22nd June, 1998


My mom's thrown away my best porno mag...

Single of the Week

"Sober" by Drugstore

Some songs simply swell up from the well of beautiful sounds at the centre of the world, and Drugstore's "Sober" is one such. Divine influences such as Throwing Muses, Nirvana, My Bloody Valentine and - believe it or not - Abba swirl around the heady atmosphere magicked up by this glorious storm of a record, Daron Robinson's guitar picking out spider-spun melodies and Isabel Montiero's voice alternating between breathy seduction and innocent sweetness. Whipping your feet from under you and supporting you midair with its sheer unassailable beauty, "Sober" is the most exciting, sexy and vibrant 4 minutes you will spend this week. Unless you happen to have a date with Natalie Imbruglia/Robbie Williams/Tiny from Ultrasound (delete as approriate).

Talking of big-eyed Nat, "Wait" is exactly the kind of song she wishes she could write, with its all-enveloping guitars, honey-trapped tune and credibility in spades. And the utterly sensual moment when Isobel whispers "wait" will do strange things to you, no matter what sexual preference you may have.

Isobel happens to be Brazilian. "Offside" is a football song. It is not very complimentary to England. It has the line "Gazza is carrying far too much weight, and your 4-4-2 is out of date". Now I hate football songs, but this one could win me over...

Drugstore are the best band in the world (this week).

Rating: 10/10

The Rest

"Intergalactic" by Beastie Boys

In which the Beasties hijack Metal Mickey, pour cheap whisky and pills down his gob, then bounce around his twitching corpse in an old skool stylee. Fighting for their right to shout like the spoilt white trash they are, ver Beasties' return is a gloriously parent-unfriendly 3 and a half minutes of dumb genius, all dope beats and pass-the-mic bravissimo. "Coming from Uranus to check my style" about sums it up, but play it full volume and this hits you with a sucker punch to the solar plexus, leaving you gasping for air and gasping for more.

"Hail Sagan (Special K)" on the flipside starts like the soundtrack to a gothic horror movie, then mutates into a squelchy phat pimpmobile, hopping around the neighbourhood with the stereo tuned into Radio Free Uranus. Kerazee. Next are a couple of mixes of "Intergalactic". The first "Prisoners Of Technology/TMS 1 Remix" is a largely instrumental mental version, whilst the second ("Fuzzy Logic Remix") kidnaps the song and transports it to 1970s Brooklyn, as Huggy Bear grooves around with Scooby Do in the background.

After the eclectic innovation of "Ill Communication", the old-skool noise of "Intergalactic" may seem a step backwards, but after a couple of listens this persuades you, and you come to the conclusion that the Beasties are the coolest men on the planet. Which they are. And buy their magazine - Grand Royale - too. It's kool, fly, dope and altogether rather smashing.

Rating: 9/10

"Black White" by Asian Dub Foundation

Taking a traditional-sounding Asian tune, and stripping it bare to reveal layers of dub beneath, "Black White" is less full-on frantic than some ADF tracks, almost the world's fust drum n bass ballad. Preaching racial harmony through music, you can't really fault it - "and as the world is getting smaller and smaller, we can only get closer and closer" - and the fact that it sounds so damn fresh makes it worth a million Billy Braggs into the bargain.

"Rafi" is next, a rap trance through ADF's unique urban landscape, instantly recognisable and startlingly exotic at the same time. Then, a couple of live tracks recorded at the London Astoria - the passionate "Assassin" with its hashish-induced beats floating towards you at subsonic speed, and previous single "Buzzin'", one of the most visceral and breathtaking punk songs to have been written this decade.

ADF shows up the likes of the Embassy fag ("your lamb sir") adverts for the sad and offensive nothings that they are.

Rating: 8/10

"Personal Feeling" by Audioweb

This week's coda comes in the form of "Personal Feeling"'s mellow and string-laden romanticism, ground not often trod by Manchester's Audioweb. Lush and luxurious, this conjures up ghosts of the same kind as Drugstore's "Sober": fleeting and beautiful, yet with steel fists beneath the velvet. One of the band's finest songs, and full of at least as much passion as more traditional angst-peddlers, this deserves more exposure than it is bound to get. A hidden gem.

"Mission Accomplished" travels down the ska path ("you say you're a rude boy") seldom travelled these days unless by US punx missing the point, but updates it into the 90s with huge echoing beats and fx. "Mediacrity" is a little less exciting, sounding uncomfortably like a narcoleptic UB40, but "Angel" brings up the rear admirably, a brooding and hypnotic salvo of sound launched into space like a message in a bottle.

Rating: 8/10

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