When acid house first stormed the U.K., it was an elitist scene centered on a handful of clubs playing largely American releases. Within a few years, warehouse and countryside raves opened it up to all-comers, and the soundtrack was all about the communal euphoria and glorious confusion of this experience: sirens, whistles, huge synth riffs, tumbling breakbeats, pitched-up vocals and frequent, ludicrous breakdowns. The idea of Music To Take Drugs To had never been more blatantly realized. Rave music was defiantly DIY, cheaply produced and, for a brief period, all over the U.K. charts. (In the U.S., rave was a purely underground phenomenon, with big scenes in Brooklyn, San Francisco and L.A.) Then-novelty records such as the Smart E's Sesame's Treet (geddit?) went too far, and more serious ravers turned to hardcore or the nascent jungle sound.
