80's Flashback

808 State, Pacific State, 1989. Some point to this now-classic track as ushering in the era of "chillout house" and predicting the advent of Chicane, my favorite 90's act. Pacific State reached #10 on the UK singles chart, a position 808 State would hit three more times with The Only Rhyme That Bites, In Yer Face, and the acid house smash Cubic. Shortly after recording Pacific State, 808 State founding member Gerald Simpson split to create A Guy Called Gerald, resulting in another classic of the genre, Voodoo Ray, which became the UK's biggest selling indie single of 1989. In 1993 I attended a rave in Miami's Bayfront Park called Divine Playground, during which 808 State frontman Graham Massey sat on the edge of the stage, mimed playing an un-miked acoustic guitar, and screamed at the unresponsive crowd, "C'mon Mi-ah-mi! Dis ish dansh mooshic!" We called it "dansh mooshic" for quite a while after that.