“Artists that aren’t bound by any genre can do it all. We listen to whatever we want, we make whatever we want, we are whoever we want to be.” They sound like big words from Nyrobi until you hear Rave Immortal, the debut album by ALT BLK ERA, the duo she formed with her sister Chaya in Nottingham in the later stages of lockdown. Fearlessly bold in its vision and unbridled in its execution, this is an album seized by the shock of the urgent, an expression of defiant intention to be seen and heard and never again to be overlooked.ALT BLK ERA are not just unbound by genre, they run circles around them. Listen to Rave Immortal and you hear the alt-metal of ‘Come on Outside’ rub shoulders with the earth-rumbling drum’n’bass pound of ‘Crashing Parties’. ‘Hunt You Down’ imagines a darkwave underworld version of Billie Eilish, while brash punk rap hyperfuels ‘Come Fight Me For It’. The dexterity is eye-watering even before you learn that the sisters are only 20 and 17 years old. If their taut, tinderbox energy seems to scream with a frenetic need to maximise their every second, then there is a reason for that. In late 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Nyrobi was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, leaving her constantly tired and in acute pain. For the first year of her illness, she found herself drifting in and out of unreplenishing sleep for up to 22 hours a day. Amid a distressing time, the one salvation proved to be an online music course suggested to her by her mother. Attending twice a week alongside Chaya, it offered Nyrobi a focal point to her new life, a reason to take on the pain and get out of bed. The sisters reconnected in a profound way, drawing inspiration from those fleeting, special hours. Before long, they were writing songs together.TracklistSIDE A Straight To HeartCome On Outside Crashing Parties My Drummer’s Girlfriend Hunt You Down SIDE B Upstairs Neighbour Come Fight Me For It Run Rabbit Catch Me If You Can Rave Immortal
