808 State – 90

Haven’t heard for about 25 years. Recently picked it up again and wow…so ahead of its time.

Without this, black dog, FSOL, boards, Lfo…all could sound different. Seminal.

For an electronic record from 1989 this have aged really well! It would work just as good today as it did back then!

I love 808 State, one of the finest electronic groups ever in my opinion. For me, 90 (along with the Quadrastate EP) is their finest hour. 90 is perhaps slightly more commercial sounding than the previously mentioned EP but absolutely not of any lesser quality. The album contains the classic Pacific 202 in the mix that was released as a single (the original is on Quadrastate). The quality of tracks on 90 are so high though that Pacific 202 doesn't merely stand head and shoulders above a bunch of substandard filler. The quality of tracks here is so high that not only is it one of the best albums of its era, but of any era in electronic music. The variety on the album is brilliant too: from the hip hop influenced Ancodia to the more ambient sounding Sunrise, to the deep house elements of 808080808. Even then though, each track goes off in various musical directions so you never know what's quite coming next. Honestly, I can't recommend this album highly enough. When I first heard it I played it on loop for weeks, and I still regularly play this to the present day. An electronic classic!

Classic breakbeat techno album which changed my life for the better in 89' still 'hits the spot' after all this time!

This might be the most important electronic music LP I own. I really don't need to say anything else, as the music speaks volumes, especially when you consider it was made in 1989!

Quality album from 808 State summarising all their important and memorable house anthems post-Newbuild. Pacific, Cubik, Cobra Bora, Ancodia are all superb 808 classics in their own instrumental sample-led style. This album represents their awakening from Eastern Bloc’s record label Creed to pop producer Trevor Horn’s ZTT label, with every track a winner. Unfortunately they never quite managed to be as consistent following this, despite churning out many similar-sounding efforts.

This LP has some of the most complex and beautiful drum programming you are likely to ever hear. Makes you wonder what happened to not just these guys but to the scene as a whole. After a masterpiece like this which is truly blueprint for that big sound that everybody attempted to immitate. Check out 'Cobra Bora'. Just when you think it has done it's thing, it takes off to another level. Pure techno jazz of the very highest order.
An absolute masterpiece from start to finish. This is more apparent now than ever before and although to the untrained ear (or novice) this may sound dated, its only because of those big stadium sounds (as used on ie. Cubik) that will make people think this. Unaware to them, It was these guys and more to the point, this LP that came above all, first in line with that sound. Think again. This is a classic of monumental proportion and defines that year not just by title alone but to hear it, is to go back to the finest techno music of that that year, 90. Ahh, the memories.

A few days ago I ed an mp3 version of this genious album...I thought it was quite good, but then today when I walked out in the streets later in the evening and listened to it with my, god I was blown away! As soon as I returned home, I got hold of the vinyl version from ebay...kind of an introduction to early techno for me, some of the best music I've heard in ages!

808 State is one of the most influential groups of the electronic scene from the end of the eighties to the nineties. Their first album, 'Ninety', recorded in Manchester in 1989, was a testimonial of a new paradigm in dance music in a mixture of breakbeats, melodies, elegant atmospheres, strange effects, aesthetic drop outs, basslines of 303, and many other influences, inspiring a whole bunch of different artists of the nineties as well as the rave scene. Clearly different from the other artists, they absorbed the influences of hip hop, acid house and even Detroit techno and transformed them in a new kind of electronic music style. The main track of the album was one of the greatests classics of that period: ‘Pacific 202’, a mixture of acid basslines, a saxophone sequence and atmospheric synths in a clear jazzy climax.
‘Magical Dream’ represented a lovely combination of melodic bass & synths with breakbeat and the nice vocals of Vanessa. In ‘Ancodia’, some scratch effects were used in the melodic breakbeat base, ing the elements of hip hop, dub, house with new melodies. ‘Donkey Doktor’ borrowed the sample of the Detroit classic track, Cybotron’s ‘Techno City’ and added it with a melodic and futuristic breakbeat structure. 'Ancodia', had vocal chorus samples and scratching, with clear hip hop influences; 'Cobra Bora' was a litle bit faster kind of breakbeat, more dancefloor, with a drop out full of climax & melodies, but ‘Sunrise’ had a different approach in a strange, ethereal and sinister kind of music.