Silence Is Loud (LP)

Nia Archives is the star at the forefront of the latest era of jungle. Since her emergence in 2020, her collagist soundscapes have helped bring the sound to a new generation of clubgoers (though fair warning: don't call her a revivalist - she's the first to point out that the scene never went away.) So, when it comes to talk of the 24-year-old DJ/producer/singer-songwriter's much-anticipated debut album, Silence Is Loud, the odds are you're thinking of a full-length record of weightless jungle tracks with basslines so intense they'll leave your ears ringing.

But the reality of the Bradford-born, Leeds-raised artist's first ever album - while very much replete with that exquisite jungle sound she does so well - is also doing something a little different. On the thrilling and freeing Silence Is Loud, Nia Archives is looking to make music for beyond the rave. The album mixes gloomy Britpop, warm Motown, soaring indie, a love for Kings of Leon's Aha Shake Heartbreak, skittering IDM, Madchester, classic rock, old skool hardcore and more, woven and fused into her ragga and junglist tapestry, all layered with feeling, imbued with her songwriterly lyricism about loneliness, relationships, family, navigating her 20s, and the intense potential power of silence.