In 1987, in the grey industrial ruins of the English Midlands, something extraordinary flickered into life. Born of desperation, devotion, and a need for expression, a revolutionary musical sound was emerging. Temple Music, as it came to be known, was an underground movement that fused the cold mechanics of Industrial dance, the hypnotic pulse of New Orleans techno, and the ecstatic fervor of Qawwali Sufi worship.
But it wasn’t just a sound—it was a state of being. Those who encountered it described overwhelming, transcendent experiences that left them shaken and altered. The music was so spiritually potent, it earned its name not from critics or promoters, but from those who fell under its spell: Temple music, where the DJ was priest, the warehouse a sanctuary, and the dancefloor a site of revelation.
At the movement’s heart was the profoundly charismatic DJ Judas DeAngelo—a visionary voice and troubled mystic whose performances bordered on the supernatural. Equal parts preacher and provocateur, DeAngelo led his followers through nights of sonic worship that often ended in collapse, weeping, or wordless joy. But while his rise was as rapid as it was mysterious, his fall was even more abrupt. Within six months, he was dead. The scene disintegrated. And Temple Music was quietly consumed by the rave explosion it helped ignite.
This book is both a resurrection and an investigation—part oral history, part musical scripture, part cultural séance. Through hazy testimonies, recovered setlists, and dreamlike reconstructions, Temple Music: Racing Towards Ecstasy traces the short life and long shadow of a movement too holy, too dangerous, and too intense to survive.
Church Music: Speeding Towards Ecstasy
Alix Richalieu