This stark, minimalist single is a landmark release in the birth of electronica and its commercial cousin synthpop. It’s the entire recorded output of The Normal, alter-ego of Daniel Miller – and the first release on his label Mute Records.

A krautrock-loving film editor who had been DJing in Switzerland, Miller returned in 1977 to find the UK energised by punk.

Eager to form a band, but daunted by the need to learn an instrument – and three chords – he bought himself a cheap Korg mini 700S synth and a TEAC four-track reel-to-reel tape recorder.

The first result, recorded in his flat, was T.V.O.D. and its B-side Warm Leatherette – inspired by JG Ballard’s novel Crash – which would become the A-side when it was re-released.

Miller made only one more record as The Normal, as well as creating sythpop covers of classic rock songs as The Silicon Teens, while his Mute label went on to pioneer UK electronica as home to artists including Fad Gadget, Cabaret Voltaire and Depeche Mode.

But back to T.V.O.D. – a squelchy rhythm, a four-note melody and a bored vocal reciting a lyric as minimalist as the music: “I don’t need a / TV screen / I just stick the aerial / Into my skin / Let the signal / Run through my veins.”

And Warm Leatherette would go on to become a bit of a classic, thanks to Grace Jones’s memorable interpretation.