Reynoldso versus Reynaldo

Shawn Reynaldo is a music writer who's just published his debut book First Floor: Reflections on Electronic Dance Culture through Velocity Press, which has a growing catalogue of interesting tomes on dance music.   

The title comes from Shawn's Substack / newsletter First Floor. Check out his columns like this recent one on the rise of spectacle within dance culture.  

Recently Shawn and I had a really enjoyable, wide-ranging chat about club culture, nostalgia, futurity, music journalism, genre-naming, and more. For a day or two, the conversation is accessible to non-subscribers here.

I put it to Shawn that we are phonetic near-namesakes.  Strangely, he said this had never occurred to him! Perhaps when I was starting my writing career, I should have put an 'o' on the end of my byline - it has a dashing, swashbuckling air. 

Full On, Non Stop, All Over

I was pleased to contribute an introduction to a new photobook documenting UK club culture:  Matthew Smith's Full On, Non Stop, All Over.  

Published by Trip City and available from today, Full On, Non Stop, All Over collects pictures taken between 2000 and 2005, when Smith worked for magazines like DJ Mag, Sleaze Nation, Jockey Slut, Mixmag, Ministry, Muzik, The Face and Bristol’s Venue  (poignantly, all print publications and mostly expired -  two survived, one expired and then resurrected itself as a quarterly - an indication that those were different times when a boom-time club scene could support its own dedicated media). Prior to that phase of being a working club photographer, Smith - a.k.a. MATTKO -  had been involved in the free party scene during the '90s, which is documented in his earlier book, Exist to Resist. 

Here's an interview at Creative Review with Matthew Smith. 

And here's a Mixmag interview. 

And here's Matt's archive of subcultural and countercultural photography.