Album: Chase and Status, No More Idols (Vertigo)

I've no idea who's responsible for the African rap on "No Problem, which opens Chase and Status's album, but he deserves the kind of star billing given here to the likes of Plan B and Dizzee Rascal.

Slightly laconic, slightly ironic, it makes for a brilliant contrast with the production duo's galloping stutter-riff groove, heralding a run of crunching fuzz-guitar riffs that brings to mind the UK big-beat heyday of The Prodigy. Plan B follows up the drum'n'bass bustle of "End Credits" with the furious blurt of overloaded oscillators that is "Fool Yourself", while there's a fruitful tension elsewhere between Dizzee's urgent claims and the duo's slower grind of belching synth and siren on "Heavy". Less well-fitting with C&S's sound are ersatz new-wave stars White Lies on "Embrace", which sounds like an alliance too far even for these midas-touch groovemeisters.

DOWNLOAD THIS No Problem; Fool Yourself; Heavy