OPPOSITES attract, so are you ready for the ska-core attack? Ready or

not, it's on its way. We've already witnessed the extended courtship

between the polar extremes of rap and plain old heavy metal . . . now

it's the union of primal reggae with hardcore speed-metal.

How do we define hardcore? Bands with names like Fetid Excresence and

Pus-Coated Sausage of Death creating 100mph music for boys to jump on

one another to. Ska? Much mutated from its lilting Jamaican origins into

an angular Anglo dance form; somewhat tainted by its having been taken

up by fascist boneheads.

And how do we define ska-core? Simply by listening to the Mighty

Mighty Bosstones and their current clang-skank-tastic EP: Ska-Core, The

Devil and More (on the Mercury label). Existing in a noisy wonderland

they've created for themselves in the gap between Madness and Metallica,

the Bostonian Bosstones are a plaid-clad, non-racist skinhead dance band

for skinheads of all genders (and the length of your hair is also

immaterial, actually).

''We played across Europe for the first time last year, and sure, we

attracted a lot of skins, but not Nazi skins,'' drawls gravel-voiced

vocalist Dicky Barrett. ''How can we possibly appeal to racists when the

band's line-up is as big a melting-pot as the US? Black, Jewish,

third-generation Irish, and English.''

How did you hit upon your blend of disparate musics?

''We're eight guys with a lot of influences, everything from Madness

to Motorhead, and it just happened. We decided we didn't want to limit

ourselves. It's not just this or that, or just funk. We go all routes.

We turn it up, we turn it down. Slower, louder.''

When and how did you start out?

''Forever. We've been saying we've been together for three years for

about eight years now. We started getting attention about four years ago

with our first two indie LPs, Devil's Night Out and More Noise and Other

Disturbances. We all grew up together. I never foresaw a career in

music. It was more 'Hey, Dicky -- you're funny, stand in front of us and

shout.' I just lay that horrible voice on everything, and the guys do

all the hard work. I figure we've four or five more years -- so that'll

at least be six years when I'm not roofing houses or doing any of the

hundreds of menial tasks I did before.''

Message for the world?

''Naah. We tackle some issues, but we're not overly heavy. Lyrically,

I can describe the problems, but I don't have the answers.''

And your recent plaid-draped appearance at Glasgow's King Tut's? Why

plaid?

''Ah, the Scottish angle! We wore suits on stage at first because even

if we couldn't play, we could dress up well. And I made the guys laugh

by looking like a used-car salesman . . . bad plaid trousers, jacket,

hat. And in Glasgow, even though we were jet-lagged because we'd arrived

in Britain a day late, I think our music and our plaids worked well

enough to bring two feuding clans together . . . the MacDonalds and the

MacTavishes had come down from the hills for the gig after two centuries

of war or something. OK, OK . . . I made that up. But we do want our

music to bring people together.''

We believe you, you grizzly-bear-throated charmer, you. But how best

to define the Mighty Mighty Bosstones? Think of Louis Armstrong and

James Hetfield getting together to hymn the Clash and Bob Marley. Think

of massed shouty voices roaring a meaty punk-rock chorus of ''Think

again! Think again!'' at 200mph as pianos and crash to the ground behind

them. Think again, think again! Knee the paradox in the gonads! Headbutt

the subtext!

Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Their upcoming LP was produced by Tony Platt,

who has worked with both Bob Marley and AC/DC; it's called The Mighty

Mighty Bosstones Don't Know How to Party. This is an ironic assertion,

rather than a question. They do know how to party. Boss. Mighty. Mighty.

EXCLUSIVE revelation! Probably because they want to sook in with me, I

have been granted sole merchandising rites to Runrig's Fleadh appearance

on June 5! Huzzah! I'll be doing a nice line in inflatable plastic

claymores that glow in the dark (#19.95, with Runrig inscribed). And

shields! And sporrans! And three-metre-long fingers of shortbread! An

emotive sight on Glasgow Green after dusk, I'm sure you'll agree.

Various: People Get Ready -- A Tribute To Curtis Mayfield (Shanachie)

-- The creator of soul riches beyond price is now a quadraplegic,

disabled by the on-stage collapse of a lighting-rig. America being

without a free national health service, Curtis Mayfield's wealth has

been considerably reduced. Hence this benefit album featuring sundry of

Mayfield's admirers -- Jerry Butler, Bunny Wailer, Huey Lewis and the

News, Delbert McClinton -- performing some of the epics he crafted for

the Impressions and as a solo performer. I know that Curtis Mayfield's

music has made lots of you out there cry; made you happy; given you

consolation or exhilaration, so you all know what you have to do. We owe

Curtis Mayfield more than we'll ever be able to re-pay: make a start by

buying this LP today.

Nicky Holland: Nicky Holland (Epic) -- A classy, breezy, jazzy, folky

LP from an urbane songstress. Not quite in the k.d. lang/Nanci Griffith

league yet, but one to watch. Lloyd Cole helps on vocals; LA-domiciled

Blue Nilester Robert Bell plays on, co-writes, and produces one song. We

are happy to have new Nicky Holland LP; we await Blue Nileys' with

intense anticipation. Haste ye, laddies, haste ye!

New Order: Regret (New Order/

London) -- Ageing glam-gloomsters cheer across the land! Our four-year

wait rewarded with a fab single! Misery you can enjoy! Muscular and

melancholic bass! Spikey guitar! Plangent tune! Bez's maracas! Bernard

Sumner's blankly-dolorous tones! Hurrah!

Mouth Music: Mo-Di (Triple Earth) -- Much frothed about in more

excitable sectors of the media, Mo-Di defies easy categorisation.

Repeated listening is a must. It's an organic, propulsive kinda

ambient-Gaelic-Afro-world-house-trad groove-thing, and it seduces you,

and it's got godlike ex-Swamptrash skin-thrasher James Mackintosh on it.

Its list of instruments includes ''Arab warble, beer bottle, firegrate

and enigmatic priest''. Check Mouth Music out on tomorrow's Talkin Loud,

the last in the current series of the info-taining Scottish chat show

that makes Nyghte Flyghte look like a bunch of dull old jossers asleep

on a sofa.

David Bowie: Black Tie White Noise (Savage) -- ol' unevenly-sized blue

eyes is back, successfully re-inventing himself as a Sinatra for the

electro-pop nineties. I shame-facedly retract my previous criticisms,

Dave, me old mucker: you can still do it.

Nanci Griffith: Other Voices, Other Rooms (MCA) -- a belated thumbs

aloft to Glasgow's special favourite, planing some of her favourite folk

songs down to a state of emotional perfection. I'll be the one weeping

joyously throughout Nanci's three nights at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

in June.

COMPETITION WINNERS

THOUSANDS of Depeche Mode fans knew that Vince Clarke was the one who

left the 'Mode in 1981 for success with Yazoo, the Assembly, and

Erasure. Alas, there could be but five prize-winners: Sarah E. Lee of

Crieff, Ewan McDowall of Kilmarnock, Lynn Curran of Mount Florida,

Hillhead's Helen Aitchison, and Kevyn Whitelaw, of Stirling.