Matt Anniss is an author, journalist, editor, copywriter, speaker, researcher, DJ, podcaster and dance music historian. He’s best known for documenting, and participating in, dance music culture over the last quarter of a century, but has also written about a wide range of subjects for a variety of audiences, including children and young adults.

As an author, Anniss rose to prominence following the publication of his critically acclaimed exploration of bleep techno and the foundations of the “UK bass” sound, Join The Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music (Velocity Press, 2019; expanded and updated edition, 2023). He is also the co-author of the best-selling Haynes Publishing title The Vinyl Manual (2017), a celebration of record collecting culture written alongside Patrick Fuller, and contributed a chapter on record collecting culture to In The Groove: The Vinyl Record and Turntable Revolution (Motorbooks, 2023). Anniss has also written over 50 non-fiction books for children and young adults, including “how to” titles on DJing, film-making, podcasting and music-making, as well as a series focusing on the history of different styles of popular music.

Anniss began his career in 1999 as a print journalist, first on Internet magazines (What’s Online, Practical Internet, Internet Made Easy) and then the short-lived MP3 Magazine. He spent eight years working on International DJ Magazine (IDJ), the last three of those as Editor. Since going freelance in early 2009 he has written for all manner of websites and publications including Resident Advisor, Juno Plus/Juno Daily, DJ magazine, Mixmag, Rugby League World, Rugby League Express, 220 Triathlon, Triathlon Plus and Red Bull Music Academy Daily. In recent years he has focused almost exclusively on music journalism, specialising in historic aspects of dance music culture.

As a copywriter, Anniss has written liner notes for music releases, sales notes and release sheets for record labels, press releases for a wide variety of purposes and clients, and artist biographies for booking and management agencies. He has planned and implemented PR campaigns, worked as a consultant on media strategy, and held long-running media manager roles for community Rugby League club Bristol Sonics (2003-2017). As a volunteer, he was involved in the media operations at both the 2013 Rugby League World Cup (acting as the media manager for the Cook Islands’ national side) and the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Anniss’s reputation within the electronic music world has also offered him the opportunity to appear as a speaker, host and panelist at a number of festivals and conferences. These include We Out Here, Inner City Electronic, the Alberta Electronic Music Conference, No Bounds, the World Transformed and FORWARDS Festival. He has also organised and promoted panel discussions and talks, sometimes in a consultancy capacity, and twice headed out on tour to talk about his book Join The Future (2019, 2023). During those tours, he called at cities including Amsterdam, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, London, Glasgow and Edinburgh – sometimes answering questions from a host, and at other times as host of a panel discussion.

Anniss’s involvement in dance music culture began before he started his writing career, and has continued into his fifth decade. He started collecting music as a 12 year-old and now boasts a 10,000-strong record collection that includes releases in a wide variety of styles, as well as dubplates, rare items, one-offs and plenty of obscurities. Anniss performed his first DJ gig in 1997, promoted his first club event a year later, and has been doing both ever since.

He has promoted a number of regular club events (best before:, Bedmo Disco, TR13E), held residencies at Zoo (an early weekly event promoted by the team behind Just Jack in Bristol), UFO and Bump Rollerdisco, showcased his skills abroad (Berlin, Sydney, Amsterdam), and performed at festivals including Soundwave Croatia, We Out Here, FarmFest (where he was part of the resident DJ team who played between bands and DJs), Love Saves The Day and Bloom (where he hosted the world’s largest game of musical statues – it’s a long story). His dancefloor focused re-edits (some of which he released on the self-run Pointless Edits and Bedmo Disco Records imprints) have also been played by DJs including the Idjut Boys, Todd Terje, Annie Mac, Rob Da Bank, Optimo, MASALO, Bill Brewster and Motor City Drum Ensemble. As a DJ and podcaster, he has been part of the Noods Radio family since the station’s inception. His current monthly show, Join The Future, has been broadcasting monthly for three years.

Matt was born and raised in Sheffield but for the last two decades has lived in Bristol. He supports Norwich City FC (thanks to his late father, Ian, who grew up in Norfolk) and Sheffield Eagles RLFC, loves cricket, cycling, swimming and triathlon, and is currently obsessed with turning his tiny backyard into a vibrant container garden. Matt is currently in the early stages of a part-time postgraduate degree (PhD) at Solent University, researching historic rural rave culture in East Anglia. He made his academic debut as a speaker at DC23, the first in-person conference hosted by the Dance Cult Research Network, which took place at the University of Huddersfield in October 2023.