Skream - Skream!

Although he's only 20-years-old, south-Londoner Oliver Jones, aka Skream, is one of the most visible and admired producers inside the dubstep scene. His Skreamizm vinyl series became some of the most sought-after maxi-singles while his debut album was awaited with huge expectation. So here it is and the least we can say is that being the flavor of the month didn't hurt him, on the contrary. Skream!, the album, is dubstep in its purest form, with a strong emphasis on the "dub" side of the word. Although the paranoid sounds and claustrophobic atmospheres that define dubstep are still present, there is also space for some less darker sounds, making this the most luminous album so far to be released in this genre, thanks to a strong influence from Jamaican styles such as ska or reggae. With a huge talent to create original textures with so few sparse elements and using a strong and profound bass that supports everything, Skream creates one of those brilliant cases where the final result largely exceeds the sum of its parts.