The Big Bang! - We Have The Technology

GRAHAM MASSEY
808 State, Massonix

"I remember several attempts at electronic music making in the mid-'80s being a bit frustrating and scientific. At some point the Roland 101, 202, 303, 808 and 909 machines became a set of kit that would all connect together happily and became affordable due to all the new midi/digital technology, making analogue a dirty word. "Gerald [Simpson] had most of this gear already and was merrily making his own type of what we called electro back then. We made a raw LP in a weekend called 'Newbuild' and called the trio State 808. Meanwhile one of Gerald's experiments in another studio became huge at the Hacienda - that was 'Voodoo Ray'.

"The next important bits of kit were the Atari 1040 computer, Hybrid Arts sympte track software and a Casio FZ1 sampler. Our early experiments with this equipment resulted in 'Pacific State' and the album 'Quadrastate'. The sampler opened up a huge sound world to us and would be the key instrument in terms of giving a track an identity. For instance, the chords on 'Pacific State' were created by sampling a chord from a Juno 106 keyboard layered with a d50 string sound with a bit of filtering in the Casio FZ1 sampler. The bird sound on that record was an Akai sample demonstration disc of the Canadian Loon. "'Cubik' was again a multi sample stacked up with sounds from a Waldorf microwave and a Chase Bit 99 digital keyboard played by a Casio Midi guitar, which we had just got that day."

The Big Bang! - The Classic Tunes

808 State
'PACIFIC'
ZTT Records 1989

Taken from 1989's 'Quadrastate', 808 State's 'Pacific' won club floors over with its lush tropical rainforest samples, extravagant chords and killer sax.