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  9780571289134Magazines + Books  £15.00

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Faber

Simon Reynolds

Energy Flash

*** Free launch event 27th June 7-9pm in our Bristol store. Simon Reynolds in conversation with John Doran ***

The updated version is being published by Faber and is due in June of this year. Originally published in August 1998, Reynolds dove head first into the origins of dance music, chronicling electronic music’s influence on 90′s pop. Examining the music as well as the drugs, Reynolds traces how Chicago house and Detroit techno catalyzed the rave and “Madchester” ferment of 1988-90, then follows the music into the early-1990s. It surveys the confusion of post-rave styles and scenes: jungle, electronica, drum and bass, trance, trip hop and Big Beat. The book also looks at the role of Ecstasy in the dance-and-drug culture. Mixing personal reminiscence with interviews (Paul Oakenfold, Derrick May, 808 State, Stone Roses, A Guy Called Gerald, The KLF, Primal Scream, Orbital, The Prodigy, Goldie, 4 Hero, Aphex Twin, Tricky, Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Richie Hawtin, DJ Shadow and many more) and ultra-vivid description of the underground’s ever-changing sounds as they mutated under the influence of MDMA and other drugs, “Energy Flash” is a chronicle of electronic dance culture. The book also included a CD with 15 seminal dance tracks from ten years of rave.

The update version (page count is now 560) covers twenty-first-century developments like dubstep and EDM culture’s recent US invasion. If you’re not familiar with the author, Simon Reynolds became a rave convert in the early nineties. He experienced first-hand the scene’s drug-fuelled rollercoaster of euphoria and darkness. He danced at Castlemorton, the illegal 1992 mega-rave that sent spasms of anxiety through the Establishment and resulted in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill.