It's not often that teacher follows on the heels of pupil, but Treddin' on Thin Ice, the debut album from east London MC-producer Wiley will undoubtedly suffer from comparison with the award-scooping 2003 album by his young protégé, Dizzee Rascal. As the godfather of pioneering garage crew Roll Deep, Wiley is essentially the key architect of the stark MC-led strain of UK garage presently known as "grime", "sub-lo", or "Eski". His Treadin' on Thin Ice isn't quite the magnificent statement that Dizzee's Boy in da Corner was. Sure, Wiley is a good MC, but he seems to lack the all-consuming philosophy and breadth of narrative needed on a 15-track album.

Still, there's much to recommend here: the production is a triumph of expertly-applied minimalism, skeletal Playstation beats meshing neatly with retro synthesiser bass and warped oriental strings. Meanwhile, Wiley's natural propensity towards melancholy is neatly balanced by a handful of genuinely hilarious tracks that poke fun at himself, his peers and the scene: try the genre-defining "Wot Do U Call It?" ("Garage?/ Urban?/ Two-step?"), frisky money-making anthem "Pies", and "Goin' Mad"--a blend of conversational narrative and genuinely-affecting emotion, delivered in a broad Cockney geezer accent, that's reminiscent of the Streets. --Louis Pattison