808 State – Plan 9

From Graham Massey Facebook 14th May 2021:
Another Friday drop with 808 State/ZTT ,this week we present “ Plan 9 “ https://808state.ffm.to/plan9
The 3rd single preceding the album “Gorgeous” in early 1993 .
I think the album was ready to go as early as August 92 .
Our previous single "One in Ten" had got to number 17 in the Christmas pop charts .Also that December we played one of our only ever French raves at Trans Musical -Rennes with The Orb and Underground Resistance ,That was a nice gig !The following couple of weeks we were squeezed on the bill on Madness’s Xmas tour along with Liverpool group The Farm . These were big stadium gigs and I guess the idea was to hit a wider audience and get a Christmas number 1 with a song about being unemployed , cheery Dickensian stuff ! . The reality was we were largely unwelcome ,not by Madness who were really lovely . There was some kind of riot in Edinburgh where we were barricaded in the dressing room ,men with golf clubs in the audience! ,but largely it felt like a Christmas Jolly. For instance at the Brighton Grand Hotel we had an impromptu breakfast with Mr Sulu from Star Trek (George Takai) who was in Pantomime , Its was all tinsel & show business !
Plan 9 had its origins in a remix we had done the previous summer of Planet Rock by Africa Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eonEAT5mXM It must have been a hot summer , we heated that robot vibe up with some lovely warm chords , we had to recycle those . In fact we took this new off shoot totally Balearic by playing some Spanish Guitar over it and flooding it with sun ripened fruity Memory Moog (a posh lush synth).
For the 1 in 10 video we had frozen our assets off filming in the Crescents of Hulme and Blackpool Promenade in the pissing rain .This time we were going to film somewhere warm ,how about Death Valley ? We tipped up in Vegas and bought $25 worth of props from an army surplus store then drove out to Zabrinskie Point where we made a wide screen Star Trek episode with these two Soho Steinbeck jockeys called Wayne & Badger .
The sand dunes were so sound absorbent that it was like a huge anechoic chamber. One could talk quietly to each other over great distance and hear your blood pumping in your neck.
The landscapes were Gorgeous and like all our other videos we shuffled through the frame from right to left like a stop frame Czech animation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv8BOkV4l8U
There are 3 mixes of Plan 9 here, the radio edit was razored up by Trevor Horn . We have included another of Trevor 's radio edits that was possibly going to be a single at the time
“Moses “ our collaboration with Ian Mc Culloch from Echo & The Bunnymen. I think it was our lighting engineer Lee who set up a meeting with Ian when we were recording on Bold Street Liverpool early in 92 . We all pilled into his house one afternoon and played him some tracks. It was a few months later that we recorded Ian in Sheffield- As a lead singer it is traditional to turn up with no lyrics .We all sat in the pub while he pulled the song out of the either and onto a beer mat.
Ian came and performed Moses on the Madness tour with us ,have you ever tried to get hairspray on an industrial estate in Wembley ? the immortal lines “No Hairspray ,No Show !“ we still use today .
The other track that we had rattled off as a B side was a heavier mix of Olympic ,as this was now well known as the theme to Channel 4 s The Word ,hence the affix.
Im very fond of the little weird B side track named “Nbambi" , which sounds somewhat Disneyesque with its Wurlitzer raindrops , more Spanish guitar .The whooshing wind /chip pan effects are straight out of the ARP2600 patch cord book .The art work on Plan 9 was by Mark Farrow who had previously done the artwork for the album 90 .You will know many of his classic sleeve designs for Manics , Pet Shop Boys ,Spiritualised etc.
Plan 9 radio edit
Olympic The Word Mix
Moses 7inch edit
Plan 9-Guitars On Fire
Nbambi
Plan 9 -ChokI Galaxy

I 808 State being the very first electronic band that I caught onto, with the "Ex:El" cassette being worn out to near oblivion. When the "Plan 9" single dropped shortly after the (to my ears) underwhelming "Timebomb" I was very curious to discover whether 808 State had returned to form. Thankfully for me they did wel and truly with the lush, guitar and pad driven "Plan 9", which has incidentally become an 808 State favourite of mines even after all these years.

The single however also included yet another much loved track with "Nbambi (The April Showers Mix)", an absolutely gorgeous slice of ambient tinged house underpinned by deep bass throbs, gentle piano notes and soaring pads. "Nbambi" brings back memories of pure nostalgia for me. A highly underrated 808 State gem.

"Olympic '93 (The Word Mix)" is dope, but the winner on this whole package is the Choki Galaxy Mix of "Plan 9." If you can manage a quick cut right from the very beginning, the track is a stunna. I caned it so many times in the winter and spring of 1993 (which was a very difficult time) and it always left a great impression. The bass energy from the intro pulls the listener/dancer right into the dreamscape.

As stated below this is over-looked but very much classic 808 State, sure 1993 looked quite different to this release but this is keeping in line with 90 & Exel not what was happening in clubland 1993 and that isnt a bad thing to be fair.

Seminal later release from 808 State with catchy Balearic-style guitars, obscure samples and breakbeats. Often over-looked but timeless 808 State.

808 State are just killing time with this melodic but forgettable taster for their "Gorgeous" album. They can (and usually do) come up with better than this. The B-side was used as the theme for the Channel 4 (UK) TV programme "The Word".