"They were a black punk band from America. I love this record because it's kind of… erudite in its expression but it's fucking brutal. It's razor sharp. It's also gloriously anarchic. It's kind of punk but it's got real rock & roll lineage to it. The titles are brilliant: there's one called 'Politicians In My Eyes', another one called 'Rock-N-Roll Victim', 'Let The World Turn', 'You're A Prisoner'. It's just a real lost classic, and it's got real power. I can't remember if they're from Detroit or not - it would make sense, because so much has come out of Detroit - but it's one of those records I've just picked up and been astounded by it. I was always really good at picking up stuff in the margins of punk history, but I'd never heard anything about this band, and I love the idea that there's still stuff out there that's going to get credit after its time; that people who didn't get credit in their lifetime eventually get it if they're good enough. You can tell this band could have gone on to be utterly amazing; there's an articulacy there, a brutality there, a real rock & roll lineage, but a little off-kilter jazz edge to little bits of the playing. And the cover's absolutely lovely, it's almost like art deco Buck Rogers. It's just one of those records that's a little surprise in life; to stay in love with music, you need to have those little surprises, something that's been locked in a vault and it comes at you and it's such a surprise. And if you're ready to take on those surprises, it just shows you're still in love with the romance of music, that something's going to hit you in the middle of the eyes. And that's what this record did to me two years ago. I found it in Spillers in Cardiff, which was good because I really don't engage in the digital world - not through any kind of arch Ludditeness or anything, I just can't be arsed. So I listen to lots of radio and read lots of press and that's how I get my new records. That's why I love going to Spillers; sometimes there'll just be that bit of advice behind the counter. "Why don't you try this?" I just love that moment."

"I was listening to a lot of Cuban music and salsa, a lot of Latin music. I worked with Selena on the last thing she recorded. And there was a whole series of Celia Cruz records I loved. I did a duet with her for a Jonathan Demme movie, Something Wild. Her early Cuban records were done with a band called Sonora Matancera; those are really great. Instead of going to rock clubs, I would go to Salsa Meets Jazz downtown and the Corso Ballroom uptown to hear salsa bands. There was lots of dancing. I liked the idea that you were dancing to live music, not just DJs, and grew to really love the music. It opened me up to a lot of sentimentality and feelings that maybe didn’t come naturally to me. I decided I wanted to do a salsa record, which I did in the early ’90s. And I did another one a few years after that. It was a little less strictly salsa, but it was still in that vein, and I had a wonderful time with a huge band, [Rei Momo]. We toured everywhere, and a lot of folks in the United States did not like it at all. Oddly, people in Latin America really liked it, but not because it was their music. For a lot of their rockers in Argentina or Mexico, it was like, “He's playing our parents’ music.”"

"Another incredible record. Was I always into electronic music? Well, I've always liked all kinds of music but I really like pop tunes. I don't think there's any more validity to an Al Green record over an ABBA record. Some of the ABBA records are absolutely amazing. I met one of he guys who drummed on pretty much all of them and he's a phenomenal drummer. Ludicrous! His name is Per Lindvall. And I kind of think the musicianship is all there, it's just that they were very, very, very, popular records. It's one of the curses of certain bands. They become so big that people don't take them seriously anymore. I don't think anyone is going to take me seriously any more because my first record was 'Never Gonna Give You Up' which is a pop – of its time – dancefloor filler. Handbags on the floor, Saturday night record. That's what it is. And I think once you've nailed [your colours] to the mast, you ain't changing that. I never tried to fight it. It's also why some people drive themselves mad. I'd like to be known as someone who can write a tune and sing one but if people want to put me in a category that other people see as derogatory, I probably don't fight it because I don't want to hurt myself. I played every note on my last record [2016's 50] and it went platinum. Does anybody care? I don't know."

"Great record from a great band. I read somewhere that Quaristice was based more on systems they used for their live set at the time and the results are more spontaneous and less edited. I don't know if that's correct or if that was someone else's assessment but each idea feels really fresh and exciting. Usually people like an artists earlier work but I really love their most recent records the most. This is a group where anything they do, I love, but they're one of the few groups where I really like their newer stuff as opposed to their earlier stuff. I think that they've set themselves up to really do anything they want. And you kind of feel that in the way that they work now, particularly with these last five. They got a lot of flak for the previous record, before elseq 1-5, the Exai record. Everyone was saying "Oh it's too long, it needs to be edited!" so the next record they do is five records, four and a half hours. It was such a fuck you. They're operating on such a different terrain, it's exciting. But I like this record in particular because it has a feeling to it which I haven't heard in their other stuff. It did feel more live – it didn't feel as polished, not that their stuff necessarily feels polished, but their version of it. It felt more spontaneous, and it's just a great, great record."

"Even with these three records you start to see that it's not about precision, it's not about songwriting. It's about getting into another realm of the way you can make music. I try to forget about writing songs sometimes, because it can be a trap. You think about it too much. A lot of times the greatest music comes from playing it, then organising it later, you know? You have to surrender sometimes and let music do its thing. Bitches Brew is one of those records. You can record music any way you want, but you try to remember that you don't want everything to be perfect. You don't always want the microphone to be in front of the speaker. Sometimes you want the microphone to be in another room to the one you're playing in. Dave Fridmann always has these secret ambient mics going on all the time; you don't know where they are or what instruments they're picking up. Which I want him to do - I want to be surprised. Sometimes you're a bit frustrated or bored with what you've recorded, he'll grab one of these little ambient mics and say 'What about that one?' and I'll be like 'Oh, fuck yeah'. There's some other nuance, some other atmosphere that's in there. So I think Bitches Brew is most in line with that. Sometimes the best thing you can do with a song is just make it and then completely fuck with it later."

"I included this one because sometimes you can read things into records that aren't necessarily there. In the mid-80s I had my first proper girlfriend, we had an on/off thing for ages and then we finally split up. On the Thursday before, she gave me this Marianne Faithfull LP, so in the aftermath of the split I listened to it and heard lots of like 'ooo she's sending me a message through the songs'. I got to know the record quite well, I wallowed in the self-pity. I happened to meet her in Sheffield about 20 years later, was speaking to her and I mentioned to her about that record and she just said 'I knew we were going to split up and it was on offer at WH Smiths, it was only three quid so I just thought I'd get you that'. She'd never listened to it and wasn't making any points or comments to me at all. It shows how you as a listener bring a lot to any record. I didn't tell Marianne Faithfull the story when I worked with her... I should do shouldn't I?"

"MewithoutYou are a post-hardcore band who suddenly released this weird folk concept album. This was after I released Poetry Of The Deed in 2009 and I started to feel slightly like I had run into a brick wall as a songwriter. I was thinking maybe my road was run. I heard that record and instantly went, ‘Oh f***, there’s so much more to do' My American tour manager played me that record and I lost my mind. It is one of the most brilliantly written, composed and arranged records I’ve ever heard. It almost shamed me into not giving up. There’s that tendency that some people have that, because they’re not feeling inspired, then music is over in some way. We’ve just had Kasabian talking about it recently. I was guilty of it. I heard that record and instantly went, 'Oh fuck, there’s so much more to do."