Various Artists – Grime 2.0

Big Dada's sprawling, two-disc grime compilation aims to bring the focus back onto the producers and beat-makers of the scene, and give them due credit for pioneering and evolving the distinctively British, urban sound. A genre too often ignored or overlooked, either due to preconceptions about its confrontational, aggressive lyrical content, or concerns that its preening peacock emcees have sold out their aesthetic to the mainstream.

Freed from the often inane, content-free lyrics, the beats are revealed as progenitors of so much British bass music – grime predates dubstep and trap, and is the inspiration or starting point for both. The set eschews consistency of sound or tempo for a feeling, an attitude – dark as an unlit underpass, tough as concrete tower block. Highlights from well-known producers like Wiley, Youngstar and Starkey sit alongside revelations by the lesser-known Faze Miyake, Inkke, Swifta Beater and Gumnaam, resulting in a collection that rarely dips below a feral, challenging intensity. [Bram E. Gieben]