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. The explanations that have surfaced include the following:
- ''It is a celebratory reference to LSD '' — some feel that early producers of the new style of house music, as well as people at Nightclub s where the music was played, enjoyed the drug and its interaction with the music. No citations are available to confirm or deny this explanation. Genesis P-Orridge , principal member of the experimental music collective Psychic TV , is believed by some to be a primary source of this claim. P-Orridge made various claims of responsibility for inventing the term and the style of music, but at least one former member of Psychic TV disputes all of the claims, and in an interview in the 1999 documentary '' Better Living Through Circuitry '', P-Orridge admitted that it was a clerk in a Chicago record shop who used the word "acid" to describe the most experimental, bizarre house records that were on hand and that P-Orridge asked to be shown. In the interview, P-Orridge reported having an epiphany, while listening to those records, that the music was not very psychedelic, except by virtue of its tempo. Afterward, the music and imagery of Psychic TV records was very deliberately influenced by the acid house style and was quite celebratory of LSD in particular. P-Orridge later claimed to have been the first to introduce psychedelic elements to the music.
- ''It is a celebratory reference to Psychedelic Drug s in general'' — some feel that Ecstasy (MDMA) was more popular and prevalent than LSD among musicians and nightclub patrons in the mid-1980s. No citations are available to confirm or deny this explanation. There are many citations of Ecstasy being prevalent in post-Chicago U.S. nightclub and UK Rave Party scenes of the late 1980s, but acid house had already been named by then.
- ''It was used in Chicago, at the time, to describe the squelchy sounds of the TB-303 bass synthesizer'' — some consider these sounds to be harsh and caustic, like acid, and/or they associate the sounds with "bubbling acid" sound effects and imagery as might be used in cinematic depictions of laboratories. While it is true that the term was applied in the 1990s and beyond to music that used the TB-303 in a similar way to the way the device was used in acid house, no citations are available to confirm or deny this explanation as being relevant to the advent of acid house itself.
- ''It was used in Chicago, at the time, to describe house music in the style of "Ron Hardy's Acid Track".'' — Before Phuture's "Acid Tracks" was given a title for commercial release, it was played at a nightclub by DJ Ron Hardy and was called "Ron Hardy's Acid Track" by some, because it was so "hot" (immediately popular) that it "burned the dance floor like acid". Phuture's title followed, and the term Acid House came into common parlance to describe house music with similar affectations, without regard to possible drug influence. No citations are available to confirm or deny this explanation.
- ''It was used in Chicago, at the time, to describe house music that contained many samples of other recordings'' — the use of such samples was considered unscrupulous by some, so it is believed by some that the term "acid" or "acid burning" was merely meant to have a harsh, unpleasant connotation. This explanation, sometimes including aspects of the others, has been widely repeated in the press and even in the , U.K. Libertarian advocate Paul Staines wrote, "''I made up this explanation at a press conference held to launch the Freedom to Party Campaign at the Conservative Party conference in October 1989. I was attempting to desperately play down the drug aspect in a forlorn attempt to discourage anti-party legislation, reasoning that the British public might accept massive noisy parties, but thousands of teenagers on drugs were definitely not acceptable. This, incidentally, is the most successful lie I have ever told. Japanese music journalists have solemnly repeated it to me in the course of interviews and from MTV to ITN it has been broadcast as a fact. Only once was I caught out, when at a seminar held at the DMC World Disc Jockey Mixing Championships, a DJ from Chicago stood up and told the 1,000 or so people in the hall that I was talkin' a complete load of fuckin' bullshit —which I was.''" However, some feel that Staines, like Genesis P-Orridge, is not a reliable source of information.
Regardless of its actual origins, once the term ''acid house'' was coined and began to appear alongside these varying explanations, many participants at acid house themed events made the psychedelic drug connotations a reality. This coincided with an increasing level of scrutiny and sensationalism in the mainstream press, although conflicting accounts about the degree of connection between acid house music and drugs continued to surface.
- 808 State - British outfit from Manchester , formed in 1989 . Their first album, ''Newbuild'', was acid house, and occasional acid house influences appear in later tracks.
- Adonis - For ''We're Rockin Down The House''.
- A Guy Called Gerald - For the single " Voodoo Ray ".
- Aphex Twin - For his early acid house, with new acid house '' Analord '' series in 2005 drawing on the same methodology as early acid house.
- The KLF - Pioneers of the "stadium house" sound, which mixes acid house with hip-hop, pop, and stadium rock/chant influences.
- Leftfield
- 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 , for albums such as ''Jack The Tab'' (1988). The term "acid house" appeared on the cover of their 1988 single "Superman".
- The Shamen - Psychedelic techno act formed in Aberdeen , Scotland in 1986. One of the first groups to bring acid house and techno into the pop mainstream.
- Luke Vibert - Modern acid house using computer emulation in Reason software
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