Champion - Tribal Affair (VIP) [stream]

Barely out his teens, Hackney’s Champion is a producer and DJ with dozens of mixes scattered around the web that cover everything from R&B and bashment to bassline. He’s a UK funky artist, but it’s the urgency of early grime that takes centre place in his own music, most obviously on the brilliant robofunk of Lose Control, which also seems to bring in a certain bassline influence with its nagging front-facing low-end. Not surprisingly, grime guys Butterz and Terror Danjah have adopted Champion as one of their own, with Terror’s Hardrive giving him his first label release this month and extending him club invites to play alongside some of grime’s most uncompromising names. Like a less rowdy Lil Silva, Champion makes perfectly formed, straight-to-the-point, under-produced rollers, and tracks like Motherboard and Tribal Affair (listen below) have been fixtures of underground funky sets for a few years now, without losing any of their initial excitement. Now recalling other tracks on the grime-funky-bassline axis like Marcus Nasty and Bassboy’s Shitta, this should be of interest to anyone wondering what young east Londoners are making these days. Or if like me, you just like serious wads of bass.

Tribal Affair VIP by championdj

Champion’s ‘Motherboard’ EP was released on Hardrive on 16th May 2011