Hope Sandoval is best known as the vocalist and figurehead of Mazzy Star. The alternative rock act issued three albums in the '90s, butnevertheless disbanded following the release of 1996's Among my Swan. Sandoval then mysteriously disappeared from the music world for nearly five years. The sultry chanteuse's first full-length solo effort Bavarian Fruit Bread served as her comeback. Although a band dubbed the Warm Inventions - a conglomeration of 10 studio musicians - it is Sandoval who is really the focal point. The somber singer plays the majority of the instruments and it is her breathy, laconic voice that carries each tune.

Fila Brazillia have been honing their art for over 10 years, and this seventh studio album bears the mark of that experience. More uptempo than many of their previous outings, Touch of Cloth still carries that trademark quirkiness that the Hull-based funkateers have come to represent over the years. As usual with Fila albums, a definite style is difficult to ascertain, as their sounds range from funk to dub to soul to hip hop to broken beat to ambient - usually all in the same track. What makes Fila stand out is their knowledge of all kinds of music styles and their ability to weave it all into a cohesive whole.

All lovers of great music - dance or otherwise - should be well acquainted with Fila Brazillia's incredible catalogue of leftfield dance albums. Yet that's merely half of the Fila saga. Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry are also ace remixologists. The double-disc Brazilification collects the cream of the Fila remixes that have graced elusive singles over the years. Brazilification's lineup reveals an all-star affair: Radiohead, U.N.K.L.E., Simple Minds, The Orb, Moloko, DJ Food, Black Uhuru, and Freakpower (otherwise known as Fatboy Slim) are among the lucky recipients of fabulous, Fila-style makeovers.

The eclecticism and the organic warmth of Fila Brazillia's electronica continue to amaze on Power Clown, one of their finest efforts to date. Laid-back jazz-funk grooves straight out of the '70s are the foundation of the record, but hints of Stevie Wonder-esque soul, hip-hop, bossa nova, ambient, spacey techno, house, minimalist electro, big-beat, and trip-hop all pop up here and there, as do touches of ethnic percussion, acoustic guitar, saxophone solos, new age-y synth flourishes, and the occasional odd vocal sample or sound effect. One of the finest and most overlooked electronic-dance releases of 1998.

Even more experimentally hyper than on previous LPs, Fila Brazillia cross-fertilize styles with abandon on Luck Be a Weirdo Tonight, resulting in such genre-bending as prog-blaxploitation and space-disco, as well as more straight-ahead fusions like lounge-disco.

Experimental technoheads Fila Brazillia really mix it up on Maim That Tune, constructing various takes on techno, including elements of spaghetti Western, hip-hop, house and African music.

Hull-based duo Fila Brazillia is the most popular and acclaimed of the noted Pork Recordings stable. Formed in 1990 by producers Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry, the group's first 12", "The Mermaid," was released that same year on Pork's, gaining instant acclaim among DJs and headphonauts alike for its innovative fusion of funk, dub, house, hip-hop, and acid jazz. The group followed their debut single with a string of full-length releases (Old Codes, New Chaos, Maim That Tune, and Black Market Gardening among them), which were instrumental in building Pork's reputation as one of the most consistent and respected of England's vast ocean of underground breakbeat/trip-hop labels.

Art of Noise began in the mid-'80s and is now a touchstone to which all electronic music should be compared. Ambient Collection had long been a jewel in many vinyl collections. These Art of Noise catalog remixes by Youth, bassist for Killing Joke, remain a classic of compositional ambient electronica.

Anne Dudley, Gary Langan, and Paul Morley were members of producer Trevor Horn's in-house studio band in the early '80s before they formed the Art of Noise, a techno-pop group whose music was an amalgam of studio gimmickry, tape splicing, and synthesized beats. The Art of Noise took material from a variety of sources: hip-hop, rock, jazz, R&B, traditional pop, found sounds, and noise all worked their way into the group's distinctly postmodern soundscapes.

Peter Murphy simply sounds like he's having the time of his life, singing both for the sheer joy of it and for the dramatic power of his commanding voice. Quite why nothing else on the album connected with the public as strongly as "Cuts You Up" is a mystery; its follow-up single, "A Strange Kind of Love," was a striking love song, with acoustic guitar and plaintive Statham keyboards supporting one of Murphy's strongest lyrics and performances. Regardless, Deep showed Murphy balancing mass appeal and his own distinct art with perfection.

There was a backlash against Laurie Anderson in "serious" musical and artistic circles after the completely unexpected mainstream commercial success of her debut album. A fair listen to Big Science leaves the impression that jealousy must have been at the root of the reception because this album is in no way a commercial sellout. Big Science is a landmark release in the New York art scene of the '80s, and quite possibly the best art rock album of the decade.

Proof that punk was more about attitude than a raw, guitar-driven sound, Suicide's self-titled debut set the duo apart from the rest of the style's self-proclaimed outsiders. Although they barely receive credit, Suicide (singer Alan Vega and keyboardist Martin Rev) is the source point for virtually every synth pop duo that glutted the pop marketplace in the early '80s. Without the trailblazing Rev and Vega, there would have been no Soft Cell, Erasure, Bronski Beat, Yaz, you name 'em, and while many would tell you that that's nothing to crow about, the aforementioned synth-poppers merely appropriated Suicide's keyboards/singer look and none of Rev and Vega's extremely confrontational performance style and love of dissonance.

Formed in the wake of the punk explosion in England, Joy Division became the first band in the post-punk movement by later emphasizing not anger and energy but mood and expression, pointing ahead to the rise of melancholy alternative music in the '80s. Though the group's raw initial sides fit the bill for any punk band, Joy Division later incorporated synthesizers (taboo in the low-tech world of '70s punk) and more haunting melodies, emphasized by the isolated, tortured lyrics of its lead vocalist, Ian Curtis. While the British punk movement shocked the world during the late '70s, Joy Division's quiet storm of musical restraint and emotive power proved to be just as important to independent music in the 1980s.

The Stranglers' early work is most properly described as stripped-down pop played with a hardcore sensibility; fairly lengthy songs with frequent solo breaks, prominent keyboard usage, and occasional employment of vocal harmony sets them apart from their peers. But snarling lead singing that puts forth macho/critical/distasteful lyrics predominates here, clearly showing the group's punk affinity. This release is solid and worthwhile, a rewarding listen.