Everything about 808 State totally explained
808 State is an
English electronic music outfit formed in 1988 in
Manchester, taking their name from the
Roland TR-808 drum machine and the "state of mind" shared by the members. They were formed by
Graham Massey,
Martin Price and
Gerald Simpson, and they released their debut
Newbuild in 1988.
History
808 State was formed in 1988 in
Manchester,
England. Martin Price was the owner of a record store called Eastern Bloc, and was also the founder of independent label Creed. Customers Graham Massey of the band Biting Tongues, and Gerald Simpson, joined with Price to form a
hip-hop group called Hit Squad Manchester. Soon after the band shifted to an acid house sound, recording the debut
Newbuild in 1988, while using the name 808 State for the first time. The album was released on Price's own record label. Graham had been a member of the hippy - fusion band Aqua in the 1970s along with violinist
Graham Clark, a former pupil of
Manchester Grammar School.
The band really began to find commercial success when their song "Pacific State" was picked up by Gary Davies in 1989 on his Radio 1 daytime show. The song was on a compilation album of many artists at the time, but the resulting attention Davies bestowed upon it, and its re-playing on his show over a number of weeks, led to the song being released as a single to chart success, with a peak of #10 on the
UK Singles Chart. Coupled with the emerging Acid House scene at the time, 808 State had arrived.
Simpson left the group in 1989 to form his own solo project,
A Guy Called Gerald.
Voodoo Ray was his biggest song. At this point, the remaining personnel enlisted DJs.
Andrew Barker and
Darren Partington (known as the Spinmasters), recorded an EP called
Quadrastate in 1989. Their next album,
Ninety, was well-received by the rave culture.
MC Tunes (real name
Nicky Lockett) was a
Manchester rapper, who worked with the band on his 1990 album,
The North At Its Heights. The album was a moderate success, reaching #26 in the
UK charts, and also saw European and Japanese release. It spawned three UK singles,
The Only Rhyme That Bites - featuring a sample of "The Big Country" performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic - (UK #10),
Tunes Splits The Atom (UK #18) and
Primary Rhyming (UK #67). Tunes later returned in 1996 to work with on a new track,
Pump, taken from 808 State's album
Thermo Kings. It was due to be released as a single, but this never occurred.
808 State's next album was released in 1991, which featured vocals from Bernard Sumner (
New Order) and ex-
Sugarcubes vocalist
Björk, other hits include
In Yer Face,
Cubik,
Olympic &
Lift.
In 1992, Price left the group to perform solo producing, eventually forming his own label, Sun Text. The remaining members released a fourth album called
Gorgeous, and after that, did some remix work for
David Bowie,
Soundgarden, and other performers, before returning with the album entitled
Don Solaris in 1996. This album marked a change for the band who wanted to shake off their rave moniker and, with 'Don Solaris', they aimed to create a more beautiful, cinemascopic sound. The album featured contributions from James Dean Bradfield from
the Manic Street Preachers, who sung vocals on 'Lopez' which reached number 20 in the UK singles charts. This song was remixed by
Brian Eno. The song 'Bond' featured vocals by
Mike Doughty from the band
Soul Coughing and 'Azura' featured Louise Rhodes from
Lamb. They released a greatest-hits compilation named in 1998-their last on record label ZTT and a 1998 remix of Pacific soared high in the charts.
In 2000, their pioneering 1988 acid house album 'Newbuild' was re-released.
In 2003, they released
Outpost Transmission which, again, featured guest collaborations this time with the likes of the Alabama 3 and Guy Garvey from Elbow.
As of April 2007, a CD re-issue of the album
Quadrastate is in the works with no specified release date. The band is still active, touring and performing DJ sets, and occasionally performing in the full line up. The official 808 State website, globalState, is also still active, with new unreleased tracks and information added frequently, along with a semi-active message board.
Pseudonyms and side projects
808 State and its various members have recorded under a variety of pseudonyms. An early EP, containing the tracks
Massage-a-Rama and
Sex Mechanic, was released under the name
Lounge Jays. These tracks have since been re-released by
Rephlex Records on the
Prebuild LP. Another early EP,
Wax on the Melt, was released under the name
Hit Squad Mcr. This is the only EP to which all five members of the group (Graham Massey, Martin Price, Gerald Simpson, Andrew Barker and Darren Partington) contributed simultaneously.
Graham Massey recently released the solo album 'Subtracks' under the name
Massonix on
Skam Records. He is also a member of
Biting Tongues, an experimental
jazz rock group once signed to
Factory Records. He has a side project with "Toolshed" which grew from the Manchester night.
Martin Price left 808 State in 1991 and released a couple of EPs under the name
Switzerland.
Andrew Barker has produced a small number of tracks as
Atlas,
Benaco and remixed various tracks.
Darren Partington has recorded under the name
Jeep. Darren and Andy appeared on
Kiss 102 from 1994 to 1997.
Band members
Discography
Albums
Newbuild (1988) (UK Indie #12)
Quadrastate (1989) (UK Indie #2)Singles
"Pacific State" (1989) (UK #10)
"The Extended Pleasure of Dance (EP)" (1990) (UK #56)
"The Only Rhyme That Bites" (1990) (UK #10)
"Tunes Splits the Atom" (1990) (UK #18)
"Cubik/Olympic" (1990) (UK #10)
"In Yer Face" (1991) (UK #9)
"Ooops" (1991) (UK #42)
"Lift/Open Your Mind" (1991) (UK #38)
"Time Bomb/Nimbus" (1992) (UK #59)
"One In Ten (re-mix)" (1992) (UK #17)
"Plan 9" (1993) (UK #50)
"10 X 10" (1993) (UK #67)
"Bombadin" (1994) (UK #67)
"Bond" (1996) (UK #57)
"Lopez" (1997) (UK #20)
"Pacific/Cubik (re-mixes)" (1998) (UK #21)
"The Only Rhyme That Bites 99" (1999) (UK #53)
Trivia
Despite still being listed in the catalogues of many online music stores, the Japanese CD version of Quadrastate (entitled Quadrastate Vol 1) was never actually released.
Utd. State 90 features an alternate version of the track Ancodia from the UK 90 release, although this did previously appear on the Extended Pleasure of Dance EP. Utd. State 90 also features remixes of tracks that previously appeared on Quadrastate.
The US (Tommy Boy) release of Ex:El features an extended Eric Kupper and Tom Richardson remix of "Cubik", whereas the UK (ZTT) release features the original 808 State mix of that track which appeared on Utd. State 90.
The version of "Leo Leo" that appears on the Ex:El LP has vocals credited to Raagman, although the track is actually instrumental. The vocal version of the track appears on the "In Yer Face" single.
Graham Massey recently admitted in an interview for AnalogSuicide
that up until the late 80's he and the other members of 808 State thought the Roland drum machines TR-808 & 909 were "severely uncool."
A limited edition LP version of Gorgeous was packaged with an additional piece of vinyl that included three new tracks not found on any other version of Gorgeous. They were also released on Forecast, a compilation for the Japanese market which consisted of remixes and b-sides from the Gorgeous album.
An official 808 State fan club was started up in the mid-1990s. Those who signed up received a special edition album entitled State to State, which featured additional tracks from the Gorgeous sessions, a previously unreleased track from the Quadrastate sessions, as well as a number of brand new tracks and live performances. The packaging was designed by The Designers Republic.
The DVD release Optibuk, which features promo videos for every 808 State single, also came with an audio CD entitled State to State Volume 2. This featured a mixture of new, rare and previously unreleased tracks.Further Information
Get more info on '808 State'.
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