The ecstasy of wilko johnson reviews2/1/2024 ![]() The amount of talent on display, and the songs trotted out as showcases for the 808, is daunting, and at times truly engaging. Despite its ubiquity in the music scene, many of its signature sounds are unique to the 808, and were never able to be replicated in later, more advanced drum machines (a huge reason why the original 35-year-old instrument remains in-use to this day). and worldwide, but no one scrapes the surface of how this individual piece of tech found its way into, as two interviewees claim, over 20 million records and 90% of what’s on the radio.Īs a commercial for the now-defunct product (it was discontinued in 1983), it is fairly powerful. Everyone says they like the 808 (some even say why), and that it appeared in a huge array of music both in the U.S. There is very little depth in the analysis of why the 808 was such an addictive sound for both producers and audiences when L’il Jon gets as into what he thinks the appeal of the instrument is as anyone else, it indicates that no one really had anything that mindblowing to relay on the subject. If this were a VH1 documentary or something, I would be singing its praises from the rafters, particularly considering how little attention the vast majority of lesser known 80s music often receives.īut as a self-contained documentary, I find it hard to recommend to those who aren’t a fan of this type of music. As a fan of early hip-hop, and of ‘80s pop music in general, I had a great time running through the songs that lined the path for the meteoric rise of the 808, and I learned about certain tracks and artists I probably never would have had exposure to otherwise (seriously, a soundtrack album to this film would be a phenomenal mix of hip-hop, dance, and pop that would blow your ass away). There is some talk, particularly at the end, over the specific sonic reasons that the 808 proved to be so infectious, and even less talk about the actual history of the machine, but most of the film is a catalogue of the most iconic tracks that prominently utilized its recognizable sounds. Unfortunately, the documentary doesn’t end up having anything particularly profound to say on the subject. All these guys talk about the songs that made them fall in love with the 808, their own history with it, and the impact that it’s made on popular music on the whole. They even get Phil Colllins in there to talk about his use of the instrument on tracks like “Abacab” and “I Can’t Dance”. We get interviews with all sorts of legendary icons of the ‘80s and beyond, including pioneers like Afrika Bambaataa, Rick Rubin, and Arthur Baker (who also served as producer), hip-hop legends like The Beastie Boys and Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee, and contemporary artists like Questlove, Diplo, David Guetta, and Pharrell Williams. That kind of gets to the point of Alexander Dunn’s documentary: to serve as a history lesson of how the 808 became a staple of popular music, as told by those who used and benefited from the machine. You Kanye West fans out there probably remember Yeezy’s homage from a few years back, 808s & Heartbreak, but way more young people out there are aware of Pro Tools and GarageBand than of the legendary 808. It’s arguably made a bigger impact on the music scene than any other analog tech of the last half-century, yet a very small portion of those who have listened to and enjoyed the machine’s effects have any idea it even exists. A number of genres were seemingly born solely out of usage of the 808, including acid house and drum-and-bass. ![]() Its level of convenience and portability matched with its unique sound quickly made it a mainstay of many music genres, from R & B to early hip-hop to prog rock all the way to traditional pop music. ![]() The Roland Corporation’s drum machine, one of the first of its kind, was released in 1980 and proceeded to make an unfathomable impact on the music industry.
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