Nostalgia for the heady smiley faced days of rave has been in the air for a while but seems to have started to gather pace. Pete Tong's Essential Classics, Rewind's Garage Classics on Ministry of Sound and the most of the Gatecrasher series seem to pander to aging ravers retro cravings. The Hacienda is the second cd based around the Manchester club to be released in the last two months. The artwork on both is almost identical taking its cue from the clubs modernist design. The tracks listing however seem to offer up different versions of the clubs history.

Unlike Peter Hook's triple CD Hacienda classic, The Hacienda - Volume One dares to return to the early days of the club, days when the place was mostly empty and haemorrhaging money. Those dark days before acid house and Madchester provided salvation. Days when FAC51 was more famous for its owners New Order and the bands that played there James, The Smiths and Madonna amongst them.

In the mid 1980s Morrissey and The Smiths seemed to define Manchester's music seen. The lifestyle ascetic that Morrissey preached was a world removed from what was happening in Whitworth Street. Although the Hacienda was still finding its feet, still searching for its crowd, the music that they where playing was cutting edge. It just seemed to take a while for the cities residents to notice.

Disc one opens with the primitive electro of ImpLOG's Holland Tunnel Drive, harsh treated vocals and the sound of an airplane taking off set against a nagging bassline. This music is a world removed from the hands in the air happy house that most people would pin on the Hacienda. The early extended synth pop of Heaven 17's (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing, The Peach Boys' Don't Make Me Wait and Yazoo's Situation all have faint echo's of the house revolution in waiting.

The piano break on Fascist Groove Thing is pure Italian house, the spacey dubby mix, dry clinical drums and gospel tinged vocals of the Peach Boys proto rave. When electro in the form of Kurtis Mantronix's peerless Bassline and the early rap like White Lines were dropped into the mix the sound of the Hacienda was born. The DJs were forging ahead with a sound and vision that clearly influenced New Order. The doubtful disco of New Order had its genesis within the club's walls.

The northern house sound that developed from the cross breeding of imported house music and the advent of cheaper technology seeps out from disc two. Voodoo Ray by A Guy Called Gerald and Pacific State by 808 State took house music and twisted it through the rain lashed streets of Manchester. This was home grown answer to the music pumping out of the Hacienda. It still sounds vital, cutting edge and strangely English.

This is music from the underground before acid house went mainstream. Before formula replaced innovation, before the drugs and money over took the music and guns and gangsters went in search of easy pickings. Before Superclubs, mix CDs and superstar DJs. The irony of this release is that when it was open, the Hacienda was never perceived as a brand. If it had been it may have ridden out the storm. I prefer that it's sealed in space and time, locked in the grooves of this CD and the foggy memories of its customers. Manchester, Rave On.

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