For the past five years or so, Essex boys Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip have been crafting their own well-informed and occasionally comedic take on hip-hop across the land and beyond, pausing only to assemble an album or two. As UK rap artists go, they've done pretty well out of it - three Top 50 albums with little or no hyped promotion via the big labels and TV channels, is bloody good going.

One of those albums was rapper Scroobius Pip's second solo set released towards the end of last year. 'Distraction Pieces' earned the bearded word-wonder a #35 slot and a few sold-out shows on his last tour. So anything your mate can do, you should be able to do a little better, yes? On the strength of partner Dan le Sac's excellent new solo album, 'Space Between the Words', it's possible he has succeeded - it is a little belter.

Utilizing the vocal talents of singers Merz and Sarah Williams White and spoken-wordsmiths/rappers B.Dolan and Joshua Idehen, le Sac has melded his unique broth of electro-house and hip-hop beats, effects and basslines to create a recipe for success (possibly). Check out the entire album for zilch on this very page, one track from which you may recognize from our recent B.Dolan article ('Caretaker'). The Joshua Idehen track, 'Tuning', is an absolute stone-cold electro-disco slammer, while 'Play Along' with Williams White is a bit gorgeous.

As well as the streaming, there is also the tour heading your way in during the autumn, starting with Brighton on 1st October, followed by Chelmsford, Ipswich, Exeter, Hull, Reading and finally Guildford on the 31st. Londoners should seriously get moving now - he's playing the relatively small Camden Barfly on 17th - it'll sell out fast. We now have tickets to most shows with prices starting at under £10!