5. Armando ‎Trax Classix
Where Analord was certainly a turning point for me, it was intimidating. But when I heard Chicago acid it was conceivable that I could do that, because it seemed simple enough. Often it’s just one drum machine and one sample and a 303, if that. Sometimes there’s just a drum machine and a mixer and some reverb. So I really got started with the whole Din Sync thing by being inspired by that kind of music.

I think the first thing that I heard that was basically ‘the acid sound’ was a Komakino record, a German group who did shows with The Prodigy early on. I bought their record Sector Two because they had the same name of a Joy Division song. It has a track on it called ‘Drill’, which is basically an acid track. It’s not Chicago, it’s German, but I heard it and I took it to the record store and was like, ‘I really love this record. Can you tell me what else sounds like this?’
Around the time of Analord coming out and learning abouts 303s and stuff, I then picked up a great Soul Jazz acid compilation called Acid: Can You Jack? Armando has one track on there, so I immediately looked to see if I could buy other releases of any of its artists and bought Trax Classix in Japan. It stood out for me as being so unique in that I feel like a lot of his ideas paved the way for future music. Acid, and particularly Armando, shows just how deep funk can be with a four on the floor drum beat. He’s a stand-out in originality.
