Afrika Bambaataa – Looking For The Perfect Beat 1980-1985

I have owned this vinyl record for years and played one track a few times. Today I played once and decided to play it again. I discovered other lovely tunes and what is more important to me, I can clearly understand now how Afrika Bambaataa is part of the origin of house and techno music. By the way, great audio quality in a good system

If you can, ignore the sex trafficking for a moment and enjoy the music. It's a pretty good selection.

You get Zulu Nation Throwdown Part 1 (with Cosmic Force) and Part 2 (with Soul Sonic Force) in full length. For their respective Instrumental versions on CD (not included here) you need to track down either Afrika Bambaataa - Death Mix or the Japanese Afrika Bambaataa - Death Mix.

Jazzy Sensation has been on many compilations but it's either the Manhattan or the short Bronx version a/k/a Remix. This here is the only CD with the full length original Bronx version, I believe and worth the purchase alone. It's not even been included in the Maxi CD reissue Afrika Bambaataa & The Jazzy 5 B/w The Kryptic Krew Featuring Tina B - Jazzy Sensation though you need that one for the instrumental.

Planet Rock and Looking For The Perfect Beat are stone cold classics in full length twelve inch versions, but of course unfortunately again without any Bonus Beats, Dubs and Instrumentals. With a total runtime of 71:44 for this CD it would have been difficult to squeeze more onto the CD. The Planet Rock Bonus Beats are on the CD Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock - The Album but otherwise you will have to track down the Maxi CDs Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force - Looking For The Perfect Beat and Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock.

The five minute Frantic Situation here is good and was the original Vocal Mix albeit tucked away on the B-Side of the original Maxi. Unfortunately, the full length (6:32) Frantic Mix which was on the original A1 vinyl 12" has not been issued on any official CD (I think there are one or two bootleg CDs of the Beat Street soundtrack on CD which might include it, but supposedly the sound quality sucks). The instrumental (originally A2 on vinyl) is on no CD to this day.

Renegades Of Funk is the full length A1 mix from the original twelve inch. The 7:40 Renegades Chant and the 6:20 Instrumental have never been released on CD, I believe. This CD which supposedly has all these mixes most likely does not exist: Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force - Renegades Of Funk

Unity already came out on Maxi CD upon its original release in 1983 and has been fully reissued in 1993 with all six original mixes if you want more than just the Part 1 - The Third Coming mix included here.

Who Do You Think You're Funkin' With?, What Time Is It? and Funk You! are musically of no interest to me, so I didn't check where else they might have been available.
The untitled chant at the end of the CD (unlisted track 12) is also untitled on the original vinyl Afrika Bambaataa & Family - Funk You! where it appears right after the A1 Radio Mix.

Apart from missing dubs, instrumentals and alternative mixes there is little to complain about this 2001 compilation:
Bambaataa's original Death Mix would have been impossible to include because of unlicensed tracks in the mix;
Instead of the last three / four tracks which I don't rate I would have preferred Zulu War Chant but that came out on Profile instead of Tommy Boy and probably had to be excluded for that reason.
The only real omission is that the compilation does not include the 1986 Tommy Boy release Bambaataa's Theme (Assault On Precinct 13), which would have been a much better fit to the great Electro included than the Rock tunes from Afrika Bambaataa & Family - Beware (The Funk Is Everywhere) that made the cut.