While a significant body of work already exists on the issues surrounding DJ culture in general, notably in monographs by Mark Katz (on the cultures of hip hop DJs), Rebekah Farrugia (on gender roles in DJ-based cultures) and Ulf Poschardt (charting the transformation of the DJ from facilitator to autonomous musician), DJ Culture in the Mix is the first academic contribution devoted specifically to the DJ's role in EDM. The complicated political and artistic landscapes of EDM subgenres seem an ideal vehicle through which to research the power relationships and social change that the book's subtitle points to.

In Chapter 1, co-editor Hillegonda Rietveld writes that despite the DJ's multiple roles as ‘party leader, sonic entertainer, auditory artist, music programmer [etc.]’ (p. 1), relatively little is known about the contexts and cultural discourses that surround their work. This collection presents 12 essays, each a localised study of one of these many facets in the framework of a specific scene or subculture of EDM. Contributors adopt a wide-ranging interdisciplinary apparatus, incorporating aspects of musicological, sociological and anthropological literature to enrich their critical enquiries.

The writing here is predominantly fluid and stylish, with helpful references to the contributors' own practitioner-researcher backgrounds. For example, in Chapter 4, Hillegonda Rietveld's work successfully draws on her 30 years of personal experience as a clubber to chart the phenomenological experience of three contrasting dance nights, examining the multi-layered relationships between dancers, DJ and the sonic experience through the lens of Foucault's idea of heterotopias. Her argument that the sensory experiences of these spaces activated alternate meanings for the participants, breaking down boundaries of race, sexuality, gender and class to create counter-social, utopian spaces is a compelling one.

Equally, Chris Christodoulou's work in Chapter 9 on the London DnB scene is equally persuasive. Christodoulou adopts Paul Virilio's concept of the dromosphere – an ephemeral environment where acceleration and high speed act to alter perception – to examine these ritualistic happenings. This model is very convincing, although an extension to encompass heterotopian theory could have provided a useful comparison with Rietveld's chapter. Additionally, reference to the Deleuzian perception of repetitive cycles in developing temporality (Deleuze Reference Deleuze1994) may have provided a useful foil to Mirko Hall and Naida Zukic's chapter on the DJ as a ‘cultural labourer’, which employs Deleuze and Guattari's capitalist concept of the performative refrain.

Until now, many of the main academic texts on DJ culture have been limited to the USA and UK. The plurality of cultures that are represented by both contributors and case studies in DJ Culture is therefore particularly refreshing. Ed Montano's study of Sydney's commercial DJ scene in Chapter 8 appraises the locus of intersection between the local and the international, presenting an interesting look at how certain EDM phenomena transcend geographical boundaries, and the subsequent implications of imperialism and cultural appropriation that are inevitable. A less convincing portrayal of local identity comes in Johanna Paulsson's examination of the Swedish subculture known as synthscenen (Chapter 12), where military aesthetics fashion a cultural economy of sexual dominance and power. While Paulsson's enquiry into broader cultural elements such as song lyrics and fashion choices are informative, her analysis could have been strengthened by a sociological discussion of the complicated relationship between youth culture and the military in a country that only abandoned conscription in 2010.

However, it is Ivan Fontanari's illuminating work on ‘DJs as Cultural Mediators’ in Chapter 11 that stands out in the discussion of global perspectives. Fontanari discusses the complex and multifaceted cultural and political environment of EDM in working-class favelas of São Paulo, using interviews with 22 practitioners and promoters to paint a vivid picture of the struggle faced by acquiring cultural capital in this marginal scene. It is, he argues, their ability to work collectively to meet the needs of their communities that achieves this, rather than aspiring to the superstar imagery prevalent elsewhere.

The concept of cultural capital is brought up again briefly in chapters on music programming and aesthetic trend-setting by Kai Fikentscher (Chapter 6) and Tim Lawrence (Chapter 10) on how the music choices, mixing techniques and even employment procedures at the Saint nightclub in New York are created through pressure on the DJs from the clientele to maintain a specifically white, gay aesthetic. It is, however, best demonstrated as a tool to discuss gender dynamics in Anna Gavanas and Rosa Reitsamer's compelling exploration of male-saturated European DJ culture (Chapter 3). They argue that it is much more difficult for women to accumulate the social and cultural capital needed to further a career as a DJ, and beyond rare figures (deep house producer Maya Jane Coles immediately springs to mind), this inhibits the rise of women DJs, stifled by a gendered construction of technology and social networks. The importance to an entrepreneurial DJ of building a distinctive brand and accruing trust and contacts in a predominantly do-it-yourself industry is an area that could benefit from further work: one approach being the recent work of Paul Blackmore (Reference Blackmore2013) and Francesca Carpos (Reference Carpos2015) on building prestige in music through a Bourdieuian system of prestige economies.

While the potpourri of diverse approaches initially strengthens the book's fundamental aim – that of a comprehensive exploration of the DJ's complex and varied roles – several elements prove missing from the wider discussion. For example, while it is touched on in Bernardo Attias' chapter on subjectivity and authenticity, an authoritative historical overview of DJ culture would have made the collection much stronger, as would a discussion of the relationship between DJ and clubbers, perhaps through the medium of the current AHRC-funded socio-psychological research on musical empathy being undertaken by Eric Clarke and Tia DeNora.

Overall, it is this apparent attempt to be an all-encompassing, definitive work that is the biggest weakness in an otherwise engaging and enjoyable compendium. Working across several time zones and with a significant portion of the editorial meetings being held via Skype, one cannot help feeling that the unusual practicalities of the gestation of this collection were a leading factor in blurring the focus of an initially clear research task.

However, it is conversely the international nature of the book that is also its main strength. Attias et al. have succeeded in connecting a network of researchers and practitioners from a wide background to paint a lucid and accessible picture of global EDM scenes. With valuable anecdotal additions balanced well alongside theory and case study, this volume is a very welcome addition to the canon, and deserves the full attention of the academic community.