A decade after The Chemical Brothers, Chase & Status formed as a DJ duo while Manchester students in the 2000s. Both duos share a predilection for big beats and full-tilt attack but Chase & Status have never acquired much critical cachet. To their detractors, Chase (Saul Milton) and Status (Will Kennard) are drum-and-bass sell-outs with a dubious gift for creating hit singles like the mighty “Baddadan” and their UK number one with Stormzy, “Backbone”.
The unappealing title of their new album, Generic Everything, has a pre-emptively defensive ring, as if anticipating the usual complaints from electronic music’s snobs. It’s accompanied by brow-furrowed talk from the pair about AI slop and creativity being stifled by algorithms but the 10 tracks do not tackle such weighty matters. Instead, they range liberally through different genres in a succinct 30 minutes. Guests include star of UK rap Little Simz, fellow big-room DJ Skrillex, and Irah, the deep-voiced dancehall singer whose basso profondo featured on “Baddadan”.
He turns up with rapper J Hus on opening track “Disgruntled”, a cartoonishly laddish jump-around with badman verses, a skanking tempo and blasts of guitar appearing like steam shooting from an angry comic character’s ears. Little Simz appears on “Carnage”, unflappably self-composed amid a drum-and-bass fusillade. Then comes a handbrake turn to Brazilian baile funk in the Skrillex collaboration, “Essa Ta Quente”.
The pace is brisk, with fresh diversions around every corner. Veteran grime emcee D Double E has a lively turn on “Levels”. “Influence” is a brooding Leftfield-style anthem with rapper-singer Ledbyher. “Gone Too Far” is a hammering dance-pop ballad sung by vocalist Debbie. The tracks come across as a collection of would-be hits, which means no filler, but also the restless sense of jumping from one thing to the next. The quality level is consistent, although none of the songs touches the heights of “Baddadan”. If The Chemical Brothers were a pioneering album act for British electronic music, then Chase & Status are their junior siblings, a consummate singles act.
★★★☆☆
‘Generic Everything’ is released by Warner