Plastic Little - Welcome To The Jang Haus

Exploding onto the party scene last year with a flurry of well-received EPs, Plastic Little have, up to now, struck the perfect balance between comedy and kudos. Riding on the coat-tails of Spank Rock’s filthy B-More beats and filthier lyrics, PL have established themselves as a wisecracking, self-deprecating bunch of b-boys, like a latter-day Pharcyde without the constant weed referencing.

‘Welcome To The Jang Haus’ is an amalgamation of debut US album ’She’s Mature’, mixtape ’Thug’s Paradise’ and some recent additions to their CV. Herve (AKA The Count Of Monte Cristal) contributes the two most club-ready tracks here, the cheeky, Jacko-sampling ’Cheap Thrills’, which has already been making the rounds as an instrumental and the squelching bass of ’La La Land’ - which coaxes a better performance from the PL emcees.

At their best, such as on early single ’I’m Not A Thug’ the lyrics are side-splittingly funny (with verses about the questionable benefits of living with a grandparent and being “mega middle-class”) whilst on the likes of the self-explanatory ’Cum Quick’ they’re simply puerile and lose all shock value. ’Boyz’ and ’Hola Plastique’ also manage to lay on the biting satire with a trowel. Bad meaning good or bad meaning bad, each track has points to make younger listeners reach for the fast-forward button when mum knocks to see what junior wants for tea. Maybe that’s why they invented iPods.

The only total misstep is the horrible ‘Candy Girl’ lift on ‘Sugar’ - they even manage to pull off crooning Morrissey’s ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ hook at one point - no doubt offending legions of Smiths fans and hip-hop purists in one fell swoop.

7/10