Acid techno

Acid techno is the term used to describe a style of techno that originated in the London squat party scene in the early 1990s. It is characterised by heavy use of the Roland TB-303 for bass and lead sounds, a less repetitive sound than many other forms of techno (early influences included the German acid trance scene) and an irreverent, often-political attitude seen in the titles and samples used in many of its tracks; many of the scene's originators had originally been part of the punk scene. Early labels included Stay Up Forever, Smitten and Routemaster. While acid techno originated mainly in the London scene, it soon spread across the UK and then internationally and is today popular in many countries. However despite this it still continues to be mainly a very underground form of music with little commercial impact, and is often seen to be synonymous with the squat party scene. Over the last few years acid techno has evolved away from a predominantly 303-based sound into a much broader genre of techno that still retains its dancefloor-friendly ethos and lack of pretention. Newer labels such as Hydraulix, Cluster, 4x4 Records, RAW and Power Tools reflect this newer sound.