Reddit reviews Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk (Painted Turtle)

Simon Reynolds' "Generation Ecstasy" is the big one about 90's dance music. It was like required raver reading back in the day. Big focus on UK hardcore/early jungle.
http://www.amazon.com/Generation-Ecstasy-World-Techno-Culture/dp/0415923735/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8


Co-sign "Last Night a DJ saved my life" also a really good one.
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Night-DJ-Saved-Life/dp/0802146104/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350101&sr=1-1&keywords=last+night+a+dj+saved+my+life


Dan Sicko's "Techno Rebels" is great one with a big focus on the early detroit techno scene
http://www.amazon.com/Techno-Rebels-Renegades-Electronic-Painted/dp/0814334385/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350046&sr=1-1&keywords=techno+rebels


Kai Fikentscher "You better work" is a great one about the early NYC dance scene. The loft, the paradise garage etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Better-Work-Underground-Dance-Music/dp/0819564044/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350247&sr=1-1&keywords=you+better+work


Mireille Silcott "Rave America" is an awesome one about the 90's US rave scene. Big focus on Midwest hardcore/hard techno. Also has a super early interview with Tommie Sunshine before he became a DJ.
http://www.amazon.com/Rave-America-New-School-Dancescapes/dp/1550223836/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350330&sr=1-1&keywords=rave+america


Brian Belle-Fortune "All Crews" is a good one about the UK 90's D&B
scene.
http://www.amazon.com/All-Crews-Journeys-Through-Culture-ebook/dp/B00HJ6SPPU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350448&sr=1-1&keywords=all+crews

If you're into digging for old dance records. There's a series of books called "the rough guide" that was distributed by Penguin that are basically little mini-encyclopedias of 90's dance artists/releases. I found them REALLY helpful back in the day before the internet was a thing.


I've got the rough guides to house, techno & d&b. Here's a link to the house one. http://www.amazon.com/Rough-Guide-House-Music/dp/1858284325/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350616&sr=1-1&keywords=the+rough+guide+to+house

EDIT. Forgot to add. THE MANUAL by the KLF is fucking hilarious read & kind of an amazing historical artifact. It's like a $100 on amazon (Ugh, a friend borrowed my copy back in the day and never gave it back) but there's text/pdf versions floating around the web
http://www.amazon.com/Manual-How-Have-Number-Easy/dp/1899858652/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350795&sr=1-1&keywords=KLF+the+manual

Books:

Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture

The Underground is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America

Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk

Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House

All Crews: Journeys Through Jungle / Drum and Bass Culture

Keyboard Presents the Evolution of Electronic Dance Music

Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany

Last Night a DJ Saved my Life

Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco

The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and The Culture of the Night

Techno Rebels by Dan Sicko is excellent, especially if you're interested in techno's roots in Detroit.

Check out
Techno Rebels

Last Night a DJ Saved My Life

Based on what you've got listed there, you might also like

Monolake

Rhythm & Sound

Borderland

If you're a reader, it's well worth finding a copy of Dan Sicko's Techno Rebels. That will give you loads of hints and cross references to help you find the techno you really love.

One of the most influential Berlin night clubs of the past 2 decades, which holds similar ideals today much like most of the well known clubs that were born around techno music in Germany:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berghain

The birthplace of House music in Chicago "The Warehouse was patronized primarily by gay black and Latino men":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warehouse_(nightclub)

Recommended books you can read to learn about the history of music:

https://www.amazon.com/Klang-Familie-Felix-Denk/dp/3738604294

https://www.amazon.com/Techno-Rebels-Renegades-Electronic-Painted/dp/0814334385

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Night-DJ-Saved-Life/dp/0802146104/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Flash-Journey-Through-Culture/dp/1593764073/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1593764073&pd_rd_r=S1TWN7HDAJJY3Z2QN4BG&pd_rd_w=Zk210&pd_rd_wg=Dqe5r&psc=1&refRID=S1TWN7HDAJJY3Z2QN4BG

https://www.amazon.com/Electrochoc-Laurent-Garnier/dp/1906615918

A snippet from the above book by Laurent Garnier regarding Detroit, the birthplace of Techno music:

"Like Manchester in the early 1800s, during the golden age of the British Industrial Revolution, Detroit also became the great American city of industry. Several thousand blue-collar workers came from all over the US to work at the Ford automobile plant, while the black workers were confined to the foundries.

In 1959 Motor Town gave birth to Motown, the cultural pride of the black community. Then the battle for civil rights broke out in the US, and in July 1967 Detroit experienced three days of bloody rioting. The white community fled to the suburbs and the ghetto grew bigger and bigger. And finally, in the 1980s, there was an explosion in drug abuse, especially of crack, in these same ghettos.

Detroit techno music tells the story of all of this hardship. And within this music one can feel the life force that refuses to be put down. Words are of no importance. Everything is expressed within a few notes, repeated ad infinitum. Detroit techno is made of metal, glass and steel. When you close your eyes you can hear, far off in the distance, then closer and closer, the echo of crying. Like in jazz and blues, Detroit techno transfigures suffering. This authenticity of spirit has no price.

'In 1981, a record – "Sharevari" – was released that would play a pivotal role in the history of Detroit techno. "Sharevari" is the very first techno record from Detroit, but as yet nobody had used the term "techno," it simply didn't exist.

Mike Banks, alias Mad Mike, is the true soul of Detroit techno. He is an urban guerrilla, a man haunted by the suffering of his city. Mike has chosen music to fight against the problems of daily life and takes his inspiration from the Afro-American struggle of the 1960s

Through his record label Underground Resistance, Mike Banks spreads a guerrilla philosophy whose targets are the major record labels, the American segregationist system, and despair in the ghetto.

Mad Mike pursues his causes – to get young people away from crime and drugs, to rally against the economic disaster that is Detroit – and music.

UR is the continuation of a long struggle and we chose existing technologies to make this struggle move forward. Through UR, we wanted to express everything through sound; no need for pictures. We were against everything you have to accept in order to be famous.

We were just coming out of the 80s, a time when many black artists had had their noses done or their skin whitened. Fuck that! If a guy doesn't know what you look like, he won't care, as long as he likes your music. It's Detroit and the whole black experience in America that gave birth to Underground Resistance.

We both had experience of deals with majors in which we had been swindled. That is where the name Underground Resistance came from. Literally, to create a resistance to the "overground."

What's really remarkable is that I have to go out of my way to explain and showcase all of this to you, when this is something that is known amongst most fanatics of electronic music.

Much like Germany had its own sub-culture tied to political movement, so did Chicago and Detroit.

It's like I'm talking to a person saying "The sky is blue" while said person refuses to look up and constantly spews things like "No! Wrong! Wrong! It's green! Prove it!"

Why do you think Punk Rock is named after a whole sub-culture, just out of pure coincidence? It's laughable that I have to explain such a simple concept to someone so ignorant. It's like you talk about things that are 100% obvious and make yourself the clown of the room while genuinely refusing to acknowledge it, it's very cringeworthy.

I'm going to block you now because you're a prime example of the kind of people /r/edm is filled with and why no electronic music fanatic actually wants to remotely even deal with people of your kind, you've demonstrated that point very well. It's laughable how you refuse to educate yourself in any way and then you come on these boards with a hostile attitude dismissing things that have been known for multiple decades because of how dense and ignorant you are, from people who have a much better understanding of what they are saying. Electronic music is 40 years old now, do you genuinely think that nobody has touched on these subjects beforehand? Have a look at the list I linked to you and do yourself a favor and stop being hostile with your replies as long as you remain ignorant, you're really embarrassing yourself and most other EDM listeners with your example.