Ones2Watch Home

Photo by Nicholas Santini

Somehow, some way, dance music is making a comeback. It’s the kind of music that makes you feel like the club is right in your headphones, it doesn’t have to be in the Lower East Side of New York City at your favorite spot to bring your friends because MIJA is bringing the club to you, wherever you are. 

Like your favorite going out top, MIJA’s new EP Hard Disco is an irreplaceable staple to your night out. The Berlin-based DJ, producer, and vocalist is bringing her high-energy, groove-driven new dance EP through Asia, the US, UK, Europe, Australia, and today, you can check out Hard Disco and see for yourself why the momentum of the recent world tour she’s been embarking on since January has been so infectious and something you won’t want to miss out on. 

If there’s one thing that makes this project stick out besides its ambitious, radio-ready sound, it’s that it has only one person to thank for its creation and that’s MIJA herself. She wrote, sang, produced, and mixed all four tracks herself, keeping the process entirely in her hands from start to finish. The independent production isn’t an accident either, in a world where listeners are increasingly tired of commercial interference from labels and industry giants, by making this all by herself MIJA retains full creative freedom and comes out on the other end of this process with something listeners connect with. 

In recent years, we’ve seen dance and electronic music move from a niche subculture to one of the most dominant forces in global entertainment this year, and a big part of that shift has come from artists like Ninajirachi, underscores, and so many more leading the way. An integral part of this shift is also artists like MIJA, who blur the lines between DJ, vocalist, and producer by resisting the old gatekeeping that used to separate “the artist” from “the person actually running the session.”

Across the four tracks of this EP, MIJA works between the spaces between disco, techno, hardgroove, and Eurodance by treating disco less like a genre that’s dead but more as one that’s come back to life harder than Frankenstein himself. MIJA pulls you in by your collar and brings you right into the pulse of Berlin’s club scene in a way that’s so unmistakably hers with music that makes you feel compelled to move whether that’s bobbing your head or throwing it in a circle. 

With dance music also experiencing a real “2026 is the new 2016” moment, that undercurrent is really a great nod back to the last true mainstream peak when Martin Garrix and Calvin Harris crossed into pop while a techno underground quietly built toward the next decade. Hard Disco, with its explicitly apparent interest in where disco’s heading next, feels like a really special part of that same lineage-reclaiming impulse rather than some more flat, dead-on nostalgia on its own. 

“On The Floor” kicks off the EP, and it immediately picks up without any hesitation or subtlety, with a thumping kick drum that’ll give your own heartbeat a run for its money. Quickly folding in reverberating vocals, and a low end packed with more bass than you ever thought you might be able to handle, this track sets the tone confidently and firmly, this EP isn’t going to let you not enjoy it. 

“Feels Good” isn’t just the song title of the next track, it really does feel good to listen to. It’s a track that’s the pinnacle of the club experience, it puts you right on the dance floor, disco ball spinning above you and lights everywhere. You feel this cathartic, whole-body release and can’t help but wonder is it the atmosphere, or is it the drugs? Whatever it is, this is a night you won’t soon forget. 

Then comes the title track, “Hard Disco,” which is still reminiscent of the EP’s club ready radio sound, but it just digs a little bit deeper. It’s groovy, it’s deep, and it’s what some musicians might call saucy. As it continues to sit and stew, you just can’t help but wonder if there’s ever been a tighter dance track that’s ever existed? 

Just when you think you couldn't possibly enjoy this EP any more, there’s “Temptation,” which continues the effort of this whole project to get you to move and immerse yourself in the night out that is Hard Disco, yet also ties up the whole project really nicely. One of my favorite parts of this project is that it lands neatly and tightly musically, but thematically it didn’t have to, going to the club is back and being out and yourself is back, no matter how messy it is, and that sentiment needs a good dance soundtrack no matter how messy it is. 

Hard Disco couldn’t have chosen a better time to come out into the world, electronic music has become the most-booked genre at U.S. festivals this year, and the dance music that’s currently driving streaming growth includes everything from hyperpop to straight house acts. This puts Hard Disco into perspective really nicely, framing it as a studio statement from an artist who’s already proven the songs work well. 

Listen to Hard Disco below: