Crate Digging: Before he lays waste to the Slam tent techno titan Dave Clarke takes us though his favourite albums
I’m going to go completely vinyl, as you are probably aware I haven’t actually played professionally with vinyl for at least nine years so I’m going to go ‘back in the box’.
I’ve had Devo Freedom of Choice (Warner Brothers) since it came out, I think it’s one of those albums I bought as a kid for the cover because it has these mad men with shiny jackets and tea-pots on their heads, looking very geeky. It was a happy accident, ‘Girl You Want’ is incredible; ‘Gates of Steel’ is amazing; it's got ‘Whip It’ on there, which everyone knows.
The League Unlimited Orchestra Love & Dancing (Virgin), mainly because of Martin Rushent’s untimely recent death. One of those amazing albums that I remember listening to on cassette back in the day on constant rotation. It’s hard to explain to people how amazingly ground-breaking it was and how inspirational it still is.
I think I’m going to go a little bit more current and say PJ Harvey Let England Shake (Island): it’s one of those albums where you have to listen to it a few times because it’s not so immediate, it’s very fragile but a beautiful, beautiful album and one that I will happily continue to give time.
Next album has to be Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf (Interscope). It’s in my top three albums of all time. It has so much energy; it has irony which for Americans is not always something they can draw upon. It’s very intense, the perfect car journey CD, before speed cameras were invented.
And then of course, my friends The Damned Machine Gun Etiquette (Chiswick). I think I have it in about three or four different formats, including the original dog-eared sleeve that I bought when I was exceptionally young. It’s one of those albums that will be with me forever. It’s definitely a Desert Island Disc for me. Perfection from beginning to end, I have probably listened to that album more times than any other album by a factor of 20.
Finally, ABC's The Lexicon of Love (Mercury). I was having dinner with some dance music guys – Dubfire, Chris Leibing and people like that – it just came up by accident and it turned out that not only are we all fans, we know the lyrics in their entirety. Most people that will read this and know who I am will go, ‘Where’s the electronic stuff?’ That’s all on my hard drive, it’s safe, don’t worry.
Dave Clarke plays the Slam Tent at T in the Park on Sat 9 Jul.