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Reading, England-based group Chapterhouse went through several phases in their brief initial existence. They started out as a drony space rock band who played shows with Spacemen 3 before slowly morphing into one of the earliest examples of shoegaze in the late '80s, and on their 1991 debut album Whirlpool. They dabbled with psychedelic rave-rock styles borrowed from the Madchester scene on their second album Blood Music, but broke up just a year after its 1993 release. Chapterhouse's creative drive kept them from sticking with a single sound or being easy to fit into any single genre, and their short and fascinating lifespan was still being explored long after they stopped making new music on compilation releases like 2023's Chronology.

The band formed in 1987. Drummer Ashley Bates, bassist Jon Curtis, guitarist Simon Rowe, and vocalists/guitarists Stephen Patman and Andrew Sherriff allegedly called themselves Incest early on but made a smart decision to change the name. Long before they laid down their first demos, they rehearsed and honed their live show. One 1988 gig, performed in their home base of Reading, won a supporter in Sonic Boom. The Spacemen 3 member wanted to release the band's music on his Bop-a-Sonic label, but that never materialized. Instead, the band signed with BMG's Dedicated subsidiary -- home of Cranes, Global Communication, and other heavy rockers of the time. By the end of 1990, the band had replaced the exited Curtis with Russell Barrett and had a pair of four-song EPs -- Freefall and Sunburst -- released and reviewed with mostly favorable results. A third single, early 1991's Pearl, earned them even more attention, featuring an oft-used John Bonham sample and background vocals from Slowdive's Rachel Goswell. This set the stage for the full-length debut Whirlpool, also released in 1991. While it didn't capitalize on the band's building popularity quite as hoped, they were able to stir up a couple low-charting singles and a sizeable fan base in England.

After the Mesmerise single closed out 1991, the band went silent for over a year before reappearing with 1993's less shoegazey and more dancefloor-ready Blood Music. While singles "She's a Vision" and "We Are the Beautiful" were successful, the album itself failed to chart. It was accompanied by a slew of remixes, many of which came from Global Communication. The band broke up in 1994 and in 1996 the double-disc Rownderbout compilation collected singles as well as B-sides and unreleased demos. Sherriff continued to work with electronic music with the Bio.com and Bionic projects; Barrett later became part of Inner Sleeve; Rowe joined former Slowdive members in Mojave 3; Bates went trip-hop for 4AD's Cuba (aka Air Cuba). In 2007, a Best Of compilation surfaced, and the following year, Chapterhouse reunited for a handful of reunion shows. The band's return to the stage would be short-lived, and by 2010 live performances had halted again.

In 2023, Cherry Red Records released the massive compilation Chronology. The six-disc compilation was curated by the band themselves and included more than 20 unreleased demos and other miscellaneous tracks from their run in the early '90s. ~ Andy Kellman

The most well-known and widely acclaimed project of influential, prolific dance producers Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton, Global Communication is the duo's outlet for ambient techno and house explorations. Their largely beat-free 1994 LP 76:14 was a notable high point of the ambient house movement, while their subsequent non-album singles were significantly more club-friendly, dabbling with deep house and broken beat. Constantly active with other projects, the pair occasionally revived the Global Communication handle for mixes such as 2006's Fabric 26.

The partnership began in 1991, when Pritchard and Middleton formed Evolution Records (named after a Carl Craig track) to release their own dancefloor-oriented house and techno. Middleton had previously recorded with Aphex Twin while Pritchard had been half of the duo Shaft, responsible for the British Top Ten rave hit "Roobarb & Custard." The first three releases on Evolution were EPs recorded as Reload by Pritchard/Middleton in 1992-1993 -- The Reload, The Autoreload, and The Biosphere. The records were excellent Detroit-inspired tracks, brooding and eerie but nonetheless highly danceable. Global Communication, which matched the unsettling ambience of Reload but with a focus on warmer rhythms, debuted on Evolution 004, otherwise known as The Keongaku EP. Pentamerous Metamorphosis, Global Communication's extended remix of Chapterhouse's 1993 Blood Music, was initially included as a bonus disc with CD copies of the Chapterhouse album, then given a standalone release.

With the ambient house boom in full force by 1994, Pritchard and Middleton's downtempo project became more important than Reload. They signed to Dedicated and released 76:14 in mid-1994. The album later gained an American release, and made many critics' best-of lists that year. One of the record's highlights was remixed by the Grid, J. Spaceman (Spiritualized), and Michael Brook as the two-part Maiden Voyage single. Global Communication released Remotion in late 1995, though this album consisted of remixes also, including material from the Pentamerous Metamorphosis LP along with reworkings of material by Jon Anderson, Nav Katze, and Warp 69.

Following additional ventures, such as the electro alias Jedi Knights and the ambient drum'n'bass classic "Links" as the Chameleon, Pritchard and Middleton returned to the Global Communication project with The Way/The Deep, a lush, expansive house record that appeared at the very end of 1996. The Groove, co-credited to the VCF Band (Virtual Cosmic Funk Band), was a jazzy excursion into broken beat featuring remixes by Dego (4hero) and Palm Skin Productions. By the end of the decade, both were working on solo projects; Middleton's Cosmos moniker produced big Ibizan club hits with 1999's "Summer in Space" and 2002's "Take Me with You," while Pritchard produced downtempo and experimental sounds as Troubleman and as one-half of Harmonic 33.

In 2005, Global Communication released a remastered edition of 76:14, and the CD edition included a bonus disc consisting of non-album singles and remixes. Fabric 26, a mix of hip-hop, funk, and broken beat rather than house, appeared in 2006. They returned in 2011 with Back in the Box, a double-CD mix of Detroit techno and early IDM. In 2020, the duo resurrected Evolution and released Transmissions, a box set containing Pentamerous Metamorphosis, 76:14, and additional material, including Lone's remake of "5:23" (aka "Maiden Voyage"). ~ John Bush & Paul Simpson