Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House

“I can’t recommend this marvellous piece of work enough.” —Irvine Welsh

Altered State— now updated — is the definitive text on ecstasy culture, using a cast of characters to track the origins of the scene through psychedelic subcults, underground gay discos, and the Balearic paradise of Ibiza. It examines the ideologies and myths, documenting the criminal underside to the blissed-out image, and shedding light on the social history of the most spectacular youth movement of the twentieth century.

Matthew Collin is the author of Guerrilla Radio and The Time of the Rebels . He now reports for Al Jazeera from Tbilisi in Georgia.