Before Gomez got a taste for tequila and campfire blues there was the Alabama 3. Led by Reverend Dr D. Wayne Love, aided by the gospel choir of The First Presleyterian Church Of Elvis The Divine and the bleeps and beats that they call "sweet, country, acid-house music", their debut album, Exile On Coldharbour Lane, was both ingenious and intentionally comical. For the follow-up, La Peste, the humorous caricatures have been toned down-Dr Love is now just Rob Spragg-and the blend of hobo folk and electro eccentricity has been refined to the point of perfection. Spragg still does an amazing impersonation of a fallen preacherman looking for redemption with his Southern States drawl (although he's actually from Brixton, South London) and the bible-bashing parables of "Too Sick To Pray" and "Wade Into The Water"-coming across more disturbed than his previous slapstick incarnation. Even the hobo-house cover of The Eagles' "Hotel California" rates as inspired. La Peste is brilliant, beat-fuelled, Jack-Daniels-drenched hillbilly techno. -Dan Gennoe.

With The Sinister Urge, Rob Zombie again wraps his rasp around a thunderous blend of heavy grooves powered by human and electronic drums. Creepy touches of theremin and keyboards add Goth accents, while the clever arrangements adorn melodies that are irresistibly catchy yet plenty aggressive. The lyrics are set firmly in a horror realm; with titles such as "House of 1000 Corpses" and "Scum of the Earth", one wouldn't anticipate tender love songs. Zombie scatters about sound bites from monster movies for good measure-an apt touch, but with the album clocking in at less than 40 minutes, there's a bit too much filler. Still, with highlights such as "Bring Her Down" with its spine-tingling orchestration, the hard-driving "Dead Girl Superstar" (featuring Slayer guitarist Kerry King), and "Feel So Numb" Zombie generates much genuine excitement. -Gail Flug.

French duo, Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicholas Godin's 1998 debut was a glorious anachronism. An analogue bubblebath of synths, saxophones, xylophones, fuzzy guitars and all manner of louche melodies it managed to be both original and utterly retro. 10,000 Hz Legend is the exact meeting point between wearying experimentation and heart-warming melancholia. There's nothing as charming as "Sexy Boy" or as generous as "You Make It Easy" but if you skip the first two tracks, which have more than a touch of Pink Floyd about them, there are a few twisted gems here. Amid the sprawling mass of shrill melody and Kraftwerkian computer voices that is "Lucky and Unhappy", the compressed trash-pop of Radio #1 (a brash cuss down of that infamous institution) and shimmering folk-funk of "The Vagabond" sung by Beck, verge on classic. As for "Sex Born Poison" sung by Japanese indie duo Buffalo Daughter, there's something about this particularly bewitching blend of cool female vocals and a Bernard Psycho Herrmann soundtrack that is out of time, beautiful and in your face. Though 10,000 Hz Legend as a whole is inconsistent and a little bit "aren't we weird?", Air have certainly crafted an inventive album worth hearing. -Reuben Dessay.

Musiq's second album Juslisen keeps his quality level high. The Philadelphian's mixture of Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder and D'Angelo puts him up there with the best. Noticeably his voice has matured-the puppy edge of Aijuswanaseing has gone and he's developing one of the richest tones around reflecting a stylistic progression in Musiq's, erm, music. "Caught Up" and "Religious" have a late 80s Big Daddy Kane/ Public Enemy hip-hop feel about them. They're tougher cuts than the spangle eyed, jelly kneed love paeans from the first album such as "Girl Nextdoor" and "143". He's also expanding into new areas with the slight touch of Bossa Nova on the excellent single "Half Crazy". Musiq's noticeable as one of the almost constantly upbeat artists. There are few songs of pain on either albums and if there are ("Halfcrazy", "L is Gone") then they're sung in such a positive way they can't help but sound happy. For newcomers to Musiq (formerly Musiq Soulchild, he's dropped the long name but not the wayward spelling style) his first album remains the essential starting point. In truth there's little on here that matches the genius of "Speechless" or "You Be Alright", but for anyone who owns that first piece of genius Juslisen will be required listening. [+]

Primal Scream have never rested on their laurels and the chronological running order of Dirty Hits highlights the innovative progression their music made on every album. Beginning with the acid-fuelled dub of their breakthrough Screamadelica, the declaration of hedonism that heralds the horns of "Loaded" couldn't be a more appropriate way to start the album. Moving the tempo up a notch, the band ditched the trippy nuances for Give Out But Don't Give Up-unabashed rock & roll in the spirit of the Stones, demonstrated superbly by "Jailbird" and "Rocks". Just when they had been written off as hopeless nostalgics, along came the mind-bending Vanishing Point which retained the rock & roll ethic but twisted it into a dark oppressive form summed up perfectly by "Kowalski" and "Burning Wheel". Unrelenting, they released Xtrmntr, a harsh wall of noise underpinned by searing synth melodies and bitter lyrics which produced the hits "Swastika Eyes" and "Kill All Hippies". Finally, taking them to the modern day, Dirty Hits includes a few songs from the even more extreme, structured noise that was Evil Heat plus "Some Velvet Morning", a song featuring Kate Moss that never made the album. Many thought that Primal Scream were an album band and a best-of collection wouldn't do them justice but Dirty Hits is a great listen and a great reminder of exactly how much good music they've made over the years. -David Trueman.

Geogaddi follows on from Boards Of Canada debut album, 1998's Music Has The Right To Children, a real slow-burner that gently infused its way into the consciousness like a rolling fog of sepia-tinged psychedelia and child-like lullaby melodies. Ironically, though, the greater the plaudits afforded to this enigmatic Scottish duo, the further they retreated into their shell, shunning interviews and resolving themselves to a reclusive existence in their Hexagon Sun studio in the hills of North Scotland. If anything, this has only focused their resolve. BOC's long-awaited second album Geogaddi opens with no fanfare, the bare hum of "Ready Lets Go" blossoming into the soporific, hypnotic chimes of "Music Is Math". But for the next 65 minutes, it's clear that while Boards of Canada move slow, they do so with the power of shifting glaciers. All their old influences remain: the noise-as-melody drone of My Bloody Valentine, the brave futuristic synths of Neu, and the drifting soundtracks of old education television documentaries. But more than anything, Geogaddi is about the feelings that linger when the music fades out-a surprisingly vivid sense of warm melancholy that puts an intriguing spin on the currently fashionable chill-out sound. It's another slow-burner, but Geogaddi is as utterly essential as its predecessor. -Louis Pattison.

"The innocence of my life releases the God I love everywhere. " These are the words of Rumi, 13th-century poet and founder of the Whirling Dervishes of Sufism, as spoken by the mature and melodious voice of Rosa Parks. Her voice, American history, those words, intense longing: Power. In celebration of the human spirit, The Gift of Love is a recitation of the love poems of Rumi by Dr. Chopra and celebrity friends, including Madonna, Goldie Hawn, and Robert A. F. Thurman. Sensual Middle Eastern-influenced music backs the reading and provides breaks between sections such as "Love Drunk" and "The Light of Love. " The Gift of Love is sincere and potent stuff, unafraid of the deep physical, spiritual, and mental hunger that Rumi's words not only taste, but roll about the tongue and swallow whole. -Paige La Grone.

Siobhan Donaghy probably imagined she'd get some decent mileage out of being an ex-Sugababe - little did she know that her sort would soon become about as commonplace as the tears of an X-Factor reject clown. And after an underperforming debut album (Revolution In Me), she might seem about as likely to succeed. But that would indeed be a cruel and ill-fitting fate to befall such a dreamy-toned red-haired delight. Her muted elegance was always the foil to the sultry sass manufactured at the Sugababes' core, and on her second solo album Siobhan Donaghy allows that quality to mature yet further, finding a taste of the accomplishment that perhaps evaded her previously. Adopting a pitch somewhere between the sumptuous nonchalance of her former band and All Saints, and the full-bodied grown-up pop of Texas or, at her best, The Sundays Ghosts finds strength in its own comforts. Its range is narrow but assured, never punching above its weight, firmly hitting its targets. And though steady and mid-paced it enjoys a perky production standard giving it a tight modern sheen that holds its head above the water. The hypnotising single 'Don't Give It Up' and sun-kissed cloud-skipping ethereality of 'Sometimes' exemplify this best. -James Berry.

Between the smashes of On the TLC Tip and Fanmail, TLC made CrazySexyCool, on which the trio made an ill-advised bid to out-diva groups like En Vogue. Despite their premature stab for respect, the albums contains one of the trio's signature tunes: "Waterfalls", a wistful take on unrequited love that was wise beyond their years. They didn't match the tune until the release of Fanmail, on which the ladies fulfilled the promise hinted at here. -Bucky Wunderlick.

People who love the idea of hip-hop and believe it can be as complex and broadly emotional as any music, but who are weary of the rigidity with which rappers define themselves, salivate over groups like the Pharcyde. The foursome comes from the gangsta rap mecca of South Central L. A. but their musical vision veers closer to the worldwide vibe of east coasters De La Soul than any Gat-toting sellout. Their 1992 debut Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde unveiled a group with flair and personality-both smart and whimsical-and an honesty rarely heard in rhyme. During the three years that followed its release, group members Imani, Tre, Romye, and Fatlip moved from their Pharcyde Manor in South Central to a suburban L. A. home/studio, Lab Cabin. The long-awaited sophomore effort, Labcabincalifornia, reflected the group's new environment with a sound more polished, more mature, but a lot less uproarious than before. The group apparently labored meticulously in Lab Cabin, where they cleaned and tightened the Pharcyde sound. [+]

Serving to remind us that Dusseldorf could be famous for something other than Kraftwerk, Outside World is an accurately compact retrospective of German synth collective Propaganda's all-too-brief flirtation with popularity in the mid-1980s (and that's hardly surprising, given their label's obsession with tugging on the udders of Frankie Goes to Hollywood for all they were worth). At a time when English musical ears were suspicious of post-Abba foreign accents-was "99 Red Balloons" really all our European neighbours could contribute to the EEC pop mountain?-and yet strangely in awe of all things efficiently cold and Teutonic when it came to synthesisers (the Mobiles, Ultravox, New Order) Propaganda were not found wanting. In Claudia Brucken, they had the archetypical blonde German ice maiden who sang with all the sang-froid of a devil-worshipping abattoir supervisor while their slickly produced (man of the moment Trevor Horn, of course) and sinuous synth-pop reached its classically melodic apex on the timeless "Duel" (a UK Number 21 in 1985) and its grievous, piston-rhythmed punk sibling "Jewel". As with Frankie Goes to Hollywood, you'd need a box set to collate the manifold vinyl remixes issued by designer label ZTT at the time, but Outside World cuts to the chase and tells the Propaganda novice all he/she needs to know in a delightfully silvery disc-shaped package. -Kevin Maidment.