Send "808 State " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork. |
 In the late 1980s, 808 State asked themselves a couple of important questions: Was it possible to get the masses to rise up and embrace instrumental beatscapes? Could a couple of guys with a couple of keyboards become a pop group without ever really writing pop songs? Should a house or techno act even bother releasing an album aimed at a general audience? There was no real evidence that the answer to any of these questions was "yes," but 808, along with a handful of other ambitious crossover types, persisted anyway. Thanks to a mixture of luck, timing, and skill, 808 actually succeeded. And more than an any other crossover 1990s dance act, they stayed true to both their club and avant-electronic roots. The career-spanning Blueprint proves that 808 did have a certain commercial instinct almost from the start. What's more surprising is how big they scored with the stuff on Blueprint that sounds the least commercial.808 came up in the early days of British rave by making intense and dense compositions that represented club music at its furthest-out, anticipating the kind of abstract hardcore electronica that didn't quite exist just yet. It's a thrillingly manic and claustrophobic sound, enough so that it inspired more than a few future IDM tyros. On the other hand, it's unsurprising that the caustic acid maximalism of "Flow Coma" never charted. 808's next single, however, hit in the biggest possible way. Relaxing a bit, like rave as a whole for a brief second, they scored massively with the platonically placid "Pacific State". The tune that helped to enshrine both the saxophone and the birdcall as part of the softer side of dance music's vocabulary, "Pacific" still has enough of techno's antic bounce to make it seem like a great lost direction for pop, where hippie relaxation vibes and bright video game funk are not incompatible. An accountant probably would have told them to ride their status as chill-out pioneers until it stopped being profitable, which could have lasted at least until Moby smothered the trend stone-dead with the success of Play. Instead 808 released a few charmingly clunky takes on hip-house that are left out on Blueprint. That certainly helps the collection's flow, even if it does underline why the group calls this their "greatest bits" rather than a complete overview. When they finally rebounded, creatively, it once again paid off commercially. "Pacific" and their Brit-rap adventures had clearly given them an appreciation for ideas of beauty and fun that conformed to 99 percent of humanity's. But they never quite lost their taste for the robots-in-meltdown fierceness of "Flow Coma". "Cubik" and "In Yer Face" were among the 808's biggest non-"Pacific" hits, but they were also among their rawest tunes. The difference is that the intensity now felt brash and joyful rather than hermetic and kinda creepy....full text |
| Bbc |
| It’s impossible to underplay the importance of 808 State. Arriving at a time when acid house was starting to infiltrate the hipper enclaves of UK clubland, the original trio of Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson took the hard sound of Chicago house and lashed it to industrial grooves and experimental music. Late-80s floor-fillers like Flow Coma and Pacific State were hugely influential on a new generation of techno-heads, chief among them Aphex Twin, Autechre and Orbital. Indeed, it’s Aphex Twin’s 2001 remix of Flow Coma that kicks off this terrific retrospective. A star-stuffed one it is too, including collaborations with Brian Eno, Björk, Simian, James Dean Bradfield, Guy Garvey and onetime ZTT labelmate, Trevor Horn. What’s particularly fascinating is just how far ahead of the curve 808 State clearly were. Sharp-edged rave classics like Cübik and In Yer Face pre-date the whole superstar DJ/superclub boom of the 90s. But by the time The Chemical Brothers and Cream had become steady fixtures on the new dance scene, 808 State were already moving away from the kinetic thump of techno-funk and were investing the music with more tranquil, ambient tones. Theirs was music for both mind and feet, highlighted here by the luminous Björk set-to, Qmart. And those still lamenting the demise of 90s yoof-TV Friday-nighter The Word (look, you never know) will be buoyed by the appearance of Olympic, its theme tune. The latter is one of several exclusive (re)mixes on this set. Others given a fresh facelift are Cübik (Monkey Mafia), Plan 9 (Trevor Horn) and the "808 tape mix" of the wonderful Timebomb. The weird’n’glitchy stuff still sounds great (especially a revamped 606, with Simian) but Guy Garvey’s turn on Lemonsoul proves they were always capable of delivering a swoonsome mood piece. Avid followers will be especially intrigued by two spanking new arrivals: Spanish Ice and Metaluna. The latter brings everything around full circle by smartly segueing into Compulsion, the closing track on 1988 debut LP Newbuild....full text |
| Allmusic |
| Arriving almost a decade too early to capitalize on the mid-'90s dance boom which saw the Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, and Underworld conquer the charts as well as the underground rave scene, Manchester outfit 808 State may not be a household name, but without their pioneering fusion of acid-house, ambient techno, and pulsing breakbeats, it's unlikely that the likes of "Firestarter," "Block Rockin' Beats," or "Born Slippy" would have ever seen the light of day. Released 13 years after their last compilation, Blueprint, Best Of shows just how far ahead of their time they were, with electro maverick Aphex Twin doffing his cap to the influence they had on his career with a remix of "Flow Coma," contributions from Björk ("Qmart"), and the Manics' James Dean Bradfield ("Lopez") inventing the whole guest indie vocalist-does-dance music shtick which has since become the norm, and the blissed-out sax-led "Pacific State," still sounding as euphoric 20 years after it became one of illegal warehouse culture's most iconic hits. With only one album (2003's Outpost Transmission) recorded in the intervening years, some might question the necessity of a new collection. Although it shares nine of its seventeen songs with its predecessor, this career-spanning set is no cynical cash-in, thanks to a treasure trove of obscure remixes, "revisited" versions, and a brand new composition, "Spanish Ice," which proves that Graham Massey, the only original member left, has lost none of his knob-twiddling magic. The tracks that have been tinkered with are more subtle reworkings than radical overhaulings, with only Monkey Mafia's dancehall-tinged treatment of Top Ten hit "Cubik" providing any notable difference, but it's a testament to the band's innovative sound that the majority of cuts still sound fresh whether they've been left intact or not. Elsewhere, there are appearances from Elbow's Guy Garvey on the Scott Walker-esque "Lemonsoul," Simian on the slightly more mellow remix of "606," and legendary producer Trevor Horn on the radio edit of "Plan 9," an inclusion from their 1989 Quadrastate EP ("Firecracker"), a mash-up of a rarity previously only available on the Blue Bell Records compilation, Hear You Soon ("Metaluna"), and 1988 debut Newbuild album track, "Compulsion." There are a few notable omissions, particularly the two hits with British rapper MC Tunes and the Top 20 single, "One in Ten," but nevertheless, Best Of is still an appropriately titled collection which shows that where 808 State led, others followed....full text |
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