Dizzee Rascal, Boy In Da Corner (Dirtee Stank/XL), release June 21. Folks, we have the album of the year (unless the form improves, like 400 % on its pitiful firsthalf 2003 showing). The boy done good. At last the year really begins. Fuller report to follow.

I forgot to put Spacemen 3 Playing With Fire/Recurring/Sonic Boom solo in Tres Hot where they certainly belong after Jon Dale's luminous paean to the underacknowledged genius of Sonic Boom. Playing With Fire is the one for me (one of the few redeeming things about 1989). Apparently steeped in Kraftwerk and Laurie Anderson! Everything S3 did before seems too Nick Kent DarkStuff rock classicist, while I remember being disappointed by the first Sonic solo, the one with the colour-spectrum plastic flywheel thing on the front. But maybe Recurring is a neglected classic as Jon says. "Big City" I heard (from the horse's mouth I think) was an Ecstasy song.