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Newbuild (album)

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Newbuild
Studio album by
808 State
ReleasedSeptember 1988
RecordedJanuary 1988
GenreAcid house[1]
Length39:39
LabelCreed
Producer
808 State chronology
Newbuild
(1988) 		Quadrastate
(1989)

Newbuild is the debut studio album by English electronic music group 808 State, released in September 1988 by Creed Records.[2] It was the only album recorded with founding member Gerald Simpson, who departed shortly afterward for a solo career.[1]

Production

The album was recorded at Spirit Studios in Manchester. The group recorded the album on tape found discarded outside the BBC's Manchester studios. It had been recorded on and edited many times; meaning it would no longer meet the organization's quality requirements.[3][4] The group used a lot of Roland equipment including a TR808, TR909, TB303, a Juno 106 and four SH101s.[4] One technique used was 'silhouetting' where the group would build a track around an atmospheric sample, then remove the sample from the final cut.[4] The album was named after a local council housing project.[3]

Reception and legacy

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Alternative Press4/5[5]
OffBeat[6]
Pitchfork9.8/10[3]

In a 1988 review, OffBeat described the album as "compulsive stuff, you don't exactly listen to it, more like feeel the frequencies... and respond."[6] In 1999, Alternative Press called it an "artificial dystopia" in which the tracks "strip away the soul of Detroit techno and replace it with a cold and rhythmic paranoia."[5]

Later techno artists Aphex Twin and Autechre have saluted the album as a major influence.[1] The former reissued the album on his Rephlex label in 1999.[1] He stated: "It was the next step after Chicago acid, and as much as I loved that, I could relate much better to 808 State. It seemed colder and more human at the same time."[7] He also produced a remix of "Flow Coma", which appeared on his 2001 EP 2 Remixes by AFX.[8]

A collection of unreleased material from the era was released in 2004 as Prebuild.

Track listing

  1. "Sync/Swim" – 6:20
  2. "Flow Coma" – 6:01
  3. "Dr. Lowfruit (4 A.M. Mix)" – 7:36
  4. "Headhunters" – 5:02
  5. "Narcossa" – 5:17
  6. "E Talk" – 4:01
  7. "Compulsion" – 5:22

Personnel

  • Performer, writer – Gerald Simpson, Graham Massey, Martin Price
  • Engineer – Graham Massey
  • Artwork – Metropark
  • Design – Johnson & Panas

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Bush, John. "Newbuild – 808 State". AllMusic. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  2. ^ "808 State Discography". 808state.com. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Cooper, Paul. "808 State: Newbuild". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 17 June 2002. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  4. ^ a b c Trask, Simon (October 1989). "The State of Technology (MT Nov 1989)". Music Technology (Nov 1989): 54–60.
  5. ^ a b Hampton, Justin (September 1999). "808 State: Newbuild". Alternative Press. No. 134. p. 97. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  6. ^ a b Mellor, Christopher (November 1988). "State 808: Newbuild". OffBeat. No. 3. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  7. ^ Aitken, Stuart (February 2005). "Acid Muthas Mental". Mojo. No. 135. p. 116. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  8. ^ "The 50 best Aphex Twin tracks of all time". Fact. 14 April 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
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