808 State - Newbuild (Album)

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808 State - Newbuild

UK 1988 LP; Creed Records; STATE 002 [Promo white label with writing on label]
UK 1988 LP; Creed Records; STATE 002 [Later copies with sticker on sleeve]
UK 1999 3xLP; Rephlex; CAT 080 LP
UK 1999 CD; Rephlex; CAT 080 CD

Tracks:

6:14 Sync/Swim
5:57 Flow Coma
7:27 Dr. Lowfruit (4 a.m. mix)
4:55 Headhunters
5:17 Narcossa
3:55 E Talk
5:20 Compulsion

Released:

Creed LP: September 1988 (Mid-September 1988 according to The Catalogue, #63, September 1988).
Rephlex (UK): 19th April 1999.
Rephlex (US): 4th May 1999 - distribution through EVA / Caroline.

Credits:

Produced by 808 State for State808 Productions.
All titles Simpson/Massey/Price.
Recorded at Spirit Studios, Manchester, Jan 88.
808 State 88 Team: Graham Massey, Gerald Simpson & Martin Price.

Press Release (Rephlex):

808State "Newbuild"
CD / triple vinyl LP (19th April 1999)
Here are the facts

• This was 808 State's first ever album released on Creed in 1988
• At the time it only was available as a single piece of vinyl
• Back then the members of the band were Graham Massey, Martin Price & A Guy Called Gerald (Simpson)
• For the past 10 years the Aphex Twin has had this record in his record box
• If you wanted to buy a secondhand copy of the original Newbuild, expect to pay anything up to £40 (source: Hard 2 Find records, Birmingham)
• Recently we have noticed various old 808 State tunes being brought up to date with remixes by whoever is currently 'en vogue' e.g. Fire Island, Victor Calderone and Grooverider. We promise we haven't tampered with this "why fix it if it aint bust?"
• 4 Remixes to follow, one each by the original members and one AFX mix [Note: AFX remix is the only one to be released thus far, although the A Guy Called Gerald one did surface in a Rephlex Radio show on BBC Radio 1]
• We have lovingly re-mastered it using high technology computers
• This will be its debut appearance on the CD format.
• It doesn't stop there! We bring you 3 bits of vinyl this time, for those in the know, that means that it can be played much louder in discotheques!
• The album was featured as a forgotten club classic a while ago in some magazine - but we forgot which one. (if you know please tell us)
• This record features Roland 303's going crazzzeee
• Even those Dutch people had it in their "De Historie Van De Housemuziek" in Bassic Groove (#7) as one of the 20 or so landmark albums of all time.
• Informative sleeve Notes by Richard Hector-Jones
• THE DEFINITIVE ACID HOUSE ALBUM FROM THE UK
• You cant ignore the facts

Sleeve Notes:

Rip-off or straight-up cultural exchange between the USA and Manchester? Graham Massey was never entirely sure. But one thing remains certain - a glitch occurred in the transatlantic transfer of ideas and 1988's "NEWBUILD" was the product.

As a group, Massey, Martin Price and (A Guy Called) Gerald Simpson were never primarily interested in the increasing amount of dance music that was making its way out of Chicago and Detroit and towards Manchester between '86 and '88. The idea of "jacking" records meant little to 808 STATE. It was only with the advent of the full-on mental weirdness of the Acid that the real connection was made and flashpoint achieved.

These were alien sounds. Sounds without cultural baggage. Sounds that didn't feel the need to sound real. These were the days before Roland had its renaissance. No-one wanted drum machines that sounded like drum machines. The 808, 909 and 303 were the slices of redundant technology you'd easily find at Johnny Roadhouse and other second-hand music shops around Manchester. 808 STATE'S technology on this album was far from "hi". Hi-tech meant expensive, which meant out of the question. Original Acid house like this became a necessity for three simple reasons; inspiration, affordability and availability.

Music of the future made by virtually redundant boxes might seem quite quaint now, but "NEWBUILD" was made before computers dominated production. All the sounds on this album, bar a few, are triggered by the drum machine. This is why you can hear mistakes on the album as it was laid down live to two-track tape recorder. Incidentally, the master tape, long-since disintegrated, was nicked out of a skip from the back of the BBC, Manchester. It had been spliced and diced heavily enough to get binned, even before 808 got their hands on it.

The great thing about "NEWBUILD" now is that it hasn't been diminished by the passage of time. It's still dirty, cavernous, messy, full of mistakes and profoundly f***ed up - Acid house from a brief period before it all went loved-up, blissed-out, whatever. "NEWBUILD" is unhinged, genuinely lysergic, made all the more vivid by the overwhelming sense of optimism that a new music was being formed right here and right now. The tyranny of formula had not yet made its presence felt on the scene.

The injustice, if you're looking for it, is that out of that whole Manchester scene of the time, the Inspiral Carpets and the Stone Roses are seen as history's heroes. All the while, Gerald's "Voodoo Ray" and 808's "NEWBUILD" were championing a whole new way of making music, a music that had no reference and didn't need or want anything to do with guitars.

Listening to "NEWBUILD" today, it still sounds righteous, necessary and inspired - the blueprint for any musician looking to start off n the right foot. Not even "Acid Tracks" itself sounds as good today as a track like "Narcossa".

Not bad for an album named after a housing project in Bolton.

Richard Hector-Jones

Remarks:

(Creed): Indie chart placing, 29th October 1988. Highest entry: 12. Weeks in Chart: 2.

More 808 State Rephlex releases: New Order Acid House Mixes, AFX Flow Coma remix, Prebuild, Quadrastate.