Matthew Collin: Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House

White Rabbit, 2026, Paperback, 400 pages, 12.8 x 19.6 cm

From its first publication in 1997, Altered State established itself as the definitive text on Ecstasy and dance culture. This new edition, reissued as part of White Rabbit's prestigious Deep Cuts series, sees Matthew Collin take a thrilling trip through the acid house Summer of Love and the rave scene's euphoric escalation as MDMA became a mass-market narcotic.

Using a cast of memorable characters to track the origins of the scene and its signature drug through psychedelic subcults, underground gay discos and the Balearic paradise of Ibiza, Collin provides an anatomy of not only its ideologies and myths but also the criminal underside to the blissed-out image.

Altered State illuminates the social history of the most spectacular youth movement of the twentieth century and its enduring impact on music, politics and popular culture.