A product of post-Acid-House Manchester, Mr Scruff is a complete one-off; a cheeky innovator. His debut album is a bold statement, distinctive and confident. Keep It Unreal oscillates wildly between opposing styles-one moment Scruff's in deep, down-tempo dinner jazz territory, the next he's in Coldcut mode, chopping out superb big beat breaks with naughty hooklines to get you pogoing. At one extreme is the wacko humour of Spandex Man, bolshi Fatboy Slim breakbeat and a silly 1920s swing loop that'll make you grin. And then there's the even more ridiculous "Shanty Town", with samples of a Jacknory story about a whale. At the other end of the scale, is Scruff's accomplished acid jazz-like the serene, trip-hoppy "Midnight Feast" or the smoothie cocktail number "Honeydew", with it's loungey female vocals. This man is out there, the Salvador Dali of beats and breaks. -Sarah Champion.

In a thrilling UK Garage scene, blighted only by a reliance on drippy soul cliché and tiresome braggadocio, The Streets' eminently quotable Mike Skinner may just be the voice to take it to the next level with Original Pirate Material. This debut is a staggeringly eloquent and fearlessly honest snapshot of gritty street-level existence, as experienced by an ordinary bloke. At first listen, the Birmingham-born Skinner's cheeky cockney affectations grate slightly. But for every line that makes you squirm, there's 20 that drop your jaw. "Has It Come To This?" is "A day in the life of a geezer", a seductive encapsulation of London lifestyle, presented raw as a bootleg, but bulging with sharp wit and feverish detail. "Stay Positive" weaves a fearful tale of heroin addiction, Skinner sneering "I ain't no preaching fucker/ An' I ain't no do-goodie-goodie either/ This is when shit goes pear-shaped". And "The Irony of It All" presents a beguiling case for legalisation, presenting a fictional exchange between a beered-up, self-righteous lager lout and a fey student weed enthusiast. Original Pirate Material is a milestone, the real voice of British youth set down on record. Don't miss this. -Louis Pattison.

Ever since they were credited with inventing progressive house with their first single "Not Forgotten" in 1991, Leftfield have been earmarked as pioneers. Their debut album was a glorious fruition of their talents, delivering on all fronts and sealing their place in dance music history. Effortlessly weaving intoxicating rhythms and sublime melodies around the diverse vocals of former Sex Pistol John Lydon, reggae toaster Earl Sixteen and indie ice maiden Toni Halliday, Leftism is a scintillating journey through all the planes of club culture. From the interstellar dancehall vibes of "Release The Pressure" to the languid splendour of "Melt" and the peerless dancefloor dynamics of "Song Of Life", Paul Daley and Neil Barnes prove themselves jacks of all trades and masters of them all. "Make room for me," screamed Lydon on "Open Up"; the rest of the dance music world duly stepped aside to let the Leftfield juggernaut through. -Ed Potton.

The Gorillaz claim to have found their motley crew of cartoon characters sleeping in Leicester Square but Blur's Damon Albarn (aka 2-D) and cult cartoonist Jamie Hewlett (Murdoc) are not fooling anyone. As the ultimate experiment in manufactured image, the Gorillaz are a virtual, cartoon-character-based hip-hop band which bring together some of the wittiest, silliest lyrics and the most seriously talented musicians. Infectious old school hip-hop rhythms, rhymes and effects courtesy of Deltron 3030's Kid Koala and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien (Russel) are combined with Albarn's passion for chugging lo-fi and edgy melodies to create a seemingly raw but ultimately slick blend of styles which is all their own. This is nowhere more evident than on hit single "Clint Eastwood", which is carried along by the sound of 2-D's slurred voice and a bluesy harmonica melody interrupted by Russel's punching rhymes. But the surprises do not stop there: Ibrahim Ferrer's appearance on "Latin Simone" could have come straight from Buena Vista Social Club but for the obvious Blur-influenced piano style, while the spooky intro to "M1 A1" wouldn't sound out of place on Michael Jackson's Thriller. Backed up by Jamie Hewlett's death-wish character on bass, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori (Noodle) on guitar and occasional hyperactive vocals and produced by Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, it's hardly surprising that Gorillaz is marked both by a sense of playfulness and a passion for experimentation. -Caroline Butler.

The "Theme from Shaft" is now so ingrained in popular consciousness as the blaxploitation-movie track that it's hard to listen to it without a faint smirk. ("Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?"!!) But if you can get past the inadvertent humour, it's still a devilishly exciting piece of music-all hi-hat 16ths, wah-wah guitar, strings and woodwind, like a Norman Whitfield Motown production taken to a baroque extreme. The rest of the album consists mainly of incidental mood music of no great worth: "Walk from Regio's", "Ellie's Love Theme"-you know the sort of thing. Only two other tracks feature the Black Moses pipes, while the endless "Do Your Thing" takes its place in the catalogue of Hayes epics that began with Hot Buttered Soul. -Barney Hoskyns.

Melody AM, the debut from Norwegian outfit Royksopp, is widely being touted for "classic" status. Far from "just another chill-out" album, this is a richly textured feast of warm, late-night food for the soul. The songs seem to reflect the extremes of the environment they were produced in-the sorrowful "She's So", a tribute to almost 24-hour winter darkness of Royksopp's motherland, and the lilting warmth of "Royksopp's Night Out", a literal dance in the midnight sun. In the tradition of bands such as Air and Groove Armada, this is a sound that could almost make it to the dance floor-if it could bear to leave the comfort of the sofa behind. The infectious "Poor Leno" hints at what their dance productions (and they do exist) might sound like, and as a whole, Melody AM will leave you wanting to get your hands on anything and everything else "the 'Sopp" have ever touched. -Ruby Tuesday.

Boyzone have always favoured covers-from their earliest singles (versions of 1970s pop groups the Detroit Spinners' "Working My Way Back To You" and the Osmonds' "Love Me For A Reason") to their first million-selling hit, a faithful reading of Australian high-pitched harmony singers, the Bee Gees' "Words". So the release of By Request compilation of cover versions in 1999 came as no real surprise, then. What is a surprise, however, is the amount of emotion and pathos Ronan and co-manage to invest in songs like Cat Stevens' "Father & Son" and Tracy Chapman's "Baby Can I Hold You"-far exceeding the brief most boy bands have of merely smiling sweetly at the camera and making sure the dance steps are inch perfect. Musically, all the songs here veer towards the brand of harmony-laden, lightweight dance-pop Boyzone have virtually claimed for their own. -Everett True.

It's flatly unfair that the Gossip aren't a massive success, a rocknroll giant slayer, especially as they unleash another 10-song, 30-minute zinger like Standing in the Way of Control. Singer Beth Ditto's boundless, whether shouting out the title song's chorus or feather-dusting the lyric on Meg White-sounding album closer, "Dark Lines. " The band rocks with an unerring simplicity, a leanness that writhes. The big-beat, hop-along (and sing-along) "Listen Up," is the centerpiece here, a stripped focus on the Gossip's core conviction, that rhythm can rock like little else. The tune has Ditto holding court over a bluntly simple one-two beat, cautioning a crowd that by rights ought to be tenfold larger: "now gather round/now listen up," warning them that "some people talk way too much. " As Ditto stuns, drummer Hannah Blilie's beat pounds, and Brace Paine's guitar lays down a simple law. Ignorance of that law is no excuse. -Andrew Bartlett.

How do you follow an acclaimed debut in your own inimitable style without repeating past glory? The answer is simple-make a concept album. Mike Skinner's (aka the Streets) A Grand Don't Come for Free tells the story of his recent troubles and triumphs in a manner that is as much music-hall as it is friends chatting on the phone. The story is simple but the narrative is far more cohesive than a string of songs explaining the plot. His broken television, a pivotal part of the story is referenced throughout, as are warning signs that his girlfriend, Simone, is seeing best mate Dan behind his back. It may sound like a soap opera but is given added depth by the attention to detail in lyrics ("she was with the white-shirted man in McDonalds car park" on "Such a Twat"); the structure of the music as if it were following the dialogue (hi-hats, whooshes and piano stabs as the effects of Ecstasy take hold on "Blinded by the Light); and an openness to wear his heart on his sleeve (the beautiful ode to stoned love "I Wouldn't Have it Any Other Way" and the heart-wrenching break-up song, "Dry Your Eyes"). Musically the breaks and beats are in a similar style to Original Pirate Material; erratic urban drum loops, synths and classical strings except for the lead single "Fit But You Know it" where the punky guitar and steady beat drive the song as much as the content of the lyrics. A Grand Don't Come for free will have much written about it-not only does it stand out for being a latter day concept album, but the complexity of the narrative and the believable swings in emotion provide much food for thought and command attentive listening. -David Trueman.

To follow up their bombastic 1995 album Exit Planet Dust, the Chemical Brothers fine-tuned their bombastic beats and produced a rock-solid pop album (pun intended). Dig Your Own Hole finds the common ground between rock & roll and techno, both in spirit and substance. Singles like "Block Rockin' Beats," "Elektrobank," and "Setting Sun" (featuring vocals by Oasis's Noel Gallagher) may lack the big hair and pomposity of rock music, but they make up for it in spades, with sampled and real guitars battling for space with sirens and distorted hip-hop drums. The album reeks of pure enthusiasm and energy, evoking a crowd-pleasing exuberance that makes Dig Your Own Hole a Back in Black for the late 1990s. Pure stadium techno. -Matthew Corwine.