Summary: Born Maya Medvešek, Nightwave first started cropping up on our radar back at the end of the ’00s, first with a series of dubs (and FACT comments!) under her past name 8Bitch, then a series of EPs on the Seed (Equinox, Astarte) and Slit Jockey (G41) labels. After changing her name to Nightwave, she returned with a succession of releases on Fortified Audio, Unknown to the Unknown and more, as well as a memorable vocal appearance on Rustie’s Glass Swords. Nightwave’s always been open about her love of hard, fast dance music – Underground Resistance, Funk, Deeon, Mills and the rest of the gods – but it’s over the latter half of her discography where she’s really let that come to the forefront. Her recent releases, mostly self-released through her Heka Trax label, have been her best to date, regularly hitting the 140-160bpm zone and featuring collabs with DJ Deeon and TT the Artist. Listen to ‘Rave Hard’ or ‘Fire Hoes’ and tell us that’s not someone firmly in the midst of a hot streak. It’s no surprise, then, that Nightwave’s FACT mix – described as “the kind of stuff we play at my club night Nightrave and what my typical set sounds like I guess”, is a ridiculous amount of fun, hurtling through old and new music at some rate of knots. Bangalter’s mixed into MMM into Deeon. Rustie into Godfather into Jammin Gerald. Maribor into DJ Milktray into Finn. It features Mad Mike, UR and Plastikman’s ‘Spastik’ within the first four tracks, but just at the moment where you think you might need to calm down, it throws you ‘Pony’. Oh, and there’s an absolute ton of Nightwave’s own material too. Strap in. And if you don’t like snare rolls, look away now.
