- UK jungle's brightest young hope presents an infectious blend of heavy breaks and deep introspection.
- The name of Nia Archives' upcoming UK tour, Emotional Junglist, is as neat a description for the Yorkshire-born singer-songwriter-DJ-producer as any. There's a deep sense of melancholy that seeps between the cracks of the Amen breaks, booming basslines and syncopated drum fills of her songs. Her vulnerability—and strong, clear voice—have endeared her to a new generation of junglists and endeared jungle to a young generation of pop fans in the process.
The 24-year-old producer, real name Dehaney Nia Lishahn Hunt, has sketched out this sound over a handful of critically acclaimed EPs, but her debut album takes the concept of emotional junglism to a whole new level. Silence Is Loud is shaped by a youthful moodiness. Listeners are transported to their childhood bedroom, door slammed shut and rain hammering down from dark clouds outside. The album's string of pre-released singles ("Forbidden Feelingz" and "So Tell Me" among them) set the stage for this gloomy atmosphere that the rest of the album fleshes out. Hunt explores themes of romantic heartbreak, family trauma and the balance between chaos and euphoria when out on the road—all to instrumentals that bang and bawl in equal measure.
The heavily distorted scream at the start of the title track plunges the listener into Hunt's cloistered personal world, before hitting with a near cacophony of wailed vocals, stomping kicks and oscillating synth lines. Hunt's lyrics cut through the fascinatingly muddy texture: "If I ain't got you around / Then I'm lost and I don't wanna be found / You're the only thing keeping me sound / And without you, the silence is loud." This delicate chorus—a tribute to her brother and his grounding qualities—almost feels at odds with the booming sonic backdrop, but Hunt's blend of introspective lyricism with high-intensity bass music is finely tuned by this point, and utterly infectious.
Made in collaboration with renowned producer and songwriter Ethan P. Flynn (who has worked with FKA twigs and Jockstrap, among others), Silence Is Loud draws from this combination of raw feeling and polished production repeatedly. You could imagine the punchy, chanted chorus of " F.A.M.I.L.Y" popping off at a rave, but the simplistic hook doesn't distract from the otherwise complex message about strained family ties, centred around the line "I don't identify with my F A M I L Y / 'Cause sometimes things don't feel right."
Against the skippy 170 BPM breaks of "Crowded Rooms," Hunt confesses, "I feel so lonely, especially in crowded rooms / It's a facade, my persona is my costume," shattering any illusions of dance floor hedonism, instead reflecting the difficulty of adjusting to a life spent on tour—a daily schedule defined by intense highs and lows. The cavernous and stripped-back "Silence Is Loud (Reprise)" builds on this theme, showing off both Hunt's impressive vocal range, and her irresistible, folksy twang. Her smooth, rounded vowel sounds add a soulful edge to tracks like "Cards On The Table," a love song about a chance encounter in Dublin that combines faux-Western guitar licks, acoustic strumming and rapid breakbeats to create a unique (and slightly bizarre) blend of sounds that reflects the project's fiercely experimental, but always approachable streak.
"Forbidden Feelingz" and "So Tell Me" have been smashes on the live and DJ circuit for well over a year now, but they still have a purpose on Silence Is Loud, anchoring the album between the tracks that might not be shutting down festivals later this summer. Hunt's debut isn't just a representation of her compelling Emotional Junglist sound, but a firm push against the boundaries of modern, nostalgic jungle, underlining how much even the toughest dance music can benefit from a little vulnerability.
Tracklist01. Silence Is Loud
02. Cards On The Table
03. Unfinished Business
04. Crowded Roomz
05. Forbidden Feelingz
06. Blind Devotion
07. Tell Me What It's Like?
08. Nightmares
09. F.A.M.I.L.Y
10. Out Of Options
11. Silence Is Loud (Reprise)
12. Killjoy !
13. So Tell Me…