I see ot like this.
And don`t all you acid heads jump on me, Acid is my roots in temrs of techno.
It got me into techno, it got me into squat parties, and in fact I ended up putting on very large illegal acid techno raves myself in london because of it, as one of the soundsystems in United Systems (ahhh the good old days).
So I don`t hate it.

All good music is born out of passion and a wave of energy and emotion.
The early years of acid techno, all the guys were riding their wave, it was fresh, it was it`s own sound, and they were the kings of it.

Now 10 years down the road, do you really expect them to be able to make the same music with the same passion?
They gotta move on, if they had that creative and original spark in the first place then they will naturally move on and explore.

I think Henry`s new stuff is great, it`s not acid techno, but it`s great, and it`s his thing, and still spawns many imitators.
Same with Julian etc.

However, the acid labels have a legacy and need to stay within that niche in this market, so the acid releases especially on SUF seemed to get more and more derivative, and lacking passion, bar the odd cheeky comedy tune.

In a way, it looks to me, to keep sales up, elements of hard house and hard dance started getting absorbed.
So it was no longer it`s own thing. It wasn`t acid techno, it was a little brother of hard dance.

I think acid techno at it`s best was pretty stripped down music, with or without 303`s it tended to be reasonably minimal, but still very hard.

I don`t think Acid techno is dead, I think the creators have moved on, and find it difficult to inject passion into it when they do do it.
However, money and status probably comes into it too, people need to pay the rent etc.

I think some new bloody is needed.
At the mo, the only fresh talent I see on the labels is made by people who are mimicking their heroes anyway, so it still sounds derivative and hard dancey Maybe again this is a play safe option, I don`t know.

There`s got to be some messed up, twisted and disturbing producers out there making fresh acid techno.
The music used to be so disturbing at times, frenetic without being cheesy or predictable, it was a head**** unto itself without the aid of drugs.
Early route releases were just evil. Mushrooms on daleks etc, there was a definite psychadelic edge too, which seems to have vanished.
There was also a stark emotional beauty sometimes, look at Ice, by Carbine.
Cluster had it`s own, really messed up version of techno, which now seems to have blended in with the harder end of techno in general.
It no longer stands apart.

There must be a talent pool out there.
Dammit, they should be sending their stuff to SUF HQ.

the only person I`ve encountered on my travels who comes close to capturing the old spirit of acid techno, without being a rip off artist, is Paul Cortex.

I know the guy, and you pretty much can`t find anyone more into the spirit of that music than him.
If you see his name on a roster, and you like acid techno I seriously suggest you go see his live Pa.

Acid isn`t dead, it`s resting for a bit, waiting for the next generation of kids to get sicked with the emo fed clubscene, and the tightening laws against fun.

I`m sure their will be a new generation of free partis some time within the next few years to fual it.