It's rare to be able to visualise the exact moment you picked up an album, rarer still to eventually have owned it on tape, CD and vinyl, but buying A Guy Called Gerald's 'Black Secret Technology' from Our Price in Lewisham shopping centre back in '95 proved a defining teenage experience, introducing me to one of dance music's most unassuming heroes.

The finest moment of jungle, whose raw kinetic energy is again inspiring a generation of young producers, its abundance of diva vocals hint at Gerald Simpson's roots as part of the pioneering 808 State, as well as his massive solo hit, 'Voodoo Ray', a slice of Mancunian acid house to challenge anything that Chicago or Detroit has ever produced, but the complex polyrhythms and deep, moody atmospherics, which build on 1993's '28 Gun Bad Boy Salute', display an altogether darker and more introspective vision which remains as relevant as ever given the continued cerebral bass explorations of contemporary post-dubstep. UK club culture has many people to thank for transforming the imported sound of America into the biggest youth movement my generation has experienced, but nobody else has redefined it so much with the character and soul of Britishness, creating music for both the feet and the head, and indelibly altering our cultural landscape.

[Author: JOE ROBERTS]