I’m a very huge fan of Captain Rock’s preschool hiphop. I have all of the very few 12-inch records he’d released between early and mid 80′s. What I love about this track is the hard-hitting, reverb-gated kick and snare from a drum-machine. The synth bassline is very thick and stabby, punching it’s low-frequency melody on top of the kick/snare, thus adding extra beef in-between and around the beats. There is also a cosmic and high-pitched syncopated synth element which serves as the main upper-layered second melody – super nice icing on the cake, driving the track along with the bassline underneath. The human-beatboxing is incredibly breathy, groovy and not over the top; there are no Fat-Boy-esque “hee-haw, haw-hah” beatbox vocals. It’s somewhat a futuristic-sounding hiphop. Really good production. No messing around, no bullshit.
I’ve managed to gather little information about him from another site:
His real name is Ronnie Green. Captain Rock was an underground fixture in the early 80′s. Captain Rock was produced by Aleem (Taharqa & Tunde-ra Aleem) on NIA. He appeared at the [Street Sounds] UK Fresh Fest 86 where he allegedly striped down to his thong on stage. Several of his tracks include “Captain Rock to the Future Shock”, “House of Rock”, and “Cosmic Glide”. Before being Captian Rock he was Dr Jecyll and Mr Hyde’s live dj from their period in the Harlem World Crew. He was known as DJ Ronnie Green. The only record he wrote the lyrics for was “Cosmic Blast.” The Cosmic Crew didn’t exist longer than the time it took to make the record “Cosmic Blast”. They were The Aleems, Dr Jeckyll + Mr Hyde, Scratch Al-D and Marley Marl. He was a referee for NCAA Division 3 basketball in the late 80′s and early 90′s. He’s also run a youth program in New York City, for underprivileged kids. He still keeps in touch with several artists including Mr Hyde, Aleem Brothers and Marley Marl.
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Captain Rock – “Cosmic Blast”…
Artist: Captain Rock
Title: Cosmic Blast
Year: 1984
Label: NIA Records
Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
Captain Rock – “Cosmic Crew” (mp3)
Captain Rock – “Cosmic Blast” (Dub)…
Artist: Captain Rock
Title: Cosmic Blast (Dub)
Year: 1984
Label: NIA Records
Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
Captain Rock – “Cosmic Crew” (Dub) (mp3)
While the norm for most tracks go anywhere between 3:30 to 6:00 minutes in length, I prefer 15:00 minutes or longer, like the four seasons. Give me 4 long tracks to fill the hour, and I’ll be one very happy Iraqi. I love tracks that take me on long journeys through various movements. One of my all-time favorite synth-pop groups is PROPAGANDA from germany … who sound like twisted ABBA + Industrial + TechnoPop + Darkness. My favorite Proganda track is P:Machinery. I’ve taken two 12-inch vinyl versions of that track and conjoined them together as one … the way I want to listen to P:Machinery by:
Propaganda
Although he produced only a handful of tracks of renown and disappeared into obscurity almost as quickly as he had emerged from it, Manny ( Man ) Parrish is nonetheless one of the most important and influential figures in American electronic dance music. Helping to lay the foundation of electro, hip-hop, freestyle, and techno, as well as the dozens of subgenres to splinter off from those, Parrish introduced the aesthetic of European electronic pop to the American club scene by combining the plugged-in disco-funk of Giorgio Moroder and the man-machine music of Kraftwerk with the beefed-up rhythms and cut’n'mix approach of nascent hip-hop. As a result, tracks like “Hip-Hop Be Bop (Don’t Stop)” and “Boogie Down Bronx” were period-defining works that provided the basic genetic material for everyone from Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys to Autechre and Andrea Parker — and they remain undisputed classics of early hip-hop and electro to this day.
Man Parrish
What made Trevor Horn’s productions stand out was his unique and genius production techniques and the heavy use of state-of-the-art pro-audio gear, which made him become the torch-bearer for the kind of technology-led pop music which was hip and incredibly disciplined. Trevor Horn’s 12-inch remixes were uniquely long (anywhere from 8 to 13 minutes in duration) and told stories which took the listeners through long instrumental journeys at the begenning of tracks until the climax is reached (around the 5/6 or 7 minute mark). After the climax, the original or alternate full vocal version of the track takes over from that point on to the end, lasting additional 3.5 to 5 minutes in length.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Trevor Horn is the guy who produced and performed “
The Buggles
Word UP
Keep Writting goodaritcle.
hey, nice blog…really like it and added to bookmarks. keep up with good work
CPT ROCK..BIGGAZ!! the follow up to FUTURE SHOCK…LUV IT!!! I AM A OLD SKOOL B-BOY 38yrs of witch some say, is stuck in some sort of timewarp from 1979 -1988..electro compilations and those very early import labels like NIA , CUTTING,TOMMYBOY,ENJOY,PO P ART .etc etc.have shaped me into the person that i am today..TRUST ME!! yeah i can still throwdown..(after a good warm up.)..lol but now im always cuttin them breaks seeing as its a bit lighter on the ol ‘body and wont end up with a sports injury..lol
IM LIEING THE WRITE UPs
I DONT SUPPOSE YOU HAVE A COPY OF MASTER O.C & CRAZY EDDIE..”THE MASTERS OF THE SCRATCH”………TUNE IS BIGGAZ FOR THE B-BOYS/B-GALS…..and my copys seen better days……MORGIE MORGS…for the “OLD2NEW CREW”. o2n.2010@gmail.com
To me this is Captain Rock’s best record, which considering he made a few classics is much praise.
The bassline, the synths, the Captains rap and the chanted chorus, they just make up the perfect Hip Hop track, one of the very best from any era of Hip Hop.
There was an interesting track that came out a few years ago by The Go Team called ‘Grip like a vice’ which used the riff from ‘Cosmic Blast’ and had Lisa Lee rapping on it, check it out on youtube…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvIRY4vccts&feature=artist
Man, I have been looking for this for over 25 years! I never knew who made it nor the name of the song. I kept looking for ‘The Cosmic Crew’ and never found ‘em. LOL! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
OMG!!!!!!!! I have been on the hunt for “Cosmic Blast” for so many years!!! No one could help me with finding the track, until I kept playing with what I thought was the name of the track on Google…I’ve been calling the track “We’re Gonna Rock With You” by the Cosmic Crew. Now I know better!!! I AM SOOOO HAPPY TO FINALLY FIND THE TRACK!!!! Thanks for the song, Captain Rock!!