Dream Machines // Interviews

  Netherlands-born Hillegonda C. Rietveld was a postpunk electronic dance music pioneer with Manchester-based art-pop group Quando Quango, an early theoretical investigator of house music culture with her book ‘This is Our House’ and is holder of probably the coolest title in UK academia, Professor of Sonic Culture. In this interview, she talks about the chance meeting - literally involving a message in a bottle - that led to her involvement in electronic music with DJ-animateur Mike Pickering. She explains how that led to getting involved in Manchester’s alternative culture around Factory Records, New Order and the pre-acid house Haçienda club, as well as the New York dance music scene of the mid-eighties. The journey comes full circle after the UK rave upsurge when she travelled to Chicago to interview house music pioneers for her PhD and found out that they loved Quando Quango’s record ‘Love Tempo.’ Quando Quango started off in Rotterdam. It all started with Mike Pickering...

  As a member of 808 State, Graham Massey has been responsible for creating some of the UK rave scene’s greatest anthems, for making some of the weirdest electronic dance records to ever reach the pop charts, and for producing a series of albums that have consistently reached beyond the boundaries of the genre. He is also a man with deep roots in Manchester’s musical culture; before 808 State, he was involved in the postpunk alternative scene with Factory Records-associated experimental band Biting Tongues, sonic disruptors Danny and the Dressmakers and his own offbeat DIY cassette-scene project,  Beach Surgeon . In this interview, he talks about the pre-acid house electronic scene in Manchester and the vital role played by New Order, as well as 808 State’s early work with A Guy Called Gerald and the making of records like ‘In Yer Face’ and ‘Cubik’, which were simultaneously weird and physically compelling on the dancefloor. 808 State’s members had been part of various dif...