Back catalogue: Techno (All)

Notes: The previously untold story of British dance music's first sub-bass revolution, tracing the origins, development, impact and influence of bleep techno, and the subsequent musical styles it inspired, on UK club culture.

Since the dawn of the 1990s, British dance music has been in thrall to the seductive power of weighty sub-bass. It is a key ingredient in a string of British-pioneered genres, including hardcore, jungle, drum & bass, dubstep, UK garage and grime.

In the Join The Future book, dance music journalist Matt Anniss (Resident Advisor, DJ Magazine, Red Bull Music Academy) traces the roots, origins, development and legacy of the sound that started it all: the first distinctively British form of electronic dance music, bleep techno.

A mixture of social, cultural, musical and oral history, Join The Future reveals the untold stories of bleep's Yorkshire pioneers and those that came in their wake, moving from electro all-dayers and dub soundsystem clashes of the mid-1980s to the birth of hardcore and jungle in London and the South East.

Along the way, you'll find first-hand accounts of key clubs and raves, biographies of forgotten and overlooked production pioneers, stories of bleep outposts in Canada and the United States, and the inside story of the early years of one of electronic music's most iconic labels, Warp Records.

Based on five years of research and hundreds of hours of new interviews, the book is a radical alternative history of the rise of British dance music during the late 80s and early 90s.

About the author:

Matt Anniss is a journalist and author specializing in electronic music, DJing and club culture. He began his career on internet magazines in the late 1990s before joining the staff of IDJ Magazine as Music Editor in 2000, later becoming Editor. Since leaving the magazine in 2008 he's become a regular contributor to Resident Advisor, Red Bull Music Academy Daily and DJ Magazine, specializing in historical aspects of dance music culture.

As an author, Matt Anniss has written over 50 non-fiction books for children and young adults, including a number of "how-to" books on DJing, podcasting and music production. In 2017 he co-authored The Vinyl Owners Manual (with Patrick Fuller) for iconic British brand Haynes Publishing, which became one of the brand's best-selling titles of 2018. He is an obsessive record collector and mix maker. He lives in Bristol, England.

Notes: The previously untold story of British dance music's first sub-bass revolution, tracing the origins, development, impact and influence of bleep techno, and the subsequent musical styles it inspired, on UK club culture.

Originally published in 2019, it has now been revised, updated and expanded. Errors have been corrected, some chapters have been expanded, analysis has been added and further footnotes have been included to include even more information and citations.

There's also now an additional 'Afterword' chapter that reflects on the story, the author's journey as a researcher, and changing perspectives around UK dance music history.

Notes: A collection of London Rave Flyers from 1990-1996

Courtesy of Matt Acornley

21 × 13.5 cm

Notes: A collection of New York Rave Flyers from 1990 to 1995.

Published by Colpa Press, 21 × 13.5 cm, Softcover, 2020,