Trip-hop media darlings Portishead will finally drop the needle on their follow-up to 1994's critical smash, Dummy (which included the instand classic, "Sour Times"), on Oct. 7, when they release their new, self-titled effort. Songs from the 12-track album, produced by the band, will get a special unveiling Thursday, July 24, when Portishead play a show at New York's Roseland, accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra. Starting next Wednesday, fans will be able to get a behind-the-scenes look at rehearsals for the show as well as footage from the band's press conference on Friday, through Portishead's website. The group, whose track "Sour Times" became somewhat of a trip-hop anthem, released 7,500 copies of a limited-edition vinyl single in the UK last week of the song "Cowboys," that sold out in several hours. The full-track lineup for the album is: "Cowboys," "All Mine," "Leslie," "Only You," "Western Eyes," "Undenied," "Half Day Closing," "Over," "Humming," "Mourning Air," "Seven Months" and "Elysium"...

The Prodigy, whose album Fat of the Land, dropped from its #1 debut on the Billboard charts last week to #3 this week on healthy sales of more than 124,000, are following fellow Brits Oasis' lead by churning up a fresh scandal a week. The latest brush-up involves the song "Climbatize," which the UK band, The Jedi Knights have claimed cannibalizes one of their songs, "Air Drums From Outer Bongolia." The Knights track was built around a sample of a song by the Incredible Bongo Band. While spokespersons at the band's U.S. label (Maverick) and UK label (XL) both offered "no comment" on the matter, Prodigy leader Liam Howlett spoke up in this week's New Musical Express about the odd sampling-a-sample controversy. "It's not their version," Howlett said. "They basically sampled the drums from an old groove. I sampled it from the Jedi Knights, I'm not saying I didn't, but they're trying to claim it's their loop and it's not. But it's all being sorted out now anyway. It's just a beat you know"...

Finally, come September we'll have yet one more tribute album to add to the already innumerable collections clogging record stores when the Right Stuff label issues a double-disc set honoring Bruce Springsteen. Titled One Step Up, Two Steps Back, the 28-song collection will offer one disc of new Boss covers along with a second set of previously released ones. Among the more interesting artists slated for the One Step Up portion are

ex-Blaster Dave Alvin ("Seeds"), The Smithereens ("Downbound Train") and John Wesley Harding ("Jackson Cage"). Included in the Two Steps Back set are Elvis Costello ("Brilliant Disguise"), David Bowie ("It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City") and Richie Havens ("Streets of Philadelphia"). One dollar from each set sold will benefit World Hunger Year, the anti-hunger organization founded by the late Harry Chapin and chosen specifically by Springsteen as this

project's beneficiary.

(ATN's Senior Writer Gil Kaufman and Staff Writer Chris Nelson compiled this report.)