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Phuture
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Phuture is a house group from Chicago, founded in 1985 by Earl 'Spanky' Smith Jr., Nathaniel Pierre Jones, better known as DJ Pierre, and Herbert 'Herb J' Jackson. With a single record, Acid Tracks (1987), the group gave a new style a sound and a name: acid house.
Music and breakthrough
The heart of Acid Tracks is the Roland TB-303, a small bass machine that Roland made from 1981 to 1984 to imitate a bass guitar. Phuture had the 303 repeat a short bass line and turned the knobs of the filter while it played. In this way the same line constantly changes its sound: squealing, squelching and wailing. Underneath run Roland's TR-707 and TR-727 drum machines. The group began work on the track at the end of 1985, when it was first called In Your Mind. DJ Ron Hardy played a tape of it at the Music Box, the club where he was resident DJ. The first time the dance floor emptied, but Hardy kept playing it again that evening, and the crowd came round. Fans called it Ron Hardy's Acid Track, and that is how the title came about. In 1987 the track, of more than twelve minutes, was released on the Chicago label Trax Records, with Marshall Jefferson as producer.
Influence
Acid Tracks is often cited as the first acid house track. In 1988 acid house became a mass youth culture in England, with clubs such as Shoom in London and the Haçienda in Manchester and the first raves. In 2022 Rolling Stone placed the track at number 118 in a list of the 200 greatest dance songs of all time. DJ Pierre later continued the group.
Listening
Acid Tracks · Phuture, 1987Apple Music ↗
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 8: Electronic MusicNL Reader
- Mixtape 9: The InstrumentNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Acid house Genre
On Acid Tracks (1987) the Chicago group Phuture turned the knobs of a Roland TB-303, a failed bass-line machine, as they played.