Roni Size & Reprazent

Where have all the beat boys gone?

Three years is a long time to be absent from a form with such an accelerated rate of mutation as dance. Those 36 months have seen jungle cede to garage (which is like Fela Kuti being usurped by Pebo Bryson), while Bristol’s mainstream representatives remain on hiatus, Goldie keeps a low profile (in audio terms anyway) after the critical drubbing meted out to Saturnz Return, and the centre ground is held by the whiteboys slim: the Chemicals, Norman Cook, Moby et al.

Against all this, it’s down to Roni Size, whether he likes it or not, to generate the necessary oxygen to keep the underground torches burning. One thing’s for sure, he’s not shirking from the challenge; In The Mode is as bold and brazen as you like. But then, you might have guessed as much from the cut of collaborators like Method Man and Rage’s Zack De La Rocha. MM’s armagideon bible-beating on ‘Ghetto Celebrity’ is matched by steroidal beats, while De La Rocha tailors his minotaurean delivery to suit the jazz jams on ‘Centre Of The Storm’, and comes up with a whole new means of enunciation in the process.

So, Size’s second album is wearing hobnail boots instead of ballet pumps: big fuck-off beats are planted right on the bridge of your nose, while tracks like ‘In + Out’ are powered by pyrotechnical piano chords, driving bass and Miles quintet treatments. From there on in, it’s viscereality time; Zen and the art of motor/psyche maintenance. ‘Lucky Pressure’ and ‘Balanced Chaos’ are particularly hot, all female vocal fakiry and hypercorporeal percussion patterns, creating a momentum which is only broken by the gadabout tomfoolery of ‘In Tune With The Sound’, featuring Rahzel.

There are flaws for sure – the odd lyrical blemish, or the cheesy 1986 vintage beats on ‘Staircase’ – but on balance (balance being a key word on the record, as in sonic, physical and spiritual) In The Mode is on the money.