Crucial Track for January 27, 2026

"Ptolemy" by Aphex Twin

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What artist or band changed your music taste forever? Pick your favorite song of theirs.

Sometime in 1994, while I was at sixth form college, I heard whispers about a club in Birmingham called Oscillate which was, by all accounts, extraordinary. The first time I went along, with some trepidation, I was a glum, long-haired Doc Marten–wearing indie kid. I came reeling out early the following morning, ears ringing and mind buzzing to the sound of the dawn chorus—disoriented, elated, and altered. Within a few months I was unrecognisable: clothes, hair, music, friends, and attitude—all transformed. A lot of different artists played sets and DJ’ed at Oscillate, and at best I have hazy and jumbled memories from those nights, but Ptolemy by Aphex Twin feels representative and conjures memories of those times when my musical tastes and the course of my life changed.