With its uninspired Latin percussion
and some truly annoying chanted vocals, "Bombadin" is, frankly, pretty cheezy,
more tired
tribal stuff from a bunch of guys who've
inflicted more than their fair share upon us.
The shoulda-been-the-A-side "Marathon"
is a different story, though. The country/techno crossover is in full-effect
(a la the Grid's
"Swamp Thing") -- full-bore shitkickin'
at 150 BPM. Slightly goofy, but definitely the strongest 808 State single since
"Plan 9".
There may be some life left in the old
gal after all..." [Blasphemy!! I have no idea where this
came from!]
"Hi!
>Just a quick note to wish all of yer
on alt.rave a merry christmas from the
>State of 808, and a special shout to
all members of STATE TO STATE!
>Don't forget kids, if you wanna write
to us, we're available as follows:
>Snail mail: 808 STATE
> PO Box 808
> Hook
> Basingstoke
> RG25 1UF
> United Kingdom
>e-mail: 808state@feedback.com
>And yes, this is 808 STATE directly...
NOT agents, service suppliers, record
>company or any of that other stuff.
Latest news: in the last month we've
>remixed Bomb The Bass "One To One Religion"
(out early '95 on Island),
>Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun" and Naomi
Campbell "I Want To Live" (produced
>by Tim Simenon). We're working on our
new album right now in Fon Studios, due
>for release early next year... a new
organic sound from the State of 808!
>It's a rave new world.
>"Respect!"
>Graham, Andy and Darren
>808 STATE" [Taken
from somewhere on Usenet]
Ok, 808 State UTD 90 is the oldest techno
cd in my collection (from 1990), but listening to Cobra Bora last night made
me think how techno has become much more repetitive and boring recently, cf.
Chemical Brothers, most trip-hop/acid stuff now. Are there any good artists
today that don't use a single 4/4 measure sample and repeat it for 7 minutes,
with a little tweaking here and there on the filters and volumn controls?
Cobra Bora actually has what you might
call a "lead" synth part, that spans more than one measure, on top of that chugged
bass line. I don't like adherence to pop song structure, but I think now a days
the structure is so simple that it gets boring soon. The structure of 808 State
on that album is pretty hard to pin down. Yes, there's a vague resemblence
to the pop structure, but it's not that simple. If you take every part
and map it out on graph paper, measure by measure, according to how things change,
it's amazing how often things change, especially the rhythms. Whereas
Moby will repeat 16 measures, 808 State repeated nothing.
IMHO, the whole UTD 90 album is still
the best up-tempo techno album ever. It's a landmark. Maybe I'm missing a whole
world of techno by only buying drum n bass now, and some one can turn
me on to something similar to this style.
That album was an aberration, a flash
in the pan, a once in a lifetime glimpse of how things might be. ex:el
is a pale shade of UTD State 90.. God, what I'd give for something similar
as good. I am now buying mostly drum n bass, trip hop kinda stuff -
not a lot going on in techno land - Beaumont
Hannant, Black Dog, Autechre, maybe Orbital ... otherwise a lot of cheesy rehash.
Just curious..sorry
to be ignorant..but what exactly is a measure?? Can somebody give me a sample
of one from Moby's music?
Ryan"
[from www.moby.org]