Rap’s lo-fi radical

‘Pirate’ king

Who: The Streets.

When: 8 p.m., Oct. 24.

Where: The Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood.

Price: $10 in advance, $12 day of show.

Contact: (310) 276-6168.

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“Original pirate material / Yer listening to the streets / Lock down your aerial,” enunciates Mike Skinner dryly, stretching his already broad English (specifically, Birmingham) accent to get around the words, launching another verbose but brilliant rap slicing like a long knife to the distressed heart of U.K. pop culture.

The 23-year-old Skinner, a.k.a. the Streets, is the baby-faced king of “two-step garage,” a kind of lo-fi hip-hop based on down-tempo, minimalist drum-and-bass-derived beats, often created on downloadable “studio” programs or even Playstation beat software, providing barely moving backdrops for clever lyrics.

And Skinner’s are more than clever -- not only has he dominated the highly competitive Brixton garage scene, but he’s also shocked the fad-famished British press into writing rueful diatribes about the birth of a form as truly streetwise as original punk, dub or ska.

Released in March in the U.K. and due in U.S. stores Oct. 22, the Streets’ album “Original Pirate Material” takes full advantage of Skinner’s middle-class Midlands life as a platform for a sweetly swaggering examination of substance-abusing geezerdom and birdhood that’s as darkly comic as “Trainspotting.”

The single “Has It Come to This?” sets the pace, a rap on living honestly with the lads in the gutter, delivered over understated loops of bass and tick-tack percussion. These tracks are distinguished by the conspicuous lack of R&B; samples; there are some silky borrowed vocals, but the hooks are all homemade. Garage is a sound foreshadowing the end of hip-hop’s leaning too hard on overplayed R&B.;

Quick wit and wisdom

The Streets is also a whole lot of dirty, sketchy fun. “Geezers Need Excitement” probes the ethos of the drunken pub brawler with incredible slang, such as, “By now you want to leather this twat” (translation: at this point you want to hit this jerk).

And the picture’s not all negative: “Weak Become Heroes” is a nostalgic, wistful rumination on the beautiful moments of club life when, intoxicated and dancing, strangers feel united.

Quick-witted, wise beyond anybody’s 23 years and featuring lovely, out-of-the-way production, “Original Pirate Material” is the first big but quiet noise indicating that the next important pop music may be coming off the Streets.