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Acid-house patriarch, A Guy Called Gerald,
unveils the new Proto Acid - The Berlin Sessions
Story by Bruce Tantum
 If
one were writing the story of the British acid-house explosion of the late
’80s, there’s a cut that would deserve its own chapter: 1988’s seminal
“Voodoo Ray,” produced by Manchester native Gerald Simpson, better known
to the electronic dance-music scene as A Guy Called Gerald. The thing is,
the song sounds utterly unlike any of its contemporaries, such as D-Mob’s
goofy “We Call It Acieed” or S’Express’s ecstasy-powered (and Rose
Royce-sampling) “Theme from S’Express.” In comparison to them, “Voodoo
Ray” - along with “Pacific,” another classic from ’88 that Simpson helped
produce as a then-member of 808 State - was otherworldly and subdued, as
well as about ten times more funky.
“Well, I didn’t really have much to go on back then when I was making
those tracks,” says the soft-spoken Simpson, who’s about to release the
new Proto Acid - The Berlin Sessions (Laboratory Instinct) and is playing
at Saturday 22’s P.S.1’s Warm Up party. “At the time, the rave thing
hadn’t quite kicked in yet, and I was interested in electro and early
Chicago house. I was really trying to do that kind of music, not create
anything like a rave anthem.”
Simpsons’s new longplayer, a no-frills collection of straight-up
acid-techno belters, is similarly devoid of any rave-era, glowstick-and-pacifier
inflections. “I used the name Proto Acid because this is the kind of music
that I think I always would have been making if the whole smiley-face
thing hadn’t happened,” he says with a laugh. “Acid, to me, wasn’t what
happened during that era; it was mid- to late-’80s Chicago and Detroit.
It’s basically how I think the music would have developed if British acid
house had never happened.” (Simpson’s always been a ramblin’ man; since
moving from Manchester, he’s lived in Detroit, London and New York, and
now hangs his hat in - where else? - Berlin.)
Simpson’s had a long career as a producer, with a half-dozen albums and
scores of singles to his name, including many successful forays into
breakbeat and drum ’n’ bass. But since those heady “Voodoo Ray” days, he’s
never really enjoyed the high-profile status that many of his peers
possessed. “Early on, it used to kind of bother me a bit,” he says. “I
mean, all these superstar DJs getting all that fame.…But this music is all
about dancing and movement, not about the person making the music. House
music was always in opposition to the pop culture thing to start with
anyway—it was more an anti-stardom kind of thing. I’m here to help people
know who they are, notwho I am.”
He’s never been one to seek out the limelight, anyway. “I sincerely just
enjoy doing what I’m doing,” Simpson says. “In Berlin, sometimes I’ll just
go the bar near me and jam out, and the people there will have no idea who
I am. But when someone comes up to me and goes ‘Wow, that was really
great! What’s your name?’—that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? People
should just be into the music because of the music, not because of who you
are.”
Still, it’s hard to escape one’s past glories. “I was really against
playing ‘Voodoo Ray’ for years, and I was even sick of talking about it,”
he recalls. “But there are so many kids that have never even heard it, or
have never heard that kind of music before, that I’ve gotten over it. It’s
cool, you know? Besides, if I don’t play it, people tend to go, ‘Oh, come
on, man!’ ”
A Guy Called Gerald plays at Warm Up Saturday 22.Proto Acid - The Berlin
Sessions (Laboratory Instinct) is out August 22.
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