Now Is Early

Nigerian-Scottish singer/composer/arranger Nicolette has one of the richest voices of her era, but also a force of character that can turn any style into Nicolette music. Thus, in the white heat of the rave explosion, she was able to take the nascent hardcore breakbeats and sub bass of production duo Shut Up & Dance and create an entire album’s worth of songs that sound like nothing else on earth. The production has all the no-rules weirdness of a time of extreme experimentation, and the fearsome weight of its roots in soundystem culture. Even alone as instrumentals, these would be amazing tracks — but then Nicolette zones in on the jazz essences smuggled in the hip hop, house and reggae elements of the beats and sings to them of strength and mystical expansion. For something so very of-its-time this record feels oddly eternal.