Louie – Lost On Hope Street

The front man of incendiary live hip-hop band Hector Bizerk steps out from the shadows with an intensely personal, viscerally political album of hip-hop tracks. If his lyrical material for Hector doesn't shy away from political rabble-rousing, calling out fakes, fuck-ups and fashion victims, then the bars on Lost On Hope Street skirt close to revolutionary sentiment.

From the infectious, horn-driven rant of Glasgow (Fuckin' Love You Mate), a whistle-stop tour of the underbelly of the Weej delivered with equal parts savage humour and acute social observation, to the album's downbeat, reflective cuts, like The Quarantine, a guitar-driven meditation on poverty and violence, Louie's rhymes are unflinchingly clear-eyed, driven by a frustration with injustice and a deeply-held belief in people's ability to transcend their environment.

The beats, by American producer Shahab, are consistently excellent, combining crisply-produced analogue elements with digital drums. Highlights include the effortless double-time raps of Short Lived, and the country-tinged Spit Doon Deed. In Scottish hip-hop, Louie is virtually peerless. [Bram E. Gieben]