As another year ends it's time to say thanks for your input and support. 2002 promises to be a very exciting 808 year, kicking off with the DVD - including bonus CD - release. I've updated the DVD page as well as the Links page with some online stores. Pre-order the opti buk DVD now!

To see the year off, I've placed the Massey remix of Candyflip's Redhills Road onto the Sounds page. Njoy! All the best in the New Year. Markus.

Here's a short roundup of what 2001 had in stock:

• Massey remixes of Goldfrapp track 'Human', CD release of Frankie's 'Two Tribes' 808 mix, 'Flow Coma' AFX remix by the Aphex Twin, Massey sounds to the short film 'Shadowscan'.
• Marriage and son for Andrew Barker.
• Loss of Adam Mitchell from the message board and Noel 'Dewiz' Cockshutt, aka Mario Campbell.
• Discussion board contributors page and fan mixes section introduced.
• The planning and making of an 808State DVD including bonus audio cd (to be released January 2002).
• Recording of a new album (to be released Spring 2002).
• One 808 State live gig (Dundee).

Thanks for your support over a non-eventful year (well, we've been working hard). Hopefully your patience will be rewarded in 2002. Stuff coming at ya - let's get busy in the New Year! Graham.

Here are the Dundee images of last month's live gig.

An early mix of Colony is on the sounds page now.

From NME.COM:

808 STATE have nearly completed work on their new album and plan to release it next year, NME.COM can reveal.

The Manchester collective, who were pioneers of UK dance music, will release the as-yet-untitled record through Circus Records in early 2002.

Collaborations completed so far include tracks with Guy Garvey of Elbow, Alabama 3 and Simian.
NME.COM understands that a track featuring Ian Brown has also been recorded and may yet emerge on the album, and that they are keen to work with Billy Corgan. Corgan has long been a fan, and this year toured and recorded with Mancunian act New Order.

808 State's last major release was 1996's 'Don Solaris', which included 'Lopez', a collaboration with James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire of Manic Street Preachers.

In the intervening period, the group's Darren Partington has been working with Manchester band Jeep, which also includes former Smiths bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce, as well as Paul 'Wags' Wagstaff, former lead guitarist with Happy Mondays. (info by JD)

Out of 80 suggestions the winner is: SOUFLEX by Gary Toshack. Gary's original comment on his submission: "Like Full Nelson, Souflex is also a wrestling move." Graham: "I already had two tunes called Half Nelson and Full Nelson, so I had an empathy with it."

Update for wrestling experts: There are several ways of spelling the wrestling move. Officially it's spelt differently but Graham wants to stick with Souflex.

So now we know one track name of the new album, 'Souflex'. Of course 'Full Nelson' was on the Invader EP. Intrigued about 'Half Nelson'...

Check out a live version of Relay on the Sounds page, taken from a European date of the Don Solaris tour '96.

If you missed Homelife's gig in London (30 Oct) featuring Graham Massey, you can watch it on the BBC Web site (info by Gary). There's also some Magga Stina stuff.

Pictures of the 11 November 808 State live gig in Dundee to follow in the next few days.

The 808 DVD is starting to pop up on UK DVD sites with an expected release date of 21 January (info by SteveC). It definitely looks like a region 2 release. Catalogue number: ZTT002DVD. Priced at around 19 pounds including the bonus CD.

Homelife's gig in London (30 Oct) featuring Graham Massey will be recorded for BBC Radio 3 'Mixing It' and broadcasted on the following Sunday 4 November at 23:00 UK time.

The 11 November live gig will take place at the Circus! Nightclub in Dundee, Scotland. It has a 1800 capacity of which around 200 tickets were left last Friday. Tickets (£9) are available through the above Web site, doors open at 21:00 (thanks to Pete for all the info). Graham says that one-off gigs are usually difficult and probably the set list will be the same as in Brixton last year, though they will try to throw in a new track or two if possible.

ZTT have set a release date of 28 January 2002 for the Optibuk DVD.

The new album is now set for an April 2002 release.

808 State are playing a one-off gig in Dundee on 11 November! It's the first time in 18 months that 808 play a live date. Details to follow, hopefully...

Reminder: the 'Name a track' competition closes this Sunday 28 October.

Mute have released a Special Edition CD of Goldfrapp's Felt Mountain album. It contains a bonus remix disc featuring amongst others the Graham Massey Cro-Magnon mix of Human. Catalogue number: LCDSTUMM188.

Simon 'Pob' France was able to retrieve at least the Table Of Contents of the old message board - for his efforts a free Optibuk DVD will be going to him when it comes out.

Discussion board V7 is now running.

Tired of the same names every year in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs poll results? How about voting for the 808 State DJs this year. Other suggestions: Chris Cowie, A Guy called Gerald, etc. Access the voting form here. Closing date is 10 October.

No luck for the lost message board postings. Could everyone look in their 'Temporary Internet Files' or 'Cache' folder of their browser and see if there are any html files in there from between 5 and 26 September. I'm especially interested in the index file (table of contents). Thanks. If you can retrieve the files, you will receive a free copy of the upcoming 808 State DVD.

On 25 September our host provider experienced an irreparable electrical problem on the Web server hosting 808state.com. This caused an outage of the site for several hours. Since then they have been trying to restore the site from backup with mixed fortune.

Luckily I did have a copy of the main site locally and I have now reinstated the latest versions of the pages. Unfortunately this does not apply to the message board. The host has only been able to restore it until 5 September so far. Please do not attempt to post any messages on the old discussion board as it is corrupted.

If anyone has a local copy of the V6 discussion board (e.g. downloaded it to view off-line), please let me know! All effort is going into restoring the old discussion board history, before creating a new one.

Markus

Some questions have come up about the Name A Track competition. Here's a small FAQ:

Q: Can I enter multiple times?
A: Yes, you can submit more than one title. Obviously it would be simplest if you can submit them all at once, but if you think of another after you've submitted one, that's OK.
Q: Do we get to hear any tracks in advance?
A: No.
Q: Do we have to name the track from the preview clip?
A: No. That was just to get you in the mood.
Q: What's the closing date?
A: 28 October 2001.

Speaking of FrequentlyAskedQuestions, a short FAQ has also been added to the DVD page.

Our lads have almost finished mixing in the studio and are now waiting on some vocals. 808 have laid down 17 tracks and now it's your opportunity to give one of them a name. Graham Massey: "The most 808 one wins." The prize is obviously to have the track name on the album, plus the winner gets a free copy of the upcoming 808state DVD 'Optibuk'! To enter all you need is your Regulars page in the discussion section. If you don't have one yet, don't despair, you've got time until the end of October to submit one and enter the competition. As usual, send your input to markus. I have added more images of 808 in the studio. Get inspired there for the competition by watching and listening to an exclusive 15 second peek at one of the new tracks in the making.

Out today: 'Best Behaviour' by Chris Cowie (aka Vegas Soul). It's a collection of his finest productions and features his Vegas Soul remix 2 of 808 State's 'Invader'. According to Bellboy Records "he included it as he liked it so much" and it will appeal to the more seasoned listener. Highly recommended stuff out on double CD (BLCD51) and double vinyl (BLDV51).
Esprit seem to have a rare gem in their catalogue at the moment: The ex:el promo CD which of course has the wonderful catalogue number SAM808...
And finally, Warpmart inform us that the AFX 12" featuring Flow Coma has been repressed with an orange label, instead of the previous white one...

As if to sweeten our wait for the new album expected early next year, 808 State are including a bonus audio CD with the forthcoming 808 DVD release! It includes 8 previously unreleased tracks and will only be available together with the DVD. We can exclusively reveal the sleeve artwork of the DVD which is confirmed to be called Optibuk. For full details such as the bonus CD track details, see the DVD page.

Out now: Frankie Goes To Hollywood 'Twelve Inches' double CD, including Two Tribes 808 State remix for the first time on CD. Catalogue number: ZTT176CD.

Not only the Aphex Twin has been playing around with Flow Coma, check out Birthday Boy Rodders' version in the fan mixes section.

It's hopefully safe to announce now: There will be a new 808 State album at beginning of next year! 808 have been locked in a recording studio for the past few weeks and have a deadline to finish the studio work by mid-August. Then some tweaking will be done until September. The release date is set for February.

808 are now in the process of selecting vocalists. There's a good chance the vocalist of 'Alabama 3' will be amongst them. Doughty seems a bit doubty now and as for Ian Brown, unlikely. Says Graham: "No vocals as yet so reminds me more of an updated 90."

808 are using a different recording technique (Pro Tools) compared to previous albums and it is yet to be decided how the new tracks could be played live. The release will be on an independent label (Circus) as it currently stands. Markus paid 808 a visit in July at Manchester's Testa-Rossa studios - here are some images.

Underbelly / 808 competition:

Darren Partington is giving away a pair of 808 State slipmats and other goodies at Underbelly (the music division of gritted.com). For one week only they are also showing footage of the 808 DJs in Alicante earlier this year. You will need the latest version of Windows Media player.

ZTT are undertaking an 808State DVD! This is your chance to actively decide on the content. What do you think should be on the 808 DVD and what shouldn't? Who should be interviewed (apart from the band)? Other possibilities include some of 808s own video cam stuff and getting some Gmex Turbo Rave footage on there (if it can be found).

To give you an idea: Previously ZTT released a Frankie Goes To Hollywood DVD ('Hard On'ZTT001DVD) which is over two hours long. As well as the promo video clips, it features 40 minutes of interviews.

Submit your input to the 808 DVD thread on the discussion board.
Update: Discussion now closed. Collection of input can be found on DVD ideas page.

Went completely unnoticed: UK label Invader (!) issued a Sugizo remix CD last year. 'Replicant' (INVDCD001) features eleven tracksamongst which 808s remix of 'Next Dimension Beauty'. Not many places list it, but it'savailable from 101cd.com. The original Japanese six track CD 'Replicant Lucifer' (POCH-1642) from '97 still seems to be available from CD Japan.

In an unannouncedmove, Andy Barker got married to his long-time girlfriend Mandy sometime during January.Thanks to our undercover agent Livewire for this piece of news.