- Anz does it again.
- Few people can say that 2020 was their year, but Anz makes a compelling case. Her best-in-class Hessle Audio 12-inch marked the apex of a sound she had been cultivating across the 74 other odd productions she knocked out in 2020 alone. In addition to this blistering production rate, her DJ star rose, too (which is really saying something in the year when clubs shut around the world). Whenever she took the helm of NTS Radio's Do!!! You!!! Breakfast Show, there was a palpable excitement that would wash across techno Twitter in the the closest approximation I felt to a shared experience of dance music all year. As Riri Hilton highlighted in their February Breaking Through profile, Anz is able to draw together unseen "sonic constellations" in intuitive yet unexpected ways. For her first outing of 2021, and the inaugural release of her new label OTMI, Anz continues to weave a wide range of aesthetic and emotional references.
Anz describes the label's name as inspired by a Spanish idiom referring to "two halves of the same ornage." This duality captures the back-and-forth of this two-track EP. Alongside the usual shades of the UK hardcore continuum, Anz expands her palette and reaches for new soumds, like West Coast hip-hop, to yin her yang. We see this on "Unravel In The Designated Zone," where a windswept synth arrives, sounding piped in from Wilshire Boulevard. Yet even with the ascending bass hits beneath it and snare rolls, Anz's G-funk melody feels wistful, an introspective touch that's all her own.
The flip builds on the emotional tenor of "Unravel In The Designated Zone," but brings it back across the Atlantic. Where the A-side feels like driving on a foggy California highway, "Morphing Into Brighter" is like watching the wet countryside roll by from King's Cross to Manchester Piccadilly. All the elements of a UK rave banger are here—deep sub, vocal chops, a twisted breakbeat—but refracted through a murky window, like we can't quite see the sun beyond the rain. Both of Anz's takes on brooding club music suggest she might be gearing up for an even bigger and more wide-ranging year in 2021.
Tracklist01. Unravel in The Designated Zone
02. Morphing Into Brighter