90 [Deluxe Edition] [PA]

Performer: 808 State
Engineer: Graham Massey
Producer: 808 State; Darren Partington (Reissue); Graham Massey (Reissue); Andy Barker (Reissue)
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: 808 State: Graham Massey (keyboards); Andy Barker (synthesizer); Martin Price, Darren Partington (samples). 808 State: Darren Partington, Graham Massey, Andy Barker. The precursor to 808 State's triumphant EX:EL, 808:90 is largely a warm-up for that British techno classic, with keyboardist Graham Massey and his ensemble offering up atmospheric yet animated dance tracks. Highlights include the appropriately ethereal "Magical Dream" (sort of a dress rehearsal for Massey's later work with Bjork) and the breezy, busy "Pacific 202." The 2008 reissue of 808:90 includes a bonus disc with remixes and previously unreleased tracks. You want to know the origins of "acid house?" This is where it all began, folks. UTD STATE NINETY is actually the domestic release of 808 State's superb--and terribly hard-to-find as an import--debut album. 808 ushered in new dance sub-genres, validated electro, and was generally an entity unto itself for most of the budding '90s. 808 took the pinging, Giorgio Moroder synths, sequencers, and rhythm boxes of disco's heyday, ripped apart the tissue of contemporary 303 and (of course) 808 drum machines, and stuffed it all into an electronic brew of the band's own making. Drum-machine ballets such as "Pacific 202" sounded like nothing else at its time-gurgling tin-pan rhythms bouncing about breezy, tropical synth-sax fills, peeping crickets, ricocheting bleeps, and sundry other noises. "Cobra Bora" smacks hard, with grungy sequencer motifs and chugging walls of beats. "Magical Dream" uses seductive, sugar-sweet vocals to coax you into its fuzzy womb of velvet motion, electronics chirping and trilling amidst ear-popping effects. In addition to being one of the quintessential electronica releases of its decade, UTD STATE NINETY now sports six extra tracks. Particularly necessary.

Entertainment Weekly - A - "...exhilarating..." Ranked by EW as the #10 Album of 1990.

Named after the legendary Roland drum machine, Manchester's 808 State had a profound influence on English dance music in the 1990s. On its early singles, the group coaxed furious beats out of electronic instruments and helped create a whole new vocabulary that was later incorporated into techno, jungle, and drum-and-bass. However, by the early 21st century, group members were concentrating more on remixing and producing.

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