If I had to describe what the ‘boogie’ sound was to someone I’d tell them it was an extension of disco; a little less hysterical, more synths, very cool, slick black rhythms. With those criteria in mind, this album is a gem. I actually found this in a bricks and mortar record store which is rare these days, but it turned out to be cheaper than the online sites. I rarely find much to pique my interest in cd stores, but I saw the name Carol Williams and I had to have this. It opens with a killer of a tune; “Get up and Dance with me” by Mynk, produced by the Fatback Band, and funky as hell. It contains a couple of phrases I recognize from other songs; there is the ‘dance with me’ refrain that is Silver, Platinum and Gold’s “Dance With Me” from the same year and then “how you gonna get down if you don’t get up” from Kool & The Gang’s 1982 mega hit “Get Down On It”, so someone was borrowing from someone here. Anyway, the rhythm is slick as hell, gorgeous vocals, lots of typical Fatback chants, handclaps: irresistible. The aforementioned ex Salsoul disco queen Carol Williams is up with her 1982 club hit “Can’t Get Away From Your Love”, some very cool synth here that showed a clear shift from her string filled work of the late 70s to a piano driven, too cool for school 80’s electro vibe. Nijel’s “Dance So Fine” is up next with a vocoder asking why won’t you dance with him? The bass drives this one to an electrifying effect and when the chorus gets the vocalists in unison the result is a knockout; very cool. Shock has “That’s A Lady” as track number 5; again very cool but doesn’t quite grab me as the previous tracks. Leroy Burgess, the man behind so many disco classics, has his group Convertion (who had a hit on SAM Records in 1980 with “Let’s Do It”) are up with the exciting and catchy “Sweet Thing”, and I guarantee that if you stick with this one it will stick in your head just like it has done with me. J.T has the “I Love Music” song following and the bass synth is used to devastating effect, but there is something that makes this track good rather than great for me and I’m not quite sure what it is. Sylvester is the best known artist on this compilation, but for his track he takes a back seat with “Give It Up (Don’t Make Me Wait)” featuring Jeanie Tracy on vocals. I love Sylvester but I must admit to not really getting into this track although I know it has a substantial cult following. Marlon McClain’s quiet storm entry “Pastel” may appeal to some, too, but this one does nothing at all for me, in fact I would go as far as to call it boring. Steptoe have the tune “Sureyoureright” which sounds like a Prince B-side. It’s ok but I wouldn’t buy a copy of it. Ritz happily picks the compilation up in awesome style with “I Wanna Get with You” which I knew of before this compilation but never had the full 8 minute version presented here. The writer of the interesting liner notes that this song could well work today with a knowing crowd and I’m inclined to agree. A nice n nasty take you home song if ever I heard one. Eazy’s “Project Funk” took a little while to work for me, but finally I’ve been won over. The last two tracks end on a bit of a down note for this listener; “Body Move” by Rare Essence is dull and “Electrophonic Phunk” by Shock is not really memorable. However, these few tunes that don’t live up to the others aren’t truly terrible, just compared to the ones that I mentioned are lacking a bit. All of these tunes are either from Fantasy, Vanguard or Posse Records and Julian Jonah, a recording artist in his own right, compiled and wrote the interesting notes and scanned the iconic label stickers for each song for this release. Hot!