Chase & Status

Drum ‘n’ bass was some 15 years old by the time Chase & Status dropped its debut album, More Than Alot, in 2008. What set the London duo apart, then and now: its willingness to push beyond the genre’s limits, widening the circle to encompass grime and other forms of bass music along with metal, house, and even pop, stretching its appeal far beyond the boundaries of the underground. Chase (Saul Milton) and Status (Will Kennard) bonded as students in Manchester before kicking off their joint career in 2005, and even today, the albums feel charged with the energy of two roommates going through their record collections together, bonding over shared enthusiasm. With 2019’s RTRN II JUNGLE, the pair paid tribute to their jungle roots, and with 2022’s What Came Before, they delved into the genre’s reggae and hip-hop origins. At the end of the day, what keeps both going isn’t any one style, they told Apple Music, but “just genreless, mad music.”