For the fifth episode of season 3 of Join The Future on Noods Radio, originally broadcast on Wednesday 26th July 2023, I decided to “do things a bit differently”. Instead of the usual “in conversation” interviews and mini audio documentaries, the show combines new, little known and recently reissued music with potted reviews of new and recently published books on dance music and electronic music culture. Those books are:

• Emma Warren – Dance Your Way Home: A Journey Through The Dancefloor (Faber & Faber)
• Kirk Field – Rave New World: Confessions of a Raving Reporter (Nine Eight Books)
• Shawn Reynaldo – First Floor Volume 1: Reflections on Electronic Music Culture (Velocity Press)
• Ed Gillett – Party Lines: Dance Music and the Making of Modern Britain (Picador)

These are all very different books, but each is worth a read and some – as I say in the show – are genuinely essential. Emma’s magnificent book manages to be both personal and insightful, reflecting on her own experiences on dancefloors why musing on where we dance and why; Kirk’s is a laugh-a-minute memoir about his time working as a “raving reporter” for Mixmag during the late 80s and 90s; Shawn’s gathers together lightly tweaked essays from his excellent First Floor newsletter (which you should definitely subscribe to); and Ed’s ‘Party Lines’ – which he’ll be discussing me on episode six of the current season of the radio show – is a brilliant alternative history of UK dance music that focuses on politics, power and social history.

In addition, you’ll find some top-notch music to keep things going, including a couple of new/recent revivalist bleep cuts, a mighty Idjut Boys ‘reprise’ re-edit of Sylvester’s peerless disco anthem ‘I Need You’, a lesser-known Junior Vasquez remix of the Pet Shop Boys and a hard-to-find solo production by Rob Gordon as Black Knight. Oh, and there’s even a track by a Swiss producer named in my honour! Take a listen to the show via the embedded Mixcloud player below. Remember, you can find links to all episodes of Join The Future on Noods on the Audio page of this very website.