When I was young and first discovering UK rave music, some of the first albums I bought and fell in love with were by Orb, Orbital, 808 State, Meat Beat Manifesto, Messiah and Utah Saints. Utah Saints and Messiah were the the most outlandish of the bunch. Full on techno blast beats with movie samples, Slayer samples and anything else they could mash in there to help you lose track of reality. Every once in awhile, I get nostalgic and pop some classic Utah Saints tunes and wonder, "What ever happened to these guys? Why doesn't anyone make this kind of music now?" Well, finally my questions will be answered when the Saints release a brand new album this year! The band recently signed to Ministry of Sound/Data for the release of Something Good 08. The title track has already been getting airplay in the UK and has been named "Hottest Record In The World" by Zane Lowe of BBC Radio and "Essential New Tune" by Pete Tong of BBC Radio 1. According to the press release:

Having sold over x million records to date, recorded with the likes of REM’s Michael Stipe, and performed with U2 and others on mega-stadium tours, Utah Saints remain one of the most trail-blazing outfits within electronic music. Following a self-imposed exile, Tim Garbutt and Jez Willis buried the Utah Saints name in the early Noughties (following unreleased albums and contract oblivion), vowing to return under that guise when the time was right. In the meantime they’ve produced and remixed under their Beatvandals moniker, DJed all over the world, and run the highly successful club night, Sugarbeat, in both England and Scotland.Now ready to take the world by storm once more, Utah Saints are back in 2008, recording new material for a studio album and playing gigs across the UK, with a mix compilation also planned before the year is out.‘Something Good 08 (Van She Tech Remix)’ first saw the light of day last year, following Australia’s answer to Soulwax, Van She’s, reworking of the Utah’s original 1992 Top 5 hit. Now signed to the all-conquering Data Records for a full release, expect it to follow the label’s 8 Top 10 hits in 2007.Remixes come from High Contrast, Ian Carey, Prok & Fitch, eSquire, and Bart B

You can listen to "Something Good 08 - High Contrast Mix" on the Utah Saints my$pace page or the Bart Bmore remix via the Get Weird Turn Pro blog.Utah Saints also have 3 live shows in the UK in February. Scope the my$pace for deets:http://www.myspace.com/utahsaintsAnother nod of respect for the important influence that the Saints have had on the mainstream viability and availability of electronic dance music came from Future Music Mag's December 2007 issue. According to a post in the Saints' blog:

December 2007 edition of industry leading technology magazine "Future Music" features Utah Saints' first album as classic album of the month, which is ace!Future Music credits Utah Saints as being one of the first acts to compete on a world wide level with big budget acts on basically a home setup -at the time an Atari computer and an Akai Sampler.Utah Saints' are very flattered by this, and have brought out the Atari to celebrate :-).

Thanks to Get Weird for tipping us off about the imminent new release...Classic Utah Saints tunes (mostly fan-made vids, but good ones):This was my favorite song in 1991: