For almost 15 years, Shy One has been a major figure in UK dance music. The London DJ and producer got her start as part of a new wave of artists mixing grime, dubstep, garage, and funky in the early 2010s. After a brief retirement around 2013, she reemerged at the end of the decade with a new set of ideas and sounds, drawing not just from the wealth of Black British music that defined her earlier work but also looking across the Atlantic.
Since then, Shy One has become synonymous with NTS's most beloved morning show, Soup to Nuts. When she takes the helm, she mixes everything from broken beat and dubby breaks to shimmers of Chicago house and juke. A similar blend is evident in her recent productions. On a pair of 2022 EPs for Eglo Records, she fused multiple strains of bottom-heavy music, bringing together footwork with the contorted groove of UK bass music.
Shy One now returns with an EP for the famed Glasgow label NUMBERS. It's a new look for the artist; here, she slows things down and turns in what might be her first house EP. The focus is on the squelchy funk of the 303, but these tracks are not cookie-cutter acid house. The introspective “Gyallis Spiral” has a hint of dub and contrasting piano melodies over swung rhythms. “TNTC” is more heated, with jacking drums and a lead line that sounds like an alien Kenny G letting loose in a galaxy far, far away. These are house tunes like only Shy One can make.