Recently, I stumbled across this album from 1982: „Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat“ by the Indian musician Charanjit Singh. Due to the play of Indian ragas with the acid-synth, the Roland TB-303, and the steady disco beat this record could be considered one of (or even: the) first Acid-House-record – some authors do so. In fact, it pre-dates „Acid Tracks“ by Phuture, which is widely regarded as the first acid-track, by 5 years! That made me think: Do we need to re-write the history of acid house? Short answer: No, we don’t! But I wanna argue that we should think of aesthetic novelties such as acid house as a social process. Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip put it nicely in their song „Thou Shalt Always Kill“ (2007): „Thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals, no matter how great they are or were“.

My arguments is based on two line of thoughts: first, the distinction between an invention and an innovation, and second the specifics of „Acid Tracks“ compared to other, earlier 303-heavy tracks. Despite of my attempt to deconstruct myths of single persons ‚inventing‘ something new out of thin air, I still want and still am able to give credit where credit is due. And Phuture still deserve their credit 😉