SHERELLE is more than just a DJ; she’s a scholar. BBC Radio calls upon the British artist to dissect the influence of the Amen Break, possibly electronic music’s most omnipresent sample. Through her organization Beautiful, she hosts events about Black and queer communities’ foundational role in the history of dance music and offers free studio time to up-and-coming producers. Before her 2019 Boiler Room set went viral and earned her international acclaim among breakbeat and jungle enthusiasts, she even had a stint at Mixmag, making videos exploring the dusty annals of DJ culture. Point being, SHERELLE knows her shit. This expansive knowledge forms the basis of WITH A VENGEANCE, her much-anticipated, surprise-drop debut album that marries just about every genre under the 160bpm umbrella into 10 tight, adrenaline-pumping tracks.
In the hands of a less talented producer, a project that frenetically shifts from footwork to drum ’n’ bass to jungle might sound overstuffed; here, the range serves to showcase SHERELLE’s savvy. As it stands, the record is exhilarating rather than exhausting. On the title track, acid house sirens wail menacingly before one of the album’s dozens of breakbeats jitters into the mix like machine-gun fire blasting at the doors of your underground bunker. The title “WITH A VENGEANCE” is apt—at times it feels like SHERELLE isn’t making music for you so much as at you, strapping you into a roller coaster of her own design with no emergency brake.
The rapidly pulsating “DON’T WANT U” also exemplifies SHERELLE’s propensity for raw, unfiltered production; the track’s intensity steadily ratchets up thanks to bouncing bass and itchy hi-hats until the beat drops and a voice ferociously exclaims, “I don’t need you no more!” Sometimes, sample work on jungle or drum ’n’ bass records can come off as tongue-in-cheek, even bordering on campy, but SHERELLE’s masterful selections imbue WITH A VENGEANCE with an unexpected emotionality. “XTC”’s elated sample conjures not only the drug the title references but the light-headed joy of falling in love: Behind classic jungle flourishes and 8-bit keyboard blips, the up-pitched vocal “in love, yeah/Ecstasy!” reverberates into space. While the album is most certainly designed for the dancefloor, you’re left with the impression that blowing the roof off the club is the secondary objective here. Through her meticulous examination of these particular high-speed dance genres, SHERELLE crafts something deeply personal, as narrative and feeling-forward as hip-hop or R&B.
The most blatant instance of this is “FREAKY (JUST MY TYPE),” the album’s only vocal track, where SHERELLE enlists newcomer George Riley for a sugar-coated house-pop song as indebted to breakbeat as sultry ’90s R&B. Riley’s exuberant soprano soars above a caffeinated garage beat, until the song’s midway point, where the uptempo drive briefly gives way to almost balearic synth chords plucked straight from the first cracks of dawn at a euphoric beach rave. “FREAKY” is the album’s most radio-friendly moment, but as the track progresses, SHERELLE steers it decidedly back towards the DJ booth, stretching out its last minutes with rolling jungle beats and layered vocal runs. The album’s subsequent tracks—the driving acid techno of “READY, STEADY, GO!”, the madcap hardcore of “SPEED (ENDURANCE)”, the static-drenched footwork of “XTC SUSP9ND3D” —spelunk even deeper into the dank clubs where these sounds originated. This mood culminates with the penultimate track, “LOVE YOUR ENEMIES,” which layers spoken-word samples in patois with plaintive saxophones courtesy of London producer Cameo Blush.
