"My wife and I had moved back to Britain in 1992 and we were interested in every kind of electronic music. Before we left, we knew people that worked for R&S Records, and they brought around the first white label of Aphex Twin’s Digeridoo. We were just blown away by it. At the time, the space opened up for a lot of small labels like ours [Swim ~]. What was great about that world was that anybody could do it. You didn’t have to be British or American. That’s the great thing about the Boredom Is Deep and Mysterious compilation, which I was introduced to by a journalist. It was all Danish artists and it has the splendidly named Dub Tractor and Double Muffled Dolphin."

"This record is just so unique. All I know is that it’s the kind of album where you could put any song from it on at a party and everybody starts dancing. I’d been hearing this song at parties for years and I never knew what it was, other than that I loved this particular sound. Finally, one night, I asked the DJ, and it turned out it was these sisters from The Bronx, doing something totally fresh in the late '70s and early '80s. It must have come very naturally to them, because it sounds like nothing else I’ve ever heard. It’s almost bizarre; nearly all of it is just percussion and vocals and the occasional dub element. It’s minimal, and so singular, and you just have to dance to it. I guess that’s testament to how good the drummer was."

"Pasteur Lappé is a guy from Cameroon who was making music in the late ’70s, and “Sanaga Calypso” was on this collection of experimental African funk music. The first time I heard this song, it reminded me so much of the Clash’s Sandinista! The Clash were obviously influenced by dub and reggae, and they paid homage to those styles very openly and respectfully, but to hear something that reminded me of a song like “Charlie Don’t Surf”—dancey, soulful, very beautiful, and kind of elegiac—it just made me smile. I literally said, “Joe Strummer for sure heard this song!” I like building a small lineage between my own listening experience and the listening experience of somebody I’ve been inspired by, and that’s what this song does for me. It puts me back in the sphere of influence. And it’s catchy."