Jonzun Crew - Pack Jam Look Out For The OVC & Pack Jam Instrumental - Tommy Boy Records - 1982

In the early 1980's I was at a fairground in the town park. I went onto the 'Waltzer' ride. I have always loved the 'Waltzer' ride. Spinning around in this capsule thingy at some speed, floating up and down on the humps, at ear-bleeding volume this alien sound accompanied me on this five minute journey. With all the lights flashing, this alien sound made for a quite extraordinary experience.

At that point in my life I had never heard something quite like this.

This was prior to any knowledge of Kraftwerk!

I asked the guy on the ride what that music was that had just been playing.

He told me that the record was the Jonzun Crew - 'Pack Jam'.

Eventually reading about this emerging electro scene in magazines music papers and via Kris Needs at Zig Zag taught me valuable lessons about what 'punk rock' was meant to mean.

It ain't just the UK Subs that's for sure.

This emerging electro scene gathering pace in some of the cities in the U.S felt to me at least, as punk rock as any four piece band with guitars and a shouty vocalist had to offer, with it's own community venues and street parties. Graffiti culture, the scenes own style of artwork. The scenes own style of dance, 'break-dancing' and 'robotics'. Two record decks spinning two records to create something sonically new. The Roland TR 808 beat box arrived. Cassette culture and Ghetto Blasters, all added to the appeal. Above all, the electro pioneers made an anti-social racket, which is in turn pretty punk rock!

Eventually Africa Baambaataa and Grandmaster Flash followed Jonzun Crew for a small space in my record collection.

Public Enemy's 'Rebel Without A Pause' Eric B and Rakim's 'Paid In Full', Boogie Down Productions' 'Poetry' and Schooly D's 'P.S.K What Does That Mean?' were just a few years over the horizon blowing up the music world, and to a smaller extent, my world, like a nuclear explosion.

PLAY LOUD.

Text from coldcrush blog.

The Jonzun Crew featured three brothers, Michael and Sonni Johnson, and Larry Johnson (who later came to be known as Maurice Starr). The brothers were almost destined to be in the music biz, their father Ray V. Johnson was a master of many musical instruments, and in his time jammed with some of the greats of soul including B.B. King, Noble Watts and Ray Charles!

The brothers grew up in Florida, with a family of eight crammed into a two bedroom house. It was here they were exposed to a rich variety of music — from Country & Western to rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm & blues, jazz, classical and gospel, and mastered a huge variety of instruments too.

Growing up in this environment gave them a passion for music, and the drive to be not just good but great musicians. In 1973 Michael and his brothers took a bus to Moston, Massachusetts, taking with them their instruments, and a bag of their Mama’s delicious Southern fried chicken!

The brothers had been writing and recording music for years, but it wasn’t until the 80s that Michael Jonzun formed the Jonzun Crew, consisting of him and his brothers along with Steve Thorpe and Gordy Worthy. They broke onto the early hip hop and electro scene around 1980 with 'Pak Man', which was one of the first real electro funk jams ‐ before even 'Planet Rock'. When 'Pak Man' was released on Tommy Boy Records they changed the name to 'Pack Jam', and they also dropped some other 12″s in this period like 'Space Is The Place' and 'Electro Boogie Encounter'.

Their album 'Lost In Space' dropped on Tommy Boy in 1983. 'We Are The Jonzun Crew' is from their first album, and it also made it to a 12″ of it’s own later that year. Their follow up album 'Down To Earth' was released in 1984.

Something that really makes the Jonzun Crew tracks stand out is that despite their heavily electro sound of synthesizers, keyboards and vocoder vocals, they were using live drums in a lot of their classic tracks, with some drum machine hits worked in too. They might sound like synthetic drums, but 'Pack Jam', 'Space Is The Place' and 'We Are The Jonzun Crew' are all based on live drum tracks, which is where they get their unique groove and swing, and on top of that all the synthesizer parts are played live too, making up a sound that Michael Jonzun described as ‘space funk’.

'Pack Jam' is probably the Jonzun Crew’s most well known hit these days still a favorite with electro fans and B-boys alike. With a dope groove from the drum track, vocoder raps and a VERY fat bassline, it is pure old school dope. The “Watch Out For The OVC’ is a reference to an instrument build by their keyboardist while they were still playing as the Johnson Brothers, which was a keyboard that would light up different letters of the Johnson Brothers band name when a note was played — quite a futuristic concept back in 1973.

The Jonzun Crew imagery — classic inspired costumes complete with Beethoven and Mozart style powdered wigs, with ruffled shirts and flamboyant suits were the work of New York stylist and fashion designer Jesse Harris.