History of Chicago House Music by S. Cosgrove

"The beat won't stop with the JM Jock. If he jacks the box and the partyrocks. The clock tick tocks and the place gets hot. So ease your mind and set yourself free. To that mystifying music they call the key". -Music Is The Key, JM Silk, 1985 House is as new as the microchip and as old as the hills. It first came to widespread attention in the summer of 1986 when a rash of records imported directly from Chicago began to dominate the playlist of Europe's most influential DJs. 

Within a matter of months, with virtually no support from the national radio networks, Britain's club scene voted with its feet, three house records forced their way into the top ten. Farley "Jackmaster" Funk "Love Can't Turn Around", Raze's "Jack The Groove", and Steve "Silk" Hurley "Jack Your Body", gave the club scene a new buzz-word, jacking, the term used by Chicago dancers to describe the frantic body pace of the House Sound. Whole litany of Jack Attacks beseiged the music scene. Bad Boy Bill's "Jack It All Night Long", Femme Fion's "Jack The House", Chip E's "Time To Jack", and Julian "Jumpin" Perez "Jack Me Till I Scream".

House music takes its name from an old Chicago night club called The Warehouse, where the resident DJ, Frankie Knuckles, mixed old disco classics, new Eurobeat pop and synthesised beats into a frantic high- energy amalgamation of recycled soul. Frankie is more than a DJ, he's an architect of sound, who has taken the art of mixing to new heights. Regulars at the Warehouse remember it as the most atmospheric place in Chicago, the pioneering nerve-center of a thriving dance music scene where old Philly classics by Harold Melvin, Billy Paul and The O'Jays were mixed with upfront disco hits like Martin Circus' "Disco Circus" and imported European pop music by synthesiser groups like Kraftwerk and Telex.

Acid Over by Simon Reynolds and Paul Oldfield

House music is so impersonal, minimal and repetitive it seems to take effect beneath the level of conscious hearing, sweeping you up by a process of `molecular agitation'. Acid house is the purest, barest distillation of house, the outer limit of its logic of inhuman functionalism. With acid, black music has never been so alien-ated from traditional notions of `blackness' (fluid, grooving, warm), never been so close to to the frigid, mechanical, supremely `white' perversion of funk perpetrated by early eighties pioneers like D.A.F. and Cabaret Voltaire.Acid house is not so much a new thing, as a drastic, terminal culmination of two tendencies in house: the trance-inducing effects of repetion and dub production; a fascination for the pristine hygiene and metronome rhythms of German electronic dance.

Pure acid tracks like Tyree's `Acid Over' recall the brute, inelastic minimalism of D.A.F. - it consists of nothing but a bass synth sequencer pulse reiterated with slight warps and eerie inflections. Other tracs parallesl the obscure innovations of bands like Suicide, the Normal (`Warm Leatherette'), Liasons Dangereuses (very big in Chicago), Die Krupps (proto-metalbashers and an early incarnation of Propaganda). 

Ex-Sample's `And So it Goes' combines cut-ups (`Heroin Kills'), unidentifiable bursts of distorted, sampled sound, and human cries torn from their context (agonies of ecstasy or distress), in a manner not unlike Front 242. Reese's [...]`Just Want Another Chance' sets a guttural, Cabaret Voltaire monologue of desire over the spookiest of Residents synth-drones, an ectoplasmic bassline four times too slow for the drum track. `Strings Of Life' by Rhythim-Is-Rhythim (a.k.a. Derrick May, a prime mover on the acid scene) takes the sultry swing of Latin disco and clips into a spasmodic tic that's deeply unsettling; his `Move It' is a perimeter of trebly rhythm programes that restlessly orbit the black hole where the song should be, and strangely recalls one of those lost, desolate Joy Division B-sides.

Weirdest of all is `Acid Trax' by Phuture, the record that started the whole fad off. The `Cocaine Mix' starts with a treated voice midway between a dalek and the Voice of Judgement that announces, `This is Cocaine Speaking'; spectral eddies of a disembodied human wail (reminiscent of nothing so much as PiL's `No Birds Do Sing') simulate the soul languishing in cold turkey; then we're launched on a terror-ride that again reminds me of PIL's `Careering' or `Death Disco'. `I can make you like for me/I can make you die for me/In the end/I'll be your only friend.' If disco was always ment to be about escapism, acid is about no-escapism.
In this, acid house takes after the white avant-funk of the late seventies/early eighties, its concept of disco as trance, a form of sinister control or possession. The flash and dazzle of disco classics like Chaka Khan's `I'm Every Woman', Michael Jackson's `Off the Wall' album, or anything by Earth Wind and Fire, is replaced by a clinical, ultra-focused, above all inhibited sound. Expansive and expressive gestures are replaced by a precise and rigorous set of movements, _demands_ on the body; flamboyance and improvisation by a discipline of pleasure. Perhaps there's a kind of `liberation' in submitting to the mechanics of instinct, soldering the circuitry of desire to the circuitry of the sequencer programmes.

Chicago, años ochenta by Isidro López

En 1977 el DJ Frankie Knuckles importa a Chicago las técnicas de manipulación de cintas que utilizaban los pinchadiscos neoyorquinos de la época underground del disco. Knuckles pinchaba sus cintas manipuladas en The Warehouse, un club gay que pronto se convertiría en la meca de las fiestas del Medio Oeste americano.

La música era una mezcla de disco, soul y funk en la que, gracias a las técnicas de Knuckles, unos temas se fundían con los otros dando una sensación de continuidad y de transición fluida que podía durar toda la noche. Además, Knuckles trabajaba la producción de los temas ajenos hasta que encajaban en su línea para The Warehouse: “Tenía que reconstruir los discos hasta que funcionaban para mi pista de baile. En ese momento no se estaba haciendo música de baile, así que cogía las canciones, les cambiaba el tempo y les añadía más capas de percusión”.

Si se tiene en cuenta que hasta entonces la música que se escuchaba en las discotecas de Chicago salía de los Jukebox, no es de extrañar que alguien que se tomaba tan en serio el baile se convirtiera inmediatamente en una referencia innovadora. A tal punto llegó la influencia de Knuckles que se bautizó al nuevo estilo con el nombre del lugar donde pinchaba: música house.

En 1983, Ron Hardy sustituye a Knuckles como DJ residente en su nuevo club The Music Box. Las mezclas de Hardy eran mucho más directas y menos sofisticadas que las de Knuckles. Incluían elementos ajenos a la cultura gay del momento, como la electrónica europea o el sonido industrial, que atrajeron también a un público negro heterosexual. La guinda que acabó de popularizar la nueva música de baile fue la mítica falta de medida de Ron Hardy, que dormía en la cabina mientras se hacía cargo de sesiones de setenta y dos horas.

DJ Pierre aka Phuture

DJ Pierre's real name is Nathaniel Pierre Jones and his recording names include DJ Pierre, Phuture,Phuture Phantasy Club, Pierre's Pfantasy Club, Phortune, Photon Inc. He was born in the suburbs of Chicago. Along two other artists known as Spanky (Earl Smith Jnr –founder/technical producer) and Herb J (Herbert R Jackson Jnr - keyboards) he formed "Phuture" and together they accidentally discovered/invented the acid house noise referred to as "squelch".

Whilst trying to find out how to use the Roland TB-303 bass line synthesiser machine they had purchased they came out with the squelch sound that is the essential component for a track to be classed as Acid House. (The machine had been set at too high a pitch.) The acid squelch is a continuous stream of extremely short noise emissions played immediately after one another to effectively produce a new note tone in itself (almost like a normal tone chopped of into many smaller short notes). Note that this sound had already been used as part of other records as a sound effect. For instance you can hear this squelch sound effect used in versions of 'I Feel Love' by Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer and 'Memorabilia' by Soft Cell. But Acid House used the squelch for the notes of the music instead of to accompany it.

The three were inspired by the new House Music revolution that had emerged from their home town Chicago's mid 1980's scene where the Hot Mix 5 artists (Farley "Jackmaster" Funk, Ralphi "The Razz" Rosario, Kenny "Jammin" Jason, Mickey "Mixin" Oliver and Scott "Smokin" Seals) were churning out hit after hit over the airwaves and tape and vinyl. Frankie Knuckles was DJing and the Warehouse club (where House Music is widely acknowledged to derive its name).

Sr. Kakehashi

In early 1981, Kakehashi was invited to rescue Brodr Jorgensen, but the scale of its debts to other manufacturers made this impossible. However, he managed to repossess the huge inventory of Roland products held by Brodr Jorgensen's liquidators, thereby stopping the world market from being flooded by cheap equipment that would have undercut Roland's own sales.

Simultaneously, he was filling the hole left by his distributor's demise. Building upon the joint-venture model he had already established elsewhere, he opened four new companies in the space of just three months. Roland UK opened their doors in January 1981, as did Roland GmbH (Germany), followed in March by Roland Scandinavia and Musitronic AG in Switzerland. Remarkably, Kakehashi also found the time to establish a new Japanese division, which he opened in May 1981. Called AMDEK (Analogue Music Digital Electronics Kits) this was a conduit through which Roland would market and sell Taiwanese products to its worldwide distribution network (see the above box).So, having averted disaster, the company was able to face the future with something approaching confidence. 

Nonetheless, there must have been some point in 1981 when Kakehashi wondered if he had lost the magic touch. Roland and Boss launched more than 30 significant products during the course of the year yet, despite critical success, few seemed to catch the public's eye. Take, for example, the company's first big, polyphonic synthesizer and its toy bass machine. The former made little impact, while the other was soon to end up in the bargain bins, sold off cheaply for whatever dealers could get for it. 

But hindsight is a wonderful thing, as was Kakehashi's belief in his company and its designs. The polysynth was the Jupiter 8 (see the box on the next page). The toy was the TB303 Programmable Bass Line.Before 1981, Roland's incursions into the field of polyphonic synthesis could at best be described as 'tentative'. The Prophet 5 and Oberheim OB-series dominated, so perhaps it's not surprising that the original JP8 made little impact when it was launched. 

Let there be House! (an Acid House photographic novel)

http://gothicgirlandinstagramo.blogspot.com/2015/11/chapter-one-i-cant-let-go.html
In the beginning, there was Jack, and Jack had a groove, And from this groove came the groove of all grooves, And while one day viciously throwing down on his box, Jack boldy declared, “Let there be HOUSE!” and house music was born. "I am, you see, I am the creator, and this is my house! And, in my house there is ONLY house music. But, I am not so selfish because once you enter my house it then becomes our house and our house music!” And, you see, no one man owns house because house music is a universal language, spoken and understood by all. You see, house is a feeling that no one can understand really unless you’re deep into the vibe of house... (Chuck Roberts 1987)

Gothic Girl loves Acid and Acid loves her (Let there be House!) 

1982-1987. Tadao Kikumoto y el Roland TB-303

Esta pequeña maquinita plateada (en realidad es de vulgar plástico), poco mayor que una cinta de vídeo, es la directa responsable de toda una revolución. Si la edad de oro de la música electrónica reciente empieza a finales de los ochenta con la explosión del “Acid House” (aquel movimiento que surgido de la nada llenó todos los clubs del mundo de caritas sonrientes), la culpa fue de esta belleza, la “máquina de bajos” Roland TB-303.

La historia de la 303, como la de muchos sintetizadores clásicos, está llena de circunstancias fortuitas e inesperados giros del destino. Su diseñador, Tadao Kikumoto (inventor también de la 909 y uno de los actuales capos de Roland), pensó en idear un par de máquinas que pudiesen sustituir a un bajista y un batería con el fin de que guitarristas, pianistas y orquestadores pudiesen componer sin necesidad de una sección rítmica “real”. Así nacieron en 1982 la 303 y su compañera inseparable, la caja de ritmos Drumatix 606. 

El concepto parecía interesante, pero fue un fracaso total. El sonido de la 303 no se parecía en absoluto al de un bajo eléctrico y programar el aparato era una pesadilla apta sólo para ingenieros aeroespaciales. Para emular los distintos tipos de bajo, la 303 contaba con unos controles circulares que había que colocar en distintas posiciones, un sistema considerado por entonces tremendamente arcaico. Sólo año y medio después de su aparición, el sinte fue retirado del mercado.

Cinco años más tarde, ya nadie se acordaba de la 303. Pero un desconocido Disc-Jockey llamado DJ Pierre encontró una en una tienda de segunda mano y empezó a utilizarla en sus actuaciones de una manera que a nadie se le había ocurrido. Efectivamente, la 303 no recordaba en absoluto a un bajo, pero si se la hacía sonar y al mismo tiempo se giraban sus controles circulares, el resultado era algo jamás oído. El impresionante chillido de la 303 impactó tanto a los productores de ‘techno’ que se convirtió en el elemento central de un sonido, el Acid House, que marcaría un antes y un después en la historia de la música electrónica.

A principios de los 90, la popularidad de la máquina ha crecido tanto que, como decía Fatboy Slim en un tema de su primer disco, “Todo el mundo quiere una 303”. El problema es que hay muy pocas: debido a su fracaso inicial, Roland sólo fabricó unas veinte mil. Despreciadas en su momento, tras el Acid los músicos electrónicos se lanzan a los mercadillos y las tiendas de segunda mano, desesperados por hacerse con una, mientras su precio en el mercado de aparatos usados sube y sube y sube... Decenas de compañías de instrumentos musicales fabricaron “clones” de la 303, pero ninguno igualaba el característico sonido de la original. La sorpresa que nadie podía esperarse, por eso, era que al final todo el mundo iba a poder tener la suya.

Bassline Baseline

Documental acerca del famoso sintetizador de bajos TB 303 fabricado por Roland. (English)

Documentary by: Nate Harrison
www.nkhstudio.com
Bassline BaseLine Documentary

Who Played This Instrument?

2 Unlimited, 808 State, A Positive Life, Acid Junkies, Acid Rockers, Air Liquide, Alec Empire, Antiloop, Dave Angel, The Aphex Twin, John Bell (Captain Tinrib), Apoptygma Berzerk, Astral Project B.S.E., Barney Arthur, Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, Beatmasters, The Beloved, Biochip C., Bizarre Inc, The Black Dog, Ron Boots, Cabaret Voltaire, A Certain Ratio, Coldcut, D.A.V.E., DDR, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Dreadzone, The Drummer, Eat Static, Earthbound, Ege Bam Yasi, Electribe 101, Electronic Dream Planet, FatBoy Slim, Frontline Assembly, Future Sound of London, Laurent Garnier, The Grid, A Guy Called Gerald, Groove Corporation, Haircut 100, Hardfloor, Paul Harding, Simon Harris, Richie Hawtin, HIA, Hit Squad, Human League, CJ Imperium, Lawrie Immersion, Marshall Jefferson of DJ Pierre, Guy McGaffer, Kraftwerk, KLF, KMFDM, Michael Law, LFO, Chris Liberator, Loaded, The Madness, Man Machine, Man With No Name, Massive Attack, Mega 'Lo Mania, Moby, Motiv8, Mulligan, Mushroom of Massive Attack, Nostrum, Nello, The Orb, Orbital, The Other two, Orzic Tentacles, Planet 4 Records, Ian Pooley, The Prodigy, Rhythmatic, Tom Robinson, Rowland The Bastard, Scooter, Sabres of Paradise, Kevin Saunderson, Shades of Rhythm, Insom Shalom, Shamen, Tim Simenon, Sky Cries Mary, Kris Needs, Sonic Subjunkies, Steve Smitten, Squarepusher, Switzerland, Thompson Twins Mark Tyler, Ultramarine, Ultra-Sonic, Ultraviolet, Underground Resistance, Underworld, Josh Wink.........

1986 - 1989 Acid Tracks

Phuture - Acid TracksAcid Fingers - Mix It UpD. Mob - We Call It AcidArmando - 151Mr Fingers - Beyond The CloudsVirgo & Adonis - My SpaceFingers Inc - Can You Feel ItArmando - DownfallDJ Pierre - Acid PopFingers Inc - Distant PlanetJames Jackrabbit - The Last VoiceKevin Saunderson - The Groove That Won´t StopArmando - Confusion RevengePhortune - Can You Feel The BassMaurice - This Is Acid (A New Dance Craze)Phuture - Spank SpankMr Fingers - Acid AttackZsa Zsa Laboum - Something Scary808 State - Flow ComaFarley Jackmaster Funk - The Acid Life

x0xb0x 303 Project by Ladyada

The x0xb0x is not just another MIDI-controlled TB-303 clone. x0xb0x is a full reproduction of the original Roland synthesizer, with fully functional sequencer. The sequencer can be programmed just like the original 303 (ok its actually a little easier, we think) and can be used to control other synthesizers via any of its various output formats. 128 banks of track memory and 64 banks of pattern memory are stored in onboard EEPROM, no battery-backup is needed!

An 'otaku' clone of the famous Roland TB-303 synthesizer. This project is a full reproduction, complete with on-board sequencer as well as MIDI support. The project is completely open source and available as a kit.

For more information, visit the x0xb0x webpage.
Ladyada.net

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