Rave Immortal: Vinyl LP

“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.  

The album’s ten bangers-in-waiting came to life during a whirlwind six-day recording session overseen by Natt Webb at RatCat Studios (The Struts, King Blonde) in January 2024, a symbiotic artist-producer connection that circumvented the need for long, aimless conversations – the two parties immediately just got it.