The Waxonia Desk’s selection
Six records split evenly between two rooms that were not supposed to talk to each other. Half guitars, half machines, and the point is that the division was always administrative rather than musical.
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New Order / Blue Monday
The record that made the argument first and made every later version of it easier. A guitar band bought a sequencer, never explained itself, and sold it in a sleeve that lost money on every copy.
Bauhaus / Bela Lugosi's Dead
Nine minutes of dub delay recorded live in one take. The guitar records that survive on a dancefloor tend to be the ones that were secretly dance records all along, and this is the clearest case.
A Guy Called Gerald / Voodoo Ray
Made in a bedroom on borrowed equipment with a sample truncated by accident. The most beautiful mistake in British dance music, and a standing argument against deliberation.
The Stone Roses / Fools Gold
An indie band's biggest single is a groove with some singing over it. The exact point the two rooms merged, and they stayed merged for about three years before the doors went back up.
Primal Scream / Loaded
A remix that kept almost none of the original and handed a band a career. The clearest case in British music for a remixer owing the record they were given nothing whatsoever.