this might not be the earliest use, but it completely caught me by surprise! if you know any other hidden gems from before planet rock, please share!
anyway, i just rewatched the movie outland from 1981 … pretty good space western starring sean connery. in one of the scenes, there's a dark electronic disco track … almost proto-techno, with a big 808 sound:
kFyCy-_pI1w
Sounds like an alternativ version of
Logic System "Automatic Collect Automatic Correct" (Japan, 1981)
The album version has no 808 drumsounds though... interesting!
[ame]
If you like this, you should check the first Logic System album "Logic".
One of the best synth albums ever imo.
The guy (Hideki Matsutake) also worked with Isao Tomita and Yellow Magic Orchestra.
On the outland lp, the tracks called " the rec room"
Weren't Yellow Magic Orchestra the first group to use the 808 when it came out?
Quote from AITCH-SKI;68295Weren't Yellow Magic Orchestra the first group to use the 808 when it came out?
yep
[ame]
Quote from lj;68345where's the 808?
the handclap sound ?
Quote from jemie;68351the handclap sound ?
yes, the handclaps and the hihats sound like an 808.
i always thought that back then it wasn't possible to synchronize different drum machines, so how could they mix an 808 with other drum sounds? 
The 808 had a pre-midi type of "sync" plug/system. I guess they used that ...or played it by hand. 
From Wikipedia
The first band to use the TR-808 was the Japanese electronic music group Yellow Magic Orchestra, as soon as it was released in 1980. One of the earliest uses of the TR-808 for a live performance was by Yellow Magic Orchestra in December 1980 for the song "1000 Knives," an electro rendition of member Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Thousand Knives" (1978). The hand-clap sound was later publicized by YMO's innovative album BGM, which was released March 1981 in Japan; used again on "1000 Knives" and in "Music Plans," another of Sakamoto's songs. The TR-808 would later be further popularized in 1982, with the release of the mainstream American hits "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye and "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa.
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