Those who have read Join The Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music will know all about Nexus 21, Mark Archer and Chris Peat’s most significant pre-Altern8 project. Dedicated techno heads will be aware of their work, too, as their 1989 debut album The Rhythm of Life is one of the most refined early British attempts to replicate the sounds of the Motor City.

For the uninitiated, Mark and Chris founded Nexus 21 when the former was working as a trainee studio engineer at the Blue Chip studio in their home town of Stafford. Archer began working their in 1988 and had soon secured an agreement from his boss, legendary Northern Soul figure Kev Roberts, that he and his mates (including future Bizarre Inc and Chicken Lips members Dean Meredith and Andrew Meecham) could record music in the studio. Roberts released a lot of it, with Peat and Archer establishing C&M Connection and later Nexus 21.

The quality of The Rhythm of Life was enough to inspire Neil Rushton to snap up the pair – and their music so far – for his new label, Network Records. I previously told the story of Network Records, and the role it played in the emergence of UK techno and breakbeat hardcore, at an event in Birmingham last year. You can listen to a recording of that conversation on this 2023 episode of Join The Future on Noods Radio.

Since then, we’ve had some big news: namely the release, 33 years after it was originally meant to come out, of Nexus 21’s mythical second album, Mind Machines. Partially recorded in Detroit – Rushton was managing ‘the Belleville Three’ at the time and arranged for Peat and Archer to fly to the Motor City and record in Kevin Saunderson’s KMS studio – it brilliantly joins the dots between the melodious futurism of Detroit techno, the weight and skeletal construction of bleep & bass, and various other American and UK styles of the time (EG garage-house, early breakbeat hardcore). It’s a brilliant set all told and one that would be regarded as a classic if it had appeared back in 1991 as it was originally intended to do.

I saw this as an excuse to get Mark Archer back on the Join The Future show on Noods Radio. So, a few days ago, I called him up in Stafford and we had a chat about Nexus 21, Mind Machines, hanging out in the studio with Detroit legends, and some of their more memorable live shows of the period.

You can listen to the episode – the final Noods show of 2024 – via the embedded Soundcloud player below.

If you fancy pre-ordering Mind Machines on vinyl, you can do so via the Network Records bandcamp store and Juno Records.

Noods Radio · Join The Future w/ Mark Archer: 27th November ’24