RECORDS / The IoS Playlist

THE FIVE BEST DISCS OF THE MOMENT

Robin Holloway: Second Concerto for Orchestra, BBC SO / Knussen (NMC, CD only). An expansive and exuberant score from the 1970s which remains one of Holloway's most impressive achievements. It appears on a 33-minute disc at a special price of about pounds 9. MW

Bartok: Music for Violin & Piano, Susanne Stanzeleit / Gustav Fenyo (ASV, CD only). The second volume of a complete survey, with particularly fine performances by this young German violinist of Bartok's Hungarian folk repertory. MW

Various Artists: If Deejay Was Your Trade. The Dreads at King Tubby's 1974-77 (Blood & Fire, CD only). Excellent compilation

of early Jamaican mike-warriors; the first fruit of a promising new reggae reissues label set up by, of all people, the managers of Simply Red. Ben Thompson

Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain (Columbia, single). Reissued but still-potent dose of marijuana-inflected nasal squeak-rap. The party record of the aeon. BT

Misty Oldland: A Fair Affair (Columbia,

single, out tomorrow). The new feminism - the kind that comes with glamour - moves out of the bookshops and into Our Price. The tune draws on 'Dizzy' and 'Je t'aime', the words are like an unusually witty lecture, and the whole thing is a beguiling pop-rap song. Misty plays Ronnie Scott's, London W1 (071- 439 0747), tonight. Tim de Lisle