Gorgeous

808 State | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 19, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Tommy Boy
• ASIN: B000000HJ5
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #398,692 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Plan 9

2. Moses

3. Contrique

4. 10 X 10

5. One in Ten

6. Europa

7. Orbit

8. Black Morpheus

9. Southern Cross

10. Nimbus

11. Colony

12. Timebomb

13. Stormin Norman

14. Sexy Dancer

15. Sexy Synthesizer

Editorial Reviews

Includes 14 track bonus disc; five are unreleased mixes and two tracks appear on CD for the first time. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Check out that 808!, March 7, 2000

By 

sc_demandred (Irvine, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gorgeous (Audio CD)

This record brought me fully back into the fold of "Electronica". I had heard the Orb's "Little FLuffy Clouds" years before, but until I heard a smattering of the tracks on Gorgeous, I had written techno off as useless keyboard wanking.

And then I heard "Europa". The song is so beautiful I almost started crying. Yes, the songs are shorter, simpler and more vocally oriented than a lot of current techno, but this is definitely one of the albums to get.

Not all the songs hit. "Sexy Dancer" and "Sext Synthesizer" feel like throwaways to me, while "Moses" is downright annoying. But then there are "Colony", "Plan 9", "Black Morpheus" and "Nimbus." All are beautiful, intriguing, intricate and catchy.

The songs that carry this album are the lucid and twinkling "Southern Cross", the heart-rendingly sweet "Europa", and the instant club rave-up "10 X 10". "Timebomb" is a great song as well, speedy and hard-rocking.

This album has it's low points as well as the highs, hence the 4 stars. But to me it as essential an electronica record as The Orb's "Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld" or Astral Projection's "Dancing Galaxy". I highly recommend it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars nice classic rave sounds, July 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Gorgeous (Audio CD)

808 State were giant influences on techno and rave, this CD may not contain the groups most prolific moments (as the earlier two had), but nonetheless it's a great listen. I actually find the reworking of UB40's "One In Ten" into a 140 bpm techno track as kind of neat. And, being a fan of Echo & the Bunnymen, like the cameo of Ian McCulloch on Moses. The rest of the CD is pure intrigue. Great synth sounds. Count the analogs. Nice rythms.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars underrated, man, April 21, 2003

By 

Supabowl (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gorgeous (Audio CD)

Why does everyone think so low of this album? I read reviews of it and people just dismiss it as pop trash, a sort of wanna-be "Ex:El."
What utter nonsense. No, this isn't on par with the greatest 808 works, and while it does have some tracks that are good filler for live shows but probably shouldn't be on albums ("Sexy Dancer" is the most glaring example here), these are complex, creative beats and soaring synths. I would love to hear this stuff performed at a club. Tracks like Plan 9 and Nimbus are brilliant displays of technical skill with soul. There's also an organic grind to many of the songs that, chronologically speaking, fits in perfectly as a stylistic transition from the spacey sounds of "Ex:El" and the gritty "Don Solaris." A smattering of talented vocalists adds to the complexity and variety of this playlist.
So once again, I must say that some of the quaint, dated sounds of this disc and the inclusion of a couple unworthy tracks are not grounds for throwing an album away. There are some gems here.