ALBUM REVIEW

** The Chemical Brothers, “Dig Your Own Hole,” Astralwerks. This duo from the United Kingdom have always teetered perilously between being progressive programming virtuosos and being the Spinal Tap of techno. In their second full-length release, they lean toward 11 on the amp, overzealously recolonizing their own rock-meets-beats terrain known as “Brit-hop” or “amyl house.”

More Chemical than thou, perhaps the duo have become victim to their own formula. Two years after the group burst on the American scene with what, in retrospect, was a refreshingly eclectic and pop-leaning album, “Exit Planet Dust,” they return with a predictable mix-tape of a collection that sounds as if it could double as a promotional device for the Chemicals’ disappointingly pre-programmed “live” show. It’s not so much an album as a continuum of bombastic rock and hip-hop loops. Meanwhile, such British acts as Death in Vegas and Monkey Mafia have taken the torch of creative, guitar-heavy dance grooves.

“Dig Your Own Hole”--along with the Prodigy’s upcoming release--was the Great White Hope of dance music’s critical and commercial prospects in the United States. Indeed, the Chemicals are in deep. But there’s always the Japanese market.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).