Acid Brass is a musical collaboration between Turner-Prize-winning artist

Jeremy Deller Jeremy Deller (born 30 March 1966) is an English conceptual, video and installation artist. Much of Deller's work is collaborative; it has a strong political aspect, in the subjects dealt with and also the devaluation of artistic ego through th ...

and the Williams Fairey Brass Band. The project is based on fusing the music of a traditional brass band with acid house and

Detroit techno Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mil ...

History

Acid Brass began in 1997 as a collaboration between Deller, the Stockport-based Fairey Brass Band and Rodney Newton who created all the brass arrangements. Deller saw a connection between the two apparently disparate genres, viewing them as "two authentic forms of folk art rooted in specific communities". The music has since been taken all over the world, and was performed by the Fairey Band before a London crowd of 25,000 in July 2005. In 1997,

The KLF The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band formed in London in 1987. Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) began by releasing ...

co-founder

Bill Drummond William Ernest Drummond (born 29 April 1953) is a Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer. He was a co-founder of the late-1980s avant-garde pop group the KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with wh ...

heard Acid Brass performing The KLF's " What Time Is Love?" as part of their encore. Consequently, Acid Brass collaborated with The KLF (appearing in their alternative personae as The Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu) on a track titled "

Fuck the Millennium "Fuck the Millennium", sometimes spelled "***k the Millennium", is a protest song by the band 2K—Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty—better known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (the JAMs) or the KLF. The song was inspired musically by Jerem ...

", incorporating Acid Brass' cover of "What Time Is Love?". The track was released as a single under the moniker 2K. The track "The Groove that won't stop" was played over the end titles to the 2010 movie "

Four Lions ''Four Lions'' (originally titled ''We Are Four Lions'') is a 2010 British political satire black comedy film directed by Chris Morris (in his directorial debut) and written by Morris, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. The film, a jihad satire foll ...

". The Fairey Band still plays regular Acid Brass gigs at major music festivals in the UK and abroad, and in 2011 issued a new Acid Brass CD.

Albums

The original ''Acid Brass'' album was released on 3 November on the Blast First label and featured versions of dance classics such as

A Guy Called Gerald Gerald Rydel Simpson (born 16 February 1967), better known as A Guy Called Gerald, is a British record producer and musician. He was an early member of the electronic group 808 State, contributing to their debut LP '' Newbuild'' (1988) and hit ...

's " Voodoo Ray", Rhythm Is Rhythm's "

Strings of Life "Strings of Life" is a 1987 song by American electronic musician Derrick May, in collaboration with Michael James, and released under the name Rhythim Is Rhythim. It is his most well-known song and considered a classic in both the house music a ...

" and 808 State's "Pacific 202". The original studio album was recorded at the

BBC North BBC North (Group) is an operational business division of the BBC. It is also a brand that has been used by the BBC to mean: *The large ''BBC North'' region, centred on Manchester, that was active from the late 1920s until 1968 and was based u ...

's sound studios on Oxford Road in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, whilst a live version was recorded on 1 March 1997 at the

Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) is a performing arts higher education institution in Liverpool, founded by Paul McCartney and Mark Featherstone-Witty and opened in 1996. LIPA offers 11 full-time BA (Hons) degrees in a range ...

. A new collection entitled ''Acid Brass 2 - In Yer Face!'' was recorded in January 2011. It consists of 10 arrangements by Richard Rock of acid house hits such as " Infinity", " Jack to the Sound of the Underground", " Acid Thunder", " Theme from S-Express" and " We Call It Acieed".

Critical reception

''Acid Brass'' was released to generally favourable reviews. Steve Huey of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

was mixed in his assessment, who said "the somewhat dodgy (and condescending) concept for this record, by artist Jeremy Deller, is that both brass bands and raves are staples of British working-class life, so a fusion of the two styles of music is natural. While the results are certainly well played, it's extremely difficult to figure out exactly who Acid Brass is supposed to appeal to, except maybe the kitsch audience." Joshua Klein of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' was favourable, saying: "If the musicians weren't so serious about the endeavor, it wouldn't quite work, and as it stands, A Guy Called Gerald's 'Voodoo Ray' sounds pretty silly when played by a marching band. But the arrangements retain much of the simple hookiness of the originals."

References

External links

* – official site Acid house groups Blast First artists British brass bands {{UK-band-stub