Feel-good chunkers.

Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/784

@sallycberlin

Resident Advisor podcast

RA.784 Sally C

On Oct 6th 2021, about 2 years after my last set in London, I played from open to close (11pm to 5am) at Village Underground in Shoreditch. Here's a recording of the whole night with a bit of the crowd noise. 

Perhaps a full tracklist at some point... some unreleased stuff in here. 

Even though it had been a while, we had all night so no use in rushing things! I came across a lot of lovely music this year, but it mostly lived in my rekordbox or in a radio mix. I actually record a lot of my sets but it always feels like they're in a constant state of iteration, making it hard to pick just one "version" to release. Over the years I feel like this has led me to only very sparingly drop live-recorded sets. A "party" doesn't often lend itself to the archivable realm, maybe the memories are best suited to the ephemeral. 

Anyway, eternal gratitude crystals to those who came and those who danced, and to those listening now.

-av

Avalon Emerson Live in London (6 hour dj set) Oct 2021

You know me, live from the board recording plus crowd mic. One of my final festival sets of 2022, closing out Making Time ∞ in one of my favorite cities, Philly (long live dave p!) eternal gratitude crystals to all and to all a good night <3

Avalon Emerson Live in Philadelphia 2022 - 09 - 24 @ Making Time ♾️

People usually talk about Berlin, London, New York when discussing electronic music hotspots, and Paris doesn't always get its due. Case in point? It produced Jennifer Cardini, one of the most distinctive DJs to to ever come out of the city. (She's lived in Germany for a while, but the point stands.) Her sound lands somewhere between disco, house and EBM, rooted in a groovy, post-modern chug. You'll hear nu-disco, industrial, techno and electro too, usually built around big hooks. It's a sound that is not only instantly recognizable, but instantly likable.

As a producer, Cardini also deserves her flowers. She's been putting out records since the mid-'90s, and with her first label Correspondant, she's built up a rock-solid catalogue from artists like Fort Romeau, Man Power, Cormac and more. More recently she started the Dischi Autunno imprint, a place for more crossover-friendly music that indulges Cardini's tastes for all things melodic (and maybe a little goth).

Cardini's RA Podcast is a beautiful summary of all these ideas and influences. It's hard and banging, sure, but also lithe and athletic. There are plenty of tracks with the surge of EBM or the stab of industrial. Lots of reverb. Decadent melodies undergirded by tough drum patterns. And it's paced as expertly as you'd expect from someone who's been DJing for over 30 years. In the interview below, Cardini says she "loves how the young generation is digesting four decades of club / rave culture," and you can hear that history living and breathing in Cardini's DJing, too.

@jennifercardini

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/870

RA podcast

RA.870 Jennifer Cardini

All Night Long in London (DJ Mix) Dec 2023

Recording of HAAi's set at Rainbow Disco Club 2024.

RDC 074 - HAAi at Rainbow Disco Club 2024

É–Mix No.68 by Bambounou
SC: @bambounou
IG: @bambounouu

A few words from the artist:

1/ How would you describe your personal connection to music and how it influences your creative process?

My connection to music is very much a love/hate relationship. Some days, I wake up and feel an overwhelming, transcendent love for all forms of sound—whether it’s music, noise, or even random everyday sounds. But other days, even the chirping of birds gets under my skin. This duality really mirrors my creative process: one day, I feel like everything I create is brilliant, and the next, I question how I could possibly produce something so meaningless.

2/ As an artist, how do you see the intersection between fashion and music?

Music is my chosen medium of expression—it’s what I’m most sensitive to. But it’s the same with fashion; everything feels interconnected. When I attend a fashion show, I can sense the music and the artistry behind it. To me, a melody can be just as much a form of art as a drawing or even a pair of loose jeans. It’s all about choosing the medium that resonates with you.

3/ What particularly interested you in collaborating with Études Studio to make this mix?

Honestly, it’s the pants. Études pants have this precise, cool cut that I absolutely love. I can’t deny it—I’m a huge fan of their pants ahah.

4/ How did you curate this musical sequence/audio journey?

I was on holiday in Zanzibar, an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa, and a local saying really stuck with me during that trip: Pole pole, which means “slowly” in Swahili. While the mix itself isn’t particularly slow, I was inspired by the serene and breathtaking water landscapes I experienced there. I wanted to translate what it might feel like to party in such a setting into music.

5/ Three words to define your mix for Études Studio?

Blue, Tentacle, Coral.

Maurice Donovan — Call My Name
Sound Stream — Sweep Magic
Steven Julien — Number
Huerta — Hit The Bit
Patagonia (Noha & Alex Tea) — Taktaktak
Mr. V — Mr. Bongo (Hello Children) (Butch Extended Remix)
Sally C & Eliza Rose — Hips Yo Thighs
Traumer — Get Out
Mooncat — Exploration (Original Journey)
The Third — D3 (Chris Chambers Edit)
Wongo — Cherry
Mezer The Architect — Be A Hoe
Jumpsource — On (ft. Martyn Bootyspoon)
100hz — Whisper
Duckett — Back To Life

Bambounou É–Mix No.68

Boiler Room and Sugar Mountain's iconic link up expanded to two days this year to include more heavy hitters plus the long-awaited return of a BR legend.

Gabrielle Kwarteng | Boiler Room x Sugar Mountain 2025

Bkinders

My Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1, originally aired Aug 2018. Here it is without the radio drops.

I’m usually not much of a preplanned mix person, I massively prefer playing to a crowd and interacting with the atmosphere. Combine that with the extremely not insignificant fact that this is one of the most important and longest running mix series around, this was quite a challenge!

I spent a long time gathering these 40 songs and playing with the arrangement (even made a couple new edits). I included songs that have been staples in my sets, plus old favorites from before I was a DJ. Eternal shouts to Nathan Micay, Aurora Halal, Overmono, E-Talking and Koehler for letting me include your dope as hell unreleased new music (plus two unreleased songs from myself). 

The last song is by Oakland band Them Are Us Too and this mix is dedicated to those who lost their lives in a diy music space a year and a half ago. Your music and love lives on. FUCK technocrat capitalist greed in the bay. One of Ghost Ship’s spiritual predecessors, Ghost Town in Oakland, was one of the first gigs I ever played, back in 2011 right around the time when I was realizing that I loved making music and DJing. 

If someone told me then that I’d eventually make an Essential Mix and be touring around the world, I’d be incredulously curious to see just how that would unfold. It’s been wild. Thank you to everyone who has listened and danced with me since then. 

recorded on two cdjs and an xdj, xone 92 & extra help from the teil1 delay and blue sky reverb

Avalon Emerson Essential Mix

HAAi - BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix 
29.09.18

Winner of BBC Essential Mix of the Year

BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix

https://avalonemerson.com/andthecharm

Now one of dance music’s most respected DJs, Avalon Emerson first made a name for herself in the storied warehouse scene of her birthplace, San Francisco, before relocating to Berlin in 2013. Over a decade of performances at the famed Berghain led to appearances at numerous festivals around the world which all cemented Emerson, and her evocative, genre- and decade-spanning sets, as perennially in demand. 

In 2020, she released her first full-length collection: a contribution to the longrunning DJ-Kicks series (which Resident Advisor described as “The sound of a well-honed DJ at the top of her game.”), nestled alongside a steady stream of remix releases for the likes of Four Tet, Slowdive, Robyn and more.

Next up was 2023’s Avalon Emerson & The Charm, an instant classic which saw Emerson exploring her singing voice and more traditional songwriting outside of the boundaries of her dance music work.  Created after a move to New York, the resulting & The Charm album was released to critical acclaim, landing on numerous critics’ best-of-the-year lists.

The stage is now set, then, for her to carve out a wholly unique path, and with the help of new label home and indie giant, Dead Oceans, Emerson is poised to connect her various musical endeavors to create an untouchably rich output of material. First up is Perpetual Emotion Machine, consisting of songs created for her DJ sets, delivered via a living, evolving project and announced ahead of her worldwide tour.