February 4, 1999

London Kentish Town Bull & Gate

Aware that two blokes standing behind a bank of sequencers and decks does not great entertainment make, [a]Sniper[/a] rely on Adonis rapper [B]Richard Belgrave[/B] for visual stimulation...

It's all cars and soft drinks nowadays, big beat is being sucked dry by the ad men. Appropriate, then, that the first sound we hear tonight is the screech of tyres as a car leaves the road. Then all hell breaks loose.

After an enforced lay-off - their record label shut down not long after the release of last year's monstrous debut single 'Crossfader Dominator' - east London's Sniper return with a renewed vigour bordering on psychosis and beats set to ramming speed.

Aware that two blokes standing behind a bank of sequencers and decks does not great entertainment make, Sniper rely on Adonis rapper Richard Belgrave for visual stimulation, but even his muscular frame is dwarfed by the all-consuming squall of breakbeats and overdriven guitar. 'Crossfader Dominator' wades in like a grungoid dreadnought, throws a few punches and evaporates, while imminent Rabid Badger single 'Dirty Harry' rips the pop hit nous out of Fatboy Slim and replaces it with a plutonium heart. All this, and they sample Duran Duran, Front 242 and Robocop in the space of a few seconds.

Pumped up and unrelenting, Sniper are a dose of liquid amphetamine injected direct into the skull. It's premature to talk of life after big beat when there's ostensibly so much life still in it.

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