SMASHING PUMPKINS: Stand Inside Your Love (Hut) - The taster for the group's forthcoming album Machina, this is fairly straightforward angst-filled melodic indie rock. It lacks the precise elegance of the band's first two albums. (6/10) PB

CAMPAG VELOCET: Vito Satan (PIAS) - This is an excursion from the norm from these shady characters as they try their hands at a standard pop rock ditty. They're touted by many to be the next big thing but, judging by their ill-mannered angst on this latest offering, they're nothing but big girls' blouses. (3/10) JS

TEN BENSON: Robot Tourist (Cottage) - You would expect a song about travelling robots to sound like, er, travelling robots, but this is more like a drunken rabble at the local boozer with loud, fuzzy guitars. Nonsensical and completely witless, Ten Benson could seriously damage your aural health. (3/10) JS ALBUMS DR JOHN: Duke Elegant (EMI) - The oddball '60s swamp legend turns his ivory-tickling hands to the work of Duke Ellington and comes up trumps. Whether it's a lazy take on It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing), the casual elegance of bebop ballad Solitude or the infectious funk of I'm Gonna Go Fishing, Dr John brings the already-timeless work of Ellington into a new century. (8/10) PB

PRIMAL SCREAM: Exterminator (Creation): The latest re-invention of Primal Scream sees them as industrial-strength block-rocking anarchists. Which would be all right if it were done with a little more inventiveness. The loop sequences sound like those used by The Jesus And Mary Chain, while the lyrics sound like a poor man's Underworld. Bernard Sumner and My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields make guest appearances and Mani from the Stone Roses is now on the drummer's stool. But it's all rather turgid and monotonous. (6/10)PB

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.