May: 9 dubstep & grime releases you need to hear this month

Mr Mitch 'Devout' (Planet Mu)

Mr Mitch has long been thought a precocious talent within grime spheres, although he’s also always made music that can be appreciated anywhere and by anyone. Here, he explores the themes that have dominated his recent life: family, love and devotion. ‘Priority’, featuring P Money, is a standout: both men are fathers who clearly adore their children for starters, but there’s something special about hearing P Money let the deft and effectively weightless beat dictate his flow. Mitch’s sons Milo and Oscar also feature, while there are cameos from Duval Timothy, Denai Moore and Palmistry. Each track seems to flow into the next, too, like a patchwork of loving thoughts – take the way the joyous ‘Our Love’ spills into the glistening melodies of ‘Black Tide’. It’s a gorgeous record, from start to finish.

9/10

Faze Miyake feat Merky Ace & AJ Tracey 'None Of That' (Rinse)

Colossal new grime sounds from Faze Miyake, who’s been relatively quiet since releasing his debut artist LP via Rinse in 2015. Enlisting Merky Ace and AJ Tracey on vocal duties, the beat – all eerie, whirring low-end and crunchy, shadowy textures – really does boom. AJ’s crystal-clear diction and Merky’s rasping hooks relay their own energies, while Faze’s sounds do the business underneath.

8/10

Maniac 'Homecoming' EP (Earth 616)

Grime’s original super-producer is back on Logan Sama’s Earth 616 imprint, a little over a year since teaming up with Boothroyd and Maxsta on a killer EP for Rinse. ‘Homecoming’ feels like exactly that: a return to his roots, draped in nostalgia. The clenching tension built by the strings on opener ‘Go’ sets the tone from the off, as bleepy arcade sounds mix with razor claps and crunchy squarewave patterns on ‘Track And Field’ (presumably an ode to the classic button-bashing video game of the same name). ‘Victoria Park’ switches styles again, stripping back the layers to focus on pressure and energy, before final track ‘Quadtratic’ takes similar cues: think sharp, high-intensity grime beats of the past, engineered for today.

7/10

Sepia 'Pay Attention' EP (White Peach Records)

Another pearler of a 12” from brilliant young producer Sepia. Taking a short excursion from his classic dubstep leanings over the first two tracks, particularly on the rolling, hollowed-out trap patterns and icy, freeze-dried melodies of ‘Lean Back’, he displays a different side to his output. The bruising beats of the title track are offset by mellow interludes and hazy trumpet bursts, before he takes things deeper on the flip with the sinister tones of ‘Swing’. Final track ‘Shadows’ adopts a more familiar dubstep lean, charging along with heavyset, rumbling low-end and clattering percussive FX.

8/10

Sleeper x Thelem x Mesck 'Ghettonomics' EP (Crucial Records)

Robust, hybrid sounds from a trio of producers on Crucial Records, each of whom take it in turns to amp up the bass across four new tracks. Opener ‘Strawberry Cough’, the only collaboration between all three, is hard-as-nails grime fodder, although engineered with a subtle dubstep lean, while Sleeper and Thelem offer up booming, Mad Decent-style trap beats on ’Squeeze Off’. Title track ‘Ghettonomics’, punctuated by muffled phone conversations and classic rap samples that all feel a bit unnecessary, does hammer home, albeit with an ageing sense of swagger, while final track ‘Fukka’ sees Sleeper and Mesck heat up the sub bass on ‘Fukka’.

6/10

Tarquin 'Jump Pack' EP (Rinse)

Killer, extroverted takes on the club from Tarquin, who’s one of the most rebellious, grime-cum-whatever producers in London right now. His debut for Rinse, ‘Jump Pack’, kicks off with the pulsing, funky rhythms of the title track, bumping and zipping around like a fly caught in a glass, while ‘Brass Tax’ offers up some seriously wonky, slapstick grime flavours. ‘Dun Tarq’, a track that’s done the rounds in Tarquin’s sets for a while, is next, all off-kilter flows, broken beats and bizarre textures, before the bright, bubbly ‘Mine’ signs off.

8/10

Various 'BS005' (Banana Stand Sound)

A selection box of club heaters from a group of producers who know how to get the things moving. Bristol grime don OH91 is up first, although not as you’ve ever heard him before: opener ‘Meditation’ lands as pure soundsystem pressure, evoking memories of the classic DMZ tagline “come levitate on bass weight” – the sub alone will take heads off. Aerotonin and the highly rated Nights then collide on booming grime stomper ‘Jazz Lick’, before the bubblegum flavours of TryTryDieDown’s ‘My Boo’ offer some soothing respite. Crix Saiz signs off with the looming dread of twisted rattler ‘Warriah’.

7/10

Ezro 'Ghost In The Blue' LP (Trapdoor)

A name to keep your eye and ears on this year, Ezro is a beatmaker and superb young MC from rising Lewisham collective Vision Crew, who first made his name after producing ‘Spirit Bomb’ for AJ Tracey in 2015. It might seem a bit soon to drop a debut album, but such is the wealth of material at his disposal, ‘Ghost In The Blue’ feels like a very natural and deserved step. A fine storyteller (as evidenced by gritty, lived-in tracks such as ‘In The Manor’, in which he discusses life on the block), he excels across 13 tracks of self-produced material – a rarity in a scene in which artists often fall into either/or categories. Novelist also makes an appearance on the ballsy ‘Do Not Trouble Me’, a seal of approval if ever Ezro needed one, while on rap joints such as the grizzly ‘My Own’, he proves he can match his flow to a variety of beats, tempos and styles. Our tip is the HD melodies and experimental beats of ‘These Days’, but the whole record is a huge statement.

8/10

Truth & Golden Eye feat Collinjah 'Bloody Road' (Foundation Channel)

Truth and Golden Eye collide on a single of monstrous proportions for the excellent Foundation Channel label. ‘Bloody Road’, given added props by the fierce, cold-blooded vocal flow of Collinjah, is pure impact: think growling, snarling tones and contorted dubstep pressure, all knitted together by a relentlessly catchy hook. On the flip, Poppa Doses takes things down a peg, distilling the bruising components of the original into to a glitchy half-time pulp. It’s brash, but fun.

6/10

Tomas Fraser is Mixmag's Dubstep & Grime Editor, follow him on Twitter