what are the best books to read on house and techno?

Once techno fractures into several subgenres in a bunch of different cities, its dryness is def. a hindrance, like Ken said.

although no reason not to i suppose!

The best book to read on what led to house & techno is now Tim Lawrence's "Love Saves The Day : a history of american dance music culture, 1970-1979".

Loops ISBN: 84-397-0901-3
El Sonido ISBN: 84-934278-4-5
Love Saves ISBN: 0-8223-3198-5

Pump Up The Volume, A History of House Music (companion to a TV series I haven't seen) has several errors and isn't great, but has lots of interesting excerpts from interviews, so still probably worth a read if you're interested.

Has anyone read Discographies by Jeremy Gilbert & Ewan Pearson?

Am I the one only one who's never managed to finish this? At first it seems kinda cool, but Eshun's artsy trickery gets boring fast.

I'll third the recommendations on Altered State and Techno Rebels, though Altered States weirdly enough doesn't have the pharmacological information on ecstacy and it's effect on serotonin production that Enegy Flash has, even though Altered State is supposed to focus on the connection between drug use and clubbing.

Once in a Lifetime is a very fun read on the history of British club culture starting with the acid house boom of the eighties, but it doesn't have that much on the music. It's often a hysterical read though, so I definitely recommend it.

The Rough Guide books on house and techno are both pretty well written I think, though they're both about 5 years old, so second editions would be kinda nice. The All Music Guide to Electronic Music is pretty useless, since it has the same info as their homepage. If you can still find them, I'd recommend reading the pocket books that came with the Trance Europe Express compilations. The name is kinda misleading, they're as much about techno as trance; they have articles and interviews on all the featured artists, record reviews, general articles and humouristic ones as well.

I remember reading a magazine-size book with lengthy interviews of house and techno producers published sometime in the mid-nineties, but I can't recall the title. There's also a Finnish book from 1994 called Tekno, which claims to be the first ever book on techno, house and the new club culture. It's only in Finnish, though, so it won't do you much good.

Pump Up The Volume, A History of House Music (companion to a TV series I haven't seen) has several errors and isn't great

I think I've read this, and I think it's focus was kinda narrow. It starts with the US, then moves to the UK, and doesn't cover much else. That seems to be the problem with most of these books though. What we need is books on house and techno written by the German, the Japanese, etc. Or, since they probably exist already, English translations of them.

LOL

(you're talking about Poschardt right?)

anything from the last 11 years I should read giving, like, a historical overview (or writing really fascinatingly about) house, disco, techno, US garage, etc?

books I have on my Amazon wishlist rn:

"Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture" - Alice Echols
"Turn the Beat Around: The History of Disco" - Peter Shapiro
"The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club" - Peter Hook
"Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980-1983" - Tim Lawrence

The Underground is Massive by Michaelangelo Matos is a great read.

That Shapiro book is dope. Nothing mind-blowingly new if you're familiar with disco history, but he's always been solid and insightful writer.

I second the Matos and Shapiro books