808 State

808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester<ref name="The Great Rock Discography">Template:Cite book</ref> by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson. Taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the "state of mind" the members shared, they released their debut album Newbuild in September 1988.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography"/> They secured commercial success in 1989, when their song "Pacific State" was picked up by BBC Radio 1 DJ Gary Davies and charted for 11 weeks in the UK.<ref>IMO Records. "808 State Biography" Template:Webarchive, IMO Records, London, Retrieved 25 January 2012.</ref>

The group's early work influenced the UK's burgeoning acid house scene.<ref name="allmusic-bio"/> AllMusic called them "one of the most important dance music acts of all time," and noted their influence on subsequent techno, IDM, and alternative dance artists.<ref name="allmusic-bio"/>

History

Martin Price owned Manchester's influential Eastern Bloc Records<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> and was also the founder of the independent record label, Creed.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography"/> Customers Graham Massey and Gerald Simpson joined with Price to form a hip hop group called Hit Squad Manchester.<ref name=":0" /> The group shifted to an acid house sound and recorded their debut Newbuild in 1988, under the name 808 State.<ref name=":0" />

Newbuild was released on Price's own record label. In an interview with Mojo magazine in 2005, Graham Massey explained that the album was recorded over a weekend in January 1988 at Spirit Studios, Manchester. Named after a Bolton housing co-operative, the record was re-released in 2005 on Aphex Twin's Rephlex Records. Aphex Twin was a huge fan of the record: "It was the next step after Chicago acid, and as much as I loved that, I could relate much better to 808 State. It seemed colder and more human at the same time."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Around the same time, the band also recorded an acid house version of New Order's "Blue Monday". A favourite at The Haçienda's Hot Night, the recording was believed lost until Autechre's Sean Booth asked Massey to dig through his archive of old material. The record was released in 2004 by Rephlex Records. "We didn't put a lot of thought into it but maybe that's its charm," said Massey at the time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The band's song "Pacific State" became the band's breakthrough single, peaking at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography"/> Simpson left the group in 1989 to form his own solo project, A Guy Called Gerald.<ref name="Larkinindie"/> At this point, the remaining personnel enlisted DJs Andrew Barker and Darren Partington, known as the Spinmasters, and recorded the mini-album Quadrastate in July 1989.<ref name="The Great Rock Discography"/> The group signed to ZTT records,<ref name=":0" /> and 90 was released in December 1989.<ref name="Larkinindie"/>

Rapper MC Tunes worked with the band on the 1990 album The North at Its Heights. The album was a moderate success, reaching number 26 on the UK Albums Chart,<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">Template:Cite book</ref> and also saw a 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 number 10), "Tunes Splits the Atom" (UK number 18) and "Primary Rhyming" (UK number 67).<ref name="The Great Rock Discography"/> The first two issues credited MC Tunes versus 808 State,<ref name="Larkinindie"/> whilst the latter was simply MC Tunes.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums"/> Tunes later returned in 1996 to work on a new track, "Pump", taken from 808 State's album Thermo Kings.

808 State's next album, 1991's ex:el, featured the vocals of Bernard Sumner and Björk and the singles "In Yer Face" (UK number 9), "Cubik" (UK number 10) and "Lift" (UK number 38).<ref name="Larkinindie"/><ref name="The Great Rock Discography"/>

In October 1991, Price left the group to perform solo production work, eventually forming his own label, Sun Text.<ref name="Larkinindie">Template:Cite book</ref> 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. It featured vocal contributions from James Dean Bradfield on "Lopez", which reached number 20 on the UK Singles Chart<ref name="The Great Rock Discography"/> and was remixed by Brian Eno. In 1997, they had remixed the Mansun track "Skin Up Pin Up" for the Spawn soundtrack. The song "Bond" featured vocals by Mike Doughty from the band Soul Coughing and "Azura" featured Lou Rhodes from Lamb. They released a greatest hits compilation album, 808:88:98 in 1998. In 2000, Newbuild was re-released.

Some of the band's work, particularly in the albums ex:el and Gorgeous show their new wave influences by sampling or featuring new wave icons such as Bernard Sumner on the song "Spanish Heart" and Ian McCulloch on "Moses". The song "Contrique" samples the bassline to Joy Division's "She's Lost Control" and "10 X 10" is a gospel-house track built on the foundation of the Jam's "Start!".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2003, they released Outpost Transmission which featured guest collaborations from Alabama 3 and Guy Garvey from Elbow.

In May 2008, the re-issue of the mini-album Quadrastate completed a trilogy of pre-ZTT releases on CD for the first time.

Partington left the band after being jailed for 18 months in January 2015 for dealing heroin and crack cocaine.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">808 State DJ Darren Partington jailed for drug dealing BBC News, 9 January 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2015.</ref>

Barker died on 6 November 2021, leaving Massey as the sole remaining member of the group.<ref name="Louder Than War">Andy Barker (808 State) RIP Louder Than War, 7 November 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2021.</ref>

Musical style

808 State's style has been labeled as techno<ref name="allmusic-bio"/> and house, and the band are regarded as "a pioneer of the acid house sound".<ref name="allmusic-bio">Template:Cite web</ref> The band's album, Newbuild, was influential in the development of the Madchester and baggy scenes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Pseudonyms and side projects

In 1990, 808 State composed the theme tune to the Channel 4 television programme, The Word.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Partington and Barker presented the 808 State Radio Show, first on Sunset 102 from 1989 to 1993, and later on Kiss 102 from 1994 to 1997. In 2012, they reinvented the program as the 808 State Webio Show for a number of months on Mike Joyce's internet based BeatWolf Radio.

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 release on which all five members of the group (Massey, Price, Simpson, Barker, and Partington) contributed simultaneously.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Massey released the solo album Subtracks under the name Massonix on Skam Records.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was a member of Biting Tongues, an experimental jazz rock group once signed to Factory Records. He also created the big band project called Massey's Toolshed Allstars (eventually shortened to 'Toolshed').<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Under the pseudonym Professor Vernon World, Massey as drummer/producer with the ladies combo organ quartet the Sisters of Transistors released an album, and is also a member of Sun Ra homage the Part-Time Heliocentric Cosmo Drama After School Club.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Price released a couple of EPs under the name Switzerland. He also managed the band Kaliphz (later known as Kaleef) who had a hit with a hip-hop cover version of the Stranglers' "Golden Brown". Barker has produced a small number of tracks under the names Atlas and Benaco.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Partington has also recorded under the name Jeep.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Band members

• Graham Massey (born 4 August 1960,<ref name="The Great Rock Discography"/> Manchester) – keyboards, programming, guitars, saxophone (1987–present)

Former members

• Gerald Simpson (born 16 February 1967, Manchester) – keyboards (1987–1989)
• Martin Price (born 26 March 1955, Farnworth)<ref name="The Great Rock Discography"/> – keyboards (1987–1991)
• Darren Partington (born 1 November 1969,<ref name="The Great Rock Discography"/> Manchester) – keyboards, congas, electronic drums (1989–2015)
• Andy Barker (9 March 1968, Manchester – 6 November 2021)<ref name="The Great Rock Discography"/><ref name="Louder Than War"/> – keyboards, bass (1989–2021)

Discography

Studio albums

• Newbuild (1988)
• Quadrastate (mini-album) (1989)
• 90 (1989)
• ex:el (1991)
• Gorgeous (1993)
• Don Solaris (1996)
• Outpost Transmission (2002)
• Transmission Suite (2019)

External links

• Template:Official website
• Template:Discogs artist
• Ian Peel: Warriors of Pop, 21 years of ZTT Record Collector, September 2004 (copy at Zang Tuum Tumb and all that) Article about ZTT's history, and contains information about 808 State
• Template:IMDb name