| Report from NME, 14 September 1996: | |
808 State The bands do their best to amp it up. "We are not Oasis!" proclaim 808 STATE helpfully as they take their sonic sledgehammer to the mid-evening lull. Subtlety is not in their vocabulary, mercifully, because burly beats and thunderous electro-sambas are required to yank this event out of its comatose slump. In 1996, these Manc techno veterans should sound as outmoded as Jerry Lee Lewis did when The Beatles released 'Revolver'. And yeah, sometimes you feel more grateful for their pioneering groundwork - introducing Björk to beats, for example - than for their beefy, chugging tunes. But the heart-pumping dementia of 'In Yer Face', the eerie warbling of guest vocalist Alison Goldfrapp and the twin-necked rockpig geetar which Graham Massey straps on for the twangtastic 'Bond', are three reasons why 808 State still plough their own bruisingly impressive path through '90s pop. All power to them. Stephen Dalton |
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