Acid Brass - Let's Get Brutal (Blast First, 1997)

Classic early House given a roughing up in West Yorkshire.

Oh, now this is special.

There's probably a whole dissertation online somewhere about the parallels between urban dance music pioneers in the 1980s and colliery employees in the 1930s. Or maybe not...

Whatever, the fusion works perfectly on the 'Acid Brass' album and rocks particularly hard on Nitro Deluxe's 'Let's Get Brutal'.

It breaks into life, low and brooding, with real, live handclaps that are a revelation of effective simplicity. Rolling toms and xylophone mark out a twilight zone where majorettes march out of t'pit, grime smeared across their faces, uniforms dirtied and torn. Then the melody comes in crisp and clear and you reach for the fluorescent lights.

NB. Please note that this post was published at 8:08 as a tribute to the pioneers of Acid House.

Download Acid Brass 'Let's Get Brutal' (Brass Band, Acid House, mp3) (Rapidshare)

Hypnotone 'Dream Beam (Hypnotone Original Version)' (Creation Records, 1990)

Chunky piece of acid house-indie dance cross-over madness.

Having recently posted Hypnotone's remix of The Lilac Time's 'Dreaming', I found myself returning, drawn to this Hypnotone single from the same era.

'Dream Beam' is pretty much a handy template for Primal Scream to follow on 'Don't Fight It, Feel It'. Love both records, though. Hypnotone carry over some bleep from Sweet Exorcist into their Acid House melange.

Download Hypnotone 'Dream Beam (Hypnotone Original Version)' (Acid House, Indie Dance, mp3) (Divshare)

Sweet Exorcist 'Testone' (Warp, 1990)

Early bleep magic from Sheffield's crucible of a machine-driven magic.

This record is made out of almost nothing, it's incredible. A bleepline, some echo, a very simple drum machine, a bassline, a snippet of vocal sample and a bit of synth for the breakdown. That's all there is to it but, my god, it conjures up so much more than the sum of its parts.

It's a groove. It's a feeling. It sums up a whole movement and the euphoria of succumbing to the tryannny of the bleep and echospace in between the notes.

Put together by former Cabaret Voltaire man Richard H. Kirk and Richard Barrett (aka Parrot, later to form the All Seeing I) in 1989, it was one of the first releases on Warp in 1990. Its lineage can be traced right back through Humanoid's 'Stakker Humanoid' to Mr. Fingers to Strings Of Life to New Order to Giorgio Moroder to Kraftwerk. Its impact was to directly inspire ten years of dancefloor mayhem - Tricky Disco, LFO and beyond.

A true work of art.

Download Sweet Exorcist 'Testone' (WAP3, bleep, electronica, acid house mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Humanoid 'Stakker Humanoid' (Westside, 1988)

Frantic, acid-infected electro classic.

This pre-Future Sound of London track by Brian Dougans is a storming cascade of beats, acid squelching, whistles, sound fx and driving energy.

Arriving on a distinctive, puttering riff, it somehow seems to arrive a full-pelt but still ratchet up the intensity the course of five incredible minutes.

I spent ages trying to track down a copy of the original 12" after mistakenly buying one of the many, inferior, remixes.

'Stakker Humanoid' is simply a classic British dance record that sits alongside FSOL's 'Papua New Guinea', 'LFO' by LFO, Bomb The Bass's 'Beat Dis', 'IOU' by Freeez and all the other records I loved before I was ready to leave the bedroom for the dancefloor...

Download Humanoid 'Stakker Humanoid' (mp3) (Mediafire)