This project takes its name from the Celestion UL8 speaker. My older brother bought a pair of these when i was starting comprehensive school, and between his 10cc and Supertramp records i first encountered electronically synthesized sound at high volumes. I soon noticed a pattern emerging in my musical tastes which excluded guitars or drums. Instead i favoured almost exclusively the electronic textures and rhythms of The Human League, Fad Gadget and other synthesiser based music of that period. I was quite curious about this prejudice and would try to work out why Kraftwerk sounded so much better than a rock band of the time.

So began my interest in the texture of synthetic sound - there was something much more beautiful (and perhaps more emotionally charged) about a sustained square wave than any guitar solo. I began search out and replay sections of music which dropped to a single sound - these, for some reason, were the best. This interest increased when, a few months later, my parent's next door neighbour (a technician in the electronics department at Sheffield University) let me borrow his analogue synthesiser on semi-permanent loan. And, following that, i managed to convince my dad to buy me a cheap second hand Boss Dr55 drum machine.

Many years later Mat Steel and i used the UL8 speakers, now relegated to an attic in a rented house, to work on early abandoned 12" projects (circa 1993). Finally my brother gave in to demand and let me have the speakers which now sit in my front room. Although these are of little use in a studio context, they still provide an adequate and often rewarding listening experience. The tracks here replicate the simple monosynth and drum machine equation; and have, to a large extent, been made with and for the UL8.