London's Skream on his new material, exclusive album mix and album interview!

Listen To The Exclusive Album Mix - CLICK HERE

Tracklist

1. Colourful
2. Tortured Soul
3. Rutten
4. Stagger
5. Dubberz Anonymous
6. Blue Eyez
7. Kut-Off
8. Check-It (Inst.)

The first truly exciting thing to happen in dance music since the turn of the millennium, dubstep appears to be reaching a kind of critical mass in terms of the feverish media coverage afforded to it. At the epicentre of this swirling hype tornado is Skream, whose eponymous debut album arrives this week looking like it could be just the thing to tip dubstep over into the mainstream.

Working in Croydon record shop Big Apple at 15, Skream fully immersed himself in the bong-fried mutation of UK garage, yet to be dubbed dubstep, with the help of a cracked copy of music software program Fruityloops. “I reckon I’d definitely still be making music if it wasn’t for Fruityloops, but there would’ve been a bit of a delay while I saved up to buy all the equipment.” A string of savagely funky and boldly anthemic singles soon spilled out from Skream’s bedroom – the unstoppable Midnight Request Line amongst them.



Standing on the brink of crossover success, Skream could soon find himself having to play the role of dubstep ambassador – just as Dizzee Rascal did for grime, and Goldie did for jungle. It’s a role he’s slowly but surely adjusting to. “I’m going to Australia on Tuesday. They’ve invited me over to speak at the Red Bull Music Academy, which is pretty cool. I’ve been out and played in America a couple of times; been to quite a few places around Europe, so it’s definitely starting to take off worldwide. All the attention’s definitely good. Whatever scene you’re involved in, you’re always going to get bandwagon jumpers, so as long as everybody readies themselves for that happening, it’ll all be cool.”

And if the box-fresh digital boogie of Skream’s debut long-player gives you an appetite for his unique sound, there’s plenty more where that came from – plenty more. “I did a search on my computer the other day, and it came up with 7,000 track files,” Skream laughs. “And that’s just from, like, 2003. I’ve got another old computer from before then that’s got about half as many files again on it. Right now though, I’ve got writer’s block. I get it every now and again for a month or so.” Here’s to the next 7,000 tracks, then.