Agent Sumo

Martin Cole comes from Edinburgh, and once learnt speed-reading and free jazz at summer camp. Steven Halliday hails from Leeds and knows all the words to slasher flick Drillerkiller. Together they are South London's finest hip hop-stylin' house nation – otherwise known as Agent Sumo. "It's house music," avers tall, 'intense' and crazy-haired Martin, 28, "but with a cutty, choppy production style." As well it might be: aside from the fact that Steven has spent untold hours lost in the basement of NY record shops ("they have decks in second hand shops!" he splutters, "and you can listen to records for hours!"), Martin spent his early teenage years living in New Jersey. "My Dad had a job managing refrigeration warehouses," he explains, "and apart from listening to loads of electro, I got into the very American idea of taking action. The glamour of being miserable doesn't appeal at all."