Sometimes we have to rub our eyes to remember that Radar Radio — the now online broadcasting mammoth — has only been around for about a year and a half. Since kicking off under ghoulish pretences on Halloween 2014, the station has moulded into a play-pen for some of the brightest talents around the country. Jumping on their airwaves at any given time launches the listener right across the musical spectrum: from Gordon Wedderburn's Jazz In The Present Tense through Shy One's eclectic meddling between 80-140bpm and all the way up through their vibrant grime populace. Radar has prided itself on its ability to host it all; an open forum that valiantly waves its middle finger at the rule book.

Grime has become the station's primary sound since its formation. Not only because of the genre's timely rebirth, but because of the station's uncanny likeliness to pirate radio. Snugly situated between Old Street and Clerkenwell, the studio is just central enough to be reached by MCs and DJs from not only London, but across the country. But even more significant is its walk-in-walk-out ethos. Just like during the heyday of Pay As U Go, Dizzee Rascal, Aftershock and all the other demi-gods, each grime show is regularly populated by a free-flowing set of MCs dipping in and out of the studio. Sometimes its just a fire 16 bar shelling from one lyricist. Other times it can be 50-odd mic-wielders shifting in and out of the hotbox booth. It's rekindled a key facet of grime culture: radio practice hours — the act of sparring and perfecting your skills on the mic, just like any boxer would.

None of that, however, would be possible without a solid DJ gluing the proceedings together and Alia Loren is quickly rising through the ranks. Not only because of that ability to hold things tight, but also for consistently nudging the best new and old grime into the open and being a true disciple of the sound by introducing the RR audience to acts from the Midlands and further afield.

For this same reason, we turn to her for Upfront 070 — a bruiser crash course primer on the freshest grime representatives. It's littered with exclusives and mash-ups that haven't yet seen the light of day. Simply put, it deserves your ears. Tune in or fuck off.