Track By Track – Ten Years Of I Love Acid
This year I Love Acid celebrate 10 years spent paying homage to magical powers of the 303. To mark the occasion they are releasing 10 Years of I Love Acid, a 20 track compilation of squiggling killers housed on a USB stick shaped like a 303. Winner! We thought we'd ask Josh Posthuman, brains behind the label, to break down what we can expect…
A decade ago, April 2007, I’d just left my first label Seed Records and crashed out in late 2006 with the Soviet clubnight that had lost a small fortune. I was starting up again on my own, and had agreed with Luke Vibert to do a party themed around his anthem “I Love Acid” with Luke and myself DJing as well as a bunch of friends on the bill. It was only really meant to be a one-off. However, the night was so much fun, so with the support of Adrian & Amanda at Corsica Studios – we did another. And then at Ginglik…another, and another…until now, ten years later – across a dozen countries and cities and festival stages there has been well over a hundred “I Love Acid” parties, as well as a vinyl-only record label. Luke still plays a lot of the parties, and has released on several of the records, but the overall scope has widened to all things TB303 now.
So, as the anniversary approaches, I’ve organised three parties in London, Manchester, and Barcelona to celebrate. But I also wanted to do a compilation as well…
I remember Ben Sims showing me a synthesizer shaped USB stick he had. I think it might have been a TR-808. It was cool as fuck but not exactly handy – the bulky shape of it meant it couldn’t be used in a CDJ or fit a lot of laptops. I’d pretty much forgotten about it, until a couple of summers ago, Johnny Chevron and I, sat over a beer on the Thames, discussed the idea of a ‘gold bar’ edition of an album he was doing for my label. That came out last year, an edition of 50 in a presentation box, and the enthusiasm with which it was greeted (and speed it sold out – just a few hours) gave me an idea to try something special for the anniversary of I Love Acid.
I had a cast designed and set, of a miniature TB303, set so that the stick would fit into a CDJ. Made of hard-wearing rubber, with a keyring and cap. The sticks themselves are 8GB so they can be added to and are actually of decent use. Nine hundred and nine of them have been made (is that number significant…?)…and last but not least, twenty acid tracks were collected from artists and friends.
01. Neville Watson – Sweatbox
I’ve known Neville’s music for years, to me he’s one of the producers from the generation of Garnier and Weatherall who I have the most respect for. He has an upcoming 12” on I Love Acid and his tune ‘Sweatbox’ was the clear choice of opener for this compilation in my mind.
02. Posthuman – Brand Loyalty
Our own contribution to the collection, this track was inspired by a track Rich (other half of Posthuman) had written that had a noise that sounded a bit like the movie trailer BWAAAH brass hit. I stole that noise and added it to an acid jam I’d been working on, and this is where it ended up.
03. Mike Dunn – No Chaser
The only track from the collection that isn’t new and exclusive – this came out on a vinyl-only MDIII release on moreaboutmusic. I met Mike for the first time just a few weeks ago, he was in town and his manager is a mutual friend, turned out they were staying near my flat so we went out for dinner and chewed the fat. Lovely guy, and one of the best acid producers in the world – bar none.
04. XXXY – Blup Blup
I had to ask Rupert for music about twenty times before he finally sent me some tracks to choose from – he was worried they weren’t good enough – and then nearly every single one of them was a banger. Then the day after I chose this he sent me *another* wicked track. Fucks sake, like buses man…
05. TB Arthur – TB1 B1
William Warren from TB 303 o’clock introduced me to TB Arthur, who he met while putting together his documentary on acid (which is going to be amazing!). We got chatting on twitter, and he then offered to contribute this amazing track, mastered by Mark Richardson just before he retired.
06. Mystic Bill – Revenge of the Preacherman
This track is built around a voice sample that I remarked on Bill playing as an acapella when he deejayed for us late last year. I had no idea that Bill hadn’t actually played in London since 1991. Scandalous if you ask me – London promoters: Bill is a Trax Records champion and a fucking magician on the decks. Get it sorted.
07. Cardopusher – Out On A Limb
Luis Cardopusher is not only one of my favourite producers – he’s also one of my favourite people to party with. We’re both playing the amazing Moog club in Barcelona together this coming May and I might just have to book an extra late flight so I have ample hangover time…
08. Hardfloor – 36 Chambers of Kikumoto
Oli and Ramon are obviously bonafide acid legends, but they are also absolutely lovely guys. It’s great to meet your heroes when they turn out to be top people. This is the third Hardfloor track I’ve been privileged to release and I don’t think it will be the last.
09. dyLAB – Let Us Rise
Apparently this was actually going to be a remix for someone else but they flaked, so it was adapted and given to me instead. Their loss, my gain, this one is a belter from hardware obsessive Dylan.
10. Kerrie – Eerie Acid
A total fluke finding this track – Jon Dasilva was talking with Eastern Bloc Records in Manchester about organising an in-store event there ahead of our party this April, when Kerrie who works in the shop mentioned she had some unreleased acid machine jams. This one was my fave, and a deal to include it on the compilation was promptly made!
11. Jared Wilson – Tracking
Jared Wilson is, for my money, one of the best acid producers right now. His recent releases on Dixon Ave Basement Jams and Super Rhythm Trax are nothing short of superb. Man knows his way round a TB303!
12. Hannah Holland feat. Josh Caffe – Tweak
I know Hannah via Josh, who has been singing for Posthuman live shows the last year. He and I have had many a drunken session, usually with Quinn Whalley or Jon Dasilva. Once you get him going, he really has the filthiest sense of humour, it’s amazing.
13. B12 – Wobble Boarding
Steve Rutter and I go way back, I worked for them when they relaunched B12 Records in the early 2000’s and we played a lot of shows together – I was extremely proud when Posthuman became only the fourth ever artist to be released on B12. Steve has had a rough time over the last few years after a very serious accident, and his music now very much is a way for him to channel his emotions as he puts his life back together.
14. Mark Forshaw – He’s Not There
Mark is a real chameleon of a producer, one track belting techno, the next lush house, the next ambient noise, the next old skool rave. All of them executed with a rawness and realness that other producers spend years trying to achieve. He’ll be playing our stage at Bangface Weekender this year, I’m expecting chaos.
15. Jozef K & Wintersun – hyggeacid
I’ve never actually met Jozef – we share a booking agent (our mutual friend Jon Dasilva) and chat on twitter – but I obviously know his history as one of the original Sankeys residents. I’m pretty sure I saw him DJ a few times when I lived there as a teenager (I can’t remember though, I was always off my face). I’d told him about the TB303 shaped USB sticks and he immediately offered to get involved. He sent over this wicked track, all drenched in reverb, and that was that!
16. John Heckle – Days Of Atlantis
John has played at I Love Acid a couple times now, but he didn’t actually have any acid written when I first asked him about the compilation. A few weeks later, this was sent over! John for me is one of the most interesting acid producers who manages to keep things dancefloor while being really quite experimental and unexpected – along with the likes of Perseus Traxx and TX Connect.
17. Luke Vibert – Jeepers H Christ
Luke has the prototype copy, first cast of the TB303 USB stick. Number 000. And rightly so.
This is from a session of hardware acid jams he put together, much in the vein of the two I Love Acid 12”s I’ve released of his. A lot of of his acid tracks jump around with the edit and are over too quick, so it was great to get some real longplayers that you can really use in a DJ set. Plus, Luke’s TB303 still sounds just so much fucking better than anyone else’s I’ve heard.
18. Chevron – CYPUPB~B
Johnny Chevron is quite simply one of the nicest guys I’ve had the luck of working with, and a proper madcap producer who knows his kit inside out. Anyone who’s met him will say the same. Looking forward to his set on the I Love Acid stage at Bangface weekend this year!
19. Transparent Sound – Dancing Eyelids
Orson and Martin have played a couple of our London shows, but I’ll always remember the weekend we all spent doing an I Love Acid party in Malta. I got food poisoning and had been up all night vomiting and hallucinating. The venue was overlooking the sea but the soundsystem hadn’t been set up properly, so we were pulling cables up from under the floorboards. It was an amazing shambles, great fun. Cisk! “you know you’re gonna be mine…not tonight”
20. Pye Corner Audio – Dead Ends
Another random twitter conversation led to this track – I’d mentioned that Pye Corner Audio’s album was one of my favourites of the year, and Martin got in touch to say thanks and said “oh I have an acid track you might like” and instantly I wanted to release it. At first I was going to put it out on a Mutant City Acid 12” but then I realised it was the perfect closing track for a compilation. I think it’s probably my favourite track out of all twenty. So epic.
I Love Acid is available to preorder through their Bandcamp – get some 303 in your life here – https://balkanvinyl.bandcamp.com/album/ten-years-of-i-love-acid
