Of the past two decades, one of my personal favorite artists has been Greater Than One. Founded in 1985 by Michael Wells and Lee Newman after meeting at the Royal College of Art in London, Greater Than One started out as experimental artists, putting on multi-media art installations while dabbling in mutated cut-ups of found sounds and samples layered into Dadaist, soundtrack-like collages. Towards the end of the 80s the duo moved on into Industrial Dance before evolving into Techno and Gabber innovators in the early 90s. Operating as sonic terrorists, the duo released a slew of records under the names Tricky Disco [Bleep Techno], GTO [Techno/Rave], John + Julie [Hardcore Techno/Acid], Church of Extacy [Hardcore Techno/Acid], Signs of Chaos [Techno/Breakbeat], TD5 [Techno], The Salami Brothers [Gabber], Gangsta Trax [Gabber], Killout Squad [Gabber], 1000 Blinky Lights [Techno], and Technohead [Hardcore Techno/Gabber/Happy Hardcore], with each project bringing new elements into the equation while retaining certain sonic signatures that clued listeners in to the fact that they were listening to a GTO production.

In 1995 they scored their biggest hit, I Want To Be A Hippy, before Newman sadly passed away after a brief battle with cancer. Wells has continued to periodically release music under the names Signs of Chaos, S.O.L.O., and The Man, and more recently has resurrected the Tricky Disco and GTO monikers for a few digital-only releases.

Due for release September 1st, Brainwashed Archives is set to re-issue all of the Greater Than One output, some of it on CD for the first time. Included are their first full LP, All the Masters Licked Me together with their first recorded material, Trust. Also on offer are their WaxTrax! releases, London expanded to include Dance of the Cowards, Duty, rare compilation tracks and a bonus DVD of music videos, and G-Force, which comes with the I Don't Need Good and Utopia singles, 1991's Index EP, unreleased music from a Japanese-only VHS release, Video Drug 1, another hard-to-find compilation track and one unreleased track.

Head on over to Brainwashed Commerce to order these very reasonably priced multi-disc sets that are chock full of extras for even those die-hard collectors (like me) who religiously track down anything with >1's name on it.

For further enjoyment, download these mixes done in 1993 by DJ Nikadeemas:
GTO Mastermix 1
GTO Mastermix 2