What Skrillex did for dubstep in the US, Sigma look set to do to drum’n’bass in the UK: take an underground sub-genre and feed it to the masses. Former small-time producers Cameron Edwards and Joe Lenzie have been a duo since 2006, but are releasing this debut album after 2014 chart-topper Nobody to Love raised their profile. Its success helped facilitate Life’s glut of guest vocalists and now, in Edwards’ own words, they have found “a formula that works”. He was referring to Sigma’s frequent use of collaborators – from Rita Ora and Ella Eyre to Labrinth and Paloma Faith – but could just as easily have meant their reliance on strings, pensive piano intros and clattering d’n’b “drops”. Like DJ Fresh, Disclosure, Clean Bandit and Rudimental, Sigma have realised that the surest way to dance-pop fame is a warbling, emotive vocal over a fistpump-ready beat. The result? Perfectly functional, completely unoriginal dance music with its sights set on the charts.
