8. The MicronautsBleep To Bleep
The Micronauts were a Paris duo, who came to my attention during the rise of Daft Punk and the Chemical Brothers. Their sound was a slow pummelling of distorted drum machines and acid lines. They made me realise than you can have power in music without speed. Bleep To Bleep is their only album as a duo, and at the time was one of the most extreme things I had ever heard. The fact that it was signed to Virgin’s Science label made it all even more enticing. At a time when a lot of drum & bass acts were getting signed to majors and often softening their sound or adding a lot of vocals to make their music work as an album, The Micronauts went completely the other way. It’s machine music at its most raw and grinding.