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

Seeing that we're already in that time period, it's time to honor a small, yet noteworthy subset of early techno, namely Bleep. Centered around the Yorkshire towns of Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford in the UK, it briefly made it's name during '89 - '91, before the ravey piano anthems and hardcore breakbeats took the spotlight. We all know that Robots Love Bleeps (or anything Bleep-related for that matter), so it should surprise no one that this particular electronic dance music sub-genre deserves a post of its own.

Here's not one, but two mixes of Yorkshire Bleeps and Bass courtesy of Sheffield Bleep, an internet radio station broadcasting the very best electronic, dance & experimental music, non-stop, 24/7 - tune into their SHOUTcast stream here. Mix 1 mainly focuses on Bleep put out by Network Records while mix 2 consists of early WARP releases. Tracklistings and places to buy after the jump. Now you'll never accuse me of causing you bleep deprivation.

Network Bleep

Sheffield Bleep

Since I've been revisiting the golden years ['88 - '92] of House and Techno [plus a bit of Britpop and Trip Hop], it's only fitting that I include some visual evidence. Think of this post as a companion piece to last week's trip down nostalgia lane. I didn't include very much in the New Beat, Breakbeat or overtly Hardcore realms since that material can be the topic of several other posts. You'll definitely notice your Cheese Detector spike while watching some of this; keep in mind the era in which these clips were made. Nevertheless, I'm sure you'll agree that many of these tracks have rightfully earned their classic status and will forever be enshrined by old school ravers around the globe.

The Farm - Groovy Train
UHF - UHF [Yes, for a couple years there, Moby was cool.]
Utah Saints - What Can You Do For Me?
Renegade Soundwave - Biting My Nails
Fortran 5 - Heart On the Line
Baby Ford - Children of the Revolution
Njoi - Anthem [Watching Saffron lip-synch those samples just kills me.]
Bizarre Inc - Such A Feeling
808 State - In Yer Face
Beatmasters feat. Betty Boo - Hey DJ [Sorry, I had to include something by Ms. Boo, though I couldn't bring myself to post "Doin' the Do."]
The Beloved - Sun Rising
Electronic - Getting Away With It
Pet Shop Boys - So Hard
Blur - There's No Other Way
Lil' Louis - French Kiss [Easily the most bizarre video of the bunch. What the hell is this? I should probably include some kind of warning here.]
Massive Attack - Daydreaming

Tune In. Turn On. This Is Acid.
V/Vm - Anal Acid
Miss Nicky Trax - Acid In The House
808 State - In Yer Face
Hithouse - Jack to the Sound of the Underground
Lords of Acid - I Sit On Acid
Hardfloor - Acperience 1
DHS - Mind Control
Psychic TV - Joy
Fast Eddie - Acid Thunder
Luke Vibert - I Love Acid
Universal Indicator (Live 2007)
Aphex Twin - Windowlicker (Acid Edit)
Ceephax Acid Crew - Trolley Service
Gaye Bikers on Acid - After Suck There's Blow (Acid House Remix)
Josh Wink - Higher State of Consciousness 2007
Simian Mobile Disco - Tits & Acid (Live 2007)

Excellent news today RobotSound™ enthusiasts. Tricky Disco has released the first new songs since 1991! Yes, you read that correctly. Michael Wells has decided to resurrect one of my favorite GTO aliases. Bleep fans worldwide can rejoice. Perhaps this heralds a Bleep renaissance? One can only hope.
Available exclusively as iTunes downloads, please go get these and make yourself happy. Links are below.

The Star Shrink Shooters
KINGS HAVE LONG ARMS
Clinic
Sex Schon
Plus Device
Boys Noize
Revlon9
Scan X
Jennifer Cardini
The Parallelograms
Pornorobo
Maral Salmassi