In the rubble and disarray that has been my month and its vulgar conclusion it is a thankful pleasure to cast my mind away from all things painful and instead recall the month's musical highlights. On 1 July England's finest band since Bauhaus - Ligament - played their last ever show at London Highbury Upstairs At The Garage. Despite the tawdry location and unregal clientele it was as grand mighty a bow-out as they could have wished for. The saddening fact of the matter however is that had the band been from Seattle or New York they would be headlining Reading rather than gracing London's less glorious toilets.

It is a strange but true proposition that the UK fears rock, it is seen as a dirty old business whose domain is mainly occupied by pre-teens and grimy saddoes. It seems strange that Sleater-Kinney and Trail Of Dead come to these shores with their endless array of riffs and shapes and are (quite rightly) lauded for their efforts, but when the same stunts are pulled with equally exquisite execution by this island's patrons they are met instead by derision and dingies. LET THERE BE ROCK!!!!

That said, at the moment there is the biggest resurgence in the underground scene for donkey's years. Home of past glories such as The Sisters Of Mercy and The Wedding Present, Leeds seems to be the epicentre of this revival. One of the best labels around at the minute is 555, home to the incredible Remote Viewer and Kid 606, two of the most original and exciting electronica exponents around.

Glasgow's doing alright too, with The Pastel's new Geographic imprint dishing up two deezers in their first spurt. Firstly, the second LP by the beautifully slow Empress - probably the finest LP to listen to at 4am... ever. And secondly, an LP by alleged terrorists from Japan Mahar Shalal Hash Baz - a wee bit harder to get your head round but equally fine nontheless.

With all this and the Baw & Sac getting on Top Of The Pops it's been no a bad month (musically) all round. I saw Glastonbury on the telly and have to give Moby nought out of everything for his lack of stage presence and over-use of bongos. He has done for the Delta blues what Jive Bunny did for rock'n'roll, except that even Jive Bunny didn't have the cheek to sing over the top of their plunderings. BOOOOOOOO.

WORD OF THE MONTH: Whitey

Stuart x