Come Alive

The mysterious NZO is from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, and it shows. Her beats are hyper-modern, and hyper-funky, but like a long tradition running from Cabaret Voltaire through the early WARP Records experimenters like Sweet Exorcist, to Mark Fell and his son Rian Treanor, she channels the innate clank and clang of a city that was built on metalworking — founded on foundries, as it were. But crucially, Sheffield has always grooved, and from Cabaret Voltaire dancing to heavy soul in the 60s to the Niche baseline house sound of the 00s, its music has incorporated it. So with NZO: over nine tracks here she builds hyper-complex syncopations and spectrally minimal rhythm-scapes, but they are powered always by African, Caribbean, UK and American club traditions from across decades. This is hyper-experimentalism with warmth in its heart and its best dancing shoes on.