Tony Future - My View of the house history >> It all started way back in 86/7 for me when I used to listen to Jazzy M on the Jacking Zone on a radio station, from then came acid music. In 88 acid music was breaking out in an underground way and little illeagle parties started to happen in tiny storage houses and small wharehoueses. All they consisted of was an loud sound system, a strobe with the odd light here and there and DJ's. you paid some huge bloke on the door a fiver and you wa in, no search and they didn't care - not like today! The music was acid through and through, Phuture acid tracks and Laurant x machines belted out and tripped everyone out and because it was all new as well it was even better - a new concept of clubs, raw and urban was born. Originators from the very beginning of house like ChipE and Farley Jackmaster funk was also still making the house sound and Trax from Chicago was taking most of the credit along side DJ International. Tyree, Bam Bam (The Party Boy) and DJ pierre (Pierres Phantasy Club) were also smashing it with Wheres your child, The twighlight Zone, Acid tracks, We are phuture and The Creater. 88 was the year of acid and as it became apparent the smiley faces started to appear everywhere and people shouting the Gary Hashim's "aaccciieeeedd". Dj's were Dj's like Danny Ramplig who at the time was doing shroom and Darren Emerson. From the little raves in the acid days of 88 the music started to become more of an understanding instead of a hypnotic state for 8 hours and as we progressed to 1989 the music became more house and rhythm. I was playing at the Berwick Manor in Essex, UK at this time and still playing acid tracks as they were still the sound of the moment. Hip house started to hit big with Fast Eddie and Tyree and probably the biggest well known tune in the hip house era of 89 was Doug Lazy - Let it roll. The music in 1989 was full of everything, Garage, House, Hip House, Acid, Breaks and Hard driven house tracks. Many classics started in this year like Raze - Break for love and Soul II Soul - keep on movin. Other classics more known in the house scene are LNR-work it to the bone, Charles B-Lack of love, Da Posse-Searching Hard, Phase II-reachin. There were also others that were still classics and are today but were a bit more underground like Rengade Soundwave -The Phantom, Frankie Bones-Call it techno, 2 in a room-somebody in the house say yeah, Pink Noise-give me energy. Ultimate classics are tracks like Beloved-sun rising, Dionne-come get my lovin and EZ Posse-Everything starts with an E. The ultimate 89 classic has got to be Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle - Your Love The raves started to get bigger and bigger with more attractions. Gone were the days of the pitch black sweat boxes and in came the super raves! The raves in the fields with light shows, fairgrounds, 100k sound systems, live acts and 20,000 people all doing the same thing in a field half way up the country without a care - what a time!! Sunrise, Energy and Biology were a few to name and they had raves that had never been seen with this type of music before - sure there were music gatherings before but not with a full laser show and a 100,000 watt sound system. The Dj's like Carl Cox and Evil Eddies Richards were at most raves. Paul 'Trouble' Anderson was also a regular guest at the the raves. Rave culture was loving it and like veerything else the goverment didn't like it so they made it harder and harder to organise the raves. The goverment forced the music back into the clubs although this did take some time. Big raves were stuill happening in 1990 and 1991 although ravers did finally get bored with travelling so many miles to find a copper standing there telling you they have shut it down! I remember from the raves it wa into the underground clubs like Dungeons in Lea Bridge Road and Labrynth whilst at this time the big raves were starting to get legal and in the more civilised manner should we say like having events at the Rocket in London and ESP/Dreamscape, Fantazia thowing big events around the country. The music was changing along with other things to, the clubland was appearing again but with real dance music and as all the rav ers wanted somewhere to go the clubs and events were following suit of the super sound systems and super light shows. Astoria in London was massive in terms of the building so it was an Ideal candidate for a wicked light show. The music was going more into the euro sound like Frank De Wolf and Joey Beltram. R & S was smashing it in 1991 and many european - Dutch/German labels were putting out some good vynal. Labels like Hithouse and GoBang! were just a couple. Tracks became accepted with a harder edge to them like Quadrophonia, Enter the darkness, D-shake-Yaaahhhh. Although they were classics in the building they were harder tracks and ravers liked it. Tracks on D-Zone on the other hand were a bit lighter like Greed, Easy Mo, Techno 2 and DJ's mixed it all up together. THis doesn't seem to happen anymore because all the music types are so different. The music types today, because there are so many of them are more selected than accepted. In the days of 88-92 the music was as one and that is what you listen to, all night and loved it. Tracks were also mixed in with a lighter note but extreme classics like Alison Lmerick-Where love lives - this track has to be the all time classic. In 1992 the clubland and in-side rave culture was hitting a boom, promoters everywhere and events poping up more than you could imagine. The music was in full swing with hardcore coming into action from Movin Shadow as one to mention. The music was still in mixed mode but was swaying to the hardcore and the garage. Tracks like Nebula II and most tracks on labels like Reinforced type lables were making their own paths for the music scene and on the other hand you had Todd Terry, MK and the USA crews making the garage sound - Different speads and totaly different sounds. The Hardcore became the main rooms in the raves and the garage and house became the chill out areas. This made a split at the raves and gave club goers/Raves a choice. with this happening people was starting to hear different type of music that they probably thought was all the same. In 1992/3 the split became so definitive the two different music types started a split amongst many of the music types today. they are all linked with garage being like house and house like hardhouse, hardhouse like trance and trance like techno, techno like acid and so on. The only one I don't understand is UK Garage - where does that fit in and where did it come from? Into 1993 the hardcore sound really started to take off and DJ's were still playing the mixture of music, in different rooms maybe but all the music was still being played. I was playing A.W.O.L at the paradise club at this time and the house and garage room was havin it in its own way, different to the main room but still havin it. Classic tracks. from this time in the house scene was due much to producers like Todd Terry, Victor Simonelli with artists like Cathy Brown, Dajee. Cleveland city blasted onto the scene with some class tracks and put a bit of a thump into house, uk house was taking a good turn and the uk house sound like Nice n Ripe was starting to hit the house and garage scene. The most favourable of the garage house scene would have to be 4th Measure men, Nightcrawlers and the release project series from Todd Terry. Todd Terry has been around for years since 88 with to the batmobile and Weekend. From then with 'this will be mine' ep and from then to the classic jumpin. There are hundreds of tunes he has produced, remixed and learly turned into classics. On the Hardcore front of 93 the drum and bass sound started to emerge and the production was getting more crisp. In the early times of hardcore everyone who knew how to use a sampler bascly did and made records depsite the quality. This was now startting to filter out and the good productions were coming from the likes of the Ruffage Crew, DJ Recordings and Lucky spin. The whites were gradually disapearing and the business side of the scene started to become more professional. The music in 1993 on the hardcore front was now so different from the house and garage scene it was strange that two music types had emerged from one although both as good as the other. 1994 saw the turn for more of a house crowd and the garage became the more house, garage was always there but the softer more american house was now being replaced with the house and more dominating pumping sound. Uplifting house is what people wanted and this was nicknamed handbag, hands in the air house!! The havin it of house included tracks like Taiko-Echo drop, Ken Doh-Nagasaki and lots of uk house on Cheeky, Fresh, Effective and many uk whites were appearing with good quality production. I was Dj-ing in Italy at this time and the italian DJ's were all very interested in the uk sound. Big events were still happening but they were more now in the first stages of the superclub. Events that held a few thousand people were every week and soon became a choice of where to go as well as the small clubs. Dj's were coming out of the woodwork and it seemed to be the best job in the world that everyone wanted to do. 1995 the house side of things went into a real house sound and the Grarage house sound started to hit off. More chilled rooms and events started to split even more. One room for the house and another room to for the lighter stuff. Hard house - trance was creeping into the main rooms over powering the handbag - uplifting house and soon to completley to take out the uplifting piano handbag. The garage rooms was playing real smooth garage with lots of US influences. Hard house by the beginning of 96 was hitting the big events in the main rooms and the big events would have drum and bass with hardhouse/trance as the main room and garage as the chillout rooms. The drum and bass was also in two halfs, one with the harder darker hard hitting from lables like Penny Black, and the other with the mellow smooth jazzy sounds from LTJ Bukem and Intense from labels like Manix, Good Looking and Basement. The lighter side of the drum and bass was acting well with the garage rooms as it gave a mellow feel all round. I Played at lots of places by this time like World Dance, Peach, Desire and DJ Raps birthday at the Ministry of Sound and many other events and it was usual to see the difference in the rooms according to the music. The sound systems were in control by the regulations that the goverment had put in as they wanted control. It took a few years but the goverment controled the scenece into what you could do and what you could not - as it is today. In 88 you did what you want because they was not involved. Big lights and better controlled venues allowed bigger events and the events started to emerge outside again in the better weather. 1997 saw events like Pleasure Dome, Hysteria, Helter Skelter and Energy. From 1997 the music has levelled it self out and new labels emerge all the time. Current labels like Defected, Subliminal and most of the drum and bass lables keep the scene alive. With all the DJ's around the world the scene can only get better and it will. Quality labels like Strictly Rhythm, Good Looking, Movin Shadow, React, Freeze, MAW, Champion, Trax, Cutting and producers like Goldie, MAW, Todd Terry, Rob Playford, Omni Trio, Paul Okenfold, Dj Pierre and DJ's like Paul 'Trouble' Anderson, Colin Favour, Frankie Knuckles, Frankie Bones, Danny Rampling, Carl Cox, Mickey Finn, Sasha are all the key players in the scene to where it is today. The over the years the music has split in so many different ways and split the listening audience up into many but think of it in this way, it is all from the one music that started in America - a music called wharehouse music from inovators like Frankie Knuckles, ChipE, Jamie Principle, DJ Pierre and Farley Jackmaster Funk. The music they created has spread accross the world and entertained thousands and millions and it has become a culture of the new generation and its here to stay!! Written by Tony Future