Trans-Europe Express

Trans-Europe Express is the record Detroit heard and rebuilt itself around, one of the most consequential ancestors on this list. 'Europe Endless' glides instead of pushes, while the title suite makes machine rhythm feel cosmopolitan, melodic and exact. Its elegance fed directly into electro and techno without ever reducing the record to a history lesson. A rave canon can honor its ancestry without pretending the ancestor belongs in its top ten.

Not electro yet, and the reason electro exists. Bambaataa lifted the melody in 1982 and the whole genre followed. It also happens to be a beautiful record about trains, Europe and the strangeness of moving through both.