Blane Muise, generally known as Shygirl, has been South London’s reward to warehouse raves, couture catwalks, and certain some BDSM dungeons for the previous seven years. Final fall, she lit up Charli XCX and Troye Sivan’s Sweat Tour after unleashing her modern, six-track EP Membership Shy in February. Its high-energy dance songs hit with the efficiency of a homosexual pour, and her profound, mallrat lyricism dilated pupils with unpredictable strains like, “Who needs to be actual/I simply need to be faux.” Like physique glitter in your mattress, her minimal phrases linger and provoke; although she steadily insists her strategy to this artificial music isn’t meant to be that deep, its silicone nonetheless will get implanted beneath the muscle.
In March 2024, she launched her DJ set recorded on the legendary cloth London, proving she’s extra than simply an beautiful performer—Shygirl is a grasp curator. Much more, she’s developed right into a Y2K-filtered Oracle of Delphi, dropping sensual, philosophical bangers with the identical finesse as texting the group chat on a Razr. However the place final yr’s launch was lower for the chaotic white-twink-wasted crowd—trotting to frenetic techno or blissing out to trance on tabletops—Membership Shy Room 2 looks like one thing else solely. It’s as in the event you’ve been invited to take a seat on the Unfriendly Black Hotties’ desk, the place shaking ass and sluggish whining is reserved for individuals who can really sustain.
Room 2 is an experimental Black femme imagining of what lies behind Membership Shy’s velvet VIP rope: Champagne cheersing to you and your homegirls’ collective slay as a soundsystem’s bass beads sweat down your again. Slightly elegant pregame turns into a unclean martini, which turns into rapping a number of verses with the besties. And at barely quarter-hour, its unique guestlist ensures that solely the boldest make the lower—like Toronto’s rising digital trailblazer BAMBII. “Flex” turns into a nasty ting attraction college, with BAMBII and Shygirl devouring a haunted-ass entice beat as they spit tutorials on the way to pop your shit. Its violins and organs dip into darkish academia, with a twist of early aughts hip-hop when the Timbaland-like flutes drop in. The pulsing hook, “sizzling, regular, tight,” sounds precisely like what 2000s music movies promised going out would really feel like—glamourous, magnetic, and soundtracked by euphoric, stilettos-on-the-couch music.
Shygirl’s capability to prepare dinner cutesy, juvenile references into grown and attractive membership sweet shines on “Wifey Riddim.” Its classic lunchroom desk manufacturing, evoking Lil Mama’s “Lip Gloss” or Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Woman,” will get a refreshing replace with the addition of hip-rocking Jersey membership breakdowns. Becoming a member of her is SadBoi, one other rising Toronto artist working its extremely experimental and distinctly Caribbean digital scene. Her command of the mic—“Give me that ring/Let the gyaldem know”—channels the spoiled princess power from her newest album, DRY CRY, a fusion of baile funk, Jamaican patois, and West Indian influences. As if that weren’t sufficient, Jorja Smith slides in along with her easy Walsall swagger, staking her declare as wifey alongside Shygirl on the refrain. “You want me the best way I’m/Don’t want to alter a factor,” Smith sings: two single British physique queens sharing a realizing giggle. In Room 2, being wifey is a way of thinking.
