The Normal - ’T.V.O.D.’ / Warm Leatherette (seven-inch single)

This seven-inch single, first released in 1978, is the foundation stone of Mute Records, and therefore nearly half a century of electronic music. The brainchild and only release by Mute’s founder Daniel Miller, ‘Warm Leatherette’ perfectly captures the Ballardian bleakness of the DIY electronic music wave that came in the wake of punk and cheap synthesisers coming out of Japan, while ’T.V.O.D.’ is a prescient take on a media addiction. We’ve discovered a stash of the 2009 reissue, shrink wrapped and awaiting new homes.