{
  "slug": "the-desk-roots",
  "theme": {
    "name": "Roots",
    "criterion": "A record only qualifies if something we publish is demonstrably downstream of it — a lineage arrow, a borrowed rhythm, a sampled bar. Being early is not enough, and neither is being great.",
    "drawnFrom": [
      {
        "slug": "disco",
        "name": "Disco",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/disco/"
      },
      {
        "slug": "dub",
        "name": "Dub",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dub/"
      },
      {
        "slug": "funk",
        "name": "Funk",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/funk/"
      },
      {
        "slug": "krautrock",
        "name": "Krautrock",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/krautrock/"
      },
      {
        "slug": "post-punk",
        "name": "Post-Punk",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/post-punk/"
      }
    ]
  },
  "genre": null,
  "genreUrl": null,
  "brief": "Five records from before the map starts. Everything else we publish is downstream of one of these, and most of it is downstream of several.",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/the-desk-roots/",
  "updated": "2026-08-29",
  "curator": {
    "slug": "the-desk",
    "name": "The Waxonia Desk",
    "bio": "The people who write the rankings on this site. We keep the lists honest, we argue about the order, and we get asked the same question more than any other: where should someone actually start. These are our answers.",
    "link": "https://waxonia.com/",
    "url": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-desk/"
  },
  "ordered": false,
  "pickCount": 5,
  "years": {
    "first": 1967,
    "last": 1978
  },
  "picks": [
    {
      "trackKey": "james-brown--cold-sweat",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/james-brown--cold-sweat/",
      "title": "Cold Sweat",
      "artist": "James Brown",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/james-brown/",
      "year": 1967,
      "label": "King",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Start here. Brown tells the band to put the accent on the first beat and stop changing chord, and the next sixty years of dance music become possible in about eight bars.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "funk",
          "name": "Funk",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/funk/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-accent-moved",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Where the Accent Moved",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-accent-moved/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/James%20Brown%20Cold%20Sweat",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=qkgIoMuaoQ0",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "augustus-pablo--king-tubby-meets-rockers-uptown",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/augustus-pablo--king-tubby-meets-rockers-uptown/",
      "title": "King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown",
      "artist": "Augustus Pablo",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/augustus-pablo/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Yard Music",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The mixing desk becomes an instrument. Every record on this site built from the bass upward, with the vocal free to vanish for a bar, is working from the grammar King Tubby set here.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "dub",
          "name": "Dub",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dub/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six",
          "name": "1976",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-ghosts",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Ghosts",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-ghosts/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Augustus%20Pablo%20King%20Tubby%20Meets%20Rockers%20Uptown",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=oxAl3Jijs20",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "neu--hallogallo",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/neu--hallogallo/",
      "title": "Hallogallo",
      "artist": "Neu!",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/neu/",
      "year": 1972,
      "label": "Brain",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Ten minutes of a beat that never accents anything. The idea that a rhythm can drive without swinging is the one European contribution the Americans genuinely had to import.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "krautrock",
          "name": "Krautrock",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/krautrock/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-krautrock",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Krautrock",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-krautrock/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Neu!%20Hallogallo",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=zndpi8tNZyQ",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "donna-summer--i-feel-love",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/donna-summer--i-feel-love/",
      "title": "I Feel Love",
      "artist": "Donna Summer",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/donna-summer/",
      "year": 1977,
      "label": "Casablanca",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Eno reportedly burst into Bowie's Berlin session announcing that the sound of the future had arrived. Early by about six years, and wrong by about nothing.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "disco",
          "name": "Disco",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/disco/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records",
          "name": "Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Donna%20Summer%20I%20Feel%20Love",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=yEbaeLv-aOo",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "public-image-ltd--public-image",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/public-image-ltd--public-image/",
      "title": "Public Image",
      "artist": "Public Image Ltd",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/public-image-ltd/",
      "year": 1978,
      "label": "Virgin",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The guitar stops chugging and starts ringing, the bass takes the tune, and British guitar music spends the next fifteen years working out what to do with the space that left.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "post-punk",
          "name": "Post-Punk",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/post-punk/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Public%20Image%20Ltd%20Public%20Image",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=rIAZ8unRm2c",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}