MUCH AS I love Howie B's music, I absolutely hate reviewing his records. Mr. Bernstein creates soundscapes the way Monet created lanscapes and, like Rorschach tests, they can mean completely different things to different people. They can also mean different things to the same people at different times, depending on moon, setting and the amount of spliff consumed.

I've listened to Strip To The Bone at least ten times over the last three days and still can't work out where to file it.

Recorded over eight days in a Kingston studio last year at the suggestion of Island boss Chris Blackwell, it is a drum ... bass collaboration between the Scottish ambient maestro and world renowned dub-reggae percussionists, rasta duo Sly ... Robbie. So it's a match not only made in herb heaven but also recorded there. Having said that, this isn't an album that's been permeated by the Jamaican sunshine. Strip To The Bone is very much a night-time offering, midnight mood music that would work as well in a club as it would in the bedroom.