The Very Best of Dexys Midnight Runners (Cassette)

Dexys Midnight Runners emerged in 1979 as a British band from the Birmingham area, timing their arrival perfectly to coincide with a mod revival, and the rise of Two-Tone. True, Dexys were not a ska band, or for that matter specifically a ‘mod’ band, but their sound and style appealed to both camps. Add to that the fact they they had some remarkable songwriting skills, and you had a recipe for major public attention.

Sonic Youth – Sister Audio Cassette (UK (1987)

You get a perfect sense of what sort of album this is going to be from the fact that the labels are stuck on the wrong sides of the tape. Side 2’s label is on Side 1, and vice versa. I’ve often wondered whether this was deliberate, given Sonic Youth’s approach, but even if not, it’s entirely in keeping with with the chaotic and contradictory attitude of the music.

Yngwie Malmsteen – Eclipse Audio Cassette (1990)

The impact of Swedish prodigy Yngwie Malmsteen on the guitar scene in the 1980s was almost inescapable. He was most often documented as a classically-influenced rock/metal guitarist, and there was nothing inaccurate about that. But there was a lot more to Malmsteen’s ‘product’ than taking Paganini violin lines and fusing them with existing hard rock techniques on a guitar.