Tampa Bay’s music landscape is home to many niche scenes that foster community and build for the future. But not all of them get cataloged and captured the way it deserves.
Not so for the early rave culture—at least in the early-90s. That was thanks to Trip Magazeen (stylized “TRiP MAGAZEEN”).
While the world at large was becoming obsessed with Nirvana’s Nevermind or the sounds of east and west coast hip-hop, Trip published 16 issues capturing how house and techno—including locals like Monk and David Christophere from Rabbit In the Moon—broke through the noise to soundtrack parties across the globe, while jungle emerged as one of the genres’ first mutations.
Published out of a Tampa apartment by three friends and scene staples—Peter Wohelski, DJ Three, and Grumptronix—Trip’s history reads like a roadmap tracking not just charts, but cataloging reviews and providing commentary of the emergent sound.
Now, every page of the publication is collected in a new book— “Trip Magazeen: The Complete Collection, 1992-1994”—available now via Blurring Books.
“The rave scene felt new, fresh, future forward, and optimistic. Trip started simply to stay connected to what was happening there,” Wohelski told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay (a publication, in full disclosure, which featured his byline in 1992).
Across 350 pages, scene historians can read dozens of interviews, including some of the first U.S. interviews with acts like Moby, The Prodigy, Autechre, and more. Many of the artists, like Future Sound of London, pioneered new ways to play shows. Others now have documentaries about them screening at film festivals like Tribeca (Carl Craig).
Moby was the undercard on 1992’s Raven II concert at the University of South Florida’s Special Events center.
Trip was regularly namechecked as a source in news stories that ran in DJ and Mixmag. Artists like Mad Mike Banks from Detroit’s Underground Resistance collective would reach out about coverage.
The book harkens back to a time before big name DJs were booked by multinational conglomerates and talent got booked by how much influence they have online. The scene Trip covered stayed up well past midnight, too.
“I think the next generation of ravers who identify as lifers in this culture are looking for something that speaks to the authenticity of our community and culture’s history and legacy,” Wohelski—who also hosted the “Choke On It” music show on community radio station WMNF—added.
While Trip felt like a flash, Wohelski ended up leaving Tampa and becoming Director of A&R at Astralwerks, which soon became the US home to The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim. His collaborators are still at it, too. Grumptronix continues to push the boundaries of house and techno while DJ Three—who cut his teeth at long-shuttered gay club Rene’s—continues to be involved with entities like Serious Soul, one of just a handful of independent promoters keeping the scene alive.
Three told CL that he and his Trip Magazeen colleagues started talking about getting all the old copies together in 2018, but they really got going on it last year when the publisher expressed interest in putting it out. It wasn’t until he had a physical copy of the book in his hands that the weight of what the magazine pulled off hit him.
Musically, and culturally, Three explained, things have changed a lot, especially in dance and rave culture. In the wake of the pandemic alone, small markets and clubs have been decimated, while festival culture has had something of a negative impact on clubbing.
“Everyone thinks they want to do this type of stuff until they actually get into trying to do it. It’s a lot harder than it looks,” Three added. But the book captures the ones who did, and could very easily inspire the next generation. “What really stands out to me is how much hasn’t changed in terms of the same sort of DIY punk rock ethos that have always echoed through all this.”
While the book is a fascinating read for any self-respecting Bay area music fan, it has global appeal thanks to the way it catalogs the rise of so many artists who went on the change electronic music not by conforming, but by pushing listeners out of their comfort zones. Trip wasn’t necessarily trying to help ravers find their tribe or expand their clique, but bring in new sounds and textures by showing how Skinny Puppy tracks could live next to house records and even Public Enemy all in the same 30-minute set.
“I think that’s always been sort of the core of the foundation of my DJing mentality,” Three added.
On Saturday May 17, Three will be among the DJs for the local stop of the Trip Magazeen book tour. Wohelski, DJ Three, and Grumptronix will all be there, but so will book contributors like DJ Jask and Michael Bagley, a longtime champion of alternative dance music and host of WMNF’s “Bodyrock” program. Serious Soul’s Brian Busto will also spin. Limited copies of the book will be available along with discount book codes.
The show, Three told CL, will have a bit of the flavor from Trip’s run through the early-’90s, but don’t expect a nostalgia trip.
“What I think is great about this night, especially if someone’s never been to a Serious Soul party, is there’s definitely no stuck in the past-isms amongst anyone involved,” he added.
And while Three’s crew is always looking at the future, you can’t really understand where you’re headed without looking at the past.
