I always thought this had a kind of wacky genius to it...Unique anyway and more so with the passing years.

To be admired musically. But this is a horrible, repulsive record. I find the nasty hateful lyrics too much to tolerate.

I like, but to be honest I think the real geniuses of that era in electronic music were his label mates Autechre. They were doing similar stuff but were sort of overlooked because Richard D James had a bit of a wry sense of humour and provided all sorts of things the music press could get a handle on, he claimed to write music in his sleep, he lived in a disused Bank vault and claimed to own a Tank. Autechre were just a couple of Hip Hop anoraks from Rochdale.

Aphex has done some good tracks but hasn't made a consistently good LP since 1995 and certainly hasn't done anything particularly ground breaking this Century. He's fallen back on re-hashing old Acid House tropes and ploughed the dreaded 'Drill n Bass' furrow to death. It's odd that he got all the attention, and that he's been seen as one of these acts you 'must hear' and people feel obliged to check out.

Autechre have released a slow but steady catalogue of increasingly mind boggling LPs. Their stuff is often borderline unlistenable at first, but after a few listens starts to sink in and then many years later you hear the likes of Radiohead picking up on their ideas, their ideas filter through to some of the more forward thinking R&B/Hip Hop/Dance producers too. Whatever they're doing now..someone will turn into Pop music in about 8 years time. They're utter geniuses and one of the most important British music acts of the last 20 years. I will write a "Colin H on The Mahavishnu Orchestra" style article on them at some point ;

Great image, Jack White clearly listened to all the right records growing up and his heart is obviously in the right place. He's a fly in the ointment of modern soulless, digital recording methods, if you will.

However, despite some half-decent records, I've seen the White Stripes live and it was the most god-awful, tuneless racket imaginable.

It was like watching a busker beating seven bells out of a cheap guitar plugged into an even cheaper amp. His fuzzbox was cranked up to the point where any semblance of musical pitch was swallowed up into a vortex of white noise and the notes dissolved in mush.

Meanwhile, Meg looked like someone on her third drum lesson as she plodded along gamefully on her toy kit.

Two people in a rock band? It just doesn't work.

Let me add, I’ve enjoyed some of the things Jack’s done since then.

I do like to listen to both of them but in a strictly limited quantity. One or two tracks at a time and not taken too often is extremely uplifting.

Love them to bits, still listen to them. I've seen them several times, best of all was supporting Iggy & The Stooges. Suicide played their first album, and it was a joyful brutal racket.

I still listen to the bootleg of that gig, too.

I've tried. Just... can't... quite... make it.

I know it's (a) worthy, (b) highly lauded and (c) very cool, but despite liking a lot of jazz, this always strikes me as really hard work and a bit 'udon', IYKWIM.

I'll leave "Trout Mask Replica" alone - it's crazy, and I've listened to it in tiny concentrated bursts over the years, but someone more qualified will no doubt be along shortly to comment further...

Just knowing that this phrase now exists somewhere on the internet has made me a happier and more rounded person.

and I mean the proper one with Steve Peregrin Took and that Bolan fella, were a superb band. If you don't like Unicorn then really, I despair for you and your empty meaningless life.

Why do I love Unicorn ? Well, there's Took's percussion of course, that's a given, but it is uniformly fantastic throughout. But then there's Bolan's singing - I have sat in front of the speakers as the vinyl spun, listening to the album with the gatefold sleeve (with all the lyrics on it) open in front of me, and I still couldn't tell what words Bolan was using. That is genius of a serious level.

That last sounds like it might be tongue in cheek - it isn't. From Chariots of Silk to Romany Soup there is not a bad moment on the album.

The debut double-album, Tone Float, Ralf And Florian. All ground-breaking, all enormously important in creating a sonic framework around which which huge numbers of subsequent artists would build their work, all a load of unlistenable bleepy atonal old wank.

with Eric Clapton

Bought it, heard it, acknowledged it, and have no real desire to listen to it again (and now I've written that, I'm going to go and play it)

I've tried to like Can, really have. I understand how they're very influential, but the £28 I spent on a couple of their albums back in the mid-nineties is never coming back.

I love The Slits and still play them. I remember taping the Peel sessions and running (literally) down to Good Vibes after school with my mate Chris to get "Cut", then playing it to death. Like most people, I probably wouldn't be gutted if I never heard Frankie Teardrop again, but I love the first two Suicide albums. Loved Tyrannosaurus Rex, and still play Can all loads. Not cause they're historically important but because they made great records. You either like stuff or you don't, surely. Just because it's supposedly important or influential doesn't make it any better. I'm baffled. This won't change anyone's mind one way or other but it's great.

Joanna Newsom Ys. Sorry guys but this is the most godawful drivel. And it got five star reviews everywhere. What the heck do I know?

No knock on the musicians. But one's consciousness cannot be altered to the point where this becomes listenable.