A GUY CALLED GERALD - Proto Acid

 

A Guy Called Gerald
Proto Acid: The Berlin Sessions
(Laboratory Instinct)
 

Gerald Simpson is the man responsible for 'Voodoo Ray'. This set him on a long and twisted musical path, which has now come full circle. Gerald, who now resides in Berlin, describes his remarkable new album as 'proto acid', or 'how I feel house/techno music would have sounded is the whole rave thing hadn't happened in England'. Back in the day, acid house wasn't just about twiddling a TB 303. Although created using two laptops and a DJ mixer, the album sounds like it could've been created in a Chicago basement 20 years ago. The 24 tracks tracks steer through bass-heavy funk-throbbers like 'Marching Powder' and 'Xray', corruscating jack-ups like 'Voltar' and ghostly deep house vamps like 'Monday', while 'Feel The Heat' and jazz-flecked 'Sweet You' show that one of the most important ingredients in this music was soul and emotion. As we start to mark over 20 years of acid house, A Guy Called Gerald has again made one of its defining statements.