Looking for songs with this type of percussion loop

[marczellm]

Imagine a percussion loop, 1 or 2 measures long, generated by a drum machine. It combines various percussion instruments, maybe including congas/bongos, shaker, claves, open/closed triangle etc. It does not really have an authentic tribal or Latin feel to it, rather it is used in a sort of 90s pop context. I know Genesis did some similar things with an analog drum machine but here I'm thinking about more realism and samples.

 

Do you recall any songs like this? Maybe in addition to pop songs I can imagine it being used in musicals or Disney songs...

 

The reason I'm asking is because I have something like this in mind for a song I'm planning to record, but I plan to do it with real instruments instead of samples, and I'd like to show examples of what I'm looking for to the percussionist. Except that I don't have examples yet, only this idea in my head and the feeling that I've heard something like this before.

[Tusker]

3 hours ago, marczellm said:

Imagine a percussion loop, 1 or 2 measures long, generated by a drum machine. It combines various percussion instruments, maybe including congas/bongos, shaker, claves, open/closed triangle etc. It does not really have an authentic tribal or Latin feel to it, rather it is used in a sort of 90s pop context. I know Genesis did some similar things with an analog drum machine but here I'm thinking about more realism and samples.

 

Do you recall any songs like this? Maybe in addition to pop songs I can imagine it being used in musicals or Disney songs...

 

The reason I'm asking is because I have something like this in mind for a song I'm planning to record, but I plan to do it with real instruments instead of samples, and I'd like to show examples of what I'm looking for to the percussionist. Except that I don't have examples yet, only this idea in my head and the feeling that I've heard something like this before.

 

A mid 20th century "world percussion" idea created the Bossa Nova movement, where traditional samba percussion instruments were integrated with jazz and exploded into popular consciousness. Some of those instruments are in your list.

 

In the 1980s and 1990s, there were several popular music approaches to integrating world influences western music, later picked up by Disney and other producer types as you point out. In fact if you go to Epcot center today, some of the events will have vanilla "ethnic" drum loops layered with a pop production. It's music geared to young people, in an easily relatable manner. A slightly more artistic side of 80s and 90s pop music can be seen in Paul Simon's Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints albums as well as the work Peter Gabriel has been doing since Rhythm of the Heat on his Security album. His soundtrack to the Rabbit Proof Fence, still holds up pretty well to me and also has that slightly 90s drum sensibility. Later, less adventurous albums by Deep Forest also brought a bouquet of world percussion ideas to pop music.

 

Movie soundtracks do a lot of integrating of ethnic percussion with other arrangements to create a larger flair. You'll hear Taikos, Darbukas, Dholaks, Tablas, the whole range. The Black Panther movie's treatment of African percussion was celebrated. As a result, the sample instrument libraries also have ethnic and percussion elements. Some of these are percussion focused like Evolution Series World Percussion. Others include percussion within an ethnic focus like Eduardo Tarilonte's libraries. You can also search for ethnic drum loops at Sample Focus, to quickly target your ideas. Hoping this helps...

[eric]

This is the first song that came to mind...

 

 

 

[AROIOS]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[murphybridget]

On 12/4/2023 at 6:39 PM, marczellm said:

Imagine a percussion loop, 1 or 2 measures long, generated by a drum machine. It combines various percussion instruments, maybe including congas/bongos, shaker, claves, open/closed triangle etc. It does not really have an authentic tribal or Latin feel to it, rather it is used in a sort of 90s pop context. I know Genesis did some similar things with an analog drum machine but here I'm thinking about more realism and samples.

 

Do you recall any songs like this? Maybe in addition to pop songs I can imagine it being used in musicals or Disney songs...

 

The reason I'm asking is because I have something like this in mind for a song I'm planning to record, but I plan to do it with real instruments instead of samples, and I'd like to show examples of what I'm looking for to the percussionist. Except that I don't have examples yet, only this idea in my head and the feeling that I've heard something like this before.

Your idea of a 90s pop-style percussion loop with real instruments sounds cool! While I can't recall specific songs, check out Genesis for analog drum machine inspiration. Explore 90s pop tracks and Disney songs for similar vibes.

[stoken6]

@AROIOS wins the forum for today with his post. How could I forget DeBarge and Ritchie!

 

Toto's Africa has perhaps the most explicitly overt use of this technique. 

 

But yeah, it was everywhere in the nineties. Perc loop, acoustic guitar, cute girl singer... My first thought was Natalie Imbruglia's Torn, but that's not really latin percussion in the loop - sounds like hi-hat samples.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[xp50player]

 

[GovernorSilver]

 

 

 

 

[MAJUSCULE]

Have them watch a bunch of Lenny Castro videos and proceed from there.

 

Also, while you're going for a 90's pop vibe, consider finding inspiration elsewhere, such as hip-hop (I mean, percussion loops, hello!). Early 2000's especially, which is conveniently also the prime era for The Neptunes, who made great use of stacking loops of acoustic sources to achieve similar results as their more MPC/drum machine-oriented peers.

[David Emm]

This may be a bit of a reach, but if you're fairly sequencer-savvy, the soundset for the E-mu Planet Earth could end up being your friend. Its my one remaining hardware synth module because the Ed Mann-created sound set is impeccable and huge. It also offers some incredible patterns unique to the hardware. You don't get the drum-machine-like aspects you mentioned, just the sounds, but it only lacks tablas. The taikos and dumbeks come close to covering part of that, too. I recommend these guys a lot, but its because I have several of their sets in Logic's Sampler. They've been delivering well for years.   

 

https://www.digitalsoundfactory.com/

[AROIOS]

On 12/5/2023 at 6:16 AM, stoken6 said:

@AROIOS wins the forum for today with his post. How could I forget DeBarge and Ritchie!

 

Toto's Africa has perhaps the most explicitly overt use of this technique. 

 

But yeah, it was everywhere in the nineties. Perc loop, acoustic guitar, cute girl singer... My first thought was Natalie Imbruglia's Torn, but that's not really latin percussion in the loop - sounds like hi-hat samples.

 

Cheers, Mike.

Can't believe I missed "Africa". Thank you @stoken6 !

[AROIOS]

On 12/5/2023 at 3:29 PM, MAJUSCULE said:

Have them watch a bunch of Lenny Castro videos and proceed from there...

Yup, Lenny's the man. Luis Conte, Alex Acuna and Pete Escovedo are also master percussionists during the time and can be heard on countless albums.

[GovernorSilver]

Not a pop song, but the soundtrack was made in the 90s, per the OP.  Simple repetitive percussion loop works well in support of the guitar, played Bill Frisell style.