London’s dance floors went into overdrive in the late ‘90s, and broken beat was the most underground groove in the city. A choppy, off-kilter sibling of the other sounds spreading through the capital at the turn of the millennium—jungle, UK garage and 2-step, as well as acid jazz—it was such a well-kept secret that you could only dance to it at one club night. Every Sunday evening, CoOp’s cult parties would rattle the sound system at West London’s Velvet Rooms with spasmodic, Afrofuturistic beats that drew on the area’s diverse cultural heritage, as scene pioneers like 4hero and Bugs evoked the transcendental jazz of Sun Ra and the rhythmic spirit of Fela Kuti. And when CoOp eventually found a new home at East London’s Plastic People, artists such as IG Culture and Domu started ruling the genre with their staccato drum machines and ambient soul jazz.