TERRITORIES: NORTH & SOUTH AMERICA

Contained in Ninajirachi’s music is all the beauty, mystery, and danger of the natural world. The 23-year-old Central Coast-raised dance producer makes bristling electronic pop and club music that’s glassy, uncanny, and totally enthralling; like stalactites or spiderwebs, each of her songs is structurally impossible but spectacular to behold. A restless innovator and a renowned collaborator, she’s spent her teenage summers making adored, festival-ready pop from the avant-garde fringes, becoming an in-demand producer and one of the first landmark names of Australia’s burgeoning hyperpop scene. But even as her productions have shifted form and context, from the maximalist experimentation of her debut single “Pure Luck”, with Freya Staer, through to last year’s sprawling and intricate Second Nature Mixtape, Ninajirachi’s vision has remained remarkably consistent, each increasingly sophisticated track a new microcosm of organic fantasy to step into.

Born Nina Wilson, Ninajirachi first started making music before she had even left primary school, absorbing myriad influences — namely her piano classes and the maximalist dance-pop of Lady Gaga and Ke$ha — and channelling them into rudimentary Garageband sessions that led to an instant interest in production. At high school, Wilson discovered electronic and dance music, first stumbling across a Madeon song in the background of a YouTube tie-dye tutorial. In contrast to school, where few friends shared her decidedly niche interests, the internet — and, specifically, the internet electronic music communities she found herself in — provided a unique space where Wilson could be herself and celebrate her interests. Spurred on by a Porter Robinson fan community she was active in, Wilson began producing her own electronic music, taking inspiration from avant-garde electronic luminaries like Mura Masa, Flume, SOPHIE, and Robinson himself.

Once she started producing her own songs and remixes, Wilson began uploading them to SoundCloud and YouTube, and when she felt they were good enough, put them on triple j Unearthed, where she ended up as an Unearthed High finalist two years running. Wilson followed up the release of “Pure Luck”, and her success on Unearthed, with a string of gossamer, sugary singles released on NLV Records: tracks like “Lapland”, and its namesake EP, that combine the ambient rave aesthetics of Drain Gang with attention-grabbing, post-Y2K touchpoints, as well as remixes for everyone from Flight Facilities to Deadmau5. Between working on music, Ninajirachi established herself as a must-see artist, performing at Spilt Milk, Beyond The Valley, Listen Out, Splendour, Groovin’ The Moo, FOMO, and Falls Festival, and touring with Mallrat, Charli XCX, What So Not, and, in a perfect twist of fate, her production idol Cashmere Cat.

In 2020, despite the chaos occurring throughout the world, Ninajirachi thrived, releasing both the Blumiere EP and releasing the acclaimed True North (Deluxe) — one of The Atlantic’s top 10 albums of 2021 — and selling out Oxford Art Factory with Kota Banks. As other musicians struggled to adapt to existing solely online, Ninajirachi had a leg up, having spent much of her life in virtual worlds already. Throughout the pandemic, Ninajirachi has performed at all of the international hyperpop scene’s most epochal events, including Club Immaterial, Nocturne, and Club Quarantine, as well as on RL Grime’s Sable Valley — for whom she also released singles “Dracodraco” and “Stoneteller” — Insomniac Events, and Brownies & Lemonade. Known for her work on electronic music’s cutting edge, Ninajirachi has also worked with iconic brands like Ableton, Logitech and the Sydney Opera House, the former of whom commissioned her to create the demo song for Ableton Live 11 and the latter of whom had her perform at the Joan Sutherland Theatre as part of their future-facing Liminal series.

Over the course of 2022, Ninajirachi made good on the “One To Watch” promise made by Billboard Dance with the release of her debut full-length project, “Second Nature”. Led by the infectious “Start Small”, “Second Nature” captures a darker, more variegated side of her production, and which brings her songwriting and lyricism to the fore. A set of glassy electronic pop and club songs that are transporative and bracingly real, Second Nature was quickly identified as a turning point in her career, culminating with her covering NME Magazine’s December issue, and EDM.com naming her as one of the Top Producers of 2022.