808 State, Don Solaris
Apr. 8, 2025
I sometimes wonder if I picked the correct 808 State album for my understated classics series. That’s because today I was listening to their 1996 album Don Solaris and it’s pretty darn good. For understated classics I chose their earlier effort Gorgeous, partly out of the belief that probably no one else ever would, but also because 10X10 and Plan 9 are such total bangers.
808 State released three singles from Don Solaris, three singles that were totally different to one another, to the extent that when you listen to that part of their greatest hits (the excellently titled 808:88:98) you could be convinced that they were all from different albums.
Those singles are Bond, featuring Mike Doughty, the lead singer of long vanished Grunge band Soul Coughing. It’s a rattling cinematic epic, full of thunderous bass and a swing at something different. These audacious moves are quite common from 808 State, but this one didn’t come off: Bond didn’t chart. It’s the only one of the three I don’t remember hearing at the time of its release.
Next up is Azura, which probably did better as it is the most 808 State-y of the singles. A gentle drum’n’bass number featuring Lou Rhodes from Lamb. It also sounds a little bit like Lamb, so perhaps their fans also bought it. Later on, when they released all their old singles to streaming, I found out there’s also a cracking remix of this track by Dillinja.
Finally, there’s Lopez. I had a copy of this on cassette single. I think I bought it for 29p in the Our Price bargain bin or something. There were three tracks: the radio edit, and two remixes: one by the Propellerheads and one by Brian Eno. Back then I was quite into the Propellerheads, so I was eager to hear their “Hard-on” mix. Now I’m probably more into Brian Eno. Anyway, it’s a great song written with and sung by James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers. It’s one of those rare beasts written in 5/4 time (literally the only other one that comes to mind as I type is Money by Pink Floyed) and has a strange unworldly aura as a result.
The rest of the tracks on Don Solaris are instrumental and just like the singles they are all over the shop, except in terms of quality. Bird is a classic 808 State instrumental track (save for a little vocal snippet that says “three feet deeper”) with Pacific vibes and a chunky bass line. It slots in nicely between Bond and Azura.
Black Dartangnon starts mellow but it doesn’t take long for a burbling acid line to appear, though at around the same time we get another Saxophone hook (or at least a synth patch that sounds like one) that’s also very Pacific. As the track develops it’s a patchwork of repeating sequences shifting through different instruments. It’s very chilled out but if you listen closely there’s a lot of animation in the details. It feels like a track that would be easier to make now than thirty years ago - but the result is good and probably inspired all the gear and software that made writing electronic music easier.
Joyrider is much more animated, complete with house-y stabs and a loose wandering bass line. The sax patch is evident again, it’s very much the unofficial instrument of Don Solaris. There are two remixes on the expanded reissue including a nice long version by Sure Is Pure. The album version builds up speed as it reaches its climax, leaving the intro to Lopez to feel like a swoon as the album slips into woozy 5/4 time for a bit.
There are no singles on the second side of Don Solaris and not really much to anchor things down, the whole side is a suite of (mostly) instrumentals. It begins with Balboa which is pretty squelchy and is almost as aggressive as Bond. To my mind it sounds like early Orbital, but perhaps with a bit more going on. The drum programming is awesome, keeping the rather simple riffs on top in check. Then at about 2:00 it shifts up another gear. This is where you can be a bit freer with instrumentals to build tracks up and let them really take off. There’s also a nice acid-y section where the BPM shifts down a bit with that buttery sensation of time slowing down for a bit (even if the drum pattern keeps battering away). Balboa is a really nice 808 State deep cut, by the end it’s almost like one of Aphex Twin’s more intense tracks.
Then we have Kahoutek, which (sadly) isn’t a cover of the R.E.M. song, but is completely different to the track before it. This is pretty much the one norm of Don Solaris. It starts with an incoherent drum pattern before lurching into a funky drum and bass beat, but when the melody kicks in at about 1:15 it’s quite spooky until it collapses back into the patterns from the intro about a minute later. Then we get hummed vocals and a simple piano figure before the biggest beat of the whole track kicks in. Again its a track that is freed from the structural constraints of a vocal track and uses that to good effect. As a whole, it’s an interesting journey and perhaps the absence of any remixes means the band thought “job done”.
And this is the point where I have to own up: I completely forgot that there’s another vocalist on Don Solaris and that there’s also another vocal track: Mooz. Not only that but the vocalist is Ragga who is also on Tricky’s Maxinequaye album, albeit on a track everyone forgets about that squirelled away near the end of side two. Ragga’s performance is impassioned and great to listen to but I think it does suffer in comparison with Azura both musically and lyrically. (Fun fact: Mooz did appear on a 10" promo single called Sawnoff Dali along with Bond and the next two tracks Jerusahat and Banacheq.)
Jerusahat is upbeat and dayglo. In some ways it’s closest in sound to Joyrider - but also to a track called Crash that was the bonus track on their greatest hits compilation 808:88:98 (fewer steel drums though). About three and a half minutes in there’s what sounds like a really slowed down electric guitar solo - or at least something weird like that. I think more should be made of dance music that just makes you feel good.
The album ends with Banacheq which somehow crams in hip-hop vocal samples, electric guitar solos, and breakbeats. It might have been inspired by Beck’s Odelay. It’s completely bonkers, definitely not a track that sees the album off into the sunset.
In many ways Don Solaris is the reverse of many dance albums, it starts stately and ends up manic, leading you from the chill out room to the dance floor. Perhaps I really should have chosen it over Gorgeous!