You should have been reading a review of this last time around but thanks to the vagaries of the post office it took 2 efforts for this beautifully presented promotional package to wend its way Zeitward. And it was worth the wait.

Firmly rooted in the gothic darkwave tradition but with nods to the ethereal left field work of Kate Bush and her followers, this hinges on the idiosyncratic vocals of Jennifer and some exquisite work on the piano.

By far the best work of its ilk since the Mothburner demos of a couple of years back, this is not for the faint hearted, but these with a predilection for female voices working on the edge will find a lot to love.

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Mystic Dreams Music, PO Box 221624, Newhall, CA 91322, USA

We do not like puns. Well we do, in moments of drunken hilarity, but having a puntastic name does not our cradle rock. If you have such a name you are starting off with negative equity. So you'd better have some decent tunes. Peekabuddha do.

P are plying their trade in the rock/funk/rap hybrid so beloved of early Faith No More and whilst rarely hitting those heights P have enough going for them to make you stop and pay attention. They never wander down one dimensional way and intersperse enough changes of mood and tempo to keep interest levels high.

Oddly enough for an unreconstructed rocker, it's when P bring the vibe down and start playing with textures that they seem to work ("6AM" being a prime example). Good work rap/rock/funk fellas.

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Odd. Starts off sounding like a Jason King soundtrack then the trip hop backing arrives, followed by little girl lost voacls and then the Memphis Horns pop up briefly in the background. Utterly bizarre but utterly brilliant. And all done in under 3 minutes, just how God intended singles to be.

The two other tracks don't match up to this malarkey, being more conventionally structured, but they're strong enough to keep you interested and whet the appetite for a full length offering.

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Barely pausing for breath, we rush headlong into Mike Burros psychedelic experience. Mike has come up with a live CD (due out in May) highlighting his particular brand of spacerock. And it is good.

Now I have been chastised for my HW fixation in the past (Hi War), but in this case it's spot on. But with Hawkwind being such a multi-layered, multi-textured beast, it's only fair to say that Mike uses the drone rock of 71-75 HW as springboard into the future.

In a previous review I highlighted the Krautrock influence that permeated some of the tracks, but in a live setting everything is beefed up considerably and it's a more conventional spacerock sound (if the word conventional can ever be applied to spacerockJ ). Plus those of lucky enough to get our hands on the sampler have the added joy of Sloterdijks live rendition of "Golden Void" to keep us company.

Look out for Sloterdijk at a spacerock festival near you and order the CD now. The first essential spacerock purchase of year 2000!

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Lollipop Shop contact;

And finally we have the latest offering from Krankheit der Jugend. This is their twelfth offering and is, fundamentally, a concept album about two people journeying from Bad Rappenau to Goa via France, Italy and Ilmenau.

As with earlier releases KDJ refuse to be easily categorised taking in post-rock, spacerock, drone and avante garde electronica. Add this to minimalist lyrics in german, English and Italian, and you're left with a potentially difficult listening experience.

However, KDJ never dwell too long in one place, so if you're not taken with a particular mood or theme, then pretty soon you're off somewhere completely different. This sometimes leads to a disjointed listening experience and as with anything of this nature there are moments when you reach for the skip button. Howeever, I'm particularly taken with the moments when things calm down, bliss out and gently lull you into a peaceful place, simulating the rail journey they're trying to create.

This is adventurous, on the edge and if you're the least bit interested in the more experimental areas of rock, you really should check this out.

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Krankekunstverlag gbr, Haupstr.75, d-74206 Bad Wimpfen, Germany

As Le'rue Delashay says "Musick is unparalleled in its capacity to portray emotions and meaning on a universal level".

And "Musick In Theory In Practice" certainly does that. This follow up to "The Court Composer" carries on marrying the dynamics of rock to the discipline of classical music, and manages to produce something greater than the sum of its parts.

Music that challenges you to listen rather than be simply passive background music is hard to come by, so when Le'rue Delashays gargantuan, theatrical, gothic instrumental hybrid manages to make that all important shiver run down your spine, you know you're onto something good.

A unique soundtrack to your worst nightmares and your most beautiful dreams.

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Root Of All Evil Records, 636 N. Snelling Ave. St Paul, Minnesota 55104, USA

Theatrikil Productions, PO Box 80050, Minneapolis MN 55408, USA

The studio successor to the divine beast that was "Dose", there's a lot to live up to. With anguished mutterings over in E-mule about "guests" and shock! Horror! Producer Michael Barbieros poodle perm past, there were a few worries. And opening track "Wandering Child" does little to assuage those fears. "Sturdy" and "workmanlike" are not words I care to associate with the Mule. Praise be then for the title tracks appearance at No 2. "LBI" the album is chock full of world weariness and "LBI" the track is a perfect example of the downbeat that echoes throughout. Johnny Neel adds some graceful keyboard touches and on stand out track "Lay Your Burden Down" is also joined by Ben Harper on vocal and pedal steel to superb effect.

This will, inevitably, end up in my Top 10 of the year, and is well worth every accolade that comes it's way.

Oh, and watch out for the hidden track where the Mule kick back and let the blues run riot.

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A new name here at Zeitgeist Towers, and what a truly dreadful one it is tooJ So without further ado I bestow one of my band names on you. You are now "The DNA Cowboys".

Luckily, this CD is an absolute peach, or I'd be slagging off the name for ages yet. With a 1-2-3-4 we're off into the glory days of genuine British classic rock. Not in a piss-poor Oasis way but in a spawn of rural Faces meets Family and gets it on with mid-period Townshend sung by Joe Cocker kind of way.

And that was a very round about way of saying that as no-one remembers King Hash or Slide we had to come up with some tenuous benchmarks to give you the reader an extremely vague idea of where Stan and their melodic pop/rock sound lies. Whatever, this is a class release, well worthy of your attention and cash. If the title track doesn't touch you with its beautiful simplicity or if "Saturday Night" doesn't bring a knowing smile to your face, then you are quite probably dead and should advise someone in authority immediately.

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STAN, PO Box 655, Newcastle-Upon -Tyne, NE99 1TU, UK

20 tracks of whiny, indie guitar rock may not do much for you. If not, you'd better move on. Cos that's what you're gonna get. Mind you, if someone from Waco, Texas wants to complain then that's fine by meJ

Now my antipathy to all things Pavement and Guided By Voices is well known, so it came as a tremendous surprise when these tracks of teenage angst proved to be well written, produced and performed. If you get past the twee ("Baby Brother") and the fact that the world revolves around each and every teenage boy (hey, I was 18 more than once), there's seven or eight songs here that beg for repeat play.

This is largely due to a lyrical inventiveness that belies their naivety. Considering that some of this is literally bedroom rock, it's very professional and when a bullseye is hit ("Platonically Yours") it's as good as the genre gets.

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The Sean Padilla Media Empire, PO Box 84642, Waco, Texas 76978-4642, USA

Well, this one came out of nowhere and brightened up an otherwise drab day.

An interesting combination of traditional rock, a little bit of prog rhythm chucked in for good measure and just enough indie nous not to scare of the NME contingent. All rather clever.

Of the three tracks on this EP, "Breathe Underwater" is the most commercial of the tracks on offer and wouldn't sound out of place on the Steve Lamaq Radio 1 show, "Molotov Cocktail" is a moody little bugger that gets under our skin, but it's "Go Go Angel" that proves to be the most addictive ditty of all, with a swirling, swooping riff and chorus that leaps out of nowhere before rushing back into hiding. One of the best songs we're heard this year.

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