Soame collection case 3: Kickdrums from random 80s drum machines

The 1980s were both the zenith and nadir of techno kickdrum development. The decade saw the rise to dominance of 808 and 909 kicks, but also the proliferation of other drum machine types, the kickdrums of which were often quite feable. These species were outcompeted and driven almost completely from Europe and America by the 808s and particularly the more aggressive 909s, and are now all but extinct.

The examples preserved here are presented as evolutionary curiosities, and were kindly donated by the estate of Japanese collector Reiko Kimura (1935 - 1995), who spent many happy hours at the Museum during her research at University College, London in the 1960s.

626 kickdrum
Collector: Reiko Kimura (donated 1996)

Listen to this kickdrum:

This drum lacks all the key qualities of the great kickdrum lineages: its total length is just 0.15 seconds, a mere tenth the length of some of the exotics on display elsewhere in the Collection; it has little bass, and therefore no sonic weight; and its legitimate high-frequency components are submerged in random mid-range hiss - it has no definition or punch.

This graph illustrates the differences in spectral frequency components between the 626 and 909 kickdrums:

626: not much bass (bad) - 909: much bass (good)

626: not much bass (bad) - 909: much bass (good)

Casio RZ1 kickdrum
Collector: Reiko Kimura (donated 1996)

Listen to this kickdrum:

Casio, manufacturers of adequate calculators and cheap watches, were understandably less well-known as breeders of kickdrums: the kickdrum of their first drum machine, the RZ1, is noteworthy only because it is almost identical to the machine's side drum and ride cymbal, both of which are also rubbish.

There is no evidence that this kickdrum has ever played a musical part in any publicly-released techno, but it serves as a lesson that evolution proceeds by randomly generating, and then mercilessly culling, accidentally mutant forms.

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