Matthew Collin > Quotes

“A girl chatting to Prince Charles at an unemployment training centre confided in HRH about the friendliness of ‘raves’. She told him, if he was interested, that everyone puts their arms around each other. To which the prince replied: ‘Ah, one does not have to be introduced.’ Independent, 1993”
― Matthew Collin, Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House

“New world. New sound. New life. Everything felt so right. A huge, glowing, magical YES.”
― Matthew Collin, Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House

“Electronic dance music culture grew up at the same time as the internet and took advantage of its possibilities instinctively; this was a digital culture for digital times.”
― Matthew Collin, Rave On: Global Adventures in Electronic Dance Music

“Obviously you have a lot of people coming who really know what Berlin’s about, but then you have all these others who don’t give a shit and just want to consume the idea of what Berlin is and not give anything back. It is an economy, obviously, and a lot of people live off that, but in the long run it fucks a city up. It turns it into a theme park.”
― Matthew Collin, Rave On: Global Adventures in Electronic Dance Music

“A night at Berghain would not be digitally preserved for posterity. It existed in its moment and only endured as memory, gossip, rumour or wild speculation. This was a kind of reality-blocking mechanism that cultivated a liberating sense of total disconnection from the everyday panopticon. Berghain was one of the few remaining places in Western Europe where you could exit the matrix.”
― Matthew Collin, Rave On: Global Adventures in Electronic Dance Music

“People don’t just do anything to make as much money as possible. They have ideas and values that are central to what they actually do. They don’t want to do things that they don’t consider to be part of their culture,”
― Matthew Collin, Rave On: Global Adventures in Electronic Dance Music