Album

Whalerider – 4AD

Lisa Gerrard, spiritually intense wailer and ex-Dead Can Dance member is, we'll wager, no close relation to Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool midfielder. But you never know. She's gone all Maori on us here for a New Zealand indie film, and aren't they the fellas who do those scary war-dance routines before playing thug-ball, or rugby, or whatever it's called? Lisa, after working on Gladiator, Ali and others, is now a big Hollywood soundtracks player, which is comically absurd but blissfully reassuring.

Them – Now—And “Them”

First time on CD for post-Morrison freakout album recorded in California

Various Artists – The American Song-Poem Anthology

Compilation of mail-order metapop from people who brought us the Langley Schools Music Project

The Mars Volta – Deloused In The Comatorium

Stunning punk-prog produced by Rick Rubin, featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers Flea and John Frusciante. Band "sound manipulator" Jeremy Ward, 27, was found dead on May 25

Cosmic Rough Riders – Too Close To See Far

Revamped Glaswegians stay close to adopted West Coast roots on fourth LP

Do The Wry Thing

Cynical, articulate UK singer-songwriter sends home thoughts from abroad

Son Of The Soil

Uncle Tupelo founder paints his masterpiece

Australian Rules – Mute

More wonder and thunder from down under. Mick Harvey's extensive track record (Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, Crime & The City Solution) more than qualifies him to score a coming-of-age issue movie set in "a small coastal town in Australia". Interestingly, the debuting director, Paul Goldman, shot the videos for Boys Next Door's "Shiver" and The Birthday Party's "Nick The Stripper", so he and Harvey have been communing aesthetically for a while. Harvey's been getting award nominations already for this, and it seems there's little he can't turn his hand to these days.

Morcheeba – Parts Of The Process

Compilation of London trip hoppers' four albums to date, plus two new cuts

Hollywood Mondo

Kim Fowley's hoss is impossible to tether. Six-and-a-half-feet tall, resembling the worst nightmare in The Phantom Of The Paradise, too ugly for the agency, Fowley was born on the day Hitler invaded Poland. He grew up in the last Babylonian days of Tarnished Hollywood.
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