Best remembered for the international smash "Unbelievable," the British dance-rock quintet EMF formed in Cinderford, England, in October 1989. All five members -- vocalist James Atkin, guitarist Ian Dench, keyboardist Derry Brownson, bassist Zachary Foley, and drummer Mark Decloedt -- were veterans of the local music scene before founding EMF,... [+] Read More

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Along with the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays were the leaders of the late-'80s/early-'90s dance club-influenced Manchester scene, experiencing a brief moment in the spotlight before collapsing in 1992. While the Stone Roses were based in '60s pop, adding only a slight hint of dance music, Happy Mondays immersed themselves in the club and rave... [+] Read More

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Jesus Jones' murky mix of samples, pop, dance tracks, and techno resulted in one huge international hit single, "Right Here, Right Now" (taken from their second album, Doubt), that pretty much sums up all of the band's virtues -- a strong melody and hook, with a flair for making the dance club overtones mesh with the rock guitar. For their... [+] Read More

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"radar contact lost.." The last words uttered from 'one solar day'. The title track for the album documents the actual conversation between the airport communications tower and doomed, out of fuel flight 52 in it's final stages... LUG is a solo project from Australian Simon Ayton................. ................. ................. The album One... [+] Read More

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Beginning in 1987 as an experimental/industrial duo inspired by the cut-and-paste attitudes of hip-hop and dub, Meat Beat Manifesto increasingly became a vehicle for its frontman Jack Dangers to explore the emerging electronics of techno, trip-hop and jungle. Though the group was initially pegged as an industrial act (simply appearing on Wax... [+] Read More

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Michel Spiegel was born in Germany, but spending nine years in London as a dedicated goth-rocker turned him on to new music. After buying the requisite electronics gear, Spiegel began recording hardcore techno as Nuw Idol, and eventually found a home on the Plink Plonk subsidiary Electro Audio Response. His debut single "Wu-Maze" appeared in... [+] Read More

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Taking their name from an NME feature on the group Jamie Wednesday (later known as Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine), the archetypal grebo band Pop Will Eat Itself formed in Stourbridge, England in 1986. Comprised of vocalist/guitarist Clint Mansell, keyboardist Adam Mole, drummer Graham Crabb and bassist Richard March, PWEI began their... [+] Read More

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One of the first rave-pop groups with live-performance abilities as well, Sunscreem formed around Paul Carnell and Lucia Holm (both on keyboards and vocals) with a handful of contributors including guitarists Darren Woodford and Wayne Simms, bassist Rob Fricker, drummer Sean Wright and Baz the DJ. Holm was a session cellist -- with credits... [+] Read More

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More than any pop band in history, the KLF ripped off the music industry for a bucketful of loot and got away with it -- as illustrated in their own guidebook to creating number one singles, The Manual. Bill Drummond and Jimi Cauty applied the tactics of punk shock-terrorism to late-'80s acid house and became one of Britain's best-selling... [+] Read More

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The music of Canterbury duo Ultramarine resists easy classification, drawing as it does from ambient, techno, folk, and eclectic '70s Canterbury art rock artists like the Soft Machine, Caravan, and Robert Wyatt, who occasionally performed live with the group and appeared on their United Kingdoms album. The group, which is made up of Paul Hammond... [+] Read More

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Formed in Leeds, England in 1991, the dance-metal duo Utah Saints was led by Jez Willis, a onetime member of the industrial group Cassandra Complex who during the late '80s had turned to DJing in local clubs. While working the club circuit he met fellow DJ Tim Garbutt, whose passion for house music inspired Willis to begin creating house tracks... [+] Read More

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