Album

Space-punk brilliance

Two-CD, twenty-seven track, best-of from his seven Creation albums, 1987-93

Greatest hits of the big beat pioneers, weighed down by famous friends

Catch-all NYC trio's long-overdue follow-up to 1997 debut National Chain

NY's latest show daring diversity

Imagine Stephen Foster—or at least Van Dyke Parks—armed with a laptop and you're close to understanding the extraordinary charm of Californian duo Matmos' fifth album. Like 1999's The West, The Civil War negotiates a fragile entente between Americana and electronica, but does so on a bigger, constantly astonishing scale. Fireworks explode, battlefield drummers march across John Fahey's porch, Dr John is reconstructed out of glitches, an entire track is made from samples of a rabbit pelt, and "The Stars And Stripes Forever" is reduced to a postmodern shambles.

Light, bright solo debut from Charlatans' ex-pat frontman

Hip hop headscapes from Brighton beats magus

So-so stuff chiefly for Pitney fanatics

Cracking comeback compilation includes two stirring new songs