We asked Brigitte of Battery Operated Orchestra - the band has just released the splendid CD Radiation - to tell us about the ten records that changed her life.
This is tough, top ten lists can be reductive - I have far more albums that changed my life than ten! So here is a smattering of just some of those albums, in order of appearance in my life.
HOLGER CZUKAY - Movies
My parents used to listen to this before I was even born and continued to in my early years. I rediscovered it when I was 17 and played Cool in the Pool before going out on my 18th birthday. I remember my friends had never heard anything like it and we danced around like crazy. Listening to Persian Love now fills me with the peace and comfort of infancy, sprawled on my mum's Persian rug, swimming in Holger's exotic tape ocean.
THE CRYSTALS/THE RONETTES - Phil Spector Wall of Sound, Vol. 1/3
My dad had this double cassette in his van and it was a favourite of my sister and I when we were kids. Walking in the Rain used to send shivers down my back, I loved the thunder and rain sounds. Dad would explain to me how he'd make that sound with a sheet of metal in the theatre and I marvelled. Da Doo Ron Ron and Baby I Love You were other faves. We grew up with a lot of Motown, Stax and soul music, and I can't resist that Phil Spector wall of sound.
TOM TOM CLUB - Tom Tom Club
I have a distinct memory of putting Mum's cassette of this on at about 5 or 6 years old and disappearing into an incredible synaesthesic fantasy world conjured up by this unearthly music. There were places, people, creatures, patterns, stories coming out of this music through visions in my mind. It still gives me flashbacks when I listen now but I can never quite picture those same images. I can just feel it deep in my memories like a dream.
THE BEATLES - Ab bey Road
I was a massive fan of The Beatles as a kid and this album was the first CD I owned. I could listen to it endlessly. It's the first time I heard an album which followed an arc from one track to the next so seamlessly outside of classical music. I think it's one of the most perfect albums ever made.
BLONDIE - Parallel Lines
This was another cassette that came from Dad's glove box and reminds me of driving around the wild countryside of Tasmania, of wind and fields and going fast. Debbie Harry is one of those icons, like Siouxsie or Kate Bush, who I'll always admire. Blondie has that particular energy and magic that's tied up in the conflict within the band, it all sounds like they're about to tear themselves apart and it's pretty damn exciting.
DAVID BOWIE - HUNKY DORY
I discovered David Bowie through my Dad's cassette of Lodger, which I loved, then I found mum's CD of Hunky Dory and my mind was blown. Life on Mars and Quicksand are some of the first songs I tried to teach myself on piano and they became tracks I returned to again and again throughout my life. David Bowie injects so much expression and soul into each syllable. Armed with Hunky Dory and Lodger, I set off to get all the Bowie albums I could find and, as for many other people, each album has been a soundtrack to different parts of my life.
LAURYN HILL - The Miseducation of Laura Hill
I had a bit of a rap phase in my tween years and this was a firm favourite. It will always remind me of long hazy summer days in coastal NSW. Lauryn's voice and rhyme are sublime, the whole thing blooms and fades in warmth throughout. It's an album I love to sing to, it always makes me smile.
JOY DIVISION - Unknown Pleasures
When I was 13, I saw a BBC documentary about punk music and something went off in my brain. It was an absolute revelation to me and I wrote down the names of every band it mentioned before seeking out their records, many of which I couldn't even get a hold of in Australia. So many of these albums are important to me, but none more so than Unknown Pleasures. In the years to come, on my darkest days, listening to this was like being able to breathe again. It still gives me a sense of space and stillness, a peculiar relief at times when nothing else can.
PIXIES - Doolittle
What an amazing album! My sister and I had just left home when I discovered Pixies (and subsequently The Breeders). I remember meeting her at a house party in Sydney about 6 months later and we reunited over our discovery playing Hey at maximum volume, screaming the lyrics out. For me, this album represents a time when I became independent and the deep bond I'll always have with my sister no matter where our lives take us.
YMO - X∞Multiplies (US version)
Just before I left Australia, I discovered Yellow Magic Orchestra. The compositions on this album just hit all the right buttons for me, balancing between computer game music, traditional Japanese music, dance and even funk. Their melodies are captivating and their sounds fill me with pure, unbridled joy. If I was a superhero, Rydeen would be my theme song.