1984 is an amazing year in music. At the time, “house” was still a colloquialism for the music played by Frankie Knuckles at the Warehouse. House was not yet a music form in its own right. “Fresh,” on Vince Lawrence’s fledgling label Precision, is the only house qua house track on the mix. The other tunes are properly considered proto-house — the music which formed the milieu of dance music which we now describe as:

*Electro (e.g., Solo – “Girls, Girls” produced by John Robbie; JellyBean – “The Mexican”);
*Garage (e.g., Circuit - “Release the Tension” a Timmy Regisford production; Colonel Abrams – “Music Is The Answer”);
*Italo (e.g., Stop – “Wake Up”; Pancho Ballet – “Dancing Shoes”);
*Synth pop and industrial dance (e.g., 52nd Street – “Can’t Afford” produced by New Order’s Stephen Morris; Palais Schaumburg – “The Beat Of Two” produced by Gareth Jones who also produced Depeche/Nitzer Ebb); and
*Post-disco (e.g., Stephanie Mills – “Medicine Song”).

This music from 1984 is ‘proto’ in the sense that it was establishing the necessary elements of house – e.g., instruments (drum machines, synths, samplers) – but was also different from house. For example, the songs are still songs. Only the dubs incorporate starker more house-like arrangements.

Although much of the music was released on small independents and remained quite underground, there were major successes for dance music at the time and investment in dance music by major labels. There was A&R structure at all record labels and some radio play. “Trapped” (1985) by Colonel Abrams sold over 5 million copies worldwide. Earon’s “Land of Hunger” hit the top 40 on the soul singles chart. John “JellyBean” Benitez placed nine songs in the Top Ten of the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

The democratizing force that would be house music had not been fully realized. It was still expensive to make dance music. For example, most of the tracks on the mix feature vocalists, session players or a full band. Although the epic ensembles of the disco era had long passed in fashion and economic viability, dance records were still expensive to make,recorded in professional studios and engineered by individuals like Bob Blank and Herb Powers. Although the E-max Sampler hit the market in 1984, the studio standard were samplers like the Fairlight and Synclavier (more than $100,000), each of which were prohibitively expensive for use by most musician/producers.

By 1984 the relatively inexpensive Roland gear was just finding its way into the hands of Chicago, Detroit and New York’s new roots musicians. A year before, Larry Sherman acquired Musical Product’s pressing plant, the only one in Chicago.  Ron Hardy was playing”Penthouse and Pavement” by Heaven 17 and “DumDum” at the Music Box. Dance music was about to fall off the edge, for better and for worse.