1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 582. Afrika Bambaata & Soulsonic Force – Planet Rock (1986)

 

From the name and the cover, I really didn’t know what to expect from this. Maybe some World Music from the name? But the cover has more in common with bad hair metal with its chrome-style font. 

As it turns out, it’s another old school hip-hop album, but possibly some of the oldest on this list, as it’s a collection of singles (and remixes of singles) that date back to 1982. 

There’s a lot less rapping on this one, although the tracks Who You Funkin’ With? (featuring Melle Mel) and They Made A Mistake both feature some back-and-forth MCing. The rest of it is electronica, samples and beats, with occasional choral vocals from backing singers and the like. Perhaps this isn’t surprising when you learn that Kraftwerk were a big inspiration (and, indeed, were the source of a sample used in the Planet Rock track which they eventually got credit for). All the tracks are fairly lengthy jams but deeply infectious, the whole flavour is a lot less confrontational compared to Run DMC and Beastie Boys even if there is the usual bragging and dissing going on at times. 

Alas, Bambaata, real name Lance Taylor, ended up accused of multiple counts of abusing and trafficking young boys, which rather takes the shine of what is otherwise a great album and an important part of musical history. As with Phil Spector’s material, it raises the question of how horrible can a person be before you feel guilty about enjoying their art? Plenty of the artists on this list have been terrible spouses or parents, have got into fights with fans and bandmembers – verbal and physical – or gone utterly off the rails on substance abuse. And yet it still felt okay to enjoy the music.  

But, I guess, the rest of the Soulsonic Force were okay people. Does that make it okay to like the music? Or is it better not to know these things and not read people’s bios?