trax
On
Chicago House, The Eighties, The Waxonia Desk — A Way In, The Waxonia Desk — In the Room, The Waxonia Desk — Looped and Filtered, and The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred
Updated
2026-08-29
Search Spotify (platform search — exact link pending) (opens in a new tab)YouTube Music (opens in a new tab)

Analysis

11 sections, no single moment the energy jumps to.

Tempo
112.3 BPM
holds throughout
Key
Ab minor
estimated from the pitch content
Dynamic range
3.4 dB
compressed hard — very little between the quiet and the loud
Phrase
8 bars
the length the arrangement is built on
Length
5:54
measured from the YouTube master

The record, end to end

energy
drums
bass
vocals
other
  1. 0:00Aintro0
  2. 0:18Bpeakbar 9
  3. 1:26Cbreakdownbar 41
  4. 2:00Bpeakbar 57
  5. 2:43Abreakdownbar 77*
  6. 3:09Bpeakbar 89
  7. 4:00Abreakdownbar 113
  8. 4:34Bpeakbar 129
  9. 4:51Bsteadybar 137
  10. 5:18Bsteadybar 149*
  11. 5:34Aoutrobar 157*

* starts between phrase lines rather than on one.

0:00 · A · intro

opens the record below its own average energy · instrumental · one of 4 stretches of the same music (A)

Lasts
0:18
Energy
35
Brightness
4
Density
100
  • drums
  • bass
  • vocals
  • other

Brightness and density are scored against this record's own sections, not against music in general — they say how its parts differ from each other, and nothing about how it compares to anything else.

Separated into parts by a source-separation model, so each lane is the instrument it names.

drums
the drum kit, separated from the mix
bass
the bass part, separated from the mix
vocals
the voice, separated from the mix
other
everything else — synths, guitars, keys, strings
intro
opens the record below its own average energy
peak
sits at the top of this record's range
breakdown
energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning
steady
holding a level — the groove, neither rising nor falling
outro
the closing fall
Every moment against every other. Squares on the diagonal are sections; a bright patch off it is the record recognising itself — the second chorus meeting the first.

Measured from the YouTube master on . Section labels describe how the energy of the recording moves, not its musical form — a machine can see loudness climb and jump, it cannot hear a chorus arrive. Anything we were not confident enough to state is left out rather than shown with a caveat.

  1. Ranked No. 1 in Chicago House

    Larry Heard played chords where everyone else played drums, and house acquired a soul in the same instant. Four minutes that the next forty years of dance music are still unpacking.

  2. Picked by The Eighties

    Trax pressed on recycled vinyl and paid almost nobody, which is a real part of the story and not a footnote. It also put out the record that defines house, made by one man in an apartment on borrowed equipment.

  3. Picked by The Waxonia Desk — A Way In

    House music at its most elemental: a bassline, a hi-hat and an enormous amount of patience. Every four-to-the-floor record made since is arguing with this one, whether or not it knows it.

  4. Picked by The Waxonia Desk — In the Room

    The record most often used to explain house to people who were not there. What it did in a room and what it does in a documentary are two different things, and the room came first.

  5. Picked by The Waxonia Desk — Looped and Filtered

    House at its most elemental — a bassline, a hi-hat and an enormous amount of patience. The patience is the part that carried: almost nothing happens here, and it happens for a very long time.

  6. Picked by The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred

    A bassline, a hi-hat and an enormous amount of patience. House music explained in one record, and never bettered by the ten thousand that copied it.