We had always used found sound, but we had always used it in an analogue way. And it was the early days of using collage and sound in a digital way. MTV, a couple of years later would be that way.

Going there [Japan] in the early 80s was quite a culture shock. I think the bombardment of Shinjuku and all that would have filtered through, which certainly informed things we later filmed.

You don't have to be trained in music to create sounds and to produce and release music. That's what we were saying back in 73-74. And that's the way the world is now - and all the tools of creation, production and dissemination are there in everybody's bedrooms, front rooms and studios.

Crackdown, the video, interpreted and reflected a sense of authority and austerity and a sense of slight, impending doom.

I think underneath it all [in the Big Funk] was a little bit of a Europeanness in it.

We were iconoclastic. We weren't there to sort of follow the trends really. So it was important that we were making a statement against that.

I think in everything we did, there's a sense of tension and a sense of things pulling in a different way. It's interesting calling it "beat music". That's quite true, the rhythm is up to the fore, it's got a slap bass, and it's got "funk" in the title. But I think there's always a level of irony when we did those kind of things.