Acid House Music Playlist - 13th Note HiFi Reviews

The smiley face was the Acid House emblem

It’s the most sensible thing to do – stay indoors and not spread COVID-19. This nomenclature for the virus makes it sound like an acid house music playlist/compilation album, or out of area location you shouldn’t go – too close to Area 51 perhaps. But hang on we ain’t foreboding anything – we get to listen to music and HiFi more, regardless of whether you are a ‘music first’ or ‘music last’ Audiophile (or audio lover?). So winner winner chicken dinner.

And what about Acid House? Well it is a sub-genre of house music which sprung from DJ’s in Chicago in the 1980s. In late 80s UK we had Rave culture from this type of music. Amazing to think too that Raves were organised with no mobile phones.

A local hotspot near me was the ‘Braintree Barn’ where acts like Mr C of The Shamen were regulars, so too The Prodigy, where Keith, Leroy and Liam met. Huge talents would play like Carl Cox and Derrick May, reputedly one of the godfathers of the genre. Second Claim to fame by the way – I went to school with Nigel Champion of N-Joi and if you know this genre you will know who they are.

The hedonistic times of the late 80’s with Rave culture and ecstasy use, was massive to the influence of styles like trance, techno and trip-hop which, at least here in the UK, developed while the Britpop era was in full swing. Police even tried to halt Rave’s and all I remember seeing on the news was efforts to do so – The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (1994) put paid to these aggregations. The idea people could just get in a car and end up in some weird place with little organisation and no health and safety aflictions, was what was liberating about Rave culture. Perhaps my particular generations fix of freedom and youth searching finding oneself.

As Jarvis Cocker said on Pulp’s mid 90’s Different Class Album, on the track Sorted For E’s & Wizz….. “I can never come home again cause I seem to have left an important part of my brain somewhere, somewhere in a field in Hampshire”. That was what Acid House was about and the drug culture it fuelled.

The Scientist – The Exorcist

It was too encapsulated by the voiceover with the track Stella on Ultramarine’s 1991 album Every Man and Woman is a Star ; “For me I had to dance, I had to relieve myself of the whole of western culture”. Acid House was a conduit for that. We’d now call it mindfulness in these liberal times – doing something to take your mind off everyday struggles basically – even though the minds of many Ravers were perhaps anything but, well, in their minds! 😉

Acid House – sometimes a bit lacking in any melody and musical structure by lots of standards, sure…. You get an awful lot of thrashy Acid House music, badly written. An excuse for the genre and fronting commerciality, but as dance music done well, it has mesmerising tunes and riffs. It’s music that stays in your head for generations. It has in mine!

So stay indoors, stay safe and enjoy music. Click here for the Tidal Playlist. Click here for the Qobuz Playlist.

Not a streaming subscriber – here is some ‘snapshots’ of the tracks;

Self Isolation Playlist 1 – Acid House & Friends