ex:el

Björk and Bernard Sumner arrive, and ex:el is never a guest showcase. 808 State use them as colors inside a record already pulling techno, pop and rave in several directions at once. The breadth costs it focus and buys it everything else. It sprawls, but the sprawl feels like appetite, not indecision.

Manchester's answer, arriving before the Orbital and Underworld solution had hardened into a model. Bernard Sumner on one track and Bjork on two, and none of it sounds like a guest spot. Cubik and In Yer Face are the hard end, Qmart and Lift are the other one, and holding both without the record coming apart is the achievement.