DJ Charmzy

The grime wave: an international conspiracy cooked up by UK-based artists, DJs and tastemakers determined to influence the mainstream into accepting the urban sub-genre voted most likely to unite both parents and broadsheet journalists in unrighteous indignation ten years in a row. Whether it's through temporarily pandering to record company demands for summery pop hits, then firing your manager and releasing 200 bangers for free on the Internet (i.e., Wiley) or incorporating grime influences into any number of different genre permutations (any producer who wants to sell records in an already crowded marketplace), it's a phenomenon that refuses to die. It's no coincidence that the majority of these artists and producers ushering in the sound are in some way connected to the legendary Rinse FM, one of the stations responsible for breaking the sound in the early '00s, and DJ Charmzy is no exception. Famed for his Black Ops label, he's relocated to London's Vex Records for his new, deep house-inflected EP, Shape Shifting. It's a choice title because, while the current trends of deep and tech house continue to rage, the grimy influences are what lift Shape Shifting out of the 4/4 continuum. Elastic, sub low bass lines, edgy minimalism and tight, polished production are the order of the day. This is guaranteed to demolish any crowd this summer.