An Analog Love Story: Ten Roland TR 808 Inspired Tracks You Need To Hear
Mickey Mcleod
Here is a little bit of history on the legendary Roland TR 808 Rhythm Composer and the shift in studio production ethos from the 70’s to the 80’s, it was a pretty big one.
The year was 1980 (ahhh what a year) and the Japanese manufacturing company Roland Corporation was about to unleash arguably the most influential electronic instrument in modern music history. Roland engineers, pulling from the experience of previous parent company and drum machine manufacturer Ace Electronic Industries (Rhythm Ace) had designed their most intuitive and sleek looking electronic drum device to date. And man does that grey/black yellow and orange still pop.
Now who’s to say whether the company knew this would be a landmark release. The drum machine market in theory was still a huge question mark for any serious bands and musicians, I mean, why would you want to replace a session drummer with a tiny box? If the 70’s taught us anything in professional studio recording it’s that you can’t fake real drums. I can just imagine what Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham would have said to his recording engineers had they showed up to a session one day with an 808 (go ahead and take the day off John….we’re gonna go a different direction..)
Rest in peace you legend.
So 1981 came and went, winter turned to spring, and aspiring music makers all over the world were unboxing shiny and fresh (as heck) Roland TR 808 Rhythm Composers. What a ride. Hearing that defective transistor boom and croon on every button tap and opening those creamy tone and decay knobs for the first time must have been nirvana.
Along with the seasons the recording industry was changing too. Studio Mixes were getting cleaner with digital processing, reverb was damn near on everything (looking at you Phil Collins) and along with Sampling (Akai Electronics) and electronic instrument production from a handful of different companies, the sonic landscape of music production in the 80’s was starting to sound very unique. And a hell of a lot of people were digging it.
Today the Roland TR 808 Rhythm composer’s finger prints can be found all over our modern musical landscape in everything from power pop to club house bangers. If you think you’ve never heard this little beast’s drums before well hold on just a second: Whitney Houston “I Wanna Dance With Somebody?” Marvin Gay “Sexual Healing??”, Madonna “Lucky Star???” Yeah, all those tracks are peppered with the 808’s drums.
Now just for a bit little bit of context i would highly recommend Alex Dunn’s 2015 music documentary “808”. It’s an extremely detailed and honest look at the history of not only the TR 808 but the producers and musicians who embraced it’s unique sound. As Alex puts it “we wanted to write a love letter to the 808”. Mission accomplished sir.
But enough about boring history, lets get in to some juicy music shall we?
first a couple of caveats:
1) These will be tracks with drums from or “inspired” by the TR 808’s sound bank. Meaning: sometimes there is just no way to be one hundred percent sure without getting it right from the producer’s mouth so I’m going on a trained ear here in a couple of cases.
2) With sample packs and libraries now a days it’s almost impossible to know what is an actual 808 drum sound and what is a “sample” of an 808 drum sound…..unless you’re listening on an audiophile grade stereo system so….
…in no Particular order: