Formation: Look at the Powerful People review – too little, too late

Formation’s Matt and Will Ritson: influences writ large.

As the career of rappers the Mitchell Brothers illustrates, an endorsement from Mike Skinner is no guarantee of success. The Streets star’s current favourites, south London band Formation – founded by twins Will and Matt Ritson – might have been a more enticing proposition had they emerged in the early 00s. Their snarling debut album, all cowbells and warped grooves, is competent punk-funk that rarely deviates from the model established by the Rapture and LCD Soundsystem, whose vocals singer Will slavishly imitates. But while the opener, Drugs, is Formation at their worst – sloganeering masquerading as analysis – the supple Blood Red Hand proves they could be far more than bit-part players in a genre that peaked 12 years ago.