GROVESTREET's Picked His Favourite Back of the Night Bus Nokia Screamers

I wasn't allowed a phone until I'd left school so any memories I have of tinny mp3s blurting from pin-prick speakers is tinged with early-adulthood annoyance. Rising UK producer GROVESTREET seems to be one of those lucky sods who was actually allowed a phone of their own, rather than recoursing to borrowing their mum's black and white brick when venturing further than the local Nisa. As such, he grew up joyously blasting tunes on backseats, probably not really caring that songs played off phones back then sounded more like Merzbow than Boy Better Know.

This week GROVESTREET, real name Jamie Smith, steps up to the plate for the seventh instalment of London based club label Trax Couture's World Series, errr, series. The EP sees him covering everything from churning, near-noise ("Shy Reprise") to anti-gravity baroque post-club ("Place No More"), triumphant grime ("Disqualified") and beyond. It's a quietly confident, quietly capable record that looks set to take Grovestreet to the next level.

Label boss Matthew Thomas, aka Rushmore, described it as a set of "back of the night bus Nokia phone screamers," so we thought we'd hop on a 436 with GROVESTREET, split a portion of chips, and let lose with a few polyphonic stunners. He's picked five songs so sick they'll have you buying a daysaver just to hear them.

Stimpy & Scruface - "Nutty Violins"

"There's about three or four versions of this tune, all of which had really similar names. The only thing that really differentiated them was the odd typo. The version I've always had is a 128 transcode called "Nutty Violinz Remix" which I'm pretty sure is the original. If it's not, blame the internet. I really want to know what happened to Stimpy & Scruface as a duo. Scruface is still going stuff as it goes. It seemed like they were making music at a weird time where artists were starting to become 'internet only' producers. They were Limewire'n'Bluetooth artists, if you will."

MC Finchy - "Ozone Bounce"

"When it comes to back of the bus stunners, it's only natural to have some scouse bounce in there. Since we were about 12 me and my mates have been into this stuff, into donk. Maybe I was more into it than them, but still. I think I tripped into that world after a night of playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and searching for 'Happy hardcore tunes' on YouTube. Flicking through related videos led me to this. That melody is still really infectious which is essential for any tune you're going to blast through a Nokia speaker with pride."

Slew Dem Crew & Newham Generals - "Schoolage Tubby Dubplate"

"I was fairly late to grime if I'm honest. I sneered at "Pow! (Forward)" back in the day because I didn't like Lethal Bizzle shouting (I've grown to love it since). These past few years have been a period of intense study of what I basically slept on first time round. You wouldn't believe how desperate I am for a 320 of the original of this. I'd even take a 128 of this dubplate. That melody sends shivers up my spine. Even coming out of a phone."

Maxi - "Neds 1"

"Fucking great tune, this. I only recently found this version but it's got DJ Cammy on the intro so it's only right to include it. If you were in school in 2007 you'll either at least be familiar with DJ Cammy or had a period when his whole discography was on your phone. For those of you too old — or to young — to remember Cammy, he as a Glaswegian producer who made kind of happy hardcore stuff. This was big in the Bebo days."

Ruff Sqwad - "Raw 2 The Core"

"Ruff Sqwad were the undisputed kings of mobile music. It's hard to pick the perfect Sqwad tune for the long nights on the bus, but let's go for this one. Bluetooth it off a mate."

Honorable mentions: "Straight" by Mondie, anything by DJ Ravine & DJ Cotts.

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GROVESTREET's World Series Vol.7 is out April 29 on Trax Couture