Albums
June: 18 albums you need to hear this month
Jlin, Goldie, Arca and more
Wilkinson 'Hypnotic' (Ram/Virgin EMI)
Fast outstripping Sub Focus and even Chase & Status as Ram’s most successful underground-to-stadium d‘n’b venture yet, Wilkinson can sell out Camden’s Roundhouse, remix Ed Sheeran and knock out radio-chomping top-lines before breakfast. Presumably, then, card-carrying junglists wouldn’t spit on his second album, right? Not quite: amid the anthemic vocals and array of tempos – cut-up dubsteppy electro croonings on ‘Take Us Home’; half-time shimmer-pop on ‘Wash Away’ – he keeps a ludicrous amount of plates spinning, even going all ruffneck wonky on ‘Brand New’. Taking Fred V & Grafix and TC on tour tells a story: the boy may have gone stratospheric, but his roots in the rumbling bassline murk go deep. Ewen Cook
7/10
