Reviewed by David Bain

Dependance, a five-person, hip-hop, drum'n'bass group from the North East, have stacks of energy and enough variety of styles to appeal to most punters, although they primarily work in schools making this release firmly aimed at that market. Dare I say it, they tread very closely in the well worn path taken by The Tribe. "Stomp" kicks the journey off, with hyped up shout outs laid over a big-beat, hip-hop sound. Huge slabs of pop-tinged R&B follow with mesmerizing singing, delivering messages about how amazing God is and never giving him up. The raps, chopped up into most of the tracks, keep the pace going and are delivered in a sing-a-along style. Sometimes getting a bit too heavy and dark, like on "Meaningless" and "Mask", I found the desperate tones in the rapping not quite fitting with the upbeat sound initially put down. The variations get crazier as Dependance take a whole track out to deliver a band-member testimony. This is followed by the track "Pressure", a bizarre mix up of dubby drum'n'bass with a Faithless influence on the vocal. It's a mixed bag of sweet and sour tunes that Dependance offer us. This album is pitched well at their schools' audience, but clearly isn't in the running for hip-hop album of the year.

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