808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester 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.
The group's early work influenced the UK's burgeoning acid house scene. and was also the founder of the independent record label, Creed.
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.
The band's song "Pacific State" became the band's breakthrough single, peaking at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart. 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). 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
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.
Barker died on 6 November 2021, leaving Massey as the sole remaining member of the group.
Musical style
808 State's style has been labeled as techno The band's album, Newbuild, was influential in the development of the Madchester and baggy scenes.
Pseudonyms and side projects
In 1990, 808 State composed the theme tune to the Channel 4 television programme, The Word.
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.
Massey released the solo album Subtracks under the name Massonix on Skam Records. 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'). 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.
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. Partington has also recorded under the name Jeep.
Band members
- Graham Massey (born 4 August 1960,