Kaleidoscopic psychedelia from one of Australia's finest.

While it might feel early to call bets on DJs of the decade, Kia Sydney, best known as Kia, is undoubtedly one of them. The Animalia founder began in Naarm's (Melbourne) underground scene in the mid-2010s, crediting a trip to the influential deep techno Japanese festival, Labyrinth, as the inspiration behind her sound.

Deep techno might not cut it as a descriptor for Sydney's sound, though. Hypnotic ribbons of steely techno mix with atmospherics and nimble grooves, drawing from IDM, dub and tech house, sharing as much with DJ Nobu and Donato Dozzy (try to find the track that overlaps with Dozzy's own RA Podcast) as well as modern practitioners like Priori and Beatrice M.

This distinctly Australian scuttling psychedelia has made Kia one of the most sought-after underground DJs globally. Her brainchild, Animalia, showcases a plurality of sounds and scenes, serving as living proof of the fruitful shift of the 2020s: less serious, perhaps, but with a sense of open-minded worldliness that offers a far more promising vision of what dance music can be and achieve.

Sydney's rare talent lies in forging connections, bringing people, sounds and ideas together with a distinct playfulness. Her RA Podcast showcases this alchemy in abundance, weaving classics like Monolake and Enya with peers such as OK EG, Cousin and Command D.

As she told us in her 2023 Breaking Through profile, "people tell me I have quite a distinctive sound but I can't tell so much because I hear so many different versions of it." RA.973 serves as confirmation that Kia's style is, to say the least, the mark of a generational talent.
 
@kia-sydney @animalia-label  @cirruslabel

Read more at ra.co/podcast/973

RA.973 Kia

The first track off the upcoming debut album from Light of Cacti, due out on 07/03/25

Pre order here: https://tonightsdreamrecords.bandcamp.com/album/neverland-is-a-state-of-mind

Light of Cacti - Neverland Is A State Of Mind

Recorded live at Giant Steps 09.02.25

@johngomezldn
@aneeshp

John Gómez at Giant Steps

Carmina - Louder & Faster w/ The Baker - Aaja Channel 2 - 06 02 25

𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙨𝙥𝙖.𝟬𝟰 𝗯𝘆 𝗗𝗮:𝗺𝘂

𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵

This might be the perfect way to describe this new 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘴𝘱𝘢 crystallized by Da:mu.
Discovered on a sunlit afternoon at the very edge of France last summer, it quickly became clear that we wanted to invite him to be part of this project.

Born on World Music Day, Da:mu lives for sonic emotions deeply rooted in his body & mind.
As a co-founder of Öz (@ozcollective_), he shares a vision of free-spirited & colorful celebrations, embracing rhythmic journeys and unexpected mystical flights.
He is also one half of the rock’n trance-infused project Yland Sunr:ders with his accomplice diafan (@me_diafan), which resides on the imaginary utopia Ybyzär.

From the desire to (re)bring certain musical genres and universes into the spotlight, here is one of them, which we have the sublime pleasure of unveiling to you.

we let you dive:in Da:mu

link in bio 

𝗔𝗿𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 - Krabbé Jeroen, « Dalfsen Mart », 2016. 
Oil, 220 x 150 cm

soulspa.04 l dive:in da:mu

Mesmerising dance floor tapestries from a singular experimental musician.

Can you reinvent the human voice? The oldest musical instrument in existence, our voices are the foundation of music as we know it, and few push its limits in electronic music today like Lyra Pramuk. On her masterful debut, Fountain the Berlin-based, US-born artist's voice was the only instrument. No drums, no synths—just her voice warped, synthesized and layered to achieve orchestral-like electronics.

Five years on from her breakout, Pramuk's practice has steadily evolved, with a continued interest in ideas of folk and futurism, and how technology can enable us to build community beyond boundaries of time and space. There’s a holistic nature to her artistry, one that extends seamlessly into her DJing.

As she explains in the Q&A accompanying this week's RA Podcast, she sees her work as "part of a continuum of sacred, folkloric, and communal music represented by many different subcultures and communities across the world."

It's an approach that, like much of Pramuk's output, feels explicitly choral in nature. The first voice we hear on the mix comes from Lonnie Holley, his woozy Southern drawl calling out, "Earth will be there to catch us when we fall." (Although, you have to wonder, if we keep flogging the Earth, will it?) 

More voices follow across an eye-catching tracklist, from the poetry of friends (Nadia Marcus) to esoteric French chantresses from the ’80s (Anne Gillis), while Pramuk wraps an extensive amount of her own forthcoming material around tracks from SD Laika, Leyland Kirby, rRoxymore and 33EMYBW, to name just a few.

By the end, voice and noise become indistinguishable—stammering, glitchy vocals colliding with an orchestra of instruments. The effect is mesmerising.

Unfolding as one continuous composition, RA.979 exists somewhere between an ambient set at Kwia and the main stage at Unsound, voices and textures blurred into a fluid tapestry of sound. It's a singular offering to the series from a singular artist.

@lyra_songs

Read the interview and find the tracklist at ra.co/podcast/980

RA.979 Lyra Pramuk

Another Barker masterclass.

Sam Barker asks more from techno. The artist known simply as Barker is one of electronic music's most consistently conscientious and curious producers, challenging listeners to question the norms we accept about our shared culture—whether it's the music that fills the room, the process behind it, or the purpose of the space itself.

British-born yet based in Berlin since 2007, Barker forged a connection to many of the city's leading institutions, including Ostgut Ton, and over the course of a long and fruitful relationship, he carved out one of the more singular paths on the club and label's roster.

Not one for orthodoxy, Barker challenged four-to-the-floor techno framework in favor of melodic experimentation. By decentering or completely stripping away the typical trappings of kick drums and claps, his productions are both light and immersive, buoyant in low-end presence and shimmering in weightless space.

Six years after Utility, his sophomore album Stochastic Drift arrives this month. Shaped by pandemic-driven reinvention, it burrows deeper into harmonic twists and freeform drift. "At some point I became conscious of the process," he wrote of his latest album. "The only thing you can do is embrace the uncertainty and see every change as a potential positive.”

Consider his RA Podcast another sequel. Like his much-beloved 2019 mix for FACT, it's a collage of live recordings and a fitting expression of the artist's own internal spring. RA.982 radiates wide-eyed optimism: percussion cloaked in foggy, swirling pads and trance-like chords, neatly synched in synthetic glimmers. 

All in all, it's an hour of music crafted for contemplation, collective euphoria, or heads-down epiphany—or for that matter, any moment, really, its emotive depth seemingly endless.

@voltek

Find the tracklist and Q&A at ra.co/podcast/982

RA.982 Barker

Global Roots - 22 April 2025

Wampís of Guayabal & Aboutface - Los Bosquesinos (People of the Forests)

An intercultural collaboration with the Indigenous Wampís forest community living in the Peruvian Amazon: exploring evocative soundscapes and ancient nampet songs in the Wampís Territory, to support indigenous-led conservation, and initiatives against illegal deforestation and acts of ecocide.

100% of all sales revenues from this release will directly go to the Wampís to protect their rainforest territory. 

During a month living with the Wampís in the Amazon Rainforest, Aboutface and the Wampis community collaboratively captured field-recordings, music instrumentation and traditional Wampis Nampets – ancient songs sung from the perspective of animals living in their rainforest environment.

These recordings then informed 4 improvised performances to articulate the story of the 4 Nampet songs, from within the habitat of each animal, to depict nature and culture as inseparable, and to propose that humanity is not exclusive to humans, but a multinaturalist characteristic available to all living organisms. 

Credits

Nampet songs:
Kutir, Wancha and Pinchichi by Elizabeth Huampankit Najamtai.
Manchi by Fernando Ijisam Tsakim.
Wañasú by Edilberto Ijisam Tello

Acoustic Percussion by Wampís band Guayabita:
Fernando Ijisam Tsakim, Edilberto Ijisam Tello, Larry Tello Huampankit, Jose Luis Cahuata Pipa, Tedy Tello Cahuata, Heyner Tello Cahuata, Eli Artista Antonio, Never Tello Huampankit

Violin by Taro. Peruvian bamboo quena, classical flute, acoustic guitar, electronics, composition and arrangement by Aboutface.

Original portrait painting of Fernando Ijisam Tsakim by Nyran Loomcal.
All other artworks, analogue photography and design by Aboutface.

Rainforest field-recordings identified and collected by The Wampís of Guayabal and Aboutface.

This album has been funded by Help Musicians. advised by Shapiom Noningo Sesen – Wampís leader and advisor to the Gobierno Territorial Autónomo de la Nación Wampís (GTANW), and supported by charities Size of Wales & Forest Peoples Programme.

All project partners have kindly provided their services with substantial subsidy to contribute to the project and ensure this release is financially accessible and effective in its fundraising aims. The Wampís community and I are incredibly grateful for this. A massive thanks to: Vincent Morris, your contribution as always is invaluble. Help Musicians, Dubplates & Mastering and Deepgrooves, your vital contributions made this release achievable, Carlos ‘Canti’ Saldana. Freerotation Festival and NTS Radio. Ruy & Dubplates & Mastering team. Deepgrooves. Aimee Lawrence (PR) for your patience and help. Anna at Size of Wales, without you this project would not have been possible.

Finally, Shapiom Noningo Sesen, thank you for you patience, guidance and trust in my vision– may Aratum continue to guide me. Yuminsuajme.



Wampís of Guayabal & Aboutface - Los Bosquesinos - 02 Wancha (Fish)

Aboutface presents a special show in collaboration with the Amazonian Indigenous Wampís people, featuring 100% co-created music and conversation about the project and how it was developed. Celebrating the release of their collaborative album Los Bosquesinos, the show raises awareness—and vital support—for the Wampís Nation as they resist ecocide, including illegal gold mining, across their 1.3 million hectares of globally significant rainforest territory. To find out more and to support the project, [please visit here. ](https://aboutface.bandcamp.com/album/wamp-s-of-guayabal-aboutface-los-bosquesinos)

CREDITS:
Nampet songs:
Kutir, Wancha and Pinchichi by Elizabeth Huampankit Najamtai.
Manchi by Fernando Ijisam Tsakim.
Wañasú by Edilberto Ijisam Tello,

Acoustic Percussion b... 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/aboutface/episodes/aboutface-wampis-of-guayabal-aboutface-7th-june-2025

Wampís of Guayabal & Aboutface 070625

A new studio set from one of the foundational icons of drum & bass.

Few names in drum & bass carry as much history as Peshay. Paul Pesce came up in the crucible of early rave and left fingerprints on labels like Mo' Wax, Good Looking and, most obviously, Metalheadz. By the time drum & bass was surging in the mid-'90s, he was bolted as one of the scene's most distinctive voices. 

Where others were pushing clinical austerity or waves of dark pressure, Pesce's ear drew him to featherlight, jazzy chords instead. The atmospheric drum & bass movement—or intelligent, as it's sometimes known today—cohered in his hands with timeless staples like "The Piano Tune" and "Miles From Home."

To a contemporary generation, he may now be best known for Studio Set, which caught alight as a prime slice of algorithm fodder on YouTube in the late 2010s, racking up millions of plays. Alongside Bailey’s Intelligent Drum & Bass, the mix has taken on a second life as a seminal document of a genre in flux. All of which made its removal from the internet, based around a spurious copyright strike, a hot concern.

Although a little tad reserved than some of the scene's most dominant names, Pesce has remained a loyal custodian and historian of the sound. While Studio Set was down, we offered him a crack at making something fresh, and though it's thankfully back up, the Kafkian nightmare galvanised his commitment to preserve recorded history.

Known as a DJ for his dynamic way with a groove, extended blends have long been Pesce's signature. You’ll hear plenty of those on his RA Podcast, as golden-age rollers and contemporary vocal cuts push in and out for up to four minutes, painting a portrait of the genre’s vitality from someone who helped define its terms. True to form, RA.993 carries the touch of a jazz conductor and the assured cool of a veteran who's been deep in the culture for over 30 years.

@peshay-official

Find the interview and tracklist at ra.co/podcast/993

RA.993 Peshay

Wampís of Guayabal & Aboutface - Los Bosquesinos - 02 Wancha (Fish)

Aboutface

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