Album Reviews

Album Review: Crissy Cris And Youngman – Give You The World (Technique Records)

By Paul Vig | Published on Thursday 25 November 2010

The parentage of this duo means they have a lot to live up to; Youngman’s dad is Simon ‘Bassline’ Smith, while Criss’s step-dad is Kenny Ken. Okay, maybe mentioning up front that their fathers are two legends of drum n bass is unfair, but I’ve done it now.

Crissy Criss and Youngman have both already made names for themselves individually on the UK underground with solo releases and collaborations with others, but began releasing records together last year. Their first album together spans everything from bone shaking drum and bass to urban, to grime and dubstep, over eighteen tracks. Piecing together single tracks, rather than a cohesive body of work, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, but there are some crackers in there, and the old school influence of their dads is apparent in places.

The title track goes for Dillinja’s Valve sound – true bass ballistics – and goes OTT with sirens and the like, but the quality vocal is definitely from the old school. ‘Bats’ typifies the grime scene, while ‘Rave Guide’ is an upbeat rap funky affair, and the old school dnb appears again in ‘Turn It Up’. Harry Shotta’s vox on ‘Treat You Like A Lady’ are a real treat, and ‘Take My Heart’ is a well crafted soul-influenced cut.

On the down side, ‘Pimp Game’ goes for that same old RAM sound, as does ‘Superstar’. ‘Kick Snare’ and ‘Always You’ are little puerile, ‘Shake That’ starts with a lush 4hero backdrop but then overdoses with its staccato beats and bleeps, and the interlude, ‘No Questions Asked’, makes promises that are then not developed

All in all, an interesting debut effort covering many bases with varying results, it will be interesting to see which direction their future output moves in. PV

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