TOMMY GUERRERO
From the Soil to the Soul
Quannum Projects

Tommy Guerrero was a skateboarding champ with the Bones Brigade who developed a useful off-board niche for himself with a string of slow-motion, late-night instrumental funk and soul cuts. He's now on the page with the Quannum crew in his native San Francisco. Guerrero's latest tracks are as free and easy a set of horizontal hoppers as he's put together since the classic A Little Bit of Something debut. Streetwise soul music hatched on the back of hazy, lazy moods and a punky attitude, From the Soil to the Soul has much to recommend it. While Guerrero's patented trippy blues wash is what many will be seeking (and they'll find just what they're looking for on The Underdog and No Guns, More Glory), there are also signs that he himself wants to strike out for newer ground. With Lyrics Born on vocals, Let Me In, Let Me Out is abrasive and tough, a belter where Guerrero gets to let off some steam. www.tommyguerrero.com

DUBSTEP
SKREAM
Tempa

Ollie Jones is dubstep's most interesting practitioner, a south London teenager who has emerged from the genre's subterranean bass echoes and rumbles with one hell of an album. As every new and initially interesting dance strain splinters into dozens of mini-brands and untraceable sub-genres, Jones seems to know that it's the sound rather than the semiotics that will have the most lasting effect. His Check It, with the Warrior Queen and her roughneck ragga-girl chat dropped into the midst of gigantic beats, is dubstep's most thrilling anthem yet. But there are other booming rollercoaster rubs here to admire, including the brazen Tortured Soul, the surprisingly nostalgic drift of Blue Eyez, and the jilting, jolting bang and wallop of Midnight Request Line. Throughout Skream!, the mental image is of Jones the highstepper at the controls as he turns up the paranoia and loses himself once again in the bass. www.tempa.co.uk