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Well, in a word, no. This in itself is not a problem, as well-crafted work doesn’t always have to be innovative in order to have any worth. But when the (barely comprehensible) press release promises something entirely fresh and new, it has a lot to live up to. Whereas on the first few tracks it actually seems like the album will in fact provide absolutely nothing new or fresh.

Leaden beats, uninspired scratching and tired, aggressive raps left me feeling thoroughly discouraged; if this is the best that UK hip hop has to offer, then we might as well just pull out the London Posse CDs now. But then, on track 4, the bizarre skit entitled ‘Dan Zacks’, it all starts to look a lot brighter: it sees a cheesy American DJ rambling over a choice soul sample; sounds weird, but it works.

And from then on, while not exactly groundbreaking, the tracks do get a whole lot better. The samples from soundtracks and obscure soul records start to sound like they’ve been thought about, rather than just being chucked in because it sounded so good when Portishead did the same thing. And while the beats never exactly move beyond thudding, a little bit more bass seeps in to bring some soul to the party.

And then, after a run of good, if not great tracks including the swinging ‘Know Now’; the mournful, piano-led ‘The Diver’; Live And Let Live, with its canny use of a funky guitar loop; and the Jay-Z inspired anti-drugs rap of ‘White Girl (Cocaine)’, it all goes wrong again. The penultimate two tracks, ‘Pump This’ (with the rather apt lyric “it’s the same old, same old”) and ‘Meta’s Cypher’, are little more than rap-by-numbers plastered over bland beats and samples. Thankfully final track ‘Outro’ manages to pull it back again with its wonderful horn sample.

All in all, this is a good album and one that shows signs of how Metabeats could become the great producer his PR agency obviously think he is. But when you consider the land-marks of British hip hop, from London Posse to Massive Attack to Skitz, The Brotherhood to Roots Manuva to Dizzee Rascal, it’s hard to justify mentioning Metabeats in the same breath. Or at least it is for now — let’s hope that changes.