808 State — EX:EL

It’s difficult to under play the relevance & influence of EX:EL the 5th album from the British electronic collective 808 State. Firstly it was one of the first dance or electronic albums to have really commercial success  with out losing it’s underground or creative edge.  Secondly it was the first dance record to use guest vocalist which is of course now is  common practice. But ultimately EX:EL is an album that mangers to be approachable, yet highly creative, dense & varied through-out.

The album was originally released  back in 1991 and it still mangers to sound fresh and surprisingly undated for most of it’s playing time; which is extremely rare in it’s self as dance based electronic music mostly dates very quirky. I think the thing that makes it sound so timeless & fresh is the dense layers of sounds and production going on with-in each & every track here. In each track we have many rich synth layers, complex drum patterns and percussive textures, layers of perfectly cut musical & dialogue samples, some guitar elements & a few other organic musical textures too. All theses elements are worked into highly tuneful & addictive song craft that’s also dramatically & atmospherically very sound & focused. Sonically EX:EL touches down in techno, acid house, pop dance music and  sleek to  atmospherically electroinca; as well as showing traces of rock, jazz, world music, soundtrack touches too along the way.  Also percussively and rymically  we have sly elements of  industrial, hip-hop & world music beat patterns appearing through-out the album.

I don’t think anything will be gained by me discussing separate  tracks in detail as it it will ruin the shifting, imaginative, vibrate & dramatic creative spirit of EX:EL. It’s truly an album that’s best entered into with no expectations; & then you can experience it’s wonderful & adventurous dance based sonic journey for yourself with fresh ears. This reissue gives the album a nice, clean & sharp remastering that helps you hear each tracks many layers & sonic details with greater clarity, depth & power. Also the reissue includes a second disc of different mixes of key tracks & singles from the album; this disc certainly once displays the collective clever use of texture, sound editing to often add new angles and edger’s to already familiar tracks. Though at the end of the day it’s still a disc of different mixes of songs you already have on the first disc, so there’s nothing complete new & fresh on offer here; but never the less there’s more imagination & sonic flare displayed in theses remixes/ different mixers than you’d usually expect with this type of thing.

So in finishing off EX:EL is truly a classic & defining moment in both dance music & Electronica music in general. With the album being approachable & highly memorable, yet at the same time edgy, dense & highly creative. Really if you have any interest in the wide scope of electronic music this is a must have reissue.