AN INSIDER ACCOUNT OF SYDNEY'S EARLY
RAVES, DOOFS & FESTIVALS
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“High Fidelity meets Human Traffic…Australian style"
Dr Noel Burgess (Vision Four 5)
A journey through the rave crucible into the birth of modern Electronic Dance Music.
Explore the Second Summer of Love through its farthest-flung outpost: Sydney, Australia.
CRAZE
A deep-dive in to Sydney’s early raves, doofs and festivals, and though them, the history of Electronic Dance Music. A story shaped by those behind the decks and on the dance floor; written by a 35-year veteran of the electronic dance music community.
A Vinyl Legacy
In the 1990s, Sydney’s lower Oxford Street was home to up to 17 vinyl dance music stores. Today, just one remains: RecordStore.
Born in 2003 from the ashes of BPM Records (est. 1994), it carries the spirit of a cultural phenomen shaped by the city’s queer underground, unrelenting music pioneers, and dance floor misfits.
The author’s journey from baby raver and BPM customer to co-owner of the Recordstore, mirrors the evolution of Sydney’s DJ culture.
Arriving in Darlinghurst in 1991 he found a place where music and community collided.
From the first moment, he knew it was home.
Zine
Zines are hand-made, cut’n’paste mini-magazines — raw, personal, and often photoshopped in someone’s lounge room or photocopied at a local print shop. Popularised in the punk era of the '70s, they gave voice to people and ideas who didn’t fit into mainstream. But they trace their history back through sci-fi ‘fanzines’ of the mid 20th Century and arguably to the ‘pamphleteers’ of the late 1700s
In Sydney’s '90s rave scene, zines like Hallelujah and No Frills captured the energy of the moment. Hallelujah ran through 1992 with listings, interviews, and scene commentary, while No Frills had a more artistic bent and offered a critical take on life and authority. Both were passed hand-to-hand at parties and record shops.
Crazy Journey Into Sound
Video editing: DJ Matrix. Audio Collage: pH (author). Samples used listed below.