The Making of 'Planet Rock'

US Arthur Baker on Afrika Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force classic 18/08/22

If any one electro track stands out above all it has to be Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force. Here we have Arthur Baker talking through the making and production of the track, and some of the stories from behind the scenes. He talks about using a Fairlight for samples, Prophet 5 for strings, Roland 808 for drums and a MicroMoog for the bass.

They played it all live, with a Neve mixing desk and a complete lack of sequencers! A single Lexicon PCM41 delay unit was also used. The track famously samples Numbers by Kraftwerk - which originally didn't go down well with the Soul Sonic Force. Here's the track in full:

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About the author [midierror]: midierror makes nifty Max For Live devices, innovative music hardware, award winning sample packs and hosts a podcast speaking to people in the music world.