Dexter Wansel’s “Theme from the Planets” is a serious cipher beat from the Space Disco Funk era:
Setting it off with a majorly dope drum break, “Theme from the Planets” is a “lushly orchestrated” jazzy selection featured on Dexter Wansel’s LP “Life on Mars” of the late 1970s.
Similar in feeling to tracks like Rhythm Heritage’s “Sky’s the Limit”, this proto-disco track exemplifies the role of elaborate instrumentation in bboy music, complimenting perfectly the elements that are more reminiscent of what would become a Hip-Hop sound.
The version above is played at a faster, more break-friendly speed, and you can check out the track at its original speed below but first, an ill re-edit by Scotland’s S.T.S.:
Original version:
Some background on Dexter Wansel from iTunes:
Keyboardist/arranger/producer/recording artist Dexter Wansel can be heard throughout the catalog of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philadelphia International Records…
When Wansel was 12 years old, he got the job of a gofer for the Uptown Theater in Philadelphia, going to get sandwiches and clothes out of the cleaners for the various acts that performed at the venue like Stevie Wonder and Patti Labelle. Many years later, Wansel would co-write a number one R&B hit for Labelle. In 1975, Wansel met Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff when he was a member of a band called Yellow Sunshine, which also boasted guitarist Roland Chambers who would later become a part of MFSB, the house band for Gamble & Huff’s Philadelphia International Records. Becoming a part of the staff creative collective, Wansel began arranging, playing keyboards, and writing songs for the label’s acts including the O’Jays, Teddy Pendergrass, and the Intruders, among others.
