POP

Stiltskin. Remember them? Secured the top chart spot with a grunge-by-numbers soundtrack for a jeans advert. Follow-up smashes total a spectacular nil. They're quietly forgotten, the attitude being: well, plenty more where that came from.

Then take Moist, Canada's answer to the credibility-challenged Stone Temple Pilots. Their's is a wart-free metal onslaught; the airbrush in full employment for the guitar epic bits. Worse still, they scored a Top 40 hit with the debut single "Push". One can draw one's own conclusions about why it took just two years for Moist to go from penning their first songs to vaulting the platinum sales mark in Canada. Perhaps they're naturally magnificent. Maybe cute looks, Nirvana-esque howls and pop metal sensibilities helped quite a bit. Or perhaps, to be fair for a minute, the merciless touring they've put in has worked the magic. Last week's Camden Palace showing was said to have been tremendous.

Whatever, if you liked "Push", as many a thousand teenybopper did, their second single "Silver" won't disappoint. But there is just one more opportunity to be seduced or repulsed. Their stage stomping charisma probably will decide whether this is a Stiltskin-like beginning of the end. Or just the beginning

Moist, The Garage, N5, 28 January (071-607 1818)