Ninety by 808 State

Ninety is where 808 State, the Manchester crew named after the Roland TR-808 drum machine, turned the acid house rush into a proper album statement. They had already broken through when BBC Radio 1's Gary Davies picked up "Pacific State" and it stayed on the UK chart for 11 weeks, and this record rides that momentum. Graham Massey and Martin Price, there from the start, are joined by Andrew Barker and Darren Partington, and together they build tracks that bubble and pulse like a warehouse at 4 a.m., all squelching basslines and sleek melodies.

In America it arrived on Tommy Boy and Warner Bros. as Utd. State 90 on 11 June 1990, dressed in different artwork and stretched out with extra and reworked tracks. "Pacific 202" is the cut from it that the countdowns picked up, and the group's early work helped shape the UK's booming acid house scene.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.