Music

Even by dubstep’s own youthful standards, Croydon’s Beni Adejumo – who builds beats as Benga – is precociously talented. He started hanging around the legendary Big Apple record store (the nucleus of the scene in its early years) with his pal, Skream when he was just 13, and was soon bringing in his bedroom productions for DJ/ producer/sales assistant Hatcha to hear. By 15, he was working on his debut album, ‘Newstep’, which had insiders setting him at the forefront of a fertile scene that was yet to poke its head above London’s post-garage parapet.

It might be some time before any dubstep album winds up on a Mercury shortlist (although we’re already rooting for Burial’s ‘Untrue’ in 2008), but this sophomore effort by the now 21-year-old Benga should shift some of the spotlight where it belongs. In fact, beep-studded lead single ‘Night’ (co-produced by and featuring Coki of Digital Mystikz) might prove to be the tipping point, since it’s already made history by becoming the first dubstep track to be played on day-time Radio 1. ‘Diary Of An Afro Warrior’ shares some of Burial’s and Kode9’s dark, dystopian imaginings of urban landscapes in decay, but it ranges far wider than that, referencing dubstep’s drum ’n’ bass forefathers, the trippy, minimalist techno of Carl Craig and Laurent Garnier and Plastikman’s dark isolationism.

‘Crunked Up’ is a bad-trip blend of juddering bass and paranoid synth lines, ‘E Trips’ by contrast is an expansive, if warped, rave-athon, while the wobbly ‘26 Basslines’ proves where the beating heart of all dubstep really lies. Benga’s journey may have begun with the dub plate, but just watch where he goes with it – and applaud.