Dapa Deep Cream 2021
In the mid 1980s house music thrived on the small Balearic Island of Ibiza, Spain. The Balearic sound was the spirit of the music emerging from the island at that time; the combination of old vinyl rock, pop, reggae, and disco records paired with an “anything goes” attitude made Ibiza a hub of drug-induced musical experimentation.[70] A club called Amnesia, whose resident DJ, Alfredo Fiorito, pioneered Balearic house, was the center of the scene.[71] Amnesia became known across Europe and by the mid to late 1980s it was drawing people from all over the continent.[72]
By 1988, house music had become the most popular form of club music in Europe, with acid house developing as a notable trend in the UK and Germany in the same year.[73] In the UK an established warehouse party subculture, centered on the British African-Caribbean sound system scene fueled underground after-parties that featured dance music exclusively. Also in 1988, the Balearic party vibe associated with Ibiza’s DJ Alfredo was transported to London, when Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold opened the clubs Shoom and Spectrum, respectively. Both places became synonymous with acid house, and it was during this period that MDMA gained prominence as a party drug. Other important UK clubs included Back to Basics in Leeds, Sheffield’s Leadmill and Music Factory, and The Haçienda in Manchester, where Mike Pickering and Graeme Park’s spot, Nude, was an important proving ground for American underground dance music.[Note 1][74] The success of house and acid house paved the way for Detroit Techno, a style that was initially supported by a handful of house music clubs in Chicago, New York, and Northern England, with Detroit clubs catching up later.[75] The term Techno first came into use after a release of a 10 Records/Virgin Records compilation titled Techno: The Dance Sound of Detroit in 1988.[76]
One of the first Detroit productions to receive wider attention was Derrick May’s “Strings of Life” (1987), which, together with May’s previous release, “Nude Photo” (1987), helped raise techno’s profile in Europe, especially the UK and Germany, during the 1987–1988 house music boom (see Second Summer of Love).[77] It became May’s best-known track, which, according to Frankie Knuckles, “just exploded. It was like something you can’t imagine, the kind of power and energy people got off that record when it was first heard. Mike Dunn says he has no idea how people can accept a record that doesn’t have a bassline.”[78] According to British DJ Mark Moore, “Strings of Life” led London club-goers to accept house: “because most people hated house music and it was all rare groove and hip hop…I’d play ‘Strings of Life’ at the Mudd Club and clear the floor”.[79][Note 2] By the late 1980s interest in house, acid house and techno escalated in the club scene and MDMA-fueled club-goers, who were faced with a 2 a.m. closing time in the UK, started to seek after-hours refuge at all-night warehouse parties. Within a year, in summer 1989, up to 25,000 people at a time were attending commercially organised underground parties called raves.[1]
