MARTIN Price has a bit of a reputation for being the biggest mouth in Manchester and, never afraid to voice an opinion, he's telling me about the promotional visit of a certain ex-new wave personality to his shop. "I told him the record was dog shit," he asserts.

Along with Graham Massey, founding member of Factory Records' Biting Tongues and T-Coy, and Darren and Andy two local young enfant terrible DJs, Martin is a member of 808 STATE, the spawning ground for current hot hit-maker, A Guy Called Gerald, and the real sound of the Mancunian dance underground.

Are they envious in any way of departed member Gerald's success, he's had a lot of publicity while the broader scope of 808 State is still alien to those outside the House scene?

"No, we're not envious of Gerald," explains Martin. 'We want him to succeed, we always wanted him to succeed, we just never knew where we were up to with him, he never told us what he was going to do next, and that's what he's done with everybody."

The release of the slightly poppier sounds of the new LP, "Quadrastate" into an increasingly receptive market will hopefully raise the profile of 808 State, but do they have any plans to move from the limited resources of their own Creed label into the mass-organised arms of a major label. A move to ZTT has been rumoured around Manchester for several weeks.

DJing is an obvious component of the 808 State style with members regularly laying down tracks at night clubs all over the North West, and 808 State warehouse parties being an integral part of the dance scene in Manchester, can they see themselves following in the wake of other DJs with a major crossover track.

"The trouble with a lot of that", explains Darren, "is that it's Hip House, which we could do tomorrow, but we're not a Hip House band. We're not even a House band, we make dance music."

MN