Oh, how I remember those days of Acid House with affection. (Yes, I remember – that surely tells you something, I was far too straight-laced for any of that sort of thing) I was still dressing as though I were in the Smiths, despite my hair not doing a Morrissey quiff, however much I teased and trained it too. If I wasn’t dressing in my slightly (very) long white Meat is Murder t-shirt and wearing a grey baggy cardigan, I’d be either a Robert Smith-u-like or an extra from the Jesus and Mary Chain. Then, one day, there were these boys with masks and chemical warfare overalls on, on top of the pops, playing this sort of squelchy aggressive yet persuasive dance music.
Next thing any of us know, there’s this moral backlash about this drug fuelled nastiness that concerned Daily Mail readers fretted about, while Sun readers clipped their offsprings ears telling them to steer well clear of this evil. It turned out that this music, Acid House, was my generations punk rock, complete with the press’ outrage at it.
Makes it sound pretty exciting, right? I was know to go to the odd warehouse party (as they liked to call Raves in empty buildings back then) and it was about this squelchy 808 drum machine/bassline builder over which would often be slightly suggestive drug taking lyrics. But the parties were just that, parties. And the thing was, we all liked this music, or else we wouldn’t have bothered.
Fast forward to 2013, and now the Acid Sound is cool and retro and once again providing the soundtrack to parties of all kinds. One of the most sought after DJ’s at the moment is German Alexanda Ridha, aka Boys Noize and he has just released a new ep, titled ‘Go Hard’ that strongly features this new wave of acid house.
From that ep comes Starwin. It’s an strange yet engaging mix of the Daft Punk with the familiar squelch of the bassline. Its been put together with one of the most enjoyable video’s I can remember. Harking back to a similar bygone age to make something new, it’s clips, mostly it seems of those of us old enough to remember those first halcyon days of raves and acid house, and older, rollerskating (yes, rollerskating. How few people you see now rollerskating. In Sheffield anyway) in the sunshine. It’s sort of silly, sort of brilliant, sort of memorable. A bit like the track.
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