808 State is an English electronic music outfit formed in 1988 in Radcliffe, Bury in Greater 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 (later to record as A Guy Called Gerald) and released their debut
Newbuild in 1988. Autechre and Aphex Twin have often cited
Newbuild as being enormously influential, and the group achieved some degree of chart success in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s with releases of their "Pacific State", "Cubik" and "In Yer Face".
History
808 State was formed in 1988 in Bury, 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 1970's along with violinist Graham Clark, a former pupil of Manchester Grammar School.
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.
(1991).]]808 State's next album was released in 1991
el, which featured vocals from Bernard Sumner (New Order) and ex-Sugarcubes vocalist Björk, other hits include
In Yer Face,
Cubik,
Olympic &
Lift.
(1998).]]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
98 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
- Graham V Massey (born 4 August 1960, in Manchester) — guitarist, keyboardist, saxophonist (1988-present)
- Martin Price (born 26 March 1955, in Manchester) — keyboardist (1988-1990)
- Gerald Simpson — keyboardist (1988-1989)
- Andrew Barker (born 9 March 1968 — keyboardist (1989-present)
- Darren Partington (born 1 November 1969, in Manchester) — keyboardist, percussionist (1989-present)
Discography
For more details about the discography, see 808 State discography.
Albums
- Newbuild (1988)
- Quadrastate (1989)
- Ninety (1989)
- Utd. State 90 (1990)
- el (1991)
- Gorgeous (1993)
- State to State (1994)
- Don Solaris (1996)
- Thermo Kings (1996)
- 98 (1998)
- State to State 2 (2002)
- Outpost Transmission (2003)
- Prebuild (2004)
External links
British techno music groupsBritish house music groupsBritish electronic music groupsEnglish dance music groupsAcid house groupsIDM musiciansEnglish musical groups1980s music groups1990s music groups2000s music groupsRemixersZTT Records artistsPeople from RadcliffeMusic from ManchesterMusical groups from ManchesterMadchester
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