Colin M

This week's albums are: 5. DFA - Remixes Chapter #1 4. Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors 3. The Congos - Heart of the Congos 2. The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics 1. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale

Sam Cooke, Live at the Harlem Square Club. Maan, what a voice!

5. Nathan Fake - Drowning In A Sea Of Love 4. Boards of Canada - Geogaddi 3. The Orb - UFOrb 2. Mogwai - Government Commissions 1. Massive Attack - Collected: The Best of Massive Attack

John Martyn - Couldn't Love You More

5. Jay Dee - Donuts 4. Calexico - The Black Light 3. Prince - 3121 2. The Beastie Boys - Check Your Head 1. Madlib - Movie Scenes Vol 1-2

1. Steak Bridies at East End Park 2. Winning the Scottish Cup That's all really

Prince - Black Sweat From his new album 3121

5. Tortoise - TNT 4. Madlib - Movie Scenes Vol 1-2 3. Missy Elliott - The Cookbook 2. Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid - The Exchange Session Vol. 1 1. Mogwai - Mr Beast

I'm a massive fan of everything he's ever done, but that and his other early stuff (Polygon Window and Selected Ambient Works Volume II) are still my favourites. He's playing the Barrowlands in April, although I expect it will be anything but ambient that night!

Excellent album. Could never get past the bluster of Springsteen until I heard that, it captures exactly the mood of the songs. 5. Prince - Around The World In A Day 4. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 3. Slum Village - Fantastic Volume II 2. Funkadelic - Funkadelic 1. Sam Cooke - Live At The Harlem Square Club

Sting prancing around semi-naked in that might be the most disturbing moment in cinema history.

Neil Young - Helpless

Fair enough, but it's not really the after effects that are covered in the film, it's the direct effect of the act itself. I think there are a great number of people who do not appreciate why there are such after effects. I do concede though that those people are unlikely to be into French cinema.

I'm not sure I really agree with that. In the case of Irreversible, the general premise of the film as I saw it, albeit delivered in as non-linear a manner as is probably possible, is to convey how life can be destroyed by a short series of events. I think the film would have had much less impact without that scene - the whole point of it was to convey as exactly as possible how horrific and indeed lengthy it would be. I think that we have a basic impulse, strengthened by social conditioning, to automatically condemn the act of rape as wrong, abhorrent etc, and rightly so. As a result however, I think that the vast majority of people have very little idea as to the extremity of the act, as they understandably want to shut it out of their mind. Like BB I found it disturbing and have no desire whatsoever to see it again. However I would argue that it has extremely powerful artistic merit, in fact I suspect that more than any other movie scene I have seen, I felt exactly the emotions, and experienced the reaction that the director was trying to get across. I do not believe for a second that it was included, or shot in the way that it was, for glorification or titilation, and as such I would say that my own awareness of the horrific nature of rape was heightened - if only because I was being forced not to shut it out of my mind.

The opening sequence of Irreversible is pretty mindbending, and the fire extinguisher scene is horrific, there were scores of people streaming out of the cinema when I saw it Dunno if saying I "enjoyed" the film overall would be accurate, but it was certainly one of the most powerful movies I've ever seen. The rape scene is probably even more disturbing, I found it very uncomfortable watching that, but then that's obviously the point. It was a great film though, very dark and disturbing but technically excellent and extremely powerful.

Nothing but hip-hop this week 1. Jay Dee - Donuts 2. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 3. Skinnyman - Council Estate of Mind 4. Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded 5. Little Brother - The Minstrel Show

Anything by David Lynch, most notably Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. Both excellent films, both pretty crazy. As for Naked Lunch - I have seen that twice and have absolutely no idea what was going on at all!

Agreed completely, LR is a phenomenal album. I always thought The College Dropout was a bit patchy, some fine moments but Late Registration is a massive move on. This week for me: 1. Jay Dee - Donuts 2. Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde 3. Autechre - LP5 4. The Smiths - Meat Is Murder 5. The Herbalizer - Take London

5 that spring to mind: Gillian Welch - Black Star The Futureheads - Hounds Of Love Aretha Franklin - Let it Be Tricky - Black Steel The winner though is Rebekah Del Rio singing Llorando, a Spanish version of Roy Orbison's Crying. It's from the soundtrack to the David Lynch film Mulholland Drive and is absolutely stunning

The Smiths - Meat Is Murder The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Coldcut - Sound Mirrors Arthur Russell - The World of Arthur Russell Arctic Monkeys - Whatever You Say I Am, That's What I'm Not Quite surprised I like the Monkeys one, it's good!

Jimi Hendrix Eddie Hazel Kevin Shields Neil Young Johnny Greenwood

Kicking Television is a live double CD - it's excellent. It focuses more on material from their last two though (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born), probably better to check them out first! They're a bit more abstract than Summerteeth but nowhere near as inaccessible than some reports would have you believe.

This week's selection: 1. Sam Cooke - Live at the Harlem Square Club 2. David Axelrod - Song of Innocence 3. Edan - Beauty and the Beat 4. New Order - Technique 5. Wilco - Kicking Television

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska Ryan Adams - 29 The Juan MacLean - Less Than Human Beck - Sea Change Kraftwerk - Minimum Maximum (the DVD version)

In what way is it childish? You don't need to watch the cartoon while listening to it