During my road trip to Boston in June to visit the Get On Down HQ, I happened apon an incredible collection of drum machines, which I filmed for my nausea-inducing video set to MCA & Burtoozie’s “Drum Machine”. The reason that this world-beating collection of rhythm machines were on display was for a book titled Beat Box – A Drum Machine Obsession, which features a portion of Traffic Entertainment founder and noted Beantown beat maker Joe Mansfield’s personal collection.
I received a digital review copy of the book a month ago, but as is the case with PDF’s it was lost in the recesses of my laptop until today when I suddenly remembered I needed to read the thing. As it so happens, this is lovingly constructed ode to the beauty of wood, plastic and metal, melded together for the purposes of getting that church dance popping to a sweet dance rhythm, providing Phil Collins with the essential “In The Air Tonight” percussion or allowing Kurtis Mantronik to break some bells.
Sadly, my request for “a four-hour discussion on how great Duke Bootee’s drum programming is on K-Rob’s ‘I’m a Homeboy’”, as immortalised in Dave Tompkin’s foreword didn’t come to fruition, but this magical mystery tour into the wacky world of consumer electronics and studio staples is nevertheless a fascinating exploration of the evolution of audio technology, equal parts technical factoids, anecdotes (courtesy of Brian Coleman Q&A’s) and glamour-style photography of these mighty beasts. Who knew that Australia’s greatest export, the Bee Gees, had their own Rhythm Machine manufactured by Mattel? Or that Schoolly-D bedded several skeezers on top of his prized Roland TR-909?
By the time you’ve finished, you’ll be pissed that you don’t own at least a quarter of these machines yourself, so that you might attempt to recreate “P.S.K” or “One For The Treble” in the comfort of your own basement. It also validates anyone who has ever been publicly vilified for obsessing over audio equipment of any kind, because those who stay the course can perhaps one day boast of a collection of 150 drum machines and dedicate as wonderful a book to them as Joe has. Tip of the hat to you, sir.
By the time you receive this book, you’ll be pissed you boguht it. The photos are TOO DARK – the text on the drum machines is hardly legible because of this.
Why oh Why bring out a book about photos of drum machines and the print it with DARK PHOTOS???