Invented in its earliest form in Chicago by great minds like DJ Pierre and Adonis, acid house made its way to the shores of the UK shortly after and exploded in popularity, creating what would become known as 'the second summer of love' ('89). All across the UK, illegal raves were filling fields with obscenely huge soundsystems and thousands of tie-dye warriors.

Clubs like Manchester's infamous Hacienda (which hadn't quite hit its stride yet) were suddenly packed out with ravers who'd travelled for miles around. Celebrated by magazines like i-D and The Face, but vilified by The Sun and the rest of the tabloids, acid house and the tie-dye warriors that danced their hearts out to it hit all the marks a youth subculture should. Somehow trawling through all the varied sounds, the hundreds of different records, was never going to be a light task. Obviously, we had to include Phuture's "Acid Trax", the track that gave acid house its name.

Beyond that, things got tricky. How strict should our definition of acid house be? Is acid techno out? What about piano house, but with 303s? In the end, we think we've got a pretty solid list. 808 State, Farley Funk, A Guy Called Gerald, DJ Pierre and Phuture are all there so we're covered for the staples. Ultimately, the acid house of the late '80s and very early '90s was wildly experimental and producers would often bring in elements of techno or even pop like Orbital's "Cubik". Sometimes, and the purists would probably disagree, acid house even merged with pop and the somewhat cheesier sounds coming out of Europe and actually come out sounding incredible. Frankie Knuckles' "Your Love" would be the prime example of that.

In fact, the best acid house wasn't always the 12-minute roller with nothing but squelch and 303s; sometimes it was the ones that took a chance either with ambient, hip-hop or funk. Still, there are very much two camps when it comes to acid house: those who want melody and hooks, and those who want to get lost in 12-minute workouts with only slight variations in the bass and synths. Whichever camp you fall into, at least half of this mix should help you relive those heady days Tony Wilson revered so much. You may even discover some new cuts along the way too.