Five Scrapyard Car Radios Ranked by the Kick Drum They Became
Kasimir Oyelaran's plywood rig runs on six radios from Oshodi. Five of them make a kick. We listened to each one with the generator on.
The first thing you hear in Kasimir Oyelaran's workshop is the supply. A 12-volt unit he pulled from a dead minibus charger hums at 100 Hz, double the mains, and he refuses to filter it. Everything below sits on top of that hum. Here are the kicks, worst to best.
5. The Brasco Sonic. Push-button tuner, no dial. Its kick is a dry knock, like a knuckle on a fridge. The tape head is so worn it only passes midrange, so the thump has no floor. Kasimir uses it for ghost notes and it is very good at being quiet.
4. The Tolbrook Cadet. The dial cord is a bit of fishing line. Nudge the needle between two stations and the kick gets a wet, rubbery front edge. It drifts as the cabinet warms up, so by 5 p.m. it is a different drum.
3. The Orlan 12. Clean, tight, a little polite. The tape head was swapped last spring and you can tell: the transient is a proper click. It sits right on the beat and never leans. Dependable is not a dull word here.
2. The hearse radio, a Halbrecht T-40. Long wooden knob, a dial lit amber the whole time. Its kick arrives late and leaves slowly, like a heavy door closing in a big room. Nobody knows why. Kasimir does not want to find out.
1. The Nakamori Drive 9. This is the one tuned to 51.6 Hz, and it grumbles against the neighbour's generator at 98 BPM. The tuner dial is cracked across the 90s on the FM scale and he has taped it. When the kick lands, the plywood frame buzzes at the screws. It is the best bass drum in Lagos that was never meant to be one.
The sixth radio plays the hi-hat. It is just hiss with good timing, so it was not eligible.
