Electronic Sound Magazine

10 October 2019

Happy? You bet we are. We’ve got smiley faces and everything. We’re happy not least because 808 State – acid house pioneers, rave provocateurs, electronic pop stars by accident – are back with their first album for 17 years. Recorded at the old Granada TV Studios in Manchester, it’s called ’Transmission Suite’ and it’s a corker, which is why we’ve interviewed 808 State’s Graham Massey and Andrew Barker for the lead feature of this month’s cover story. The return of 808 State isn’t the only reason to be cheerful. There’s also Luke Vibert’s ‘Valvable’ and Paranoid London’s ‘PL’, two albums we’ve had on heavy rotation in the Electronic Sound office over the summer. They’re both soaked in the squelch of the Roland TB-303, the little silver box that powered the late 1980s acid house revolution. There have been lots of other great 303 records over the last couple of years, to the extent that it feels like there’s a bit of an acid revival going on, so we figured this was the perfect opportunity to talk to some of those responsible. And since we’ve got our happy hats on, it also seemed like a good time to cast back three decades to remember how the first generation acid house records, records that were raw and fierce and challenging and hugely exciting, changed the cultural and social landscape of the UK on a scale we hadn’t seen since punk. In fact, in many ways, on a much bigger scale. The police didn’t have a Punk Rock Squad, but they did have an Acid House Squad. We’ve plenty of other great stuff elsewhere in this issue, including Stephen Mallinder, Anna Meredith, M83, Dave Ball, Jenny Hval, Greg Wilson and Neil Arthur. Plus Floating Spectrum and also Floating Points. See what we did there? Enjoy the trip.