Bookmakers could’ve given great odds that [a]Lamb[/a] would never survive the death of trip-hop. A form of British hip-hop that shunned any traces of anger, protest or politics was always going to drag its perpetrators down with it. But here they are again, the Manchester duo, with an excitable audience, to prove all the doubters wrong.
Like any other idea that starts in a boardroom, Louise Rhodes and Andrew Barlow have changed tack with the times. A little live d&b goes a long way, and with a few seasoned session musicians, the time is right for [a]Lamb[/a] as a rock’n’roll spectacle. If this sounds frightful, it isn’t. But all manner of soul mining on the part of Louise can’t quite shoo away cynicism.
‘All In Your Hands’ is such vintage Manchester dance music, it could have been recorded in the ’80s. And Andy‘s statement that his presence onstage is proof that people can live their dreams isn’t to be taken lightly. Yet, the combination of mannered voice, tasteful use of breakbeats, keyboard orchestration and the ethos of making everything as palatable as possible remains bunk. To use a perfectly horrible analogy, it’s like getting roast lamb with mint sauce instead of a shish kebab; good for you, but unsatisfying ([I]Eh?[/I] – Ed).