Pioneering electronic act 808 State remixes Trance Wax’s ‘Eve’
Trance Wax is an alias of Belfast-born producer Garry McCartney, also known as Ejeca. His Trance Wax project began as an anonymous series of vinyl-only bootlegs back in 2015 on which he reworked classics from Yves Deyurter, BT, and Mauro Picotto. Two Trance Wax edits of Above & Beyond’s OceanLab project were released on Anjunabeats in 2019, with the debut Trance Wax album following in November 2020.
Remixers of the album have included the likes of Dusky, Kevin De Vries, Shanti Celeste, and now 808 State. In a reaction v says that “Eve was pretty Balearic in its original form, but we’ve given it a spray tan using some vintage analog synths and guitars. One for the sunset crew!”
Trance Wax’ “Eve (808 State Remix)” is out July 16 on Anjunabeats.
About 808 State
808 State are an English electronic music group which formed in 1987 in Manchester, taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine. They were formed by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson, and they released their debut album, “Newbuild”, in September 1988. The band secured commercial success in 1989, when their song “Pacific State” was picked up by BBC Radio 1 DJ Gary Davies.
Simpson left the group in 1989 to form his own solo project, A Guy Called Gerald. At this point, the remaining personnel enlisted DJs Andrew Barker and Darren Partington, known as the Spinmasters, and recorded the EP, “Quadrastate” in July 1989. “Ninety” was released in December 1989.
MC Tunes worked with the band on the 1990 album, “The North at Its Heights”, which became a moderate success. MC Tunes returned in 1996 to work on a new track, “Pump”, taken from 808 State’s album “Thermo Kings”. 808 State’s next album was released in 1991, “Ex:el”, which featured the vocals of Bernard Sumner and Björk.
In October 1991, it was Price’s turn to leave the group to perform solo production work, eventually forming his own label, Sun Text. The remaining members released a fourth album called “Gorgeous”, and after that, did some remix work for David Bowie, Soundgarden, and other performers, before returning with the album entitled “Don Solaris” in 1996. They released a greatest hits compilation album, “808:88:98” in 1998. In 2000, “Newbuild” was re-released.
The albums “Ex:el” and “Gorgeous” show the band’s new wave influences by sampling or featuring new wave icons such as Bernard Sumner on the song “Spanish Heart” and Ian McCulloch on “Moses”. The song “Contrique” samples the bassline to Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control” and “10 X 10” is a gospel-house track built on the foundation of The Jam’s “Start!”.
In 2003, they released “Outpost Transmission” which featured guest collaborations from the Alabama 3 and Guy Garvey from Elbow. In May 2008, the re-issue of the album “Quadrastate” completed a trilogy of pre-ZTT releases on CD for the first time.
Partington left the band after being jailed for 18 months in January 2015 for dealing heroin and crack cocaine. He continues to DJ regularly and is lead singer with new Manchester band Big Unit, a rock band with acid house underpinnings.
In April 2018 the remaining members announced a brand new live show for a 30th Anniversary Tour to take place in November/December. The show will feature new versions of tracks from their 30-year history and totally new material from their forthcoming sixth studio album.
The band’s last studio album was 2019’s “Transmission Suite”.
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