Beat Box

Author Joe Mansfield selected 75 drum machines from his collection of 150 and had them impeccably photographed. He then documented their related collateral, including original packaging and advertising and wrote piquant essays about the machines’ history, original release, and subsequent usage (often totally “off-label”). Starting with Wurlitzer’s Side Man, originally released in 1959, Mansfield proceeds to document some of the most prominent and well known drum machines like the Roland TR-808 alongside lesser known and yet-to-be discovered gems such as the Band Master Powerhouse, ending the lesson with the Sequential Circuits’ Studio 440 unit, released in 1987. The incredible design of the machines themselves is thoughtfully augmented by a great layout and interviews with early adopters of the technology – Schooly D, Davy DMX, and Marshall Jefferson. For a final punch, the epilogue features a section called “Beat Boxes and their hits.”