The Pop Corporation

The problem with drum ‘n’ bass albums is that, if you only like the genre to a certain point – or solely on a night out, dancing communally with others – they can wear a bit thin quite quickly. That’s why, when someone makes a breakout, crossover record, they have to cast their net a little wider.

Of course, this can irritate jungle puritans, but it’s not like there haven’t been great successes in varying things up. Goldie, of course, gave us ‘Timeless’ which was the first real classic long-player of the genre which, up ’til that point, had largely been a singles market. Roni Size and Reprazent married DnB with jazzier moments and bagged a Mercury Music Prize, and LTJ Bukem briefly cornered the lifestyle magazine market with his apparent ‘intelligent’ drum ‘n’ bass.

Since then, there’s been the Nu Metal leanings of whatever it is Pendulum and Chase & Status do, and DJ Fresh landed some pop-hits, but who was going to be the next superstar who felt like they were carrying the genre on their back?

Nia Archives arrived fresh faced and gave the scene a much needed shot in the arm, but as we hinted at before, had made records that were squarely for people who were absolutely and thoroughly devoted to this genre. She rightly got a load of plaudits, but there was a nagging sense that she might be being a smidge reverential to the source material, which you can understand.

It felt like she needed to put her own stamp on it, to really show us what she could do.

And so, to ‘Emotional Junglist’, which really shows how versatile a genre drum ‘n’ bass can be, when you give it some proper love and affection. The previous ‘Silence Is Loud’ was correctly praised, but now, we’re seeing more influences into the mix. On first listen, you’re reminded of albums that don’t sound a lick like this one, but have a similar genre-hopping approaches – Massive Attack and their mix of dub and post-rock, The Streets punk oi with UK Garage, even early ’90s indie-dance!

You’re whisked through the songs at a breakneck pace, but with loads of variety, light and shade. In one moment, you’re hearing the gloomy goth guitars of someone like Bauhaus, and at other moments, Industrial Metal, and then there’s whiffs of early ’90s trance (Trance Europe Express albums, rather than the stuff that went to Gatecrasher) and the skuzzy bop of Ninja Tune and the like.

This is good stuff. In fact, this is great stuff.

The breakbeats are pretty much omnipresent, but instead of simply bowing and scraping to pure jungle, we see the versatility of the mighty break, going from DnB to Dancehall, to hardcore and ’90s house – sure, you’re not getting someone trying to marry country music and gabba (thank god) – but there’s such an array of sound here that it’s a genuine thrill to hear a record that could only be made in the UK, almost the heir to what The Specials started.

It sounds sophisticated and smart, but it is refreshingly accessible too and feels like something with genuine crossover appeal without losing sight of what it set out to achieve – Nia Archives is doing it for the culture, but she’s also doing this for herself.

There’s huge slabs of synths and bass of course, but the introduction of live elements really elevates the record, giving nods to Indie Sleaze, Trip Hop, and more – it allows the emotional moments to hit harder, while saving some of itself for the tracks aimed more squarely at the dancefloor.

‘Around tha Bend’ has the wiry echoes of Arctic Monkeys, while ‘This Could Be’ has the joyful, playful skip of the early Noughties pop that is being revived by the kids of TikTok these days, and Sampha and Jorja Smith appear to do their thing that they do so well. It’s sensational stuff – we knew Nia Archives had this in her, all set to dominate the scene for the foreseeable.

Has Nia Archives made a classic drum ‘n’ bass album? Let the jungle purists argue amongst themselves. Has Nia Archives made a modern British classic? You bet your life she has.