"Sensitive, schizophrenic cinematic cunt, hyper-visceral, a rebirth and unlearning, RIP white cis-heteronormativity, claustrophobic at times, expanding, kinetic, dimensional-healing, made by an opinionated brown non-binary queer": this is how Angelo Valerio, in an interview for Dazed, describes his music as Angel-Ho.
Angel-Ho is a genre-bending artist from Cape Town and a co-founder of NON, the diasporic collective on a mission to decolonize the dancefloor. A student of fine arts who works across video, live performance and production, Valerio is a fierce advocate for dismantling the structures of post-apartheid racism and white supremacy in South Africa. His label and collective NON Worldwide, which he co-founded alongside Chino Amobi and Nkisi, weaponizes sound and performance against the policing of non-white bodies. This critical consciousness finds its way into his ballroom, R&B and bass music hybrids as Angel-Ho. His debut solo EP, Ascension, was released on on Rabit's Halcyon Veil label and mastered by Arca, and Ascension II, a sequel of sorts, followed in 2016. His EP Emancipation was released on NON this past March.