Acid techno
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| Acid techno | |
| Stylistic origins | Acid house Techno |
|---|---|
| Cultural origins | early 1990s, United States, United Kingdom |
| Typical instruments | Roland TB-303 Roland TR-808 Roland TR-909 Synthesizer Drum machine Sequencer |
| Mainstream popularity | Medium |
Acid techno is the term used to describe a style of techno that developed out of late 1980s Chicago Acid house. Acid house was essentially house music made with a specific sound, obtained by using very distinctive instruments created mainly by Roland, such as the TB-303 for bass and lead sounds, and the TR-909 and TR-808 for percussion. Acid specifically refers to the use of the Roland TB-303, or any other synthesizer designed to emulate it's unique sound. While modern electronic instruments have memory banks of different sounds or patches, these machines had to be manually set by adjusting control knobs. The acid sound was obtained by either setting these controls to extreme parameters, or manipulating these controls in real-time as the track was being recorded, something record producers would call tweaking. Acid techno is created in the same exact way Acid house is, the difference being that House music has a specific format that includes melody and the potential for vocals and traditional western popular music structuring, where as Techno music requires no melody or harmony and focuses more on rhythm and texture, which is why it is most commonly viewed as having less commercial potential.
[edit] History
In the midwestern United States (Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee; etc.), acid techno evolved in the early 1990s from the industrial music scene, and offered something completely different than the disco-influenced house music that was often heard at nightclubs. One of the first acid techno records ever recorded is Circuit Breaker: Experiments in Sound, produced by Richie Hawtin, on Probe, a sub-label of Plus-8 records. Some examples of other North American acid techno labels would include Communique, Drop Bass Network, Direct Drive, Analog Records USA, EXperimental, Cheshire Records, and very early Dance Mania.
In Europe, acid techno was very popular throughout the 1990s. Most notably, Holland's Djax-Up-Beats was a very successful international record label releasing well known American producers alongside European producers such as Acid Junkies, Cologne. Germany had one of the most famous acid techno scenes in the mid 1990s, featuring a collective of artists who recorded and performed together such as Mike Ink, Walker, and Jammin Unit, on labels like Force Inc and DJ.Ungle Fever.
In early 1990s the UK squat party and free festival scene saw many DJs mixing Acid Techno and later producers such as Divine Soma Experiment (http://www.DivineSoma.com) started to experiment with more complex arrangements and techniques combining freestyle breakbeats and psychedelic (acid) techno.
The term "Acid" music derives from the record "Acid Tracks" by group Phuture (Trax Records, Chicago, 1987).
With the term "Acid" also being the common vernacular for the psychadelic drug Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), "Acid" music has become popular within the psychedelic sub culture who's members have claimed to experience trance like states and out of body experiences after listening to the repetitive music for prolonged periods of time. This is often to compared to musical techniques employed by practitioners of Yoruba based religions (Santeria, Vodou), Tibetan monk chanting, aboriginal Australian use of didgeridoo to create "dreamtime states", Mongolian Choomi throat Overtone_singing of the Tuva people and many other tribal and ethnic music around the world.
In London, acid techno is considered a less repetitive sound than many other forms of techno (early influences included the German acid trance scene) and an irreverent, often-political attitude seen in the titles and samples used in many of its tracks; many of that scene's originators had originally been part of the punk scene. Early labels included Stay Up Forever, Smitten, Routemaster, Boscaland, Choci's Chewns and VCF, and more recently in the U.K., acid techno has developed away from a predominantly 303-based sound into a broader sub-genre of techno that still retains its dancefloor-friendly ethos, and 'London' sound. Labels such as Infected, Hydraulix, Cluster, 4x4 Records, RAW and Powertools reflect this newer sound..
Acid techno continues to be mainly a fairly underground form of music.
[edit] Notable Producers
- Woody McBride
- Freddie Fresh
- Jimmy Crash
- Adam X
- DJ Zyx
- Paul Birken
- Martin Damm
- Thomas P. Heckmann
- Mike Ink
- Ingmar Koch
- Rob Acid
- Brixton
- Hardfloor
- Jammin Unit
- Can Oral
- Random XS
- Like A Tim
- Acid Junkies
- Affie Yusuf
- Jon The Dentist
- Steve Smitten
- Choci
- Octodred
- Chris Liberator
- Julian Liberator
- Aaron Liberator
- Guy “Geezer” McAffer
- Pete Skank
- Henry Cullen
- Dave Lalouche
- Rowland The Bastard
- Lawrie Immersion
- Ant
- Ege Bam Yasi
- Spiral Tribe
- Emmanuel Top
- Kai Tracid
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