Description
In a moment when music media feels increasingly fragile, RA want to create something tangible and irreplaceable. Curated by RA’s editorial leadership, Front Left draws from 25 years of their archives: features, interviews, reportage, films and more, originally published from 2001 to today.
These selections are accompanied by newly commissioned introductions from some of club culture’s most esteemed voices: Mark Leckey, Call Super, Cherie Hu, Sam Valenti IV and Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson.
Across four themed chapters, Front Left maps the geographic explosion of electronic music and the regional identities it forges; the promoters and parties that have defined moments in time; the artists and visionaries driving the music forward; and the ideas, trends and behaviours that have transformed how music is made, shared and experienced.
The book features dozens of wide-ranging topics and musical pioneers, all essential to modern electronic culture. These include Björk, Larry Heard, Ricardo Villalobos, Floating Points, Eris Drew, Moodymann, Aphex Twin, Dixon, Skee Mask and Charli xcx, as well as Japan’s Rainbow Disco Club, Uganda’s Nyege Nyege, the Netherlands’ Thunderdome, Glastonbury’s NYC Downlow and the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.
Designed by 12:01, the studio of groundbreaking New York creative director Hassan Rahim, the book is constructed to be a lasting collector’s piece as much as a document of the era.
Quotes
“RA has produced the highest quality club culture journalism for the longest time, available for free globally. That accessibility has been crucial, because it’s helped break talent from corners of the world lacking major media infrastructure or local industry opportunities. It has lifted niche scenes to global audiences, and it’s acted as a pulse for what you might miss if you only analyse the commercial ends of the culture.” – Elijah
“Over the last 25 years, many of the platforms and publications that were part of the dance music ecosystem have disappeared. RA is holding tight, and still investing in deep, rich documentation and storytelling. This is good for everyone, whether that’s writers, artists or audiences. Times change, but the need for reflections on the culture never goes away.” – Emma Warren
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