Dark Fantasy X: Best acid

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Best acid

Sometimes things come full circle. I was aware of the London acid scene of the mid and late 90s long before I became aware of the (mostly) Continental hardtrance scene of the (mostly) 00s. But because hardtrance largely emerged by combining the acid sound with the trance sound into acid trance, which evolved into hardtrance (arguably, trance came out of the earlier acid scene to begin with), I find myself coming full circle and getting more into acid that I missed the first time around. Especially if it intersects in some way with hardtrance.

The funny thing is how similar all EDM really is to other variations of it. People sometimes act like there are massive fissures dividing the three great branches of EDM: techno, trance and house. This is baloney. Lots of artists were all over the place, and lots of tracks are hard to put in a specific genre. The fact that some others are not doesn't mean that there isn't a continuum of closely related music that slips in and out of genre definitions all the time. Most EDM is... well, it's all quite similar. This is even true of folks who think that there are loads more than three big branches, and treat Breaks and Jungle as if they are completely separate things from Trance or Techno.

Speaking of controversial, I don't think techno was invented by the Belleville Three either. I think it evolved directly out of New Beat in Europe, and what the Belleville guys were doing was a sideshow of hip-hop and Chicago house. That said, acid was clearly invented by Phuture in Chicago, although it was just a weird novelty when they did it.

That said, there are some types of EDM that I don't like by type. Some of the really extreme hardcore stuff, like speedcore and whatnot, is just stupid. Goa and psy-trance kind of irritate me with their phony trippy-hippy exoticism. The whole drug culture of the rave scene I dislike a lot, but honestly—it pervades all of EDM, not just psy-trance. A lot of house I don't like, but a some of it I do. I got really turned off when house-style remixes took over on my CD and 12" singles of New Wave (synthpop) stuff in the very late 80s and early 90s; they really screwed up a load of the Depeche Mode Violator remixes, for example. But I really like Felix Da Housecat's "Silver Screen Shower Scene." Then again, discogs often calls that Electro or Tech House or even merely Techno rather than House. And although there's this narrative (as noted above) that House and Techno both evolved out of some kind of hip-hop and soul movement, that's absurd. I actually quite dislike "black" electronic music, such as it is. I have no connection to it, and no interest in it. The whiter (and usually more European—for whatever reason my folks on this side of the Atlantic don't dabble in it nearly as much—the better. And to some degree, the harder the better, unless it devolves in self-parody, which it sometimes does (and I do like plenty of wispy, ethereal stuff; I love a lot of Dreamwave stuff, for instance. And most people don't even call that EDM at all.)

But obviously, attempting to draw hard and fast lines around EDM and attempts to oversplit it are somewhat foolish, at best. (I mean, fer cryin' out loud, Ishkur's, which is sometimes pointed to as definitive, has "hard acid techno" as a separate development from "acid techno." And he doesn't recognize acid trance as even existing at all—but he's clearly biased against trance, so there's that. Rather, there are influences and movements that move like waves through the sea of electronic music, affecting all kinds of overly split subgenres at a time. The squelchy, dirty overdriven 303 bass-line that defines acid, for instance, is sometimes called is own thing, but it there's also acid house, acid techno, acid trance, and more.

So, what's the best acid? As I've been involved a lot more with exploring acid, I've been looking for what I think are the definitive tracks, that really stand out for some reason or another. "Acid Trax" by Phuture is probably the first acid house song ever, where the overdriven 303 was first overdriven, as far as anyone knows. Primitive 80s house like this still sounds pretty much like every other primitive electronic music genre, though: does adding an overdriven 303 line to Kraftwerk or Throbbing Gristle fundamentally remake it? I doubt it. "Acid Trax" is interesting as probably the first acid song, but hardly the best. Acid didn't get really good until musicians from Europe got a hold of their own 303s and started adding them to what was already a mature and diverse electronic music scene going on at the time.

My oldest son (the only one with whom I can talk EDM) will tell you that "Mad Cows on Acid" from 1997 by DDR & The Geezer is the best acid song. It's a credible shot at the title. He's also the one who introduced me first to "Acid Nightmare", an acid trance track by A*S*Y*S, who I probably like better than he does now. That's another credible contender (sometimes you can tell just by how many versions of it there are out there, which is a testament to its enduring influence and success.) One of the earliest tracks I encountered of the genre was "Je Suis Electrique" by L'Âge Synthétique, before I even had any idea that I was listening to an acid bassline. The minimalism, while still offering an emotional crescendo and brooding darkness also makes it a classic of either early tech trance or hard trance, depending on what you want to call it.

Really, the first acid most people hear and recognize is one that they may not know is acid; Pump Panel Reconstruction's remix of New Order's "Confusion" which was famously used in the first Blade movie in the vampire nightclub, when the blood came out of the sprinkler systems. This is so enduring, in fact, that the specific 303 bassline has been sampled and reused in at least three other songs since: the Warp Brothers (sometimes partnered with various others in some versions) "Blade (Phat Bass)", Randy Katana's "Play It Loud" and Public Domain's "Blade (Bass In The Place)".

Perhaps that's my own bias showing, but the acid that trends towards trance and hard trance tends to be my favorite stuff. Check out Wippenberg's "Neurodancer" or the long version of Solar Quest's "Acid Air Raid" for some other credible "best acid" tracks.

I've got other stuff; acid that's so experimental and musique concrete that it's barely listenable. I've got hardstyle acid (some stuff by Blutonium Boy and DJ Neo, but even A*S*Y*S is into this stuff now. I'll throw out another potential contender here with either "Acid and Bass" by those two, or "Acid Overdose." Both are credited to one of the two, but produced/mixed by the other, or by the pair.). I've got very minimalist acid. But for a final contender, let's throw out the oddly ethereal and "light and floaty" "Pure Acid" by Kai Tracid. Mostly just because it's quite a bit different, and shows some of the breadth of the genre. From dark and minimalist, to party rave bangers, to ethereal and flighty "happy" trance songs, acid can do it all, while still delivering the classic overdriven 303 sound.