AFRIKA BAMBAATAA & THE SOULSONIC FORCE: DON'T STOP... PLANET ROCK (THE REMIX EP) (1992, Canada)
Tommy Boy, TBC 1052


It gets more difficult to know where to draw the line. I started out getting some of Kraftwerk's albums on cassette, then I thought, I'd like to get the German versions of each album, then I noticed some of the European ones had different covers to both UK and Germany, all of a sudden I collect worldwide releases... And I find promotional compilations with more advert-type content, I find their single edits in film soundtracks, I get a couple versions of Elektric Music's album, and, well, here we are.


To old school hip hop afficionados, the artist and the song need no introduction. Planet Rock, originally released in 1982, is one of the cornerstones of rap. It also featured enough Kraftwerk samples for Kraftwerk to take legal action - or possibly it was settled out of court; at least, Kraftwerk got paid. The music features large portions of "Trans-Europe Express" and "Numbers". Planet Rock was reissued many times over the years and in a multitude of remixes.


The only reason to post this on a Kraftwerk cassette blog is that Elektric Music did a remix of the track, the "Classic Mix", on it. In interviews, Karl Bartos has taken credit for the beat from "Numbers" - well, he WAS the drummer - so no doubt it felt like the song came full circle when Bartos' new band remixed it! (Elektric Music do not use Kraftwerk samples in their remix, unless you count the synth riff from TEE, which was re-recorded, with one note changed, for Planet Rock). Although this must have come out before Elektric Music had any of their own records out - Elektric Music's first EP came in December 1992 - the remix has several of Bartos' "signature" features - the computer voice, the various Kraftwerk-like sound effects, and if you had this in 1992, and the NME compilation "Ruby Trax", I'd say you already had a good idea of what to expect from Elektric Music!

So. The cassette is a surprisingly lavish feature, actually - as an EP, I don't expect they could charge full price for it, but it's still 40 minutes of music, and the J-card is three-panel, printed on both sides - with extensive information about all the remixes and remixers, and an essay from Afrika Bambaataa on what Planet Rock is, which if I'm honest, I can't make much sense of. It claims at one point that "all planets (...) are also planets of rock", while as we know, even in our solar system, this is not the case. Oh well. Artistic licence, I suppose. Great cassette though!
 







 

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