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Hessle Audio feat. Dave Huismans (ex-libris, A Made Up Sound) - 30 June 2025

For RA.1000, we take it back to the source with two never-before-heard tapes from Frankie Knuckles's private collection

There is no house music without Frankie Knuckles, literally or figuratively. The queer icon's luxurious DJ sets at Chicago's Warehouse gave a rising movement its name. From there, countless offshoots splintered and travelled the globe. But what did the genesis and growth of the sound really feel like?

The Godfather of House left behind not only timeless records, but personalised cassettes with hand-drawn liner notes handed out to friends and family. Two of those, dated to 1989 and 1996, have been digitised especially for RA.1000. (Thank you to the Frankie Knuckles Foundation.)

To put that in context: the first tape predates not only many of today's active clubbers, but the entire existence of jungle, drum & bass, UK garage, French touch, Jersey club, Afrobeats, IDM, baile funk, hardcore, footwork, dubstep, dub techno, tech house, breaks, minimal, maximal, gqom, gabber, grime and hyperpop.

In short… that's a very, very long time ago. The world of dance music was much smaller. DJ culture was functionally unrecognisable from the one we see in 2025. 

And yet, to some degree, what you'll hear on RA.1000 hasn't changed at all. It's a capture of not only what made Frankie Knuckles one of the beloved pioneers of first-generation dance music, but what draws people to club culture in the first place.

The mood on these Frankie Knuckles sets outlasts even its creator: a spirit of optimism that floods the world's best dance floors and keeps dance music pulsing on into the future, nearly 40 years later, in spite of it all. We end our 1000th mix celebrations here because it all starts there.

Find the tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1018. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Frankie Knuckles

Genre-muddled chaos from Venezuela’s Weed420 crew – “played at Juan’s house on a random sunday” 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/weed420-4th-september-2025

Weed420 040925

sustain release recording 2025 (#devilhornsdoll)

It's Red Hot, STICKS (sustain yr 11)

PACIFIC MODE mix series 004 is legendary and PM’s favorite, Loidis (aka Huerco S.) (@huerco_s), the head of west mineral ltd making an appearance.
This is a recording of opening set from May PACIFIC MODE. He perfectly set the mood of the party and his signature deep but also elegant minimal sound resonated with the crowd.
Please check out before his upcoming Asia/Australia including PM in Tokyo.

PACIFIC MODE mix series 004はレーベルwest mineral ltdのヘッドで、レジェンドかつPMに何度も出演しているアーティスト Loidis (aka Huerco S.)(@huerco_s)になります。
このミックスは5月のPMのオープニングセットです。オープンの時間帯を完璧なムードにセットし、彼の特徴的であるディープかつ鮮やかなミニマルサウンドはクラウドに響きました。
10月にWWWで開催されるPACIFIC MODEから始まる、アジア・オーストラリアツアーを目前に控えた彼のミックスをぜひチェックして欲しい。

PACIFIC MODE mix004 - LOIDIS

Loidis at Waking Life 2025

WHY BE on NTS 15.12.25 - SOILED BALLAD (IN LOVING MEMORY OF)

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Stumble into 2026 with the 3XL favourites' uncanny vision of ambient. 

 It's become a tradition that the first RA Mix of every year eases listeners into January with soft, gentle and unhurried tones. For RA.1020, though, crimeboys take a different approach.

Made up of Ben Bondy, Special Guest DJ and Pontiac Sterator, the US trio are all loosely associated with 3XL. Over the past decade, the Berlin-based label, run by Special Guest DJ, has helped define a strain of ambient that foregrounds strangeness, texture and eccentric detail.

This energy comes through immediately on RA.1020.  Listen to the first ten minutes and you might not quite feel soothed. Stick with it, though, and a different logic begins to emerge, as church bells, corroded electronics and industrial abrasion give way to long passages of dub pressure, shadowy rhythm and low-lit propulsion. 

Across two hours, the trio draw a map of influences both internal and external to the 3XL universe, from foundational reference points like Skinny Puppy, M.E.S.H. and DJ Krush to artists embedded within the label’s wider orbit, such as Perila, james K and Critical Amnesia. Together, these selections trace a throughline from '90s industrial and jungle into dub techno, experimental club and contemporary ambient's more unsettled edges. 

RA.1020 isn't comfort listening in the conventional sense, but it does offer its own form of recalibration and release. Stay put, and you'll be rewarded.

Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1039
@triplexlarge
@benbondy
@pontiacstreator
@specialguest-dj

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