Acid Techno

Acid techno – often referred to as just »acid« – is a techno subgenre which emerged in Europe in the late 1980s/early 1990s when the short-lived acid house hype was over and techno had become popular. So to say, acid techno is a derivative of acid house combining its electronic squelch sounds with techno material. A good example is »Sector 9« by Dutch duo Acid Junkies from 1993.

As with acid house, the main characteristic of acid techno is the bubbling sound of the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer with heavy modulations of the filter's resonance and cutoff frequency – these smacking noises were associated with corrosive acid. The underlying techno beats are typically delivered by a Roland TR-909 drum computer. Acid techno tracks are often minimalistic, however, sometimes musical elements like vocals or pad sounds are added. Apart from Chicago acid house influences include hardcore techno, German trance and rave music from Belgium.

Famous for the almost virtuoso use of the TB-303 – often more than one (modified) device at once – are German duo Hardfloor, consisting of Ramon Zenker and Oliver Bondzio, examples being their tracks »Acperience« (1993) or »Hardfloor Will Survive« feat. Phuture 303 (1998). Further important genre artists are Polish-born German artist Robert Babicz aka Rob Acid or Acid Warrior who entered the British dance charts with »Happy Answer« in 1993 or German duo AWeX (Tom Wax and Thorsten Adler) whose track »It’s Our Future« became the anthem of the Berlin Love Parade 1995.

Outside of Germany, notable acid house artists include French producer Emmanuel Top who had genre hits with »Acid Phase« and his most-known track »Turkish Bazar« (both 1994), US-American dj/producer Woody McBride, UK duo The Pump Panel Tim Taylor and Dan Zamani) whose »Reconstruction Mix« of New Order’s »Confusion« was featured in the opening scene of the movie »Blade« in 1998 and Italian dj/producer Steve Lorenz, known for e.g. »Parallels« (2013) Having its heyday in the mid-1990s, acid techno left its mark on techno, house and trance where elements of this genre can still be found.