Despite the fact that this is his debut artist album, 20-year-old Croydonite Skream is already one of the leading lights of the dubstep scene. In fact, prior to this, he's already produced approximately one trillion tracks. Some of these have gone onto his excellent ‘Dubstep Allstars’ mix compilations, whereas billions of others have been uploaded onto the internet to be shared and dissected by dubstep fans, in an egalitarian manoeuvre light years removed from the covetous atittude of most urban music.
Skream’s music, a hybrid strain of jungle, grime, hip hop and whatever else he feels like, manages to be slow and fast at the same time, and it’s this tectonic drift which gives the music a lot of its unsettling power. At the same time, there’s a melodic sensibility to Skream’s choice of samples and loops that makes his tunes sweet and, most importantly, catchy. Whether it’s the straight-up beat of ‘Midnight Request Line’, the paranoid anti-system rap of ‘Tapped’ or the time-stretched acid of ‘Dutch Flowerz’, Skream finds beauty in the least obvious places.
Crucially, ‘Skream!’ shows that dubstep has genuine ambition and reach. Not every tune here is a dancefloor banger, or even herb-friendly head-nodder. In fact, pretty much the only thing they have in common is that they’ll all sound ace blasting from the bassbins of a boosted Mazda.
