About

Transmission Suite - the highly anticipated new album from acid-house pioneers and electronic music legends 808 State is out now: a record that remains true to the forward-thinking ethos of this remarkable band three decades after they first formed.

808 State are without doubt one of the most important bands in electronic music. From their 1988 album debut LP Newbuild, (that won them notable early fans including Aphex Twin: “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”), through collaborations with Bjork and New Order, to the definitive Pacific State, their legacy and influence cannot be overstated. - Bandcamp

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Their new album Transmission Suite reflects the rich backstory of electronic music, but with 808 State being 808 State, they also deliver an innovative and forward-thinking vision. Put simply, Transmission Suite – their seventh album – effortlessly evokes the past, present and future.

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Graham Massey and Andy Barker recorded Transmission Suite, the first 808 State album since 2002, at the legendary former Granada Studios in Manchester. They worked at big, arced desks loaded with synths and defunct TV mixing equipment. 80 TV screens, blank and grey, lined the walls. The building holds special significance for the duo, who, like Joy Division and The Beatles, made their TV debut at Granada, performing their big hit "Pacific State" on Tony Wilson's show, The Other Side Of Midnight, in 1989. The studios are a part of 808 State's history.

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Like Granada, which will soon become a modern complex spanning bars, offices, hotel rooms, and flats, Transmission Suite straddles the past and the present. As well as acid, IDM, and electro bombs, influenced by the sounds coming out of Detroit and Manchester in the '80s and early '90s, there are footwork tracks and contemporary beat experiments, music partly inspired by the duo's love of the Manchester party and label Swing Ting, whose sound is a club-ready mashup of dancehall, reggaeton, garage and UK funky. The album has bags of character and is big on ideas. – Resident Advisor