TO KNOW THE FUTURE, FIRST YOU MUST KNOW THE PAST

By nature of the scene, dance music is very forward-looking: DJs always pursuing the next record to break, venues pushing the boundaries with sound and lighting techniques, label’s seeking out the latest artist to emerge and musicians/producers continually moving the sound forward in new directions. The past is of course constantly referenced and drawn from, but this hasn’t been enough to prevent the scene often disconnecting from its roots.

Through a series of concise articles, which first appeared in a monthly DJ Mag column, Discotheque Archives explores the pre-rave era of dance music. Placing focus on classic DJs, venues, records and labels to celebrate the giants of dance culture and illuminate its forgotten characters.

Written from the personal perspective of Greg Wilson, with countless first hand experiences within the developments of the scene, the story begins, in the 1960s, over a decade before he took to the decks, where the foundations were laid by a series of trailblazers. With the scene set, most of the book focuses on the 1970s, as mixing began to take root with DJ community, initially in New York, whilst advancing technology plateaued with an explosion of underground electronic experiments of the 1980s, the narrative finishing up just ahead of the much-told story about the rave explosion.

Arriving at a time when dance music has been forced into a standstill, this limited paperback edition of Discotheque Archives offers a means of taking stock of what’s gone before, to enrichen and strengthen the scene when it is finally able to re-surface.