dance music
The vibrant, graffiti-washed streets of Shoreditch form the nexus of Nia Archives’ world. Teeming with a mix of giddy twentysomethings and bankers looking to dance and release pressure at kitschy nightclubs, the east London neighborhood has been pivotal to the 25-year-old’s rise since she first moved from Manchester to the capital three years ago.
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Between hosting raves at pubs, rooftop dance parties and a local multi-arts space, Archives has immersed herself in every community hub or wild Shoreditch has offered her. Last year, her close affinity with the area was immortalised in mural, when an 80-square-meter image of Archives was created to celebrate the release of her third EP, Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall.
Eighteen months on, when the Bradford-born artist dials in for her Billboard UK interview, her apartment stretches out behind her on our Zoom call. Every inch of visible wall space has art on it, from a framed cover of Aphex Twin’s Windowlicker LP to a ‘Pour Yourself a Junglist’ print, in homage to the iconic Guinness Toucan advertising campaign.
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Like her winsome take on jungle, it is decorated with curiosities across varying aesthetics, but the space looks invitingly lived-in. Archives, born Dehaney Nia Lishahn Hunt, released her debut album, Silence Is Loud, via Island Records in April, which peaked at No. 16 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart before earning a nomination for the prestigious Mercury Prize. The 13-track collection documents her in a state of messy uncertainty. Themes including complex familial bonds and self-esteem are layered over elements of pop, indie and drum ‘n’ bass, broadening her sound without sacrificing brevity.
Archives debuted as a soft-spoken but animated producer with her first single “Sober Feels” in 2020. She has since gone on to have a tectonic impact on U.K. jungle, introducing a new generation of music fans to the genre while also being commissioned for remixes by stars including Fred again.., Jamie xx and Jorja Smith. On Nov. 8, she played a rapturous set at London’s O2 Academy Brixton, which saw her taking on more vocal duties than ever before, skipping around the stage with excitement as she rocked the mic.
Her ascent is built on deep foundations – leaving home at 16, parental estrangement, finding her voice as a songwriter. But by taking a zealously hands-on approach to everything she does, Archives’ followers have continued to turn to her emphatic, euphoric music in troubling times. Back in east London, Archives beams as she tells Billboard UK how she is “surrounded by love”; her closest friends live on the same street, and she is enjoying some downtime after recent tours across the U.K. and Europe.
Fittingly, Silence Is Loud trades in the dizziness and angst of Archives’ earlier music for soaring serenity. Though she still sings about forgiveness and her own resilience, it’s now with the remove of a successful musician that’s conquered an uphill climb to get to where they are today.
Having toured relentlessly in the past few months, how does it feel to finally adjust back to reality?
I do love being on the road, but when I’m away, I really miss my house and my friends. I’m really happy to be back to seeing people, going out and doing things – I’ve got to live life so that I have something to talk about. I’m very happy to be in that mode at the moment. In the past year, I’ve also tried to work out what I want my personal space to look like as being on tour all the time is so disruptive. When I come home, I want to feel calm.
I’m really enjoying life at the moment. I’ve been boozing and reconnecting with friends that I may have lost contact with. When you’re busy playing shows, you don’t always get to speak to everyone all the time so I’ve been trying to be more present in my loved ones’ lives.
What is the emotional exchange between you and the audience like now that you’re not chained to the decks so much in your live shows?
Because I have played so many festivals this year, during these headline shows, it’s been nice to play to rooms of people who really know my music. I do enjoy a festival crowd because I see it as a challenge to win over new listeners but I love seeing people really vibe with the tunes. The audience reactions have been quite mad; I’ll be DJing, then I’ll move away to start singing and feel really connected to people.
We have elevated the set visually too, and I’m really happy with how it has all turned out. I have spotted a lot of moshpits during my shows, which I never expected – it’s quite overstimulating doing what I do! Also, I’ve got really bad eyesight which means I can’t see that far into the crowd but I know that all the vibe controllers are down the front anyway. I love it.
Silence Is Loud introduced your music to more people than ever before. Do you feel like you’ve crossed a threshold, in that regard?
I don’t know. I really love my album, but I will say making an album in 2024 is so anti-climatic. You know, I’m proud of what I’ve done, but I recently saw Goldie say that when he made [1994’s] Inner City Life, people didn’t get it at the time and it only became what it was years later. I feel like that might ring true with my album as well, to be honest.
How do you think the reaction to the album differed to what you had anticipated?
I’m already doing quite a niche thing, which is jungle music. And then I have my own specific take on it, which is bringing in all these different sounds to the genre while I’m singing about my life as well. It’s quite fresh. I think people don’t always understand something new straight away, so I think it’s a bit of a grower. That happens quite a lot with dance music, where songs often become hits years after they are released.
Why do you feel so attracted to telling the story of your life in your music?
I had never really spoken about my life before, and I thought my debut album would be a good way to have a “planting my flag in the sand” moment. Like, my name is Nia Archives and I am making an archive of my life stories. If I have done anything in my life, I have made this album and it’s told the world about who I am, what my story is, and what I am interested in. Album one had to be really real to me: it had to represent who I am and where I come from, and I felt like I only had one chance to do that.
Honestly, I just wrote a lot of songs and tried to sing them as best I could. I don’t think I’m like the best vocalist in the world, but I don’t think I’m the worst. I’m not a f–king powerhouse, Adele-style singer, but I’ve got a lot of charm in what I do.
Did being so vulnerable in your songwriting present any new challenges during the album creation process?
There’s one song [“F.A.M.I.L.Y”] that I didn’t want to put on my album, but my label and manager really wanted that to be the lead single. And I was like, “I don’t want to do that, because that’s such an embarrassing song.” But I’m glad to put it on there because you know what, people that come up to me at shows and tell me they really relate to the song.
Your album has been attributed with bringing jungle sounds and aesthetics to a new audience, serving as a gateway for a lot of people. In what ways has your own relationship with the genre evolved?
My relationship with jungle has honestly grown so much. Hanging out with Goldie has been amazing, he’s become a proper presence in my life. I’ve needed it. He understands what I’m going through and what I’m doing with my music. Also, it has been nice just reconnecting with loads of people from the jungle scene. I’ve got really good relationships with everybody.
In the background, for 2025, I’m looking to put on and work with some new-gen junglists, people that are younger than me. I’m going to Bristol, I’m hanging out with people in Manchester – I want to help new artists coming through. I’m just quite excited, really, and I’m definitely feeling stronger in my love for jungle once again.
What do you see as the big changes in dance music as of late?
Dance music is definitely one of the biggest genres in the world right now. I’ve traveled all over the world and seen people of all ages and from all walks of life enjoying themselves to different DJs’ sets. That post-COVID party boom continues, I think: Charli XCX is huge and rave sounds are everywhere. I’m super happy to be part of it and to also see my friends doing so well.
On the flipside, you can tell who went out [clubbing] before the pandemic and who only started after, right? That’s not being disrespectful, but for the younger ones, the core years of their lives were taken away and they’re still figuring out how to experience live music. I’m not really into berating them or making them feel bad – I just want to encourage them to dance and to not worry about their phones.
How have you dealt with the way your life has changed this past year?
So much has happened these past few months that it still feels like a blur! Like, I still can’t believe that I was able to take my album to Japan and play it out there. It was so cool to see such an enthusiastic reaction to jungle music on the other side of the world – it makes me so excited to see the genre go global. There’s so much left on the bucket list, too. I feel like I’ve only just started and I have so many dreams that I hope to achieve with my second album.
EDSea set sail for its second voyage earlier this month, bringing a cruise ship full of ravers to the Electric Sea. The unforgettable Belize-bound experience is Insomniac’s spin on their successful Electric Daisy Carnival festival — which occurs annually in Las Vegas, NV and Miami, FL — but with a tropical twist. This year’s lineup was stacked with some of the most exciting names in dance music, from more established acts like Dillon Francis, Sara Landry and Subtronics to emerging acts including AYYBO, J. Worra and Levity.
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While the lineup of what felt like nonstop sets was exciting, what made the voyage special was the slate of experiences for fans to enjoy. From on-board activities to surprise sets, see what you missed below — and if you want to experience EDSea, tickets are available now for the festival’s third voyage on November 1-6, 2025 from Miami to Harvest Caye, Belize.
Fireworks shine behind the cruise ship at EDSea’s Sail Away Party
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Sail Away Party & FireworksThe grandeur of EDSea began in Miami with the Sail Away Party, featuring Chris Lorenzo on the kineticOCEAN stage. His electrifying set was paired with a massive fireworks show, starting the cruise with a bang (literally).
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Surprise B2B Female DJ SetThe only bond stronger than the one between ravers is the one between women in the scene, as proven by Sara Landry, Mary Droppinz, Jenna Shaw, Coco & Breezy, Lucille Croft, VNSSA and J. Worra. Watching the wide range of sonically diverse women play back-to-back was an empowering glimpse into the future of dance.
EDSea embraced a variety of themes, including Under the Electric Sea
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Theme Days (and Nights!)EDSea attendees made the festival their runway as they served bold and creative looks inspired by the provided themes. From Neon Swim to Safari Sunrise, each themed day and night transformed the ship into a new experience of celebration and self-expression.
Surprise Sunrise in BiminiThe Bimini beach party was a day of sun, sand and celebration — a day that went on even longer than announced, with a surprise announcement that the party would extend until after sunrise. The magic of EDSea shone through as dawn broke with an unexpected set from Eli Brown, making the already unforgettable day even better.
Wreckno, Sara Landry, Coco & Breezy and Lucille Croft onstage during Wreckno’s Catwalk Competition
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On-Board ActivitiesInsomniac made boredom a complete impossibility thanks to a well-curated lineup of experiences from morning through the night. Some fan favorites included the EDSea Character Brunch, where costumed performers mingled with attendees; Wreckno’s Catwalk Competition, a fierce competition of self-expression with special guest judges Sara Landry, Coco & Breezy and Lucille Croft; and Slander’s Super Smash Bros Tournament, a high-energy showdown hosted by the duo themselves.
Having FOMO? Tickets are available now for the festival’s third voyage on November 1-6, 2025 from Miami to Harvest Caye, Belize.
Kaytranada is ushering everyone outside this summer with his new album Timeless, which dropped Friday (June 7) via RCA Records. The 17-track LP includes the previously released singles “Lover/Friend” (featuring Rochelle Jordan, who’s featured on another song called “Spit It Out”) and the Channel Tres-assisted “Drip Sweat” as well as other star-studded collaborations with his brother […]
“I know this sounds weird, but this album was easy to make,” says artist, producer and DJ James Blake about his sixth studio album Playing Robots Into Heaven, out today (Sept. 8). “It’s like I’m picking up where I left off years ago.”
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The album is indeed a return to Blake’s roots, back when he was the prodigious polymath of London’s dance scene in the late aughts and early ’10s. Known then for crafting music that amalgamated early dubstep, soul samples and snippets of his own eerie vibrato, Blake quickly ascended as an underground sensation. “That was probably the last time I was DJing in one place regularly,” says Blake, who soon enough was touring Europe.
All the while, he was honing his skills as a songwriter, looking to the greats like Joni Mitchell as a North Star for writing songs with clearer hooks and more conventional structures, but still in-keeping with his signature style. From his first album James Blake (2011) to his fifth Friends That Break Your Heart (2021), Blake slid further away from the avant-garde sound that he once made in his bedroom to songs that drew more inspiration from pop and rap music. His later records — accompanied by collaborations with Beyonce, Travis Scott and Frank Ocean — made Blake a more mainstream star.
With 2021’s Friends That Break Your Heart, Blake says that he reached “the pinnacle of my songwriting” on standout track “Say What You Will.” “Once I wrote that song I said to myself, ‘I’m done. I don’t have to do this anymore.’ I felt like I’d written a song that finally filtered my influences and created my own version of what an ideal song would be.” It was one of the last tracks written for the project, and one that allowed him the space to make Playing Robots Into Heaven as the atypical follow-up album it was shaping out to be.
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Blake says much of Playing Robots was written at the same time as his last album. But at the start, the songs that would become the new album’s linchpins, like “Fall Back” and “Big Hammer,” were just “modular jams” he says — ideas he would mess around with when playing his impressive collection of synthesizers. “Because this wasn’t my main focus at the time, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever put any of it out. It felt like this was definitely a left turn,” he adds.
He credits his longtime partner — actress, host and musical collaborator Jameela Jamil — as one of the main reasons why he decided to take the more eclectic, dance-based works he was toying with more seriously. “When she came to my shows, she always would tell me her favorite moments were songs like ‘Voyeur’ [from 2013’s Overgrown] or ‘Stop What You’re Doing’ [a 2009 one-off],” he says, both of which veer more electronic. “She encouraged me to let loose a little, saying that a lot of my longtime fans might like to hear that side of me again.”
And yet, he was well aware that this so-called left turn — even if it is a return to what launched his career in the first place — could be jarring for his newer fans who discovered him from more recent hits like the Grammy-winning “King’s Dead” with Kendrick Lamar, Future and Jay Rock or “Forward” with Beyonce. “I don’t know when it became a risk for me [to make a dance record,] but I guess it is sort of a risk,” he says.
But more importantly, his new album allowed him to just have fun. “I spent so much time trying to learn how to write songs over the years, but here I didn’t need to do that,” he says. “I didn’t need to learn anything. I just went out and made music I knew would be cool in a club.”
One defining distinction of Playing Robots Into Heaven is the sparing deployment of Blake’s trademark voice, which is less of a focal point and more of an instrument for him to tinker with as a producer. He says that his “minimal approach to lyrics” and voice on the record is a part of the way the project is distinguished as a true dance music. “I think the way vocals are used in dance music is different from how they are used in pop, but the intersection of those styles is repetition,” he says. “The more cerebral the lyrics are, the further from dance music it gets. When you’re actually on the dance floor, you don’t want to have to unpack something. You want one refrain that feels good.”
Still, listeners can find profound lyrical moments in Playing Robots Into Heaven. Take “Loading,” the album’s second single, which repeats the phrase “wherever I go / I’m only as good as my mind / which is only good if you’re mine.” It’s then chopped and reassembled throughout the track, making it feel akin to a Buddhist meditation as much as it is a dance floor anthem.
For months, Blake has been testing his new material through a series of small club shows hosted in Los Angeles called CMYK (a call back to his 2011 track of the same name) at which Blake recreates the atmosphere of his early days — and sheds the stardom he has earned in the years since. “This album was mostly A&Red by the crowds at CMYK,” he says. “I really road tested this material.” It’s something he hasn’t done before, but a process he felt would befit his first true dance album in about a decade.
“When you’re part of a regular scene, it is very easy to visualize where and who you are making music for,” says Blake. “That’s what CMYK is about, bringing that spirit of dance floor from all of my influences back in the day to crowds now.”
“I don’t think the rules have changed that much when it comes to dance music,” he continues. “It’s pretty universal: what makes people move? That’s what I want to make.”
Björk begins at No. 2 on Billboard‘s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart (dated Oct. 15) with Fossora. The set starts with 10,000 equivalent album units earned, including 9,000 in album sales, in the Sept. 30-Oct. 6 tracking week, according to Luminate.
It’s the Icelandic songstress’ sixth top 10 dating to the chart’s 2001 inception, a run that began with Vespertine (three weeks at No. 1, 2001). Björk’s other top 10s are Greatest Hits (No. 2, 2002), Family Tree (No. 6, 2002), Volta (nine weeks at No. 1, 2007) and Biophilia (No. 1, 2011).
Björk landed five earlier titles on the Billboard 200, led by Homogenic (No. 28, 1997). Volta brought Björk her highest rank, and lone top 10 to date, on the chart (No. 9).
Concurrently, Fossora arrives on Top Album Sales (No. 7), Vinyl Albums (No. 7; 5,000 vinyl copies), Top Alternative Albums (No. 9), Independent Albums (No. 15) and the Billboard 200 (No. 100), among other tallies.
Additionally on Top Dance/Electronic Albums, Shygirl (aka Blane Muise) starts at No. 7 with Nymph (3,000 units). The U.K.-based DJ/singer has scored two hits on the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart: “Sour Candy (Mura Masa Remix),” with Lady Gaga and BLACKPINK (No. 24, September 2021), and as featured on FKA Twigs’ “Papi Bones” (No. 32, this January).
Speaking of Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Farruko flies20-12 with “Nazareno,” earning top Streaming Gainer honors following the Sept. 29 drop of a remix and video with Ankhal. The track, which reached No. 7 in June, earned 1.2 million U.S. streams, up 102%, in addition to gathering 2.6 million in all-format radio airplay audience impressions.
Shifting to the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, MK collects his fourth top 10 and BURNS earns its first with “Better,” featuring Teddy Swims, who adds his second (13-10). The song is drawing core-dance airplay on Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel, iHeartRadio’s Evolution and KMVQ-HD2 San Francisco, among other outlets. (The Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 70 top 40-formatted reporters.)
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