Native James merges grime and metal, releases Dumb Bruddah on October 30

Native James releases his new single Dumb Bruddah on 30 October via SharpTone Records. The Ipswich artist, real name Aaron James, arrives with credentials: last month he won One to Watch at the Independent Music Awards, an award previously given to Arlo Parks and Nia Archives.

The Guardian's Olive Pometsey, writing in the paper's weekly Add to Playlist column, frames him as a genuine hybrid rather than a novelty. His 2025 track Fallen opens with a growled "Laaa!" stretched over poppy "la-la-la" chants, before a verse of quick-witted bars over bouncy nu-metal riffs. He blends Jamaican Patois with The Lion King references to unmask what he calls his "demon within". At 140bpm, Pometsey notes, he barely has time to be scared — a nod to his July single Never Been Scared.

The formation story matters to the sound. James grew up listening to Evanescence during school lunchtimes, then went home and studied first-wave grime on Channel U. Recommended listening for fans of Linkin Park, Kano and Bob Vylan, he filters alt-rock influences through, in Pometsey's words, "a distinctly Black British point of view, from his rapid-fire, staccato delivery to his sly sense of humour".

What has he already done?

The record is short but the CV is not:

• Last year's EP, Confessions of a Sinner, collected his grime-metal crossovers.
• Never Been Scared (July) adds metallic, eskibeat-style synths and a guest verse from Boy Better Know's Frisco.
• At Glastonbury 2025 he brought out Double S and Professor Green to perform their collaboration Block (RR).
• He reunited the trio at Download festival this summer.

That is two major festival stages in one season, in genres — grime and metal — that rarely share a billing. Whether Dumb Bruddah converts the momentum into a wider breakthrough remains the open question; a single and an award are evidence, not proof.

The rest of the week's tracks

The Guardian's playlist also includes:

• Wendy Eisenberg – Mmeeaanniinngg Bbuussiinneessss: a highlight from this year's self-titled record stretched into a 37-minute chamber drone, aimed at fans of Dirty Three.
• Bassvictim – White Flag: a bassline house track previewing the duo's second album of compacted electrotrash this year.
• Matilda Tjäder – The Phone Call: a ballad from Shelf Life, a project that began as a short story, became an opera, and is now an album about a woman who collects items with the same expiration date.
• Threshold – Stillwater: Isaac Eiger's tumbling piano and barroom anthemics for listeners after Alex G's hangdog beauty; Eiger has co-written for Adéla, Frost Children and Chanel Beads.
• Gyrofield – Burls: Hong Kong-born Kiana Li, a drum'n'bass name since her teens, explores the dub bass continuum on new album Great Jobs.
• Bjarki – Isn't It Nice (to Be Somebody): the Icelandic producer's regimented comeback, built on bass that flickers, as the Guardian puts it, like a mechanised hummingbird wing.
• GiGi FM – Ascenda: minimal techno with drama and propulsion, inspired by the Greek goddess Astraea, who left corrupted humanity for the stars.

Dumb Bruddah lands on 30 October. If it holds the line between the scream and the 140bpm verse, SharpTone Records will have a crossover worth watching into 2026.