Chase & Status, Glasgow review: 'pumping party tunes'

Chase & Status, Hydro, Glasgow ★★★

A full 20 years into their career, Chase & Status, aka electronica duo Saul Milton and Will Kennard, finally hit the top of the charts last year with their Stormzy collaboration Backbone. That merited some serious pyrotechnics, launched onstage and above the crowd to open their latest arena tour and herald the arrival of a group who are never knowingly understated.

Pumping party tunes, particularly with a rumbling jungle or hip-hop base, are their signature. There is a clear debt to The Prodigy in their electro bombast, murky bass drops, baritone raps and slogans writ large, though they pass on the politicised edge and lack the righteous anthems.

Chase & Status | Getty Images

Brit Award-winning producers Milton and Kennard would be the first to admit they are not the most charismatic of performers. It takes a village, not to mention a fair bit of smoke and mirrors, to create this performance.

The duo have employed a roll call of guest vocalists and rappers over the years - most of whom couldn’t be here tonight but popped up in sampled form - while a coterie of rappers and singers deputised elsewhere and trusty drummer Andy Gangadeen provided the live spark.

Across 90 minutes, they delivered a barrage of turbo-charged dancehall dub and formulaic but efficient drum’n’bass, diverging into the metal-tipped big beat of Don’t Be Scared and the infectious, wiggy character of Liquor & Cigarettes, only one of a number of tracks dedicated to escapism. The best of these was the (onscreen) Becky Hill-featuring Disconnect - which did the very opposite.

Singer Clementine Douglas brought some alternative feminine soul energy on Mixed Emotions but the crowd were all in for the ramped-up bpm of No Problem, relentless bounce of Original Nuttah and whatever else was thrown their way.