In 1997, Matthew Collin, along with his colleague John Godfrey, wrote "Altered State - In the Thrall of the Senses," the definitive work on the dance culture of that time, its origins, influences, and various facets. Today, the second "Summer of Love," marked by the rise of Acid House in the late 1980s, is thirty years in the past, and pulsating beats and hedonistic parties have long become part of mainstream entertainment in the Western world. This provides Collin with a reason to take a closer look at how the scene has transformed over the years and to explore globally whether the innovative power of the beats has managed to retain its once subversive energy elsewhere. Thus, Collin invites readers to dance metropolises like Detroit and Berlin, where techno idealists at Berghain still evoke the old spirit of the genre.