24. Aero Dynamik, Kraftwerk (2003)

After I'd left, we went on with our lives, meeting only once or twice before my long trip to Brixton, a strange, solo journey down the Victoria Line. Kraftwerk were the guardians of our new identities as friends; a strange fate for one of the first groups that had bound us together. Their Tour De France Soundtracks – an album released the previous sweltering summer, and one I hadn't as loved quite as much as I'd wanted to – jetting through my ears for the week leading up to it, sounding like a new record, taking me through my city, giving every movement a silvery sheen.

That night, they were wonderful. And he had met someone new, someone lovely, someone much better suited, and his eyes seemed to shine in a whole different way. I was moving on too, and these songs from our past seemed to beat with fresh energy. Numbers dazzling me, Man Machine gleaming, but Aero Dynamik standing out, holding youthfulness within it, a special kind of brightness. It was the sound of a band doing new things, a soundtrack for people being transported to new places.