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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Decent retrospective. Take home feel: "Wish I was there!" As I recall, a scholarly sociological approach. Nothing Earth-shattering but probably a good one to have on the bookshelf in the living room or else lying around on the table. Nice pictures, too.
Even when you don't like the music his descriptions are brilliant.
In fact...one of the issues with reading pop journalism in the Spotify age is that often music sounds better in words than in life. This is so true of the rave that Reynolds describes. But good on 'im for trying to describe the "feel" of the sound rather than always the words/songwriter biography.
I'm with him that songwriting credits need to change, Jagger Richards are credited with the Stones classics, but the song wouldn't be the song if not for each contribution: the drums, the studio sound. NOT just the lyrics/riff
In fact...one of the issues with reading pop journalism in the Spotify age is that often music sounds better in words than in life. This is so true of the rave that Reynolds describes. But good on 'im for trying to describe the "feel" of the sound rather than always the words/songwriter biography.
I'm with him that songwriting credits need to change, Jagger Richards are credited with the Stones classics, but the song wouldn't be the song if not for each contribution: the drums, the studio sound. NOT just the lyrics/riff
informative
medium-paced
A comprehensive a-z review of techno music and sub-styles. An interesting insight into all aspects of rave culture of the 90's and accompanying events. I was a little bit overwhelmed with details sometimes and skipped a few pages but all in all - a great book and truly a journey.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
It's too long, but very informative and mostly interesting so we'll allow it. Since my love of rave and EDM is a fairly recent discovery, tracking the history and changes and influences of different genres and artists over the years was my main interest, mixed in with how the cycle of drugs and community and culture helped define and cross-pollinate the movements. The chosen drugs and feelings and how they relate to the music and culture isn't discussed enough, so even if the author wasn't the greatest journalist, they did better than most at immersing you in the feel while also attending to the what, where, and why.
There is a playlist on Spotify that highlights most of the mentioned tracks and can be very helpful in providing context, especially for those relatively new to this music.
There is a playlist on Spotify that highlights most of the mentioned tracks and can be very helpful in providing context, especially for those relatively new to this music.
Never really my scene, but the music has lived on. Covers an amazing number of genres/scenes/etc. Make sure to search up the playlist someone put together on Spotify, amazing to hear the songs being referenced without having to search each one up.
Simon Reynolds is a British music journalist (born in 1963) who has covered several different genres of popular music, but experiences in clubs, raves and with the drug Ecstasy have made a powerful impact on his life. Energy Flash is a voluminous survey of electronic dance music (EDM) and the culture (style, drugs) surrounding it since its start in the 1980s. The first edition of the book (titled Generation Ecstasy in the United States) appeared in 1998, but a second edition describes later developments up to 2007.
While Reynolds focuses mainly on the British scene, there is ample coverage of US developments. Besides starting his history with the Detroit techno and Chicago house movements without which the UK would have never had acid house and everything after, Reynolds also dedicates an entire chapter to US raves, highlighting the very different vibe there compared to Europe. The German scene is also covered, but in considerably less detail than the UK or US.
Through each evolution in EDM, Reynolds mentions iconic tracks of the era. Take, for instance, this bit on “Voodoo Ray” by A Guy Called Gerald:
When the first edition of this book was published in the 1990s, readers must have felt somewhat frustrated by these vague verbal descriptions, which don't really impart what the track really sounds like. However, we now live in the age of YouTube, when readers can easily hear nearly every track mentioned in Energy Flash. Much of the book's value lies in walking you through classic tracks that you can go on to download yourself.
What seriously undermines Energy Flash, however, is a lack of fact-checking and an inability to distinguish opinion from fact. As Reynolds makes clear in the introduction, his preference is a genre of aural assault and chemical saturation, where the names of the producers of tracks or even DJs is irrelevant, the dancers in a club living in the moment. For him, this is the truly revolutionary music of the era. He sees notions of “progressive house”, “intellectual dance music” and “home listening” as throwbacks to established music genres.
Of course it’s fine to have an opinion, and any reader is likely to find some strands of EDM more worthwhile than others. However, Reynold can't help making snide comments like “No one listens to The Future Sound of London any more” (my paraphrase), but a glance at FSOL's LastFM artist page reveals that over half a million people still do, with younger audiences continually discovering them and leaving ecstatic comments on the wall. Even the progressive rock that Reynolds feels progressive dance music follows into historical oblivion has shown considerably staying power if one simply looks at its internet presence.
There are also readily spottable factual errors in e.g. dates: the “Battle of Beaulieu” between trad and modern jazz fans happened at the 1960 festival, not the 1961 one; the 1992 hardcore scene wasn't inspired by Playstation games because that console was not released until two years later. We get misspellings like “Liz Frazer” for the chanteuse of Cocteau Twins (whose last name is in fact Fraser) and outright misrememberings like “Trevor Seaman” for “Dave Seaman”. Mistakes like these lead one to doubt the overall reliability of Reynolds’ history.
While Reynolds focuses mainly on the British scene, there is ample coverage of US developments. Besides starting his history with the Detroit techno and Chicago house movements without which the UK would have never had acid house and everything after, Reynolds also dedicates an entire chapter to US raves, highlighting the very different vibe there compared to Europe. The German scene is also covered, but in considerably less detail than the UK or US.
Through each evolution in EDM, Reynolds mentions iconic tracks of the era. Take, for instance, this bit on “Voodoo Ray” by A Guy Called Gerald:
With its undulant groove and dense percussive foliage, its glassy, gem-faceted bass-pulse and tropical bird synth-chatter, ‘Voodoo Ray’ looks ahead to the polyrhythmic luxuriance of Gerald’s mid-nineties forays into jungle, as do the tremulous whimpers and giggles of the blissed-out female vocal.
When the first edition of this book was published in the 1990s, readers must have felt somewhat frustrated by these vague verbal descriptions, which don't really impart what the track really sounds like. However, we now live in the age of YouTube, when readers can easily hear nearly every track mentioned in Energy Flash. Much of the book's value lies in walking you through classic tracks that you can go on to download yourself.
What seriously undermines Energy Flash, however, is a lack of fact-checking and an inability to distinguish opinion from fact. As Reynolds makes clear in the introduction, his preference is a genre of aural assault and chemical saturation, where the names of the producers of tracks or even DJs is irrelevant, the dancers in a club living in the moment. For him, this is the truly revolutionary music of the era. He sees notions of “progressive house”, “intellectual dance music” and “home listening” as throwbacks to established music genres.
Of course it’s fine to have an opinion, and any reader is likely to find some strands of EDM more worthwhile than others. However, Reynold can't help making snide comments like “No one listens to The Future Sound of London any more” (my paraphrase), but a glance at FSOL's LastFM artist page reveals that over half a million people still do, with younger audiences continually discovering them and leaving ecstatic comments on the wall. Even the progressive rock that Reynolds feels progressive dance music follows into historical oblivion has shown considerably staying power if one simply looks at its internet presence.
There are also readily spottable factual errors in e.g. dates: the “Battle of Beaulieu” between trad and modern jazz fans happened at the 1960 festival, not the 1961 one; the 1992 hardcore scene wasn't inspired by Playstation games because that console was not released until two years later. We get misspellings like “Liz Frazer” for the chanteuse of Cocteau Twins (whose last name is in fact Fraser) and outright misrememberings like “Trevor Seaman” for “Dave Seaman”. Mistakes like these lead one to doubt the overall reliability of Reynolds’ history.
Only decided to read select chapters, but here's my take on what I read.
The topic wasn't really down my alley, after all, but a lot of what Reynolds had to say about the ecstasy and rave culture was interesting. There were times when he name-drops left and right, making it hard to keep track of who's who. The writing, at times, can also get somewhat boring. Otherwise,
Overall, he profiles the scenes in Chicago, New York, and the U.K. completely and goes through all of the further influence rave and hardcore had in the 90s and even in today's music scene. My favorite chapter was on pirate radio, although not that lengthy, where Reynolds goes through how pirate radio DJs had to be over-the-top to gain listeners and very wary of any sort of government plans to shut them down.
Reynolds is a great music historian.
The topic wasn't really down my alley, after all, but a lot of what Reynolds had to say about the ecstasy and rave culture was interesting. There were times when he name-drops left and right, making it hard to keep track of who's who. The writing, at times, can also get somewhat boring. Otherwise,
Overall, he profiles the scenes in Chicago, New York, and the U.K. completely and goes through all of the further influence rave and hardcore had in the 90s and even in today's music scene. My favorite chapter was on pirate radio, although not that lengthy, where Reynolds goes through how pirate radio DJs had to be over-the-top to gain listeners and very wary of any sort of government plans to shut them down.
Reynolds is a great music historian.
informative
reflective
slow-paced