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Baker's Dozen

Sorry There's No Punk! Captain Sensible's Damn' Favourite LPs
Luke Turner , November 23rd, 2016 09:24

Forty years after The Damned released New Rose they're currently touring the UK. The genial Captain Sensible got in touch to tell us about his favourite LPs, from Stereolab to the Bee Gees, Soft Machine to Felt and Jimi Hendrix. Damned live photo by Dod Morrison.

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Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
More than any other band, Stereolab fans must've played each new album not knowing quite what to expect as the bands career was a total musical adventure through Krautrock, French pop and then seeing them end up as pioneers of the loungecore scene. Moog synths had gotten a bad name at the hands of some of the more self-indulgent prog rockers - “a monumental waste of electricity” was John Peel's verdict, a view with which I agree. But with their quirky pop aesthetics, along with their trademark blips and bleeps, Stereolab almost single handedly rehabilitated the Moog, and for that we must thank them. A few years ago when The Damned played Glastonbury I made a point of catching Stereolab's set on the John Peel stage. Their mesmerising grooves and beats pretty much had the audience in a trance by the finale, so it was maybe a good job I was hanging onto the barrier at the front at the time.