808 STATE - NEWBUILD

It's important to remember that the music we call "electronica" didn't just start in the early '90s. Besides early trailblazers like Kraftwerk and Silver Apples, many of the current genre's biggest names actually got their start way before their music came to be summarized by a buzzword.

One such group was 808 STATE. Rephlex, the label co-run by Aphex Twin, has reissued that group's pioneering album Newbuild, originally released in 1988, when the group included Gerald Simpson, a.k.a. A Guy Called Gerald. Ten years ago, this record was certainly ahead of its time, forecasting the direction that this music was going to take. And it still sounds vital today.

JAMES LIEN