Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture

This book is a lot of fun to read and gives a great overview of UK EDM and the myriad styles, and culture surrounding that music.

I received 3 copies of the book in perfect state, great place to buy!

Most of what other fellow reviews here said is right: in spite of its deep research and great insights on most of what happened in eletronic and dance music from the 80 to the early noughties, Reynolds focus way too much on dubious "leftist" views on the world that rarely bears any strong data supporting his views (he often cites other leftist theories to support it, which is kind of redundant). His binary vision of the world into two camps of rich/White and poor/black/gay gets tiresome by half of the book (I mean, what is wrong if some German Techno artists do not have funk as an influence? It's almost a crime of racism, according to Reynolds!). At the same time, if you leave that out, you are in for a hell of a ride. I didn't seem to mind a criticism often seen as Simon sees e-music from the point of view of a rock fan. Not only this is exactly what makes it an accessible and enjoyable book, meaning it is not a book just for hardcore fans, but also explains a lot about the hive-mind mentality of most of pure dance music fans (it can be said the same about most "pure rock" fans). That's why it is highly recommended.

A lot of critics of the book complain about Reynolds' highly opinionated views on the developments of electronic dance music. This is a mistake; a wholly academic research and categorization with no regards to the vivid, honest opinions of the people who were there is of no use when much of the magic is about what it represented, where the parties happened, who were its consumers and creators, and so on. Reynolds describes the ambiances, locations, producers, labels, and theory behind the music, parties and institutions that compose the music of that era. It adds social significance to those of us who have only the sounds free of context. A must-have for anyone with interest in electronic music of the past and present. Simon provides a refreshing, highly informative, and thorough overview of dance culture. It has made me appreciate and discover music I would not have found otherwise, and clarifies many questions I had on musical preference.

Sure, Mr Reynolds has a fondness for hardcore rave, but we were all sucked into electronic music by one genre or another. One has to start somewhere. He has done a fantastic job cobbling together all the disperate elements that make up the rave culture and explaining them to those of us that were there (and have difficulty remembering) and those who wern't. I found the extra chapters from the American eddition a most-worthy addition as these touched on some of my favourite developments like trance and progressive house of which I am a particular fan. Congradulations to Simon Reynolds for finding the vocabulary to describe what we heard all those years ago and to peg down some of those elusive feelings we had whist jiving amoungst the smoke machines of our youth. I've moved straight onto his next book - Rip It Up and Start Again - I'm hooked.

Its a good read if you haven't read other books about this particular culture. Its good that he had a section explaining the updated version explaining what has changed and what hasn't.

Reynolds is one of my favorite music journalists, but he particularly shines in Energy Flash. As the analytical fan, Reynolds captures both the factual history of rave culture AND the emotional "rush" that comes with the scene & it's sounds. This book is like DJing prose - a sonic journey through the written word.

Good read. I bought this to relive something I experienced myself (90's & early 2000s underground rave movement) through someone else's perspective to see someone else's experiences and compare them to what I remember. Now keep in mind I experienced this movement in NYC, and really nowhere else. This book (and its author) clearly has a perspective from the UK. But it was entertaining to read, and I learned a lot of things I never knew about the movement that the author was aware of that were happening around the world at the time, and does a good job of telling the stories of the parallel things and events occurring around the world since the 80s that brought the rave/edm scene from an underground acid house movement to where it is today.