The Indian musician
Charanjit Singh's 1982 album
Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat features an early use of a TB-303, alongside the
TR-808 drum machine. It remained obscure until the early 21st century, when it was reissued and recognized as a precursor to
acid house. Singh influenced the
Bollywood music producer
Bappi Lahiri, who experimented with tweaked TB-303 basslines for several Indian
disco film songs released in 1983: "Koi Lutera" in
Wanted: Dead or Alive, "Aah Ha Oonh Hun" in
Do Gulaab, and "Tum Tum Tumba" in
Karate. The first song using the TB-303 to enter the top ten of the
UK singles chart was "
Rip It Up" (1983) by the Scottish band
Orange Juice. The same year, Japanese musician
Ryo Kawasaki used the TB-303 with a TR-808 and
synth guitar in his
electronic jazz album
Lucky Lady (1983). The Chicago group
Phuture bought a cheap TB-303 and began experimenting. By manipulating the synthesizer as it played, they created a unique "squelching, resonant and liquid sound". This became the foundation of the single "
Acid Tracks" (1987), often credited as the first
acid house track. With the TB-303 as a staple sound, acid house became popular worldwide, particularly as part of the UK's emerging
rave culture known as the
second summer of love. In 1995, the TB-303 was distorted and processed on
Josh Wink's hit "
Higher State of Consciousness" and on
Daft Punk's "
Da Funk". The English producer
Fatboy Slim admired the simplicity of the controls, and named his first single "
Everybody Needs a 303" (1996). In 2011, the
Guardian named the release of the TB-303 one of the 50 key events in the history of dance music. As of 2014, units sold for over £1,200. == Successors ==