(Major Toms/Asylum)The drum’n’bass foursome blast their way out of lockdown with a kinetic sound-system joyride
![Rudimental: Ground Control review – the energy of a thousand leavers’ balls](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/5919fc2c0b84163d0028f3a865d45de7d5ef0ed0/87_171_1825_1095/master/1825.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTMucG5n&enable=upscale&s=0de242910d3183006a720f3343d74c3f)
Ground control to Major Tom: it’s been 18 months cooped up inside and the youth are looking for mashup-in-a-field catharsis, for big, festival-filling tunes that’ll get the bucket hats bouncing, for a release. Luckily, that’s what
UK four-piece Rudimental specialise in; their polished bangers have the energy of a thousand leavers’ balls, and while the tepid global pop of their last album, 2019’s Toast to Our Differences, was accused of being “built-by-committee”, this time they’re built for post-pandemic euphoria.
The sounds of UK bass culture lead once more – garage especially but also grime, bassline, house and big beat – with some of their best drum’n’bass tunes yet in the Black Lives Matter-referencing Remember Their Names, where MJ Cole has been drafted in to bring some airy, soulful sparkle and romantic strings; Distance, featuring Kojey Radical and Maverick Sabre; and Hostess, as if
Rihanna wrote a carnival closer. There are still songs that feel cynically minded – Be Somebody was surely made for a
Love Island montage; and Handle My Own is a Basement Jaxx-ish take on the current disco trend in pop.