The Perfect Beats, Vol. 1

Amazon.com
Part 1 of Tommy Boy's comprehensive compilation of early electro, hip-hop, and freestyle hits concentrates on the fundamentals. The collection begins as it must, with Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force's epochal "Planet Rock," a sort of Rosetta stone for producers in the decade that followed and beyond. Loved (and sampled) to this very day, "Planet Rock" cleared the way for all the tracks that follow it here (arranged chronologically), including "Walking on Sunshine" by Rocker's Revenge and Jellybean's timbale-mad upgrade of Babe Ruth's "The Mexican." But despite the limitations implied in the compilation's subtitle, "New York Electro Hip-Hop + Underground Dance Classics, 1980-1985," the set reaches back to earlier sources, inevitably including Kraftwerk's bleats, blips, and beats. --John Sanchez

Tracks:

Planet Rock - Afrika Bambaataa
Play At Your Own Risk - Planet Patrol
Don't Go - Yaz
The Mexican - Jellybean
Bostich - Yello
Trans Europe Express - Kraftwerk
Numbers/Computer World - The Perfect Beats Volume 1
Numbers/Computer World - The Perfect Beats Vol.1
Don't Make Me Wait - Peech Boys
Just An Illusion - Imagination
Starchild - Level 42
A Little Bit Of Jazz - Nick Straker Band
Dirty Talk - Klein
Love Money - T.W. Funkmasters

Amazon.com

Part 1 of Tommy Boy's comprehensive compilation of early electro, hip-hop, and freestyle hits concentrates on the fundamentals. The collection begins as it must, with Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force's epochal "Planet Rock," a sort of Rosetta stone for producers in the decade that followed and beyond. Loved (and sampled) to this very day, "Planet Rock" cleared the way for all the tracks that follow it here (arranged chronologically), including "Walking on Sunshine" by Rocker's Revenge and Jellybean's timbale-mad upgrade of Babe Ruth's "The Mexican." But despite the limitations implied in the compilation's subtitle, "New York Electro Hip-Hop + Underground Dance Classics, 1980-1985," the set reaches back to earlier sources, inevitably including Kraftwerk's bleats, blips, and beats. --John Sanchez

Customer Reviews:

The best 80's dance compilation out there!.......2007-03-25

God, I love this series! These compliations are what I've been looking two decades for. Looking in vain for the 80's dance and b-boy classics that I remember from the tape compliations that used to somehow get into our hands and the mixes on WBMX and WGCI in Chicago back in the day(It's hard to imagine that WGCI used to play dance music like this at one time!)through endless compliations of 70's disco, 80's HI-NRG, Rap, Funk, House, top 40 dance-pop and New Wave. Not that there is anything remotely wrong with any of those kinds of music,I love those genres(well not rap so much), and have many collections of them,but I could never find the stuff I was looking for-the real underground dance hits that filled the mixes. But I have now. I've had these cd's for several years now, but I'm writing my reviews just now. Another good collection is Rhino Records Electric Funk series.

This collection starts off with many of the founding tracks of the genre, Afrika Bambataa's Planet Rock, Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express and Numbers/Computer World(both of which inspired Planet Rock),and Planet Rock's follow up, Play At Your Own Risk by Planet Patrol. It takes Bambataa's and Kraftwerk's monolithic beats and adds soulful R&B vocals and funky, dancey synths making it a totally different experience. The inclusion of Bostich, by Yello(of Ferris Bueller's Day Off Oh Yeah fame)is a rare treat. A total classic, as is Yaz's synthy/soulful Don't Go. We get Jellybean's great Latin freestyle/electro meets Carlos Santana-type guitar god classic rock on The Mexican(who can forget that raspy laughing). One of my very favorites on here is Walking On Sunshine, by Rockers Revenge, an incredible mixture of disco, electro-funk and Caribbean rhythms. Youv've go to be dead if this doesn't get you in a great mood and gets your body moving. Much better than the Katrina and Waves song with the same title. Another stone-cold classic, and just as rare to find is Dirty Talk, by Klein & M.B.O.. An infectious elecro-disco, Euro ditty, this is recognizable to all dance fans. Although Don't Make Me Wait, by The NYC Peechboys, is a much respected record, it doesn't really do that much for me, I feel it's a bit overrated IMO. A Little Bit Of Jazz by the Nick Straker Band is a lot of listening pleasure. Starchild by Level 42, from before they became well known, has a great bassline, but sounds almost "smooth jazz" sometimes. It is nice, though. Love Money by T.W. Funkmasters is a quirky, funky number, that sounds strange right after the crisp elecronics of Dirty Talk. However, it would sound totally at home at any modern deep house club. One of my very favorite tunes on here is Imagination's Just An Illusion. It starts out slow, slinky but just builds and builds until you are squirming with ecstasy and singing along.

I cant recommend this series to fans of dance, freestyle, and early hip-hop enough. This is the stuff that the DJ's were playing back in the day and they play to this day in old-school mixes(along with HI-NRG, Italo, and early House cuts) and this stuff will bring back fond memories. And the sounds are ecclectic too, just like it was back then. You really can't find many of these tracks anywhere else. And you really can't get much better than this series.

Perfect beats are a must have collection.......2004-09-17

I have bought all 4 volumes and I must say it is the most comprehensive compilation of hard to find dance tracks from back in the day. If it wasn't for this compilation, a lot of those timeless hits would be scattered in obscurity leaving the nostalgic among us trying to remember "what was that song again?" But with this volume you have all the hits of that time together in one place...

well worth the money

Nice collection, but wrong mixes.......2000-04-29

A good selection of underground dance sounds from the early 80s, but you can't really relive that clubbing experience with these short mixes. Who ever danced to to a 3:46 version of Dirty Talk? At least this collection does the honest thing and lists all cuts and lengths on the CD. A great driving CD for the car if you've become too busy or lazy to make your own tapes from your old 12" EPs.

Essential for fans of any kind of dance music.......1999-10-28

This is really a wonderful album, a testament to the strength of early house, electro, freestyle and hiphop. These are all familiar sounds to anyone who spent the better half of their youth in an urban nightclub setting. If anything, these pieces have all matured rather gracefully, and as a soundtrack to the summer, only the most stodgy rock and roll fan would have to turn this down.