808 STATE are that rarest of hardy upland breeds: the dance act blessed with innovation and longevity years after most of the faceless nonentities crowding for elbow room in the Dance sector have long since faded from public view.
By my reckoning, 808 are now a vintage 15 years in the game, and while there have been a few casualties along the way, with founder members (Martin Price and 'A guy called' Gerald Simpson) and collaborators (MC Tunes - who? exactly!) disappearing off the radar, that Graham Massey's Manc mob are deserving of the hallowed 'legendary' tag is not really in dispute at this stage.
And, while I couldn't realistically make a case for "Outpost Transmission" being up there with "Newbuild", "Gorgeous" or "Quadrastate" in terms of influence and rigorous envelope shoving, it certainly won't hurt their reputation, either.
In fairness, some wheat/ chaff sorting is necessary, as several of the tracks here meander off to nowhere in particular ("Suntower", "Chopsumwong" and the immortally-titled "Roundbum Mary" spring to mind), while "Dissadis" singularly fails to live up to its' initial air of menace.
Nonetheless, these imperfections don't prevent "Outpost Transmission" from being a rich and diverse experience, with a definite soundtrack-y feel in the case of several of the best tracks. "Lungfoo", for instance, sounds like Massive Attack cannoning off Keith Levene -era PIL, while "Bent" marries huge breakbeats with classic spy theme motifs and "Slowboat" could show the likes of Komputer a thing or two about warped, minimal atmospherics.
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Typically, though 808 STATE know just how to give great collaboration to this day and "Outpost Transmission"s guest vocalists are all inpired choices.Indeed, the album kicks off with great gusto via "606" where SIMIAN'S Simon Lord's clean and yearning voice blends well with the soulful massed vox chorus and an Ennio Morricone-style melodic hook.
Even better, though, are "Lemonsoul", featuring Guy Garvey from ELBOW and (inevitably) "Crossword" where 808 STATE get down with the notorious ALABAMA 3. The former is a slow and seedily evocative thing that suits Garvey's thick North Manc burr to a T, while "Crossword" is scary and scuttling and stuffed with the kind of short-circuited electro manoeuvres ideal for the A3's Reverend D.Wayne Love and Larry Love.
"Outpost Transmission" contains too many glitches to truly think of approaching classic status, but it's intuitively great at turning up the atmosphere where necessary and certainly harbours a clutch of excellent tracks. Even after fifteen influential years and 'veteran' status being reluctantly bestowed upon them, it seems 808 STATE are clearly capable of turning some brand new tricks. Did we think they'd let us down or something?
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