Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition

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.

Lots's of detail (maybe too much, it's a thick book!) on the history of music associated with raves and the use of extasy . Did make me look up some of the music it described and that I was not familiar with and found some I liked. If electronica/rave is your thing I suspect this would be a must have.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Huge book. It's a little dry and the later chapters are pretty irrelevant to what I'm interested in, but the first 1/2 of the book detailing the rise of dance music and its influence in the UK is great. Nice record list to work through finding too.