Public Image Limited 'Poptones (Peel Session)' (1979)

Sneering brilliance from PIL's epoch-defining 'Metal Box' album. 'Poptones' is an unsettling and unsettled track that rides on Jah Wobble's exquisite dub bass (for more of this, see the album version of Primal Scream's 'Higher Than The Sun') and is laced with keith Levene's searing, spidery guitar lines.

John Lydon intones a tale of I'm-not-quite-sure-what, but it suggests burial in a shallow woodland grave "whilst the cassette plays Poptones." Lydon's shrieking echoes away to infinity as the dub grooves relentlessly onwards - then spookily reappears front-and-centre in the mix to draw the track to a close.

Staggering and edgily brilliant, like the rest of the 'Metal Box' album.

Download Public Image Limited's 'Poptones (Peel Session, 1979)' (mp3) (Rapidshare)