it looked like a cool topic
as i said in other post:
i began because of Young Gods “L’Eau Rouge” and i still find their influence in my music after 19 years or so
There wasn’t a single band or album that made me get into making music, as I’d been into making music in one sense or another since I was a kid… but Nine Inch Nails opened up an entire other world of sound for me… one that I felt wasn’t explored nearly enough in rock or electronic music… one I figured I could exploit. Since that time, I’ve found other artists (many in the Breakcore, IDM, and Skullstep scenes) exploring similar sound concepts, but none of them the way that I envision in my mind (myself included)… so I decided to start producing music and keep moving towards my unique musical vision. Hopefully one day I’ll have the resources and experience to pull it off.
it’s not about imitation but some sort of trigger, in 2004 i made an EP totally inspired by a cLOUDEAD album and in the end both works are totally different
there are a lot of albums that helped me on my way to my own sound… like Millions Now Living Will Never Die by Tortoise or even Scum by Napalm Death, not the way the sound, it’s the feeling you can steal to be yours
the more artists you listen to, more chances to make your own sound. If you look at a band of kids for who their favourite band is Radiohead, in the end they will sound like poor radiohead. But if one likes Radiohead, other DJ Shadow, other Napalm Death and other Cesária Evora, there’s a pretty good chance they can create something unique.
there’s quote by Stravinsky that i really love “A good composer does not imitate, he steals”
edit: but the album by Young Gods was the first album i listened that had samples and that i could do. i didn’t know how to play like The Clash or Bauhaus. i had 15 and an Amiga 500. Young Gods was a revelation
always been into music …but the first electronic album that got me into electronic music was ’ eat static ’ implant …Btw I fuckin hate goa/psy trance …except for early ’ eat static ’ 
i don’t know the ones you mentioned but i like your stuff, derniere valse is very cool, i love waltzes and you use the 3/3 but still left the structure open for out of tempo moments
Depeche Mode - Violator.
Spike, I never said there was anything wrong with imitation 
Here’s a list of songs I find very influential in terms of sound design: http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/playlist/Influence/25534333
More or less seriously I started with remixing the Prodigy - Poison. But originally I started with AY8912 chip tunes somewhere in 1995.
I don’t remember what made me get into music, I remember what made my fall into electronics, that night when by mistake I downloaded The Age of Dissent by The Grey Wolves instead of download a song I was looking for by Dissent…
I was fascinated as a kid with this catchy track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7bKx0-shPI
My dad showed me how to create the exact bass in that track on a Casio CZ-101 synthesizer. So basically I started to create my own little tunes on hardware synths back in the late 80’s.
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
A lot of TV and Radio music in the early 1980s. Mum’s records and tapes of Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Rick Wakeman, Mike Oldfield, Black Sabbath, many others…
A lot of 70s synth stuff and popular classical my Grandfather showed me.
Endlessly expanding horizons ever since.
OMD - Architecture and Morality, will always be the one
An Asian Dub Foundation live gig and their album Community Music.
There was one Estonian hip-hop song that I liked a lot. I admired the lyrics and the concept (though it was about pot) and I started to think about how is this kind of music made. It sounds really silly but -hey- I was just a 15 years old kiddo 
So theoretically this song got me into two things - making music and smoking weed (but this I started later not when I was 15 lol). In the beginning I experimented with cassette-tapes and I also made some collage with Sound Recorder because I had no idea about other software for a while 
.
About 5 years later I heard Venetian Snares and I saw his “Vache” video on YouTube… And here I am now - tracking.
EDIT: (oh noes :S I think I was 13 back then. 
)
growing up with a ten year older brother vibrating the foundations of our house w/ a memorymoog, prodigy, juno-6 among a crapton of other gear is probably what really set me off at a young age, but what sent me over the edge was probably Skinny Puppy Rabies along with a bit of New Order, most everything Wax Trax! and the like. damn near impossible to nail that down to one influence. just walking down the street as a kid with my fire-engine red panasonic tape recorder was an influence!
I’m not exactly sure what set me off tbh. I grew up on a very varied mix of music (dad was, and still is, very heavily into music, as a listener that is) but mostly rock, prog, psych, hard rock, folk, throw in some soul & disco as well. First album I bough for my own money was one by Kraftwerk, no idea why lol, not that they’re not good. I remember I got a Kawai K4 sometime in the early 90s, which I hooked up to my Atari, but that wasn’t very serious and had no idea what I was doing. So I think the album that knocked me over and really set me off was “Enter The Wu-Tang” by Wu-Tang Clan in 93. That album really changed things for me, and, that’s when me and my mates got an EPS and really started to get into it and make music. As for influences in general, there’s way too many to list, I listen to everything (more or less). I could try to make a grooveshark playlist as well tho, good initiative BYTE-Smasher!
I was brought up in a house w/a hiphoping brother and grunging sister…used to write slipknot music (seriously, it really channeled my inner rage…you know???)…then finally calmed down when i heard mogwai/godspeed/tortoise and found my style.
I loved electronic music but had only heard aphex, and squarepusher…a little daunting. When i heard early autechre stuff (Inconabula/Amber) i saw it as a way into the genre.
Then i found renoyz and learnt dah trix!
Thanks 
… hope you enjoyed the listen 
autechre did it for me as well. i had been writing mostly orchestral and piano stuff before that (because I had piano lessons growing up) but once i got into music that was much more about texture and rhythm, i seriously got into tracking