Book reviews about DJs, dance music, club culture, disco, hip hop, house, funk, soul, reggae | DJHistory.com

MUSIC BOOK REVIEWS... Sssshhhh! it's a library. Let us recommend a good read. These are the best books we know on DJs and dance music.

The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries – Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton (2010)

The story of dance music told by the people who made it happen. Bill and Frank come correct with in-depth interviews with almost 50 of history's most significant DJs, largely previously unpublished. Like the ones you've read on DJhistory, these are intriguing meetings – honest and revealing portraits, funny too. Plus memorabilia, discographies and great photos of all the DJs as young firebrands.

Boy's Own: The Complete Fanzines 1986-92

The Boy's Own crew were having so much fun that in six years they only managed to loose off 12 issues. But these 440 pages depict acid house culture – the slang, the parties, the tunes, the humour – better than anything, as captured in the words of Farley, Mayes, Weatherall, Oakenfold and many more key players. As well as every page of every fanzine there’s a great interview with all the Boys.

The Disco Files 1973-78: New York's Underground, Week By Week – Vince Aletti (2009)

With reviews of every disco record worth knowing about, weekly reports from New York’s club scene, classic magazine articles and 800 contemporary club charts, this is the definitive chronicle of disco. It's the personal memoir of Vince Aletti, the very first writer to cover the emerging scene, bringing to life the clubs, the characters, and above all the music. The first book from DJhistory.com

Once In A Lifetime: The Crazy Days of Acid House and Afterwards – Jane Bussmann, 1998

Acid house told as sitcom, packed with memories, stories, clippings, flyers, photos, quotes and tons of priceless details you'd forgotten about. Bussmann recalls the all-out nuttiness of the summer of love better than anyone. She went on to write for The Fast Show and South Park, so prepare to laugh your eyebrows off. A brilliantly messy scrapbook with a genuine piss-yourself moment on every page.

E: The Incredibly Strange History Of Ecstasy [2008]

Every sub-culture has its drug of choice. In fact some have a load more than just the one. For ravers the drug of choice was E. It fuelled a revolution of happiness and togetherness, it made being nice cool again. But the history of MDMA is not solely linked to dungarees and smiley Ts. Pilcher tells of the chemical, its history as well as the social impact of E: 'Are you sorted'?

Catch The Beat: The Best Of Soul Underground 1987-91

COMING SOON. A unique time capsule of the early years of hip hop and house, pulled from the super-collectible fanzine. 440 pages of fresh writing on dance music and clubbing in London Manchester and New York, with fantastic articles on everyone from KRS-1 to Bobby Konders. The Sound Factory, warehouse parties, the first raves, the birth of acid jazz, not to mention about 200 brilliant charts.

Discombobulated: Dispatches From The Wrong Side – Simon Morrison (2010)

We were somewhere around Brighton on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. Morrison’s low-level international mayhem is not quite as out-there as he thinks. Still, he writes with real panache and the scenery flits by too fast for you to care. As he lurches between far-flung clubs and surreal celebs (Judith Chalmers) he turns a phrase like an intoxicated David Attenborough.

Happy Daze: A Personal Insight Into The Acid House Era – Samantha Williams

It’s great looking at pictures from your rave-past, great to make a personal album with flyers and stories. But to give it a 30 quid price tag? Sam runs RaveReunited.co.uk and this is her time capsule, mostly of the early ’90s free parties. It's zigzaggy jpegs, and acres of average snaps. But though the images are flat the moments are timeless, and hey, isn’t that what it was all about?

And Party Every Day, The Inside Story Of Casablanca - Larry Harris (2009)

Those expecting salacious stories à la Hit Men by Frederic Dannen will be disappointed (Harris challenges this version of events). Despite this, it's still an energetic story of the rise of Neil Bogart, documented by his Casablanca lieutenant (and cousin), from the last great era of the music industry. However, it would have been enhanced by a lot more Donna Summer and Gloria Scott and less Kiss.

From Jazz Funk & Fusion To Acid Jazz – Mark 'Snowboy' Cotgrove (2009)

This labour of love by Cotgrove is somewhat let down by structural defects, spelling errors and grammatical faults that suggest a book put together quickly rather than the ten years he supposedly took. Interviews with the likes of Chris Hill and Paul Murphy are savagely edited leaving the reader feeling short-changed. A book for the true aficionado rather than the faintly curious.

Krautrock: Cosmic Rock and its Legacy

As definitive a book of long-haired German Kosmiche freaks as anyone could desire, packed with great photos, smart essays and a wealth of information: band by band, label by label, plus enough tripped-out psychedelic artwork to set off most smoke alarms. Its only fault is a lack of discographies, but an ausgezeichnete Buch nonetheless. Worth buying alone for a shaggy shot of pre-haircut Kraftwerk.

All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927-77.jpeg

All Hopped Up And Ready To Go: Music From The Streets Of NYC 1927-77 – Tony Fletcher (2010)

An epic book that begins with The Cotton Club and ends at Studio 54. In between there's jazz, mambo, folk, doo wop, rock'n'roll, the Brill Building, girlgroups, the Velvets, disco, punk and hip hop. Is there another city in the world that could lay claim to such a bewildering variety of music? Told with the emigrant's zeal of his adopted city (Fletcher is British), this is a love letter to NYC.

Lost and Sound: Berlin, Techno and the Easyjet Set – Tobias Rapp (2010)

7 out of 10 tourists go to Berlin for rave tourism, or as it is commonly known: to get battered in Berlin. Rapp's book delves deep into the city's nocturnal playground, it's not primarily about music, instead it investigates the explicit social dynamics of a city where a club like Berghain can exist and where Bar 25 could stay open for so long on land owned by the Berlin sanitation department.

The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club – Peter Hook (2009)

“We had a fookin' blast, if only we'd known it was our own money.” Hooky manages to rewrite this sentence enough times to fill a whole book. There are great anecdotes and much detail (a complete events list, including some DJ set lists). But as he sets the record straight, and you wade through talk of licensing boards, bar managers and operating costs, you realise you kind of preferred the legend.

Hold On To Your Dreams: Arthur Russell & the Downtown Music Scene 1973-92 – Tim Lawrence (2009)

This book confirms that Arthur Russell could be a reet pain in the backside to work with. Who spends an entire day getting a drum sound just right? Arthur Russell does. Undoubted genius, small town boy, bright lights big city, amazing music! It's all here and Lawrence tells a tale rammed with anecdotes and with passion and gusto. Russell was disco's revenge, a true character and a great read.

Raving ’89 – Neville & Gavin Watson (2009)

1989 was the year it all changed – when raving took the country by storm and British dance culture as we know it exploded into being. Gavin Watson's photos capture the revolution like no others, with intimate portraits of people having their lives changed forever. For sheer nostalgia this collection can't be beaten. It's all here: the smiles, the lasers, the villains, the crimes against fashion...

Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream – Jay Stevens (2000)

From Aldous Huxley sitting around like a right gent tripping on mescaline, to depictions of Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters dressed like proto nu-ravers causing a ruckus wherever they went. Intellectual study, College parties, Buddhist retreats and getting “bemushroomed” in Mexico, Stevens tells a truly terrific tale, reminding us that a Tab was once more than a can of pop.

Wax Poetics Anthology: Vol 2

Vol 2 meets more of the powerhouse musicians who've been dug and sampled, plus the intense-looking beatmasters who’ve done the digging and sampling. Collector-stiffening pieces on Sun Ra, Deodato, Randy Muller, rap A&R wunderkind Dante Ross, and much more. Danny Krivit picks out 12s and DJ Premier confesses he’s a Smiths fan. Mind you, I still think “Wax Poetic” would have been a cleverer name.

Wax Poetics Anthology: Vol 1

If DJhistory smoked bigger doobies, knew Pete Rock, lived in Fort Greene and did capoeira at the weekend it would be Wax Poetics. We’d be kicking back with Idris Muhammad, Bernard Purdie, the RZA, Prince Paul, cat’s like that. We’d have James Brown’s drummers, graffiti nostalgia, and acres of record porn. The best of the studious magazine’s first six years. Fine, detailed, earnest and pure.

Social Dancing in America vol 1 & 2 – Ralph G Giordano (2007)

The author’s passion is clear, so it’s a shame he’s written this epic two-volume history in a style so neutral it might be aimed at Vulcans (at one point he even defines “house party”). From 1607 up to the twist, it’s an unbeatable academic reference, packed with social context and cultural insight. There’s not much thread to pull you along however, and it creaks badly once it reaches disco.