The sound would not be muted

One day Daniel had a need.

The synthesiser was the ultimate egalitarian instrument, an instrument of the future. In 1978 the 26 year old Daniel Miller put his ideas in practice. Having bought a KORG700S and a TEAC four track recorder he produced his first electronic single as The Normal. The highly influential tracks, TVOD and Warm Leatherette (later covered by Grace Jones) were inspired by the dystopian novels of JG Ballard, in particular the auto-eroticism of Crash. "I never thought of myself as a musician, I thought it was an idea, rather than a piece of music," says Daniel Miller. "But I did hope it might trigger other people's imagination." In order for his recording to be readily available, Daniel Miller would have to form his own record label. Mute was born.

That simple act has provided a platform (at various times) for the Butthole Surfers, the Buzzcocks, Cabaret Voltaire, Can, Nick Cave, Client, D.A.F., Depeche Mode, Erasure, Goldfrapp, Laibach, Miss Kittin, Moby, The Normal, Recoil, The Residents, Boyd Rice, Sun Ra, Throbbing Gristle, Wired, Yazoo, and countless others.

And if you believe Dave Thompson, then (as I previously noted) it all happened because Miller heard Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" one night.