Acid house
- Alternate meaning: The Acid House a 1994 novel by Irvine Welsh, later made into a film.
Acid house is a variant of house music characterized by the use of simple tone generators with tempo-controlled resonant filters. It began in the mid-1980s, when producers of house music discovered that they could create interesting sounds with the Roland TB-303 analogue bass synthesizer by tweaking the resonance and frequency cut-off dials as they played. Acid house music became a central part of the early rave scene in the U.K., and the yellow smiley became its emblem.
There are conflicting accounts about how the term "acid" came to describe this new style of house music. Some believe the term refers to LSD, and that early producers of the music, as well as people at clubs where the music was played, enjoyed the drug and its interaction with the music. Others say that the term was used in Chicago at the time as a term for the squelchy sounds of such bass synthesizers such as the TB-303, and has no connection to drugs at all. Some claim that the acid house scene did have a connection to psychoactive drugs, but that the substance of choice was Ecstasy (MDMA), not LSD.
Since the early 2000s, acid house has shifted focus from its sole use of the 303, but remains true to the original concept: in house music, repeated sequences of sound being shifted and warped by modulation over a period of time.
Notable acid house artists
- 808 State - British outfit from Manchester, formed in 1989. Their first album, Newbuild, was acid house, and occasional acid house influences appeared in later tracks.
- Adonis - We're Rockin Down The House
- A Guy Called Gerald - "Voodoo Ray"
- Aphex Twin (early acid house)
- Armando
- Chip E
- Phuture - Chicago-based group of acid house pioneers, formed in 1985, and best known for their classic 1987 single "Acid Tracks", which defined the genre and was its first "track".
- Psychic TV - Led by Throbbing Gristle member Genesis P-Orridge, the term "acid house" first appeared on the cover of their 1985 single "Superman".
- Luke Vibert
See also: Madchester, acid house party
Sources
- Shapiro, Peter (2000) Modulations: A History of Electronic Music: Throbbing Words on Sound, ISBN 189102406X.
External links
- Computer Controlled - unofficial TB-303 site
- Acid-House.net - acid house fan site
- Wayne Anthony's Acid House E-Group
- Jahsonic's History of Acid House
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