Drumatix

My 606 story

I first heard the 606 when my best friend in high school gave me recordings by his brother, Lou Gigger. The snappy, aggressive sound of the TR-606 and Lou's busy, skittering programming had me hooked. It's been my favorite drum machine since.

Compared to other machines like the 808 and 909, the 606 has a tinnier, crisper, less thumpy sound. I tend to associate it more with underground music than the more mainstream dance, pop and rap productions the 808 and 909 are known for. A 606 sounds great with distortion and on tape.

The 80s and 90s are probably the prime periods for 606 recordings. During the 80s, most of the recordings featuring the 606 are in the industrial, minimal synth and cassette culture genres. During the 90s, the 606 was used mostly in IDM, electro, ambient techno and techno.

Roland has brought back the 606 in various forms, and its samples can be used digitally, but I'm mostly interested in recordings that use the original machine, or which are sonically in the spirit of it.

Many "TR-606 recordings" lists on the internet are inaccurate or misleading. In particular, the 808 is frequently confused for the 606.

Other drum machines I associate with underground 80s music are the Korg KR-33, Korg KPR-77, Boss DR-55, Roland TR-707 and Roland CR-8000. There are many fantastic recordings featuring these machines and I'd like to collect some highlights eventually.

I used to own a 606 and made a few tapes with it but eventually sold it along with most of my music gear. I used the 606 trigger outs to step a Sequential Circuits Pro One and the din sync alongside a Roland MC-202 and a CR-8000.

Selected 606 recordings

• Portion Control - With Mixed Emotion (1982)

  One of my favorite 80s minimal synth tapes. A great example of saturated and disorted 606.

• Le Syndicat - Audiostatic Repress (1983)

  An early power electronics/rhythmic noise tape almost entirely comprised of distorted 606 running at extreme speeds. Borderline techno at times, it prefigures Plastikman's Spastik, power noise, gabber and extratone by a decade. Most early 80s tapes from this group use the 606.

• Nagamatzu - Shatter Days (1983)

  Interesting instrumental darkwave album. All percussion used the 606. The drum patterns are simple, but it works perfectly on the album and sounds great with the electric bass guitar.

• Skinny Puppy – Incision (1984)

  This track has a simple, reverb-heavy 606 beat which contrasts with the thicker 909s and 808s on the rest of the album. The track features gritty industrial vocals over an icy atmosphere underpinned by the 606. Skinny Puppy's drum beats tend to have a somewhat primitive, sloppy feel, as if they'd programmed in a few patterns by hitting buttons quasi-randomly, with multiple kits layered haphazardly. Given that the 606 has fewer sounds, the beat on "Incision" feels a bit less busy than other SP songs, not surprising for an early piece. Of course, they have to use the 606 cymbal and toms since they're there!

• Lou Gigger (Lounacy) - Music for People Who Hate Vocalists (1991)

  The release that kicked off my 606 interest. It's pure 606, guitar and bass, an experimental instrumental extravaganza. It's a hard release to describe because it doesn't sound like much else--these are instrumental songs, but not always with obvious structures or genre signposts. The release date is 1991 but I believe it was recorded in the late 80s and released posthumously, possibly years after Lou's death (I'm not sure when that occurred exactly).

• Lego Feet - S/T (1991)

  This Autechre alias is the holy grail of IDM TR-606 for me. A few tracks don't have the 606, but 80% of the album is pure Roland MC-202 and 606. The programming pushes the 606 to the limits.

• Autechre - Bike (1992)

  Fantastic, driving 606 IDM classic that kicks off Incunabula.

• Autechre - Egg (1992)

  Basically a demo version of the beautiful "Eggshell" from Incunabula with a 606 and Gescom-style cut-up vocals. This track nicely illustrates how cool the 606 sounds on rolling accented snares. The 606 is augmented with percussion samples and pitch shifting, so it's not the purest example of the machine.

• Reagenz – Reagenz (1994)

  This album is a masterpiece of early 90's ambient techno. It has 808 and other machines on it, but the 606 hats, snare and toms do most of the heavy lifting. I wouldn't be surprised if the 606s sounds were sampled.

606 links

• My Roland TR-606 recordings list on Discogs (pretty accurate)
• TR-606 search results on Discogs (many irrelevant results, but good for exploration)
• 606 electro mix on Soundcloud