Baileys Brown Still Fresh introduces a forward-thinking new voice in UK rap production

Whilst monster labels like High Focus and Blah continue to do what was once considered impossible – make the scene legitimately profitable – a collection of smaller imprints are squeezing out some of most innovative, high-quality rap our sordid little island has to offer.

One of these imprints, the delightfully-named Potent Funk records, will this week unleash Baileys Brown's debut LP Still Fresh. Providing a handy crib sheet of some of the UK scene's key players – Northern curmudgeon Lee Scott, spitfire Londoner Dabbla – the album also launches a fresh, forward-thinking voice in production, as beat-maker Baileys pastes his spacious, sometimes bleak sonic stylings onto everything from grime to trap to boom bap.

The record opens with the snaky, static-spattered “Reeboks” – here, Baileys' impressive rap alter-ego Axel Holy makes his first appearance, barring next to eccentric miscreant Stinkin' Slumrok and super-sharp Bristolian DatKid. Stylistically, nothing is nailed down: track two and it's all splashy cymbals and phased samples on “Die Hard”; track three “Horses Mouth” mixes ghostly ambience and snatched and screwed vocal samples with a tasty bit of boom bap; track six and we're doing straight-up grime, emcees Bill Next, Conz and Jay0117 on their double-time. Perhaps the only constant throughout is Baileys; penchant for a 90s-shaped low-end and his super-innate sense of groove: even on the pacier cuts, nothing feels rushed, drums and bass always slipping and sliding around the bar lines.

Stand-out tracks include “Something Else Entirely”, with Lee Scott and Dabbla bringing their respective Scouse satire and slick-tongued egotism to the table. The beat here sounds like a trap remix of a 50s B-movie soundtrack, all warbling theremins and ominous church bells. “Rockports” is a wicked little number that steals its warped hook from Danny Brown's “Grown Up”, with Baileys' Axel persona bringing some particularly cute bars (“Real Ronaldo / Sniper at the outpost / Yeah I'm talking shit but you're doing it without flow.”)

UK hip hop has always struggled to reach the ears of those not huddled within its reasonably-insular scene, which – for better or worse – has retained the same figureheads for years now. That’s why it’s all the more crucial to support artists like Bailey, who step off the well-trodden sonic path and consciously bring together disparate voices and genres. With producers of this vein disrupting the status quo, the future looks blinding.