Intuitive Music

808 State

Manchester trio formed by Graham Massey, Gerald Simpson and Martin Price in 1988. 808 State is considered one of the most important and successful techno and electronica bands in the world.

808 State were formed in 1988 when Gerald Simpson and Graham Massey from The Bitting Tongues met at the Eastern Bloc DJs record shop run by Martin Price in Manchester, England. They soon started recording a hip hop EP together with MC Tunes under the name of Hit Squad Manchester, but soon they decided to call themselves 808 State, taking from the Roland TR 808 drum machine.

The sound of 808 State fits a powerful mix of acid house, rock riffs, hypnotic beats, and tasteful harmonies, influenced by synth pop bands such as Ktraftwerk and New Order.

In 1988, they released their first album titled ‘Newbuild’ on Price’s, with big influences from acid trax. After becoming a collector’s item, the album was released in 1999 by Rephlex Records. During the making of the second album ‘Quadrastate’, Gerald Simpson departed to continue with his solo project ‘A Guy Called Gerald’.

Bjork and 808 State

DJ’s Andrew Barker and Darren Partington, a.k.a. the Spin Masters, got recruited on a permanent basis to fill up the gap left by Gerald. By the time, the name of 808 State was consolidated in the new Manchester scene. Then they signed producer Trevor Horn’s label ZZT for the third album entitled “90″, which provided the big hit and underground classic “Pacific”. The album was also released in the US under the name Utd. State 90 on Tommy Boy records. During this time, 808 State also produced the album “The North At Its Heights” for MC Tunes -later named Dust Junkys- and released several hit singles. In 1991, was released their biggest selling album ‘Ex:el’, including a collaboration of Bjork on vocals after the singer phoned them introducing herself as “an Icelandic singer who was nuts for playing with the State”. As soon as they noticed she was the ex-singer from Sugarcubes the invitation was accepted. However, in the meantime Martin Price decided to depart from 808 State and they remained as a trio. In this album they also they also had the collaboration of Bernard Summer from New Order and Raagman.

The album “Gorgeous”, released in 1992, included a remake of the UB 40 classic ‘One In Ten’. After extensive touring, 808 State took a break and it wasn’t until 1994 that the single ‘Bombadin’ was released. During that year a fanclub-only CD entitled ‘State to State’ was pressed containing unreleased material. The following album ‘Don Solaris’ was released in 1996, which took two years to get finished. To celebrate its release in June 1996, a free concert was given at the Castlefield Amphitheatre in Manchester. The album featured artists such as James Dean Bradfield of ‘Manic Street Preachers’, and Louise Rhodes of ‘Lamb’. In the same year was also released “Thermo Kings” was their last album on Trevor Horn’s ZTT label.

In 1998, the band celebrated their 10th Anniversary with the release of a Best Of 808 State album, entitled “808:88:98″. In 2002 they released “Outpost Transmission”, which was followed by “State to State 2″. Two years later, 808 State released “Prebuild” on Rephlex label, a tribute to their debut album and their acid house roots and the Manchester scene.

Both 808 State and Graham Massey have remixed, produced and collaborated for an array of artists, including Art of Noise, Quincy Jones, David Bowie, John Hassell, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Jon Hassell, Tom Jones, Yes, Crystal Method, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Siouxie & the Banshees, Bomb the Bass, Stone Roses, Texas, Gong, Black Dog, Rem, Soundgarden, Soft Ballet, Pizzicato 5, Locust, Afrika Bambaataa, and Future Sound of London.