Grid, The

Sadly, like The Shamen with their 'Ebeneezer Goode', The Grid will forever be plagued by 'Swamp Thing', a banjo-heavy No 3 hit in 1994, regularly placed in close proximity to 'Cotton Eye Joe' on compilations. 'Swamp Thing' isn't a bad track actually, but doesn't represent the Grid's excellent take on techno and house during the nineties.

Their first album, 'Electric Head' was apparently one of the first British techno albums, though has a slightly cheesy 80s synth-pop flavour at times, mainly due to David Ball's involvement with Soft Cell. The next album, '456' was better with some killer tracks, namely 'Crystal Clear' and 'Figure Of 8', and one track even featured Yello's Dieter Meier. By the time 'Evolver' was released in '94, they had become highly popular and the album reached No 14 in the chart. 'Texas Cowboys', 'Swamp Thing' and the brilliant 'Rollercoaster' were released as singles, though sadly 'Swamp Thing' was their only big hit.

Although some of their stuff has dated badly, I still have a soft spot for the Grid. They had a sense of humour and an ear for a good, driving bassline, as well as covering all sorts of ideas instead of sticking to the one. The album version of 'Crystal Clear' is exceptionally good chillout material, for example.

I've yet to hear any recent stuff from Norris & Ball, but I'm looking forward to when I do.