Books: This isn't going to move any mountains

The A-Z of Club Culture

by Ben Osborne

Sceptre pounds 6.99

Pushing the accepted starting-point back by around a decade, Ben Osborne's guide to the past "20 years of losing it" is a competent but resolutely undefinitive attempt to identify the seminal clubs, DJs, producers, labels and trends of club culture. His emphasis is on the scene's roots in the US, where disco beats and hip hop techniques evolved into Chicago house, and European innovators such as Kraftwerk don't even get a mention in one of the lest-we-forget lists. Indeed, a generic disclaimer at the beginning - "Club culture has many narratives and this is only one account" - does little to disguise the fact that unless your tastes are similar to Osborne's, you're going to be disappointed by the omissions (I would have included Oscillate @ the Que Club, Photek and Mixmaster Morris, among others) more often than interested in the inclusions (Madonna, Michael Jackson).

Osborne can never quite decide whether he's writing an informed guide for the uninitiated or a smug guide for the knowing. The A-Z often ends up sounding embarrassing to the trained ear ("[phat] had become shorthand for good or cool - just as `bad' had once meant `good'"), and yet the book is too opinionated to be a beginner's guide: "[Epic House] records go on forever and a night of them sees the DJ spinning endless records that sound exactly the same". And, unfortunately, there are frequently small but irritating mistakes (Aphex Twin did not release his Selected Ambient Works 85-92 under the name Polygon Window, The Shamen's single "Progen" was not called "Move any Mountain", the first Summer of Love was in 1967 not 1988), making it hard to have faith in the accuracy of the other entries.

As with any other, the best way to learn about club culture is to immerse yourself in it, and if you are interested but as yet uninitiated, I would recommend saving pounds 7 on Osborne's A-Z and putting it towards a good night out. If, on the other hand, you have been losing it, along with Ben, for the past 20 years, there is enough in the way of interesting information, amusing anecdotes and reminiscences to brighten up a moderate Sunday morning comedown.