Altern-8
Encyclopedia
Altern-8 is a British
rave
duo, featuring Mark Archer and Chris Peat. Best known in the early 1990s, their trademark was loud electronic
tracks with a heavy bass line. On stage, Altern-8's members wore facemasks and chemical warfare suits. The band was signed to Network Records
based in Stratford House, Birmingham
, England
.
in 1990, as a side project to the already successful Nexus 21
(a name chosen because of its "futuristic house sound"), when both members were aged 21. From the outset the band's objective was to develop their style which was influenced by the musical elements of Detroit techno
artists Derrick May, Juan Atkins
and Kevin Saunderson
, as well as the Chicago house music
sound of Phuture
and early electronic heroes Kraftwerk
.
Altern-8 tunes influencing many artists, with their mixture of the sounds of the Roland TB-303
, 808
and 909
with breakbeats and familiar samples
. At the time in the UK, outdoor rave events were legal, and Altern-8 had a reputation for turning up to play at major unofficial events. They helped to define harder house tracks relying more heavily on bass and volume. The use of more bass and eclectic noises gradually evolved Altern-8's music away from the earlier house music style. The duo, dressed in chemical warfare suits and dancing "like electrified monkeys", took part in a large number of live performances.
Notable Altern-8 tracks included "Activ-8", "E-vapor-8", "Frequency", "Brutal-8-E", "Armageddon", "Move My Body", "Hypnotic St-8" and "Infiltrate 202". The band released an album
on the Network Records
label in 1992, called Full On... Mask Hysteria
. In 1991, the band did a live PA in the car park outside the then famous Shelley's
night club in Longton
, Stoke-on-Trent
(near to their home town of Stafford
). This can be seen in their "Activ-8 (Come With Me)" video.
However when hardcore
-styled rave music went out of fashion, they started to get involved in the development of commercial house music. In 1992, Peat stood as a candidate for the Stafford
constituency in the General Election
representing the Hardcore (Altern8-ive) party. He received 158 votes and finished in fourth place.
In 1993, Archer began producing billed as Slo-Moshun, responsible for the hits
"Bells of NY" and "Help My Friend".
In 1994, Peat and Archer parted ways. Archer continued to DJ under the name Altern-8 until 2009 when Peat threatened legal action against him.
† Guest vocal P. P. Arnold
‡ Altern-8 vs Evelyn King
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
rave
Rave music
Rave music may either refer the late 1980s genre or any genre of electronic dance music that may be played at an electronic dance party such as a rave. Very rarely, the term is used to refer to less electronic related genres glam, powerpop, psychedelic rock and dub music parties...
duo, featuring Mark Archer and Chris Peat. Best known in the early 1990s, their trademark was loud electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
tracks with a heavy bass line. On stage, Altern-8's members wore facemasks and chemical warfare suits. The band was signed to Network Records
Network Records
Network Records was a rave music independent record label, based in Birmingham, England, during the late 1980s and mid 1990s.The label concentrated on bringing Garage music to Britain & taking UK House music to a new level as well as playing a massive role in the development of Early Hardcore and...
based in Stratford House, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
History
Altern-8 was formed in StaffordStafford
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...
in 1990, as a side project to the already successful Nexus 21
Nexus 21
Nexus 21 was a British techno duo from Stafford, England formed in 1989, by Mark Archer and Chris Peat, who would go on to become Altern 8.-Discography:The group were signed to the Blue Chip record label, under which they released:...
(a name chosen because of its "futuristic house sound"), when both members were aged 21. From the outset the band's objective was to develop their style which was influenced by the musical elements of Detroit techno
Detroit techno
Detroit techno is an early style of electronic music beginning in the 1980s. Detroit, Michigan has been cited as the birthplace of techno music. Prominent Detroit Techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson...
artists Derrick May, Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins is an American musician. He is widely credited as the originator of techno music, specifically Detroit techno along with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson...
and Kevin Saunderson
Kevin Saunderson
Kevin Saunderson is an American electronic music producer. At the age of nine he moved to Belleville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit where he attended Belleville High School and befriended two students, Derrick May and Juan Atkins...
, as well as the Chicago house music
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
sound of Phuture
Phuture
Phuture is a Chicago-based acid house group founded in 1985 by Spanky, DJ Pierre and Herb J.The group's 12-minute track "Acid Tracks" is one of several recordings that lay claim to being the first-ever acid house record....
and early electronic heroes Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
.
Altern-8 tunes influencing many artists, with their mixture of the sounds of the Roland TB-303
Roland TB-303
The Roland TB-303 Bass Line is a bass synthesizer with built-in sequencer manufactured by the Roland corporation from late 1981 to 1984 that had a defining role in the development of contemporary electronic music.-History:...
, 808
Roland TR-808
The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer was one of the first programmable drum machines . Introduced by the Roland Corporation in early 1980, it was originally manufactured for use as a tool for studio musicians to create demos. Like earlier Roland drum machines, it does not sound very much like a real...
and 909
Roland TR-909
The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer is a partially analog, partially sample-based drum machine built by the Japanese Roland Corporation in 1983. The brainchild of Tadao Kikumoto, the engineer behind the Roland TB-303, it features a 16-step step sequencer and a drum kit that aimed for realism and...
with breakbeats and familiar samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
. At the time in the UK, outdoor rave events were legal, and Altern-8 had a reputation for turning up to play at major unofficial events. They helped to define harder house tracks relying more heavily on bass and volume. The use of more bass and eclectic noises gradually evolved Altern-8's music away from the earlier house music style. The duo, dressed in chemical warfare suits and dancing "like electrified monkeys", took part in a large number of live performances.
Notable Altern-8 tracks included "Activ-8", "E-vapor-8", "Frequency", "Brutal-8-E", "Armageddon", "Move My Body", "Hypnotic St-8" and "Infiltrate 202". The band released an album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
on the Network Records
Network Records
Network Records was a rave music independent record label, based in Birmingham, England, during the late 1980s and mid 1990s.The label concentrated on bringing Garage music to Britain & taking UK House music to a new level as well as playing a massive role in the development of Early Hardcore and...
label in 1992, called Full On... Mask Hysteria
Full On... Mask Hysteria
Full On... Mask Hysteria was the only album to be issued by the British rave duo, Altern-8 #11 in UK.-Track listing:#Move My Body#Infiltrate 202#E-Vapor-8#8's Revenge#Frequency#Real Time Status#First of May#Hypnotic St-8#Activ-8#Brutal-8-E...
. In 1991, the band did a live PA in the car park outside the then famous Shelley's
Shelley's Laserdome
Shelley's Laserdome was a night club in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. It was at the heart of the house and rave scene of the late 1980s and early 90s too, helping to launch the career of Sasha and featuring regular appearances from Carl Cox, until it was eventually shut down by...
night club in Longton
Longton, Staffordshire
Longton is a southern district of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and is known locally as the "Neck End" of the city. Longton is one of the six towns of "the Potteries" which formed the City of Stoke-on-Trent in 1925.-History:...
, Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
(near to their home town of Stafford
Stafford
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...
). This can be seen in their "Activ-8 (Come With Me)" video.
However when hardcore
Hardcore techno
Hardcore techno is a type of electronic music typified by the rhythmic use of distorted and atonal industrial-like beats and samples...
-styled rave music went out of fashion, they started to get involved in the development of commercial house music. In 1992, Peat stood as a candidate for the Stafford
Stafford (UK Parliament constituency)
Stafford is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. The sitting MP is the Conservative Jeremy Lefroy....
constituency in the General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
representing the Hardcore (Altern8-ive) party. He received 158 votes and finished in fourth place.
In 1993, Archer began producing billed as Slo-Moshun, responsible for the hits
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
"Bells of NY" and "Help My Friend".
In 1994, Peat and Archer parted ways. Archer continued to DJ under the name Altern-8 until 2009 when Peat threatened legal action against him.
Quotation
From Andrew Harrison of Select magazine as printed in the Infiltr-8 America ep:
IS IT POSSIBLE TO TAKE ALTERN-8 SERIOUSLY?
It's impossible not to. Because behind the rave
pantomime and the giant robots and the mask
hysteria, this is music for a different generation.
These people never wasted their lives waiting for
the next punk to arrive. 1988 was their Year Zero.
and it's still here. All you have to do is close your
eyes.
This is about people with KraftwerkKraftwerkKraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
and Pierre,
TransmatTransmatTransmat is the record label of techno music pioneer Derrick May, started in 1986. For years the label "released the tracks that would fuel the Techno boom" .....
and WARPWarp RecordsWarp, commonly referred to as Warp Records, is a pioneering independent British record label, founded in Sheffield in 1989, notable for discovering some of the more enduring artists in electronic music....
, 808, 909 and 303 encoded in
their DNA. This is a live transmission of the beat you
can't defeat, sampled over and over and hideously
mutated. If you don't understand it, you don't
deserve to. This is the phuture, right now, and THIS
is the sound of Altern-8.
Singles and EPs
- "Overload EP" (1990) 12" EPExtended playAn EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
Network RecordsNetwork RecordsNetwork Records was a rave music independent record label, based in Birmingham, England, during the late 1980s and mid 1990s.The label concentrated on bringing Garage music to Britain & taking UK House music to a new level as well as playing a massive role in the development of Early Hardcore and... - "Infiltrate 202" (1991) Network Records - #28 UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
- "Activ 8 (Come With Me)" (1991) Network Records - #3 UK
- "Frequency" (1991) Network Records - #41 UK
- "The Vertigo EP" (1991) 12" EP ZYX Records
- "Infiltr-8 America EP" (1992) 12" EPExtended playAn EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
Virgin Records America - "Evapor 8" (1992) Network Records - #6 UK †
- "Hypnotic St-8" (1992) Network Records - #16 UK
- "Shame" (1992) Network Records - #74 UK ‡
- "Brutal-8-E" (1992) Network Records - #43 UK
- "Everybody" (1993) Network Records - #58 UK
† Guest vocal P. P. Arnold
P. P. Arnold
P. P. Arnold is an American-born soul singer who enjoyed considerable success in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and beyond.-Early life:...
‡ Altern-8 vs Evelyn King
Evelyn King (singer)
Evelyn "Champagne" King is an American R&B, disco and post-disco singer. Some of her best-known songs are "Shame", "Love Come Down," and "I'm in Love."-Biography:...
External links
- Mask Hysteria - discography, future events, forums & group contact.
- Discogs: Altern 8
- Altern 8's first United States appearance
- Russian Fan Site
- Mark Archer (Altern 8) interview @ Kmag