Hot Chip

1. Horace Andy - Wanna Be Free

“My brother played me this one, and not only is the melody so simple and sweet, but I particularly love the hammond organ that chops through the rhythm every now and again. It is so loud in the mix and really off - very abrasive and funky. I'm drawn to those elements in a lot of people's productions - the wonkiness is something we're interested in in our group too.”

2. Keith Rowe - Groovy Situation

“A fairly obvious choice - but something of the joy of true love seems to have been captured by Lee Perry in his production here, and in Rowe's vocal delivery. This is sublime and makes me smile broadly every time I play it. And then start dancing.”

3. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Babylon System

“Survival is my favourite of his records, and I keep returning to it. I think the songs are tight on this record and the mood is pretty serious - on this tune it just feels like Bob's really belting it out - every line feels crucial. I dunno, in terms of the more mainstream end of reggae, I don't feel like there's much to compete with this. It doesn't lose anything for being slicker than most, either.”

4. Prince Far I - A Message

“From Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapter 1, which I think was one of Adrian Sherwood's early ventures into engineering/production, this tune encapsulates a lot of what first drew me to dub - the deep bass and the chunky piano lines, but mainly, in this track, the lion raw sound effects that drop in and out way too loud in the mix. The way things have been so crudely mixed in some of these productions, or in King Tubby productions, is very exciting to me - things are clearly being dropped in and out in a live mix. I'd like more music to be made in this way...”

5. Scritti Politti - Asylums in Jerusalem

“Of all the tunes that appropriate the most well known elements of popular reggae music, I feel like this one from Scritti's first LP sounds much more natural and makes great use of the style. It's like a Prince collaboration with The Wailers could have sounded maybe! He obviously loves reggae and you can tell - where others' attempts to 'go reggae' might leave embarassing results, this is just wicked.”

6. Peter Tosh - No Sympathy

“I like both the early version with the Wailers and his later solo recording of this tune. I feel like Peter Tosh was quite an individual. This song captures the dark mood of loneliness that is there underneath a lof of his work, for me. It's a very sad and stubborn song.”

7. Sizzla - Liberate Yourself

“A beautiful ballad - wonderful tune. I find Sizzla can be too shouty sometimes for my tender ears - but here he's right on the money. Maybe I could call this one a 'classic'?”

8. The Gladiators - Chatty Chatty Mouth

"Chatty chatty mouth - be wise and know your culture".

9. Paul McCartney - Check My Machine

“I'm guessing he was trying to make a dub tune here. He's pretty high, it's an outtake from his lost disco classic McCartney II (way ahead of its time and beautifully of its time too), and he samples the Flintstones as well as playing some incredible funky banjo parts on top of his tough drumming. I'm not joking, this is from the furthest reaches of the strange mind of one man on a farm late at night trying to make some exploratory music!”

10. Nanko - Lucky You

“I like the vocodered vocal, which doesn't hide the honesty of the performance - and the words knock me out: "When you reach home youre greeted with hugs n kisses by your wife and your three lovely kids, just to see youre dinner on the table aint gat nuthin to worry about, youve gat your cable, still gat a young one coming up in the cradle, dam man youre life must be so stable, as for me im a label, dissabled im like a fable." It is like a fable - it's pretty riduclous taken at face value, but it's pretty direct as a song about envy and self pity.”

Hot Chip's single Over & Over from their album The Warning is re-released on October 9th on EMI