SNEAKER PIMPS Becoming X Virgin MOLOKO Do You Like My Tight Sweater? Warner Bros./Echo WHILE THE RECORD industry looks for signs the latest pop trend--electronica--will burst forth and sweep the country, the real revolution has been long coming, taking baby steps all the way. Don't be fooled: Hardcore rave music won't impact the charts any time soon. Instead, techno-flavored music will ease into our musical culture (as it has for the past decade at least) through U2 and David Bowie, perhaps, but also through likable young British pop bands such as the Sneaker Pimps and Moloko. Both groups' debut albums have taken their time getting over here: Sneaker Pimps' Becoming X was released six months ago in the U.K., while Moloko's Do You Like My Tight Sweater? is almost two years old. The delay is not surprising--club music has long held mainstream appeal in England. What's more telling, though, at least in terms of their chances for stateside success, is that both take cues from American groups. The Sneaker Pimps combine standard rock guitar parts with trip-hop beats and clear white-soul vocals; when strumming an acoustic guitar (as on the first single, "6 Underground"), the trio is virtually indistinguishable from Luscious Jackson. Moloko, on the other hand, defies easy comparison, though the duo's blend of deep, electro-funk groove, club beats, and hip-absurdist vocals, along with a brightly colored retro-futurism (Moloko is, after all, a reference to A Clockwork Orange), comes closest to Deee-Lite. While both groups use electronica's signifiers--jungle's rattle, trip-hop's dark churn, ambient's synth washes, hip-hop's samples--Sneaker Pimps never stray far from the comfy world of the pop song. Becoming X's opener, "Low Place Like Home," is only one step from Alanis, while the rousing closer is as breathy and sunny as the Cardigans. Moloko, though, by flashing a truly loopy attitude with songs as fresh and thrilling as they are instantly catchy, make Tight Sweater one of the best debuts of the year--no matter if it's 1995 or 1997. --Roni Sarig JELLY ROLL KINGS Off Yonder Wall Fat Possum/Capricorn SADLY, THIS IS only the Jelly Roll Kings' second album in nearly 20 years, but thankfully, it was worth the wait. Primal Mississippi juke-joint, slop-bucket blues. This is not the lame bullshit passed off to tourists as "genuine" blues at the ultra-trendy and over-exposed House of Blues in L.A. Ballsy, gut-wrenching guitar execution from behemoth Big Black Johnson punctuates this session, while the simple but effective drumming of Sam Carr and the rhythmic harp/keyboard trade-offs from Frank Frost anchor the proceedings. Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right Mama" (a hit for Elvis in '56) is given the down-and-dirty, amplified-country-blues treatment, while the instrumental version of "Baby Please Don't Go" is a rollicking and hypnotic affair bolstered by Frost's bouncy, Dave "Baby" Cortez-style organ runs. --Ron Bally

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