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ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN

Rust

(London)

Recent portents for the continued second coming of Echo & The Bunnymen have been far from auspicious. Both the useless footie record and Ian McCulloch singing (albeit beautifully) on a TV ad for Bell's finest eight-year-old liqu….gif[/img]PILOTCAN

The World Turns Without You

(Evol)

Tonight, Matthew, Pilotcan are going to be the Lemonheads doing 'It's A Shame About Ray', right down to the bit where that song hangs in mid-air before swooping upwards to its denouement, with additional skronk'n'skree frolics. More patented, slightly dated Americanisms from melodious Edinburghers fond of applying the viscera with a rusty spade, then...

Except Pilotcan have never previously sounded so warm or so plangent or - most importantly - so completely at ease with assimilating their well-schooled influences. Chocka with winking guitars and sleightful melody, 'The World Turns Without You' is a big-bottomed rock monster, laughing in the face of its own unfashionablility. The geek shall inherit the Earth, and all that.

NATIONAL PARK VS FUTURE PILOT AKA

Norman Dolph's Money

(Earworm)

Merrily repetitious clash of Glaswegian titans-to-be National Park and everyone's favourite Edinburgh driving instructor Future Pilot Aka, Sushil Dade. 'Norman Dolph's Money' proves conclusively that if you glue together a couple of Velvet Underground bridges and maintain a smile close to the heart then the world spins that much easier.

THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION

Talk About The Blues

(Mute)

The tale of this is as follows. Jon Spencer talks about the blues. In fact, he talks about it a hell of a lot. Primarily to journalists, y'know, Rolling Stone and the like, people just too square to realise that Jon Spencer, he don't actually play no blues - he plays rock'n'roll! That's what you call 'irony'. Baybeh.

A fab record, sold unrepentantly on the fact that the video features Winona Ryder as Jon and another two actors as the other two BXers. Next week: Kathy Burke as Shaun Ryder in the 'Cool As Nuts' '99 mix of 'Fat Lady Wrestlers'.

OSLO

3.99

(Scared Hitless)

Oslo formed at art school in Brighton, and buggering Christ, it shows. The three songs comprising this debut EP strain every sinew to BE! REALLY! DIFFERENT! and succeed merely in being STALE! VACUOUS! and, for good measure IRRITATING! With its sing-song piano motif and booming, stop-start drums, 'Talk To Feet' is heavily redolent of an emotionally lobotomised Talk Talk, while Lee Bryan does his best affected disinterest thang on lyrical clunkers like "In a side-street/There is silence/And someone/Takes care of all the violence". 'Undertones' is a Warm Jets rip-off - or at least a rip-off of the Warm Jets ripping off Wire - but then again, '3.99''s producer happens to be erstwhile Jets guitarist Paul Noble, so it must be OK. Admittedly, the harmonium-based torch-yodelling of 'Stop. Start Again' is diverting, but chiefly because it's hard to believe it isn't being sung by Thom Yorke.

Live, Oslo happen to sound exactly like Radiohead. Don't come running in six months' time and say you weren't warned.

SOUTHALL RIOT

It's Science Vs The World! (Interpolating Victory In Space)

(Victory Garden)

Just as too many records these days are made by people convinced that sounding as much as possible like Radiohead is not only a virtue but destined to make them rich and liable to sire Christina Ricci's offspring, then too few records these days come wrapped in star charts. The second Southall Riot single is a triumph on both these counts and others besides. Admittedly, the absence of any discernible 'Headism is unlikely to make them either rich or eligible to Hollywood starlets, but no matter. As one gazes mesmerised at the mythic celestial swirl and dreams of gossamer-winged transport to Delphinus or Vulpecula or, uh, Boscombe, the Riot boys trip our lights fantastic with a tremulous vision of Guided By Voices fronted by Bobby Gillespie. 'It's Science Vs The World...' is a mini-concerto for drone guitar, pat-a-cake drums and all-around perplexity. Remember kids, locked grooves can set you free.

SKUNK ANANSIE

Charlie Big Potato

(Virgin)

Yep, the feisty mixed-gender, erm, duo's big rock noise just gets bigger and rockier and noisier. "Tell it like it is!" Skunk screams, as Anansie performs synchronised projectile conscience vomiting into our faces.

Truth is, it tastes rank. The title, incidentally, was chosen by fans voting on the band's website, narrowly pipping both 'Fat Boab Cauliflower' and 'Muckle Mike Margarine', and comprehensively trouncing 'Would Anyone Give A Shit About This Awful Group Were The Singer Not A Black Lesbian?'. You're a deep bunch out there in cyberworld, and no messin'.

BEATGLIDER
Premonition Dragon (Tube Bar)

There are times when influences aren't so much worn on a band's collective sleeve as embedded in its skin like shrapnel. This brazen approach works heroically for Beatglider, a group of Blighty tykes for whom life began during 1993 and The Flaming Lips' 'Transmissions From The Satellite Heart'. That is, sherbert-sweet melodies, deranged instrumentation (trumpets, bird whistles) and whacked-out lyrics about strange creatures: "Premonition dragon jump in my horse and wagon...". A glorious mess.

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