Albums: Dust Junkys Done & Dusted (Polydor 557043 2)

Being lippy seems to go with the territory if you're from Manchester: Liam'n'Noel, Mark E. Smith, and now Nicky Lockett, feisty frontman of Dust Junkys, rarely out of your face on their Done & Dusted debut. Lockett used to be Manc rapper MC Tunes, and he's lost none of the essential charm that comes through regarding the world as a threat and money as your god.

In Dust Junkys, he shares prominence with Sam Brox (son of Sixties bluesman Victor), who has a nice line in Hendrix-style guitar squalls. Together, they ooze a sort of languid funk-metal not unlike the Fun Lovin' Criminals trapped on a no-go housing estate, with a dark undertow of urban decay rather lacking the glamorous sheen of gangsta rap.

But there's too little variation to the Junkys' style, which quickly becomes turgid and sludgy, just when it should be flying light. Effectively, it's all downhill from the opening track, the antagonistic manifesto "Nothin' Personal", which is itself based on the riff from Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well".

If your best shot is three decades old, inspiration could be said to be a little thin on the ground.