In Brief

* * 1/2 808 State, “Gorgeous,” Tommy Boy. The sampling or reworking of songs by Joy Division, the Jam, UB40 and others is hit and miss. On its own original tracks, though, this pioneering English techno trio is still one of the best with sound sculpture and rhythmic manipulation. Even if this breaks no new ground, it proves there’s a lot more to techno than just hyper-disco.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).