100 Greatest Songs of the 20’s So Far #55 Nia Archives – Baianá

Released: 2022

Seemingly past it’s brief peak, in 1996 there weren’t many people who would’ve predicted that Jungle – the bastard offspring of hardcore techno and Jamaican sound systems – would’ve still been around three decades later. As it’s cousin drum and bass was absorbed into the overground, few heard durability, yet what had started out as the property of a few London clubs continues to grow now as a national phenomenon.

This goes some way to explaining why Nia Archives heard it whilst living in noughties Bradford, where it had become a staple at parties and festivals. Her family ran a pirate radio station locally, and after eventually relocating to the capital, still a teenager, she began making music of her own.

One of the reason’s for Jungle’s longevity has been the new realms that this fresh generations of artists and producers like her have been willing to take it. Fascinated by Samba and Bossa Nova, having sampled the Brazillian collective Barbatuques’ song of the same name, what Baianá had was carnival sweetness and electricity welded to a filthy, concrete bassline and jump up rhythm. Like her, do you wanna bet this noise won’t be still around in 2055?