Simon Reynolds has an almost unique perspective as both a participant in rave culture and as an erudite music critic. In this book, he recounts the history of rave culture and dance music, the bewildering array of sub-genres, and the melting-pot of technology, people, social conditions, politics and drugs that fuelled rave and techno music from the mid-80s through to the noughties.

I picked this book up on a whim, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, not being a devotee of the music. It is a gigantic book though, weighing in at more than 700pp, and I felt my interest flag towards the end. A bit more judicious editing would have improved it. ( )

A brilliant UK-centric history of underground dance music. Really worth reading with YouTube open, because he drops lots of track names, which is great! His placement of music criticism within social history has come to be a particular popular style of Serious Music Writing, but you can tell he has a massive passion for not just the music in general but the tracks themselves. His inclusion of drugs into the analysis still seems novel and valuable. ( )