808:90

You want to know the origins of acid house? This is where it all began, folks. UTD STATE NINETY is actually the domestic release of 808 States superb--and terribly hard-to-find as an import--debut album. 808 ushered in new dance sub-genres, validated electro, and was generally an entity unto itself for most of the budding 90s. 808 took the pinging, Giorgio Moroder synths, sequencers, and rhythm boxes of discos heyday, ripped apart the tissue of contemporary 303 and (of course) 808 drum machines, and stuffed it all into an electronic brew of the bands own making. Drum-machine ballets such as Pacific 202 sounded like nothing else at its time-gurgling tin-pan rhythms bouncing about breezy, tropical synth-sax fills, peeping crickets, ricocheting bleeps, and sundry other noises. Cobra Bora smacks hard, with grungy sequencer motifs and chugging walls of beats. Magical Dream uses seductive, sugar-sweet vocals to coax you into its fuzzy womb of velvet motion, electronics chirping and trilling amidst ear-popping effects. In addition to being one of the quintessential electronica releases of its decade, UTD STATE NINETY now sports six extra tracks. Particularly necessary.