The ultimate victim of his own success, such was the saturation of 1999's Play that Moby became the musical go-to guy for car advertisers and an uncomfortable-but- willing participant whenever a TV panel show felt in need of a soft-spoken, bald, geeky vegan.

It doesn't make the heart leap

With its moody, ominous sound and pioneering mix of beats, samples and strings, Blue Lines, the debut album by the Bristol collective Massive Attack, defined a new musical genre, trip hop. Released in April 1991, the landmark album contained three hit singles – "Unfinished Sympathy", "Safe From Harm" and "Hymn Of The Big Wheel" – spent the next 18 months in the British charts and became part of the soundtrack of the early Nineties alongside grunge and Britpop.

Rare-groove legend TC goes trip-hop, with two songs co-written with Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja, who composes another, "Live with Me", himself.

Apart from a garbled version in the Globe six years ago, Marlowe's first play is barely known and the first thing to say about this riveting revival by James Macdonald is: about bloody time, too! References to the play crop up in Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and you could say that Antony and Cleopatra is in some ways a rewrite.

Morbid, but rather magical

Brighton Port Authority is the latest incarnation of Norman Cook. The concept is that BPA's songs could have been recorded "sometime during the Seventies", which really means it's a repository for stuff that wouldn't get the Fatboy Slim fans going nuts. And also an excuse to hook up with his friends. The novelty Afro-pop single "Toe Jam" has David Byrne in supremely irritating form, but Martha Wainwright's lover's rock number "Spade" is worthy of Susan Cadogan or Janet Kay.

For many, Tricky will for ever be defined by the genre he helped create. He has always been darker and more threatening than his contemporaries Massive Attack and Portishead, but he can't seem to escape trip-hop, or for that matter Maxinquaye, his defining debut album.

After five years in the wilderness, Tricky is staging a comeback. Matilda Egere-Cooper caught up with the voice of trip-hop about where he’s been – and why he thinks that Jo Whiley has got it in for him

Say what you will about Dido, she's certainly dependable; for though she's travelled the world since 2003's 'Life for Rent', her musical journey appears to have stalled at the front door.

Refugees from Scotland's Beta Band, The Aliens have turned failure and despair into stirring psychedelic pop. Chris Mugan meets a trio reborn

Sitting in a noodle bar opposite the venue prior to this gig, my friend and I discussed the possible flaws of seeing Morcheeba live. How would the electronic chill-out band perform their repertoire? Would they just have decks and a couple of keyboards? Although we had both been fans of the band for years, neither of us had any idea of what they looked like until receiving an email gig reminder the day before. Unfortunately, the press photo of two smartly dressed middle-aged men was not inspiring. No wonder that their A&R guys have chosen not to feature them on their album covers.

Martina Topley Bird's CV of former collaborators is one of the more impressively varied in modern pop: since she was discovered by Tricky way back in the mid-Nineties, her vocals have appeared on records by David Holmes, Mark Lanegan, Primus, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Gorillaz, to name but a few.