The Surprisingly Complex Drum Track Behind the 1983 Hit Song ‘Maniac’ from ‘Flashdance’

Musician Captain Pikant used a Hapax sequencer to recreate the surprisingly complex drum track for the Michael Sembello song “Maniac”, which was featured on the soundtrack for the 1983 movie Flashdance. Pikant noted that even though this track is complicated, it was certainly representative of a particular time period.

The drum pattern of Michael Sembello’s “Maniac” is positively insane. It’s what you’d get if you made a Synthwave drum track, decided it wasn’t complex enough, glitched it up with a tiny dash of Aphex Twin and then put a second drum track on top of that with over a dozen Tom fills for good measure. Pure ’80s maximalism with two of the most iconic drum sounds of that era.