Drum Machines & Acid House
The machines and the sound they made by accident. The TR-808 and TR-909, and the TB-303 bass line nobody could use as intended until Phuture's 'Acid Tracks', the squelch that became a genre.
Part of Chicago House
29 moments in this segment.
- - The machines that made house - the Roland TB-303. How the cheap Roland drum machines and the TB-303 let anyone make house.
- - Armando - Chicago Dance Party (Acid House, 1987). Armando and the WGCI/102.7 acid-house dance-party energy of 1987 Chicago.
- - Phuture - "Your Only Friend" (1987). The anti-cocaine acid track from the "Acid Tracks" EP.
- - Ralphi Rosario - "You Used to Hold Me". With Xavier Gold’s vocal, a Chicago vocal-acid classic.
- - Pierre’s Pfantasy Club - "Dream Girl". DJ Pierre’s acid-era project.
- - Phuture - "Spank Spank". The B-side energy of the Phuture acid crew.
- - Phuture - "Acid Tracks" (1987). DJ Pierre and Phuture’s 12-minute "Acid Tracks", built entirely from a tweaked TB-303, defined the acid-house genre and was road-tested for years on Ron Hardy’s floor.
- - The Roland TR-909. The TR-909 drum machine’s punchy kick and crisp hats became the rhythmic backbone of house and acid, another "failed" Roland product that the Chicago producers made iconic.
- - Fast Eddie - "Acid Thunder". Fast Eddie bridged acid house and hip-hop into "hip house".
- - Bam Bam - "Where’s Your Child?". A dark, eerie acid-house classic.
- - Dance Britannia - the acid house revolution. A BBC look at how Chicago’s acid house transformed British youth culture.
- - Armando - "Land of Confusion". Armando Gallop’s acid-house cornerstone.
- - Phortune - "Can You Feel the Bass". DJ Pierre & co, acid-era bass weight.
- - Armando - "Confusion’s Revenge" (1988). More raw Armando acid.
- - Fast Eddie - "Jack to the Sound of the Underground". A jack-track / hip-house cornerstone.
- - Hercules - "7 Ways". Marshall Jefferson’s acid project.
- - Armando - "151". Another raw Armando acid-house track.
- - Armando - "Downfall". More raw acid from Armando Gallop.
- - Bam Bam - "Give It to Me". More dark acid from Bam Bam.
- - Armando - "100% of Dissin’ You". Classic house from 1988,Label-Warehouse Records,catalog#: WH-002,format 12" vinyl US 1988
- - Steve Poindexter - "Work That Mother...". A brutally raw, hard Chicago jack classic.
- - DJ Pierre - "Generate Power" (Wild Pitch). DJ Pierre’s "wild pitch" style, slowly-building, hypnotic peak-time house.
- - Robert Armani - "Circus Bells". A hard Chicago-acid record that became a rave anthem (Hardfloor remix).
- - DJ Rush - Chicago acid/techno. The harder, acid-techno edge of Chicago.
- - The Roland TB-303 - the acid machine. A failed bass-guitar substitute, the TB-303’s squelching, resonant filter, misused by Chicago producers, became the unmistakable sound of acid house. The subject dates from 1987; this photograph was taken in 2008.
- - The Roland TR-808 drum machine. The TR-808’s booming kick and clap underpinned countless early house and electro records. The subject dates from 1980; this photograph was taken in 2014.
- - Two turntables & a mixer. House was built in the DJ booth, extended edits and beat-matching long before the studio. The subject dates from 1982; this photograph was taken in 2015.
- - How acid house was invented. The story of Phuture discovering the acid sound on a second-hand TB-303.
- - Acid house ignites the UK (1988). Chicago acid house crossed the Atlantic and lit the UK’s "Second Summer of Love", warehouse raves, smiley faces, and a cultural revolution.
