This episode kicks off our collaborative mini-series with Dance or Die on hardcore and what better way to start the whole thing than by talking to Holly Dicker aka Holly Dee. Holly is a music journalist and raver who has devoted over a decade to covering the history of hardcore while working for places like Resident Advisor, Boiler Room, Tresor and PRSPCT Records. Then she spent four years of blood, sweat and tears writing Dance or Die, a book that traces the history and evolution of hardcore electronic music. Holly and I talk about her formative experiences from renegade UK drum 'n' bass bunker raves to free tekno parties, breakcore squats and Dutch gabber mega-raves. We also discuss the cornerstones of hardcore, compare notes as rave journalists, discuss changing visual and surveillance culture and explore current women-led, queer and inclusive hardcore movements. Hosted by Vivian Host (aka DJ Star Eyes). For more info and extras, visit Ravetothegrave.org or Instagram @ravetothe.grave.

McKenzie Wark is an Australian born writer, critical theory professor, and 61-year-old trans-femme techno raver currently living in NYC. Her latest book, Raving, thinks deeply about dancing, dissociation, drugs, bodies, and identity as McKenzie, recently transitioned, navigates the queer techno spaces of Bushwick, Brooklyn. On the line from Berlin, we talk about experimenting with language and writing, bodies and the beat, smart vs. stupid drugs, cultural theory, rave utopias, and McKenzie's extraordinary journey from growing up in an Australian mining town to dancing on the bleeding edge of the NYC underground.