Acid
Continued from page 10
clock. According to Buhler. the heart of
acid house is “the churning, turgid bass
That’s all that it is."
The process begins by creating a beat. |
The musician simply takes an appropri
ate drum sound from any source, sam
pies it and then molds it into a recogniz
able rhythm inside a sequencer Then a
bass line sampled from another source is
tacked on. And then more noises - per
cussion. found voices, guitars, sounds
from television shows — are synthesized
to create a sound collage that, in clubs,
is sometimes powerful enough to physi
cally move the dancers against their will
And it’s often created by a single individ
ual in a studio, messing around with old
disco records, a sampling keyboard and
a computer.
Beyond the technical aspects of the
music, acid house is either about nirvana
or trendiness, depending on whom you
talk to. To some, the fad is simply a res
urrection of the disco ethic of mindless
excess and trendy elitism. But for others,
it represents a forum where the most
diverse cultural elements — blacks,
whites and every class — can mingle in
soulless abandon, hedonism and true
euphona for a few short hours.
Acid house fashion, modeled after
punk’s once-vogue wardrolie of combat
boots and camouflage pants, mixes pais
ley head scarves, Ray Bans and tom jeans
Race
Continued from page 10
saw me. Uh-oh. They began attempt
ing to shush their friend while
furtively glancing at me as if I was
going to turn them into tuna salad
faster than you can say, “Happy
Chandler.1’
Of course, I didn't. I agreed with
them. When David T. Jones said in
his comic strip “Emerson” that
Chapman resembled Buckwheat, I
felt glad someone else had noticed.
Anyway, I chuckled at the girls to
relax them. The girl’s friends never
theless hustled her away from the 1
magazine rack before she committed
another faux pas.
Small and irritating. Also in this
category are people who apologize
before criticizing Jesse Jackson, as if :
I’d be offended that they found a flaw
in the man. Hey, the only reason I
wear a ‘Jesse in ’88’ T-shirt is that it
is a T-shirt Unless a T-shirt glorifies
the Klan, the Nazis or the Montreal
Canadiens, 111 wear it.
Just as black students are expected
to support, or at least answer for
Jackson, we’re expected to answer all
questions concerning black historical
figures. You am usually smell this
coming. If someone like Stokely
Carmichael, Madame CJ Walker or
W.E.B. DuBois comes up in a class
with the normal black distribution
(one or two), the instructor asks, “Does
anybody know what he/she did?*
The instructor looks around class.
I know who the next question's com
ing to.
Here’s another favorite. You know
how sometimes when you tell people
where you’re from, and they ask
about other people from there?
Sometimes I think it’s assumed we
know every black student, every
black town and every black person in
our hometown’s metropolitan area.
Really, folks, we don’t all know each
other. This, however, doesn’t stop us
from giving each other The Nod. You
can see The Nod when two blacks,
males especially, pass each other. It’s
the traditional nod of the head that
white folks used to give each other on
the street before they became afraid
to walk the streets.
I first noticed this during my fresh
man year. People I had never seen
were nodding at me. I didn't want to
be impolite, so I nodded back. If I
were walking by the Black Culture
Center when something broke up, I
looked like one of those head -bobbing
dogs you see hanging from the rear
view mirror of a 1972 Cutlass
Supreme.
As I said, these are minor irritants.
In fact, some of them are quite funny.
But let me tell all you summer sun
worshippers fresh off the beaches
that we’ve heard all the lame ‘Almost
as dark as you’jokes we care to hear.
with the mainstay smiley face
The political statement of the mutilat
ed smiley faces comes from the avant
garde comic The Watchmen, where con
spiracy theories are brought to life and
paranoia is the only way to live But in
America, things are a bit different
Although acid house fashion has shown
up here, only a limited number of clubs
such as NEC) in Chicago i play acid house
music, and even then, only on designated
nights
Although the dark side of the move
ment has some in the United States
alarmed, it seems unlikely that acid
house will take hold here as completely
as it has in England Kids in this country
have a tendency to see fads from across
the ocean, and then adopt them in just
enough of a dosage to seem fashionable
Most will probably continue to buy lots
of shiny, smiling T-shirts, purchase a
token album and leave it at that.
Some predict a revolution, others pro
diet that acid house will be here and gone
before the season's over.
But whatever the case might l>e. as far
as Kngland, Europe and a number of M
students are concerned, there’s still acid
m the house