I've been to a few clubs recently that outright rule out acid techno of any form and I've been bored witless. All the purist DJ's taking it as hard as possible from the first record of the night just makes me think that the DJ's really need to get laid or admit they have sexuality issues since they're playing techno so hard all the cute girls wander off and the only ones left are sweaty topless blokes on the dancefloor. The last pure techno event I went to was probably the most humourless bore ever for this very reason.

What turned me on to acid techno was its cheekyness, subliminal charm (especially DAVE and DDR) and humour (Geezer/Havok) and that doesn't really get old for me. It is essentially party music and can be deep and thoughtful and bouncey and fun. I like it because it knocks on the door of hard house at times but never crosses the threshold and then sometimes goes so deep it sounds like fast tech-house. I still find it an incredibly verstatile platform for ideas because the beat stucture allows room for sounds that wouldn't generally be permitted in the purer techno.

It seems in purer techno any sound that interferes with the dynamic of the beats is considered poor production and therefore the scene is producing some stunningly well engineered techno loops you can really show off your speakers with but very little in the way of actual ideas unless you count the odd clever fill and well placed break sample. It's intellectually intriguing sat at your studio desk but who the f*ck wants intellectually challenging last thing on a friday night in the manchester Pheonix club unless you've been sat on your arse doing nothing all week?

I consider myself to be a reasonably clever chap but the truth of the matter is that after a pint or two of stella and a couple of pills I'm just not that bright at all. I like banging noises and swooshy noises when I'm cretinously trollied and when I'm up for it I want party tunes to shake it all off not something to rhythmically scratch my beard to.

There's a lot to be said for melody dynamics my friends and that does not have to mean hard house or trance. Acid techno is the happy medium for me and I've never had any complaints from anyone except maybe the odd purist anorak and if I'm trying to impress them and not the people I'm playing to then I'm really not doing my job right.

DJ'ing is about selecting the right tune for the moment and if you have a back full of the same techno loop you can't really engineer your set to the mood of the night.

Pure techno just takes itself way too seriously trying to present itself as the more sophiosticated end of dance music. Well I've got news for you folks... pure techno never was sophisticted, never will be and isn't at the moment despite all the pretentions to the contrary. It's just as drug fuelled as hard house and acid techno.

This obession with newness and progress is largely pretentious w*nk what with all these DJ's effectively saying "I've moved past the 303 because I'm grown up and clever and too cool to break a sweat" just turns me off hard techno altogether.

Obessesion with newness over substance is something New Labour got hooked into as a mentality and look where that got us. Just cos something came out yesterday doesn't make it any better than something thats been out since 1995.

I get a lot of ribbing from other DJ's for playing acid but I'm not going to be a sheep and stop playing it just because a few beard scratchers tell me its out of date. The acid clubs in the North have been thriving for ages and yet when they get bullied into going harder tech by hordes of envious DJ's the bulk of the crowd stops turning up. I've seen it happen over the last few years to a few clubs. Pure techno is a big turn off to the party heads who want to dance and not stand around thinking about it. Any party where people aren't breaking a sweat is usually pretty lousy in my experience.

I love the way acid techno sticks out like a sore thumb when you play it at either a techno or a trance night and love it or hate it you just can't ignore it. That's why I'll keep on playing regardless of what the image concious sheep keep telling me. Slagging off acid techno because you're worried about the image it gives out is the very reason most clubs go up their own arses. Most poeple I know who like acid techno don't even bother taking acid (the drug) or wear tie die etc and aren't anything to do with the squat scene They're just people who like music with a punky ethos and a bit of spirit and attitude. If that's wrong in pure techno then I'm really not missing anything am I?

Purist attitudes to acid techno are usually lousy and pretty boring.
My ears prick up whenever I hear a TB303 in action and just because I've heard a track with a 303 in it before is no reason to discount the validity of the track I'm hearing at the time. An attitude I invariably find to be predominant round these parts.

Oh and by the way Just because your music doesn't have a 303 in it doesn't automatically make it new and innovative. In fact I've heard the same non acid shit banged out for half a decade and its just as dull now as it was then. This constant obsession with tight mixing over actual musical content just depresses me. You might as well stick a loop on and run it through an effects mixer all night.

Generally speaking of course.