AKA005 was a tricky competition, originally pencilled in as a Grand Central Records remix competition. Unfortunately at the last minute the label had to close, leaving us little to no time to find a replacement. Luckily another label on our hit list stepped up to the challenge in fine style.
Memphis Industries gave us the oportunity to host a remix competiton with another of our favorite artists, Blue States. Memphis' first and most successful signing to date, Blue States accidentally established themselves at the forefront of the burgeoning wave of downtempo acts way back in 1998. Using his multi-instrumental talents, Andy Dragazis blended Guitars, Bass, Drums, Fender Rhodes, Bouzuki, the Hammond Organ and anything that sounded good when it was hit. And the 12"s kept coming, including the classics 'Your Girl', and 'Walkabout', all becoming rare and sought after collectors items.

But none of the Blue States EPs quite prepared you for the grand melancholia of the debut album 'Nothing Changes Under the Sun', released on Memphis Industries in September 2000. Taking in influences as disparate as Vangelis and The Shadows, "Nothing Changes." drew favourable comparisons with anybody from Air to Tortoise to, bizarrely, The Cure, stunning critics and punters alike with its glorious retro-futurism.

'Nothing Changes...' also attracted the attention of stateside loungecore legends The Thievery Corporation, who decided they liked it so much they'd sign it up to their own imprint, Eighteenth Street Lounge for release in the USA. Also a highly sought after for remixes, Blue States have worked on tracks including Badly Drawn Boy's 'Disillusion', Layo and Bushwacka!'s 'Love Story' and Future Sound of London's 'Papua New Guinea'.

And now it gets interesting. Never one to try and replicate his past endeavours, Andy D enlists Chris Carr (Vocals/Guitar) and Jon Chandler from the live band to become fully paid up members of the Blue States clan. With Andy moving up to London from the rural idyll where the first two albums were recorded work began on their third album in autumn 2003.

With Chris taking on lyrical and vocal duties The Soundings sees Blue States once again morph into something new. The layers of strings and brass are stripped back to reveal something darker and more personal. This ain't no soundtrack to an imaginary film. Oh no. It's got tales of last nights and lost fights, visions of wingless angels illuminated by the glow of a fruit machine in an old man-pub and alien abductions across Scandinavia. It's the sound of an inveterate optimistic being kicked in the teeth. Again. Sonically, it hints at Talk Talk and pretty much anything on Factory Records. Except the Railway Children of course.

So, once again Blue States have, in the nicest possible way flicked a v-sign, at the title of their first album. Nothing Changes Under the Sun? Don't believe a word of it. Matt used to twat his brother Ollie round the back of the head with a plastic fish. But that was when Matt was five and Ollie was two. They don't do that kind of thing anymore. Much.

Instead, putting plastic fish to one side, the brothers decided that what the world needed was another record label. So since October 1998, they've have been hawking their Memphis Industries branded goods in various record shops around the world.

The first release slipped out like a new born foal, all covered in cack and slightly wobbly, but Blue States' and Memphis' debut record Blue States Forever picked up an enthusiastic critical following. Unfortunately, for reasons best known to himself, Ollie threw out the masters. And Memphis sold all 500. So if you've got one, let us know what it sounds like, cause we're damned if we can remember.

Anyway, confidence high Memphis released a series of 12”s, from Blue States (The Trainer Shuffle, Your Girl, Walkabout), Broadway Project (Born Spirit, Crash/Recovery and The Kingdom of God) and La Mouche (The High And The Mighty, Super Strasse).

This all culminates in the glorious 2000 debut Nothing Changes Under The Sun. An unstoppable juggernaut of sepia-toned retro-futurism, it's critically acclaimed, sells 30,000 copies. And Memphis start to get ideas above their station.

So albums follow; from Broadway Project, with Compassion, dubbed “A milestone of electronic melancholy” by the NME; Fort Lauderdale with Time is of the Essence, which had Mojo hailing it as “portentious and kinky”; The Squire of Somerton's Transverberations, which, quite frankly, had everyone foxed for a bit before the NME declared it “madder than Syd Barrett in a straightjacket”. In the meantime Blue States are licenced out to XL Recordings for their second album Man Mountain, which means that Ollie and Matt get to have nice lunches for a bit.

And so to 2003, with Memphis snapping up The Go! Team for their debut single Junior Kickstart and J Xaverre for his debut album These Acid Stars. Memphis' first label compilation round up Estuary English demonstrates the diversity of the label, and ends up as the sadly no more Jockey Sluts compilation of the year.

Second albums from Broadway Project with The Vessel and Fort Lauderdale with Pretty Monster further enhance Memphis' reputation for skewed and skewered pop.

2004 saw the Blue States ship tack toward leftfield indiedum with thier Bunnymenesque album The Soundings in June, while The Go! Team pulled a curve ball out the bag with Thunder Lightning Strike which has gone on as manty of you might know to become something of a cult classic. Onwards into 2005 and June saw the release of one of the weirdest success stories of the millenium and Dungen's pyscherockfolk experience Ta Det Lugnt - must have been one of the few times that Swedish language pysche rock was heard on Radio 1. Onwards into August and the gentle mackem folk Field Music released their inspirational debut eponymous album and suprised all when they turned the power on live as a three piece. Meanwhile Absentee snuck out a small nugget of loveliness in their mini album Donkey Stock which ended up as NME's top 26 album of the year.

History lesson over. Christ, has it really been 8 years? You know what. It bloody well has. So here we are in 2006 and we're still standing. And looking rougher and tougher and bigger and better and all that. So this year we've got The Pipettes releasing their first album, Absentee releasing their first debut long player on Memphis, Field Music with another album, El Perro Del Mar, The Black Neon, The Squire. Thanks for sticking with us and we hope you remain stuck for some time to come.

Pending download the sample pack here Memphis Industries - memphis-industries.com
Blue States - bluestates.com