FUTURE PILOT A.K.A VS A GALAXY OF SOUND
Scanner's label, Sulphur Records launches with this gem, a 2 disc set from former Soup Dragons member Sushil K. Dade, also known as Future Pilot. This disc is a wonderful collection of collaborations between Dade and Cornershop, Scanner and Digital Cow among others. While it's a nice combination of Dade's Eastern influences and UK-style trip-hop electronica, the Macintosh computer voice synthesizer interludes sort of become a nuissance. Most of the songs are wonderful and varied between rock gems, instrumental low cool beat pieces, stream of consciousness sounding rhytmic noise tracks and even Indian lullaby-esque piece. From personal experience, I know Scanner's quite an active music enthusiast so this label looks like one to watch. With any luck the Beggars Banquet deal won't fall through... - Jon Whitney

JOSEPH ARTHUR, VACANCY
With the long-awaited follow-up to his 1996 debut, "Big City Secrets", Joseph Arthur proves he is the defibrillator paddle that can shock some life back into the stale corpse of the singer/songwriter stereotype. He makes music that is a boiling down of the past twenty years of groundbreaking popular music: from "Rain Dogs" to World Party, Guided By Voices to Bob Dylan. How can you doubt a kid from Ohio who's music so impressed Peter Gabrial, he not only signed him to his Realworld record label, but also sang back-up on his debut along with Brian Eno! His tunes, while carrying enough pop for radio play, are too intelligent to be sandwiched between other verse-chorus-verse slaves. He mixes standard solo and group line-ups with added tape loops, noise, and treated exotic instruments (What the hell is a caxixi, anyway?). While this album (a mini album, really, just a teaser for his upcoming sophomore effort) has a much more stripped down sound to it, it still encompasses different genres and pays debts to obvious influences. The title track could be an out take from Nick Drake's "Pink Moon", which gives way to the uncampy doo-wop of "Crying On Sunday." The albums ends, strangely enough, with "Toxic Angel", a chameleon-esque track that starts off a beautiful ballad and ends as a noisy shuffle of haunting piano, drums, and low-level samples, sounding not too different from Scanner's more introspective material. Should you buy this? My answer would be yes, without a doubt. - Jason Olariu

EXISTENZ
eXistenZ is the new film by David Cronenberg, who delighted some and bored others with Crash a couple years ago. eXistenZ is a new game designed by cyber nerd Allegra, promoting her new game pod, which attaches into the lower part of your spine, she finds herself being gunned down by a terrorist who believes what she is doing is wrong. A staff member becomes her guardian and they go into an adventure into her game to save the only remaining game pod. To risk from spoiling this film for anyone, I suggest you check it out for yourself. It's a new form of virtual reality, or is it reality? You decide. Some people may think the film is too slow, but those who have lived through Crash will with no doubt enjoy this film. David Cronenberg once again shows the dark side of human nature with it's organic and disgusting machines and such, he also has done classics as Dead Ringers, Scanners, Videodrome as well as others. The excellent score is by David Cronenberg veteran Howard Shore. - John Beck

PERMANENT MIDNIGHT
I don't know if we should hate or thank William Burroughs for making the junkie confessional hip. His tales of junk-sick woe blazed the trails for movies such as "Drugstore Cowboy" and this. It's the true story of Jerry Stahl, the creator of 80's TV show "Alf". Not a very happy guy, he marries for money, so the beautiful Elizabeth Hurley can get her green card (you'd have to pay someone to do that?!?) and possibly help him get his foot in the network door. Of course, even getting his idea bought by a major network doesn't keep Jerry from wearing black non-stop and moping around, which leads him to getting hooked on heroin (something my dad told me would happen to me if I wore all black, too!). From there you can imagine the hilarious hi-jinx: Jerry gets bitched at for being a junkie by the doctor while his wife is in labor, his stable and loving marriage crumbles, he collapses all his veins and turns to shooting into his neck. Cheerful stuff. This is billed as a BLACK comedy, and even that is being light. There are a few uncomfortable laughs, but not enough to offset the feeling of just being uncomfortable.- Jason Olariu

What do I think? I have no clue what this is even about...