"I had a copy of Nevermind on cassette, but In Utero is one of the first records I can remember being released and it meaning something to me. The production is what I loved; it remains one of my favourite records. At this point I was playing in a bedroom band and we were trying to play AC/DC and Iron Maiden and it was really hard; we had neither the skills nor the equipment to play that music. Then In Utero came out and within two days we were covering Rape Me. The guitar on that album sounded like the guitar coming out of our amps, and the drums sounded like the drums that we had. It was hugely empowering for me. It meant that the music I loved was within reach in a way it had never been before. That blew my mind."

"The pre-dub stuff, which basically was called ska, was a bit faster: you've got Desmond Dekker, Dave & Ansell Collins, Jimmy Cliff. So skinheads loved that in the early 70s and rock fans looked up their nose at it. There were lots of silly lyrics. Rock fans who were into Clapton and Hendrix thought, ""What is this shit?"" That's probably part of the reason I loved it so much. Dread Locks Dread is an awesome, awesome record. I used to hate the way white rock bands would occasionally throw in a reggae number. But the whole reggae thing, the whole thing of instruments dropping out with dub reggae: suddenly the guitar will disappear and it's just the drums and bass, or the drums and bass will drop out and it's just the guitar. That kind of stuff. That awesome spaciousness. That's definitely something that very strongly influenced Gang Of Four."

"This is a really obscure record released on Awesome Tapes From Africa. Ata Kak made this dance record in the early 90s that was just great. It’s so unreal. One of the things I love most about it is the percussion and the drums, they’re so repetitive. And the rapping is just great too. Dude it’s just the best. I love the Ace of Base-ness of it."