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VELOCITY PRESS

Holly Dicker

Dance Or Die : A History Of Hardcore

    What is hardcore? It means many things to many people, and they’re all correct. It’s best described as a feeling, an attitude, and a way of life. Dance or Die is the first critical and expansive study of hardcore as a music, a subculture and an enduring “phuture” rave movement, full of colourful anecdotes and first person accounts from artists, fans and the core of hardcore.

    Ben Pedroche

    Independent As F*** : Underground Hip Hop From 1995-2005

      For a glorious ten-year period from 1995 to 2005, hip-hop music received a much-needed shot in the arm from a generation of determined and wildly creative rappers and producers. They rallied against the increasingly formulaic and shallow world of mainstream rap, as well as a music industry unwilling to listen. By releasing music on their own terms as independent artists-many adopting the mantra of being 'independent as fuck' as a mission statement-these hungry creatives reclaimed their artistic freedom and wore it as a badge of honour. Most importantly, they also made a lot of excellent hip-hop. What emerged was a vibrant underground music scene that stretched from New York to Los Angeles, with influence reaching across the world. Independent as F**: Underground Hip-hop from 1995-2005 looks back at this golden era, celebrating the most important artists, record labels, 12' records, and albums, along with the stories behind them, while also shining a light on those who have since been forgotten. Lovingly researched and curated, this book is the ultimate guide to a special time in music history, one that continues to inspire each new wave of hip-hop artists decades later.

      Andy Crysell

      Selling The Night : When Club Culture Meets Brands, Advertising & The Creative Industries

        They say nothing good happens after midnight, but in the case of creativity, that's just not so. The night fosters a different kind of creativity: something urgent, spontaneous, carved out of necessity. Tracking the past, present and future of this complex, often contradictory dynamic. Selling The Night explores what happens when this creativity influences wider culture and converges with everything from media, advertising, design and to gaming, fashion, hospitality, alcohol, beauty, tourism and far beyond. Also, as importantly, the implications of brands taking space within dance music as sponsors and supporters. Selling The Night speaks to DJs, promoters, marketers, academics, activists, archivists, policy makers, photographers, writers and designers. It samples KFC through to Fiorucci, Absolut and Red Bull, and moves from New York disco to the modern global underground. It witnesses how ideas migrate from subculture to influence the creative industries. It goes in search of lessons in improving the value exchange between dance music and brands, seeking something more symbiotic and less parasitic. All the while, it celebrates what makes after-dark ideas so special - the unique and democratising role they play.

        Daniel Avery

        Techno Is Boring

          Long-time friends and collaborators, musician Daniel Avery, alongside photographer Keffer are proud to present Techno Is Boring, a new book that collects a decade of work chronicling club culture in visceral form.

          Techno Is Boring also includes short written essays and notes from Avery and fellow DJ, writer and collaborator John Loveless, who also provides an introduction, appearing alongside guest contributions from friends and allies.


          Matt Anniss

          Join The Future : Bleep Techno And The Birth Of British Bass Music

            Matt Anniss's critically acclaimed alternative history of UK dance music in the acid house era returns in updated and expanded form. Named by Rolling Stone UK as one of the best books on British music culture, Join The Future puts forward a persuasive new argument about the origins of UK club culture's longrunning love affair with bass. Since the dawn of the 1990s, Britain's dancefloors have moved to a string of styles built around skeletal rhythms and heavy sub-bass, including breakbeat hardcore, jungle, drum & bass, dubstep, UK garage, grime and bassline. Yet another previously overlooked sound pre-dated them all: bleep and bass, or bleep techno, the first distinctly British form of electronic dance music.

            Jim Ottewill

            Out Of Space : How UK Cities Shaped Rave Culture

              Since the dawn of time, humans have had the urge to come together and move to music. It may have started in caves but these days it happens in clubs often found in the shady corners of our towns and cities. Or at least it did until these places began to march to the beat of property developers rather than DJs. In London in the five years to 2016, half of the clubs were lost while a further quarter have been removed in the devastation of Covid. So what now? At this critical moment, 'Out of Space' plots a course through the spaces and unlikely locations club culture has found a home. From Glasgow to Margate via Manchester, Sheffield and unlikely dance music meccas such as Coalville and Todmorden, it maps the key cities and towns where electronic music has thrived, it currently dances and the spaces it might be headed to next. It explores how urban landscapes have acted as a home for other shades of club music too such as pirate radio, dance music festivals, soundsystem culture and more.

              Martin James

              French Connections : From Discotheque To Daft Punk - The Birth Of French Touch

                Revised reissue of the acclaimed first-ever book-length investigation into French Touch.

                "Updated version features previously unpublished interviews with Daft Punk, Laurent Garnier, Cerrone, Jean Jacques Perrey, Motorbass, Chris Le Friant (aka Bob Sinclar), Air, Etienne de Crecy, La Funk Mob, Cassius, The Micronauts, Stardust, Benjamin Diamond, Modjo, DJ GilbR, i-Cube, DJ Cam and many more...

                During the second half of the 1990s, Paris experienced a dance music revolution thanks to groundbreaking artists like Daft Punk, Air, Super Discount, Motorbass, Cassius, Dimitri from Paris, Bob Sinclar and many, many more. It was a scene that became known as French Touch and was heralded throughout the world as the epitome of dance music cool, forever placing Paris on the dance culture map.

                Journalist and author Martin James was there right from the start, documenting the scene from its inspirations to its earliest moments and onto its global breakthrough. In the process, he inadvertently provided the French Touch moniker that became adopted throughout the world.

                Drawing on a dazzling array of exclusive interviews with the biggest names in French electronic music history, French Connections explores France’s significant contribution to dance music culture that paved the way for the French Touch explosion."


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