Twenty five years ago, when acid house became the sound of now (although it felt like year zero), most listeners couldn’t have foreseen its subsequent importance, especially in the UK.

Acid house and of course, with it, ecstasy, smashed down many doors; it ended the pop chart stranglehold of rock dinosaurs such as Phil Collins, stopped football hooligans fighting, forced pubs to review their opening times as beer became passé and by that move, dragged British nightlife out of the 60’s. It even gave The Stone Roses a chance to shine.

All the same, acid house has been repackaged so many times now. Even back in’99; the slew of ten year celebratory compilations was already a tad overkill. So why chose Acid Rain over comprehensive compilations such as Classic Acid from Mastercuts or for the housier end, Flux Trax?

Legendary DJ Terry Farley is a man more than capable of showing us the true essence of acid and early house without having to resort to including tried and tested tracks such as ‘Acid Thunder’ or The Poke’. Over five CDs, he gets to the real essence of acid, and manages to avoid the obvious. Let’s get real though, despite Farley delving deeper than the average compilation, there are key acid tracks included – such as Jamie Principle’s ‘Baby Wants to Ride’ and of course, the are inclusions from the godfathers:Marshall Jefferson, Ron Hardy & Frankie Knuckles. How could there not be? They created this thing.

Raphi Rosario’s ‘In the Night’ and Pleasurezone’s ‘Fantasy’ are indicative of the earlier material included, growling bass lines created on analogue equipment: the Roland TR 808 for primitive beats, TB303 for acid bass, stuttering vocal samples like “‘I.I.I.I.N THE NI.NI.NIGHT” and piano riffs made on equipment so inexpensive you can hear the keys being pressed, all designed on the cheap for thrills. At the time, both sounded like the dirtiest tracks ever needing to be played quiet in case mum heard. Now, with the benefit of age, it’s just some camp guy groaning and saying words like “Can you feel ecstasy, reality, it’s my fantasy” but both have aged well, they remain slamming tracks.

The warm acid squelches of Charles B’s ‘Lack Of Love’ perfectly compliment a soulful late ‘80’s r n b pop track, it’s six minutes of proof of how the current trancification of hip hop and pop dilutes the essence of dance music. If Niki Minaj or Chris Brown] could make their forays into electronica less record company controlled, it would sound as thrilling as this. For those who prefer their acid strobe light and smoke machine friendly, DJ Pierre’s ‘Box Energy’ and Cool McCool’s ‘World Turns Round’ are a furious 140 bpm dance floor slayers on which the 808 tweaks alone cause involuntary head rushes.

So many years down the line, we now know how acid house mutated into different sounds and created new sub-genres, house, into speed garage into grime on the lighter end, house, electro, hard house and UK techno on the harder. Now almost thirty years later, contemporary electronic artists such as Boys Noize is an avid exponent, even on the commercial edge of music, acid can be found in the music of pop acts such as Rihanna (see ‘Where have you been’). Acid has stayed with us, and by the evidence shown on ‘Acid Rain’, its legacy remains intact.