10 tracks that birthed BIIA’s ‘Human Skin’
BIIA is a Portuguese electronic artist whose raw, emotionally charged sound challenges conventions in techno.
Photo credit: VINYET
Her music is grounded in a personal creative process that resists boundaries, often blending hard-hitting industrial textures, 90s trance influences, acid synths, and conceptual vocals. Driven by instinct and a refusal to conform, BIIA uses her productions as tools of expression—revealing parts of herself through screaming kicks, twisted melodies, and the recurring use of her own voice.
Her new four-track EP, ‘Human Skin’, features ‘Angelo,’ ‘Daisy Chain,’ ‘Gospel,’ and ‘Romantic Exorcism’—a body of work shaped by contrasts: vulnerability and aggression, nostalgia and futurism, chaos and control.
To celebrate the release, BIIA shares 10 tracks that shaped the sonic and emotional core of ‘Human Skin.’
1. BIIA – Don’t Get Lost in Heaven
“It’s a track that I produced a few years ago and it describes my sound as a producer completely. It’s a beautiful and nostalgic melody with a hard trance kick and bass. I use it as a reference in a lot of my productions. I love the simple bass that follows the melody to create more emotion.”
2. Jeff Mills – The Bells
“I love to use bells in my productions and to design them to make them a bit more trippy. Bells and bass are my thing, my perversion. The bells are present in pretty much all my tracks.”
3. Underworld – Born Slippy
“I love to give a 90’s vibe to my tracks, especially when I use synths so this is always present in my mind at the moment to digg for the sounds or design them.”
4. PELIGRE – Route 69
“I love the trancy part of this track because it gives a lot of presence to it. I always like to incorporate one shot or a second melody that can be more trippy, watery, bell, tom sounds to make it richer.”
5. Da Hool – Meet Her At The Loveparade
“Another example of the vibe and synths I’m talking about on top.”
6. Patriarchy – The State Of Undress
“I love the voice of the singer and how it feels so raw. It’s an inspiration for me when I use my voice in my music, which is pretty much all of them, since it’s a signature of my tracks.”
7. VTSS – Atlantyda
“In the moment I produce my melodies I love something that gives the feeling of an anthem, something melancholic, soft and catchy.”
8. SWART – Fractal Echoes
“Another example of a melody that is catchy, groovy, fun but always sexy and cool. I use this track a lot in my DJ sets and it never fails. There is something about that that catches the crowd.”
9. Teokad – Get Ready
“In my productions I like to go in a more nostalgic way or in a more fun way. This is a reference for the fun ones. This melody is present in my sets all the time. It can please all kinds of listeners and it’s always a moment of joy on the dancefloor.”
10. JonJo Drake – Barely Human
“This is another example of a track that has a lot of trippy sounds that I love and I’m always down to.”
BIIA’s ‘Human Skin’ is out now. Stream and download here.
Follow BIIA: Spotify | Soundcloud | Instagram
