Blak Twang - Help Dem Lord/Thumbz Up

With Dubstep and Grime currently acting as the twins tumultuous of London's urban music scene, many outsiders many have practically forgotten about the once massive and fruitful London hip-hop scene of which Blak Twang is now something of a veteran. Clocking up his tenth year and fourth full length release, Twang's next single is this double a-side. What is most apparent is just how commercialised this sounds; this is partially down to the fact that its non-USA origins aren't all that apparent besides the very occasional vowel noise. But even ignoring the ghetto jingoism of some of London's other MC crews, this has very clear intentions to be Radio 1 rather than Rinse FM, and it suffers for it. The high production polish has lifted the Grime to reveal a disappointingly bland pair of tracks. [Jack McFarlane]