The Littlemen - Walking Sideways

This is less than impressive house music from the Nottingham duo who've slowly been making themselves known over the past few years with a series of parties. They've cut tracks for a multitude of labels, including Drop Music, Lowdown and UmmaRec, and their collective experience yields a slick, streamlined approach to production. For the most part though, it's fairly bland stuff, the kind that would go unnoticed in most bars. Holding Dub apes classic Chicago sounds with a looped vocal and repetitive keys, but lacks that rough, raw sound whilst Make it Better plays the same card and ends up as vapid lounge-house. It's fun and funky, but about as fresh as salmonella, and The Littlemen's blend of rnb, house and pop is, for the most part, pretty dull. [Liam Arnold]