Acid Brass

A motley crew of brass bands have a blast with acid house.

Back in 1996, artist Jeremy Deller took out a pen and sketched a mind map. At one end he circled the words ‘ACID HOUSE’. At the other, ‘BRASS BANDS’. A sprawl of arrows connected the two music styles with words like, ‘melancholy’, ‘Chicago’, ‘808’, ‘drum’n’bass’, ‘warehouse parties’ and ‘the miner’s strike’. It was an attempt to explain 20th Century British history through the alchemical power of music. The next year Deller took the idea a step further. He got in touch one of the UK’s best brass bands and asked them to play acid house anthems. “It was like a primal switch had been flipped,” he said. It “drove the crowd almost insane”.  

It’s been at the Tate and the Louvre, and now, Deller’s here to bring Acid Brass to RISING. Victoria’s finest—hailing from rotary clubs to RSLs, high schools to retirement homes, community groups to bands’ league—take on The KLF, 808 State and more. The second summer of love might be in the rear view, but rave is on the rise. The time is nigh to blast that bugle, finesse the French horn and embrace the enduring energy of acid house.