808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester[2] by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson.

Taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the "state of mind" the members shared, they released their debut album Newbuild in September 1988.

[2] They secured commercial success in 1989, when their song "Pacific State" was picked up by BBC Radio 1 DJ Gary Davies and charted for 11 weeks in the UK.

[2] Customers Graham Massey and Gerald Simpson joined with Price to form a hip hop group called Hit Squad Manchester.

In an interview with Mojo magazine in 2005, Graham Massey explained that the album was recorded over a weekend in January 1988 at Spirit Studios, Manchester.

A favourite at The Haçienda's Hot Night, the recording was believed lost until Autechre's Sean Booth asked Massey to dig through his archive of old material.

At this point, the remaining personnel enlisted DJs Andrew Barker and Darren Partington, known as the Spinmasters, and recorded the mini-album Quadrastate in July 1989.

[2] In October 1991, Price left the group to perform solo production work, eventually forming his own label, Sun Text.

It featured vocal contributions from James Dean Bradfield on "Lopez", which reached number 20 on the UK Singles Chart[2] and was remixed by Brian Eno.

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!".

[16] Under the pseudonym Professor Vernon World, Massey as drummer/producer with the ladies combo organ quartet the Sisters of Transistors released an album, and is also a member of Sun Ra homage the Part-Time Heliocentric Cosmo Drama After School Club.