Nia Archives
Boiler Room Nottingham: International Women's Day
Let's be honest, trying to get a bunch of Nottingham uni students to behave themselves on a Thursday night is like trying to herd ferrets on MDMA. Throw in the International Women's Day mandate, and you've got half the room pretending they've read bell hooks while the other half are just desperately trying to get their vintage bucket hats on camera. Absolute state of it, mate. Yet amidst the sea of overly enthusiastic gun-fingers and spilling Red Stripes, the undeniable queen of modern jungle turned this sweaty Midlands bunker into a proper spiritual awakening. Looking at the Nia Archives Boiler Room Nottingham tracklist, this wasn't just a nostalgic jungle set; it was a masterclass in high-velocity structural tension.
Kicking off around a breakneck 158 BPM and relentlessly climbing to a breathless 171 BPM—averaging a sweat-inducing 169.5 BPM—the energy arc was a steep, jagged mountain. Harmonically, she leaned heavily on the melancholic weight of 12A and the driving force of 5A, occasionally slipping into the 10B territory to throw the ravers off balance. It’s a beautifully chaotic progression that forces you to either keep up or get entirely left behind in the sub-bass crossfire. The selections were as sharp as a switchblade, seamlessly blending fresh dubs with heavy-hitting crate digger riddims. Spotting "Winter" by Raphaël Tintine alongside the legendary "Windswept (Sully Fader Mix)" by Sully & Tim Reaper proved her crates are deeper than the Thames.
Throwing in "Freaks" by Cheetah was just a cheeky nod to the absolute heads in the front row who know their amens from their elbow. From the moment that first "Unknown - Unknown" dubplate tore through the monitors, she had the crowd completely by the scruff of the neck. The peak-time onslaught of her own smash "Off Wiv Ya Headz" leading into the emotional pull of "So Tell Me…" and "Cards On The Table" showed a selector completely in her element. By the time she dropped "Baianá" to close the night, the venue was nothing but a puddle of exhausted, blissed-out ravers.