CHEAP THRILLS

AGE OF CHANCE
Manchester University

HEY KIDS, don't you know there's a war on?
Age Of Chance aren't a rock 'n' roll combo, they're scientific rap toys, good quality Day-glo hoodwinkers guzzling themselves hysterical on nervous energy and apres-indie excitement and expelling it all from their skin-tight bodies in the form of hard pop, acute visual designs and meaningless statements.

This is the first time the Chancettes, as they are known to their more intimate rap associates, have shown themselves to the public en masse. They grip the situation by the cycling pants and shake it 'til we tingle. They've lost the arrogance of six months ago (these days, they love the kids and the kids love them).

They wet our lips with 'Bible Of The Beats', force our gobs to drop with ‘Motorcity', and then stick their juicy big pink tongues in with 'Kiss'. Between this trio of sharp singles, they test their new material with 'Hold On', 'Shut Up And Listen' and 'Who's Afraid Of The Big Baaad Noise?’. Each has a very distinctive guitar rumble but there are no solos; each is blessed with the quirkiest of vocal tricks. Most notably 'Shut Up And Listen' with its abbreviated "whoah" chant which owes more to the cold cheer of the Elland Road Kop than the more obvious purr of House vocals.

If there's an immediate criticism of these songs then it's that Steven E doesn't sing so much as lead the band and audience through a smooth tour of his precise lyrics. But Steven is not a singer, he is a mob orator and that is something people will have to come to terms with.

Age Of Chance show tonight just how determined they are to force hip-hop, hard pop and sonic metal together. They are in a position where they are comparable to nothing but the present. Age Of Chance are NOW! Disposable, poseable, cheap and rappy. Open your underwear and prepare for the thrill of hard rap crotch collision.