808 State's 1988 debut Newbuild was the first great British acid house album. It was also the last significant work by the original short-lived Jine-up of Graham Massey, Martin Price and (A Guy Called) Gerald Simpson, whose enterprising exploitation of Roland's 303 and 808 machines is the stuff of l...
808 State’s 1988 debut Newbuild was the first great British acid house album. It was also the last significant work by the original short-lived Jine-up of Graham Massey, Martin Price and (A Guy Called) Gerald Simpson, whose enterprising exploitation of Roland’s 303 and 808 machines is the stuff of legend. Now Prebuild, a decent collection of recently unearthed studio, live, radio and demo recordings, sheds more light on that fertile period: there’s melody and magic aplenty in Simpson’s fluid bedroom sketches, and it seems criminal to have been denied the grimy liquid bliss of “Ride” for 16 years. Rave on (and on).