A collection of ambient breakbeat and soundtrack-influenced rock, Offbeat is an appropriately titled left-field venture of the Red Hot + Blue benefit series. Included are tracks from "alternative" acts like Soul Coughing, My Bloody Valentine, Spookey Ruben, Barry Adamson and Laika, plus more dancefloor-oriented producers like Skylab, DJ Krush, Meat Beat Manifesto, Moby, DJ Spooky and others. As can usually be counted on, this edition in the Red Hot series is a must for fans of the music, and an easy recommendation as an important starting point for neophytes.

Sound Mirrors suggests that 1989's What's That Noise? wasn't a slick fluke, but that there are actually two Coldcuts. There's the Coldcut who sound like they're controlling the uncontrollable with jagged shards of hip-hop and dance music bouncing joyfully around the room while sneering at the conventional song. Let Us Play!, the unstoppable Journeys by DJ, and their Solid State radio program all fall into this category, all featuring maverick music that made the un-ironic guest appearances of Lisa Stansfield and the bubbly/forgotten Yazz on What's That Noise? seem like youthful pop folly…

Hooverphonic is a Belgian band that formed in October 1995. Though originally categorized as a trip hop group, they quickly expanded their sound to the point where they could no longer be described as a lone genre, but rather encompass alternative, electronica, electropop, rock, and a mixture of others. The band originally called themselves Hoover, but later changed their name to Hooverphonic after discovering other groups were already using the Hoover name and to avoid any legal issues with the vacuum cleaner company.

You All Look the Same to Me is the third record by a British band Archive released in 2002. With a sound halfway between classical trip-hop of Bristol school and electronic psychedelic rock (and many shades of alternative pop in between), Archive enjoyed more success in continental Europe, (i.e. in France) than at home.