Every year since 2015, Manchester producer Anz has released a mix of all of her own tracks made over the course of the preceding months. For 2020, she sought to finish 40 tunes; by summer, she’d already made 74, which were then culled down to a slim 35 for her Spring/Summer Dubs 2020 mix. Like the ones prior, that set—which, again, was made entirely of her own brand-new songs—spanned genres and revealed all kinds of influences: UK garage and 2-step, East Coast club, techno, house, jungle, old-skool rave breaks, you name it. While the All Hours EP is a compact six tracks, it’s just further proof that Anz is one of dance music’s most versatile, exciting (and obviously prolific) producers working today.
“Inna Circle” mixes B-more club with B-boy breaks. “Real Enough to Feel Good” is the kind of stepping garage tune that keeps dancers in an anaerobic state, while Anz drives a vocal sample in all sorts of unexpected directions. “Last Before Lights” is a whip-cracking, high-BPM assault that goes down a rabbit hole of squelchy bass, pitched-up voices, and classic rave-style piano riff. But as wildly divergent as all these tracks are, little can prepare you for “You Could Be,” on which singer George Riley channels the giddy joys of Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam’s “I Wonder If I Take You Home” and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” atop one of the funkiest, most glorious synth arpeggios recorded since the heyday of Miami freestyle. Dance pop has rarely sounded so perfect—and so out of left field—as it does here.