Fourth full-length by Manchester techno outfit 808 State, on vinyl for the first time in 24 years. Released in 1993 at the height of rave hysteria in the UK, Gorgeous continued the trajectory they initiated on 1991’s Ex:el with a heavy focus on rhythm, percussion and enlarged beats influenced by industrial music. While Ex:el was a fairly straightforward acid house / warehouse techno effort, the band’s flirtations with mainstream cool following their collaborations with Bjork and a little bit of FOMO caused by former bandmate A Guy Called Gerald’s massively successful “Voodoo Ray” inspired them to make a grand crossover statement (I’m only speculating). If you couldn’t tell by the title, Gorgeous is a remarkably ambitious project. Graham Massey & co. blend their signature melodic acid with ravey breakbeats, familiar samples and a few choice guest appearances by Echo & The Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch and UB40. Gorgeous is for bedroom ravers, not DJs; each track is trimmed down to the essence, foregoing bloated intros and outros in favor of continuous groove. This expanded double vinyl edition includes 5 additional tracks from the bonus “Disco Disc” that came with the original vinyl LP, plus 5 MORE bonus tracks collected from various CD editions and compilations. Pressed on heavyweight 180 gram purple vinyl by the good folks at Music On Vinyl, this album never sounded so gorgeous.

• purple colored vinyl
• 180g double vinyl pressing
• gatefold sleeve
• limited edition
• music label: Music On Vinyl 2017

reviewed by mayor of hounslow 06/2017