Nero

London dance duo Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray, better known as Nero, have built up their following in the past 12 month culminating with being the current number 1 single in the UK, displacing Cher Lloyd (which should in itself be enough to commend them).

Following on from hits like ‘Me & You’, ‘Guilt’ and ‘Promises’, they have just delivered their first debut album, creating a bridge between the underground dubstep and drun’n’bass scene and the commercial charts.
The end result is one of Muse meets dubstep with a very cinematic, at times over produced, sound that can be hit and miss, but overall does work. Full opener ‘Doomsday’ is a huge semi-instrumental piece with a big, big sound; Fugue State takes a similar instrumental line, with a slightly softer, melodic backing before the big bass kicks in.

Whilst these instrumentals set a scene in this pseudo concept album theme set around 2808 it the vocals of Alana Watson, as demonstrated on the singles, which really bring the album to life. ‘Innocence, a slower, chugging track is a perfect platform for the simple yet effective vocals from Alana.

Tracks 10 through to 12 really have an 80’s throw back. ‘Crush on You’ was a hit for The Jets back in 1985, but has had a stunning dubstep re-working here to surely make it future single material. ‘Must Be the Feeling’ has an 80s feel through the looped vocals, whilst ‘Reaching Out’ samples Hall and Oates ‘Out of Touch’ to great effect as well.

‘Departure’ closes down the concept album with another cinematic piece, finishing a journey through highs and lows. Highs are the commercial tracks featuring Alana (especially the singles and ‘Crush on You’), the lows on the whole are too many instrumentals that are not necessary.