JOHNNY Cash knew he was dying as he recorded his graceful farewell video for Hurt; cancer-suffering Warren Zevon rounded up his rock'n'roll neighbours for his valedictory album; but Joe Strummer?

On Streetcore he hasn't sounded so alive, so full or vocal bark and lyrical bite, so up for the political battle, nor so melodious since London Calling in 1979. That makes his death at 50 from a heart attack last December all the more sad, the record being completed by The Mescaleros' Martin Slattery and Scott Shields in the spirit of Strummer's punk pioneers The Clash. Strummer had been newly enthused by the Glastonbury Festival, a creative spark plug celebrated in the optimistic opener Coma Girl, the Clash-style reggae of Get Down Moses and the stirring chorus of Arms Aloft. His sudden loss inevitably heightens the sadness of Streetcore's acoustic trilogy: an up-close and personal cover of Bob Marley's Redemption Song; the closing jaunty take on a Bobby Charles standard, re-titled Silver And Gold with its prescient lyric, "Do everything silver and gold, I got to hurry up before I grow too old"; and Long Shadow, the eulogy he had had written ironically for fellow protest singer Cash. "You cast a long shadow, and that is your testament," Strummer sings on the naked demo. "Somewhere in my soul, there's always rock'n'roll." God rest that questing soul.

Strummer had always experimented, from The Clash's dub reggae to The Mescaleros' less successful adventures in world music on Global A Go-Go in 2001. Fellow punk relic Siouxsie Sioux is similarly motivated, especially in her side project with Banshees' drummer Budgie. Hai! - Japanese for 'yes' - is their fourth album of primal tribal rhythms in 20 years and their first with Taiko drum master Leonard Eto from Tokyo. Dense, intense, multi-layered and darkly seductive yet fatalistic, the Japanese minimalism fits Siouxsie's Forties siren wail like the slinkiest of velvet gloves. First Tarantino's Kill Bill, now Hai!, Japan rocks!

Updated: 09:02 Thursday, November 13, 2003