The Don dada!!!  Let’s get after Diego!!! 🇦🇷❤️🌷🔊

Throughout a three decade career & countless of releases under tens of aliases, Terre Thaemlitz has tackled complex issues — queer identity, race, class — through the lens of club music, an art form which relies on simplicity & easy narratives. 

In this In Focus, 150 Session parses through the politically forceful productions of Terre Taemlitz

https://www.nts.live/shows/in-focus/episodes/in-focus-dj-sprinkles-12th-february-2020

In Focus: Terre Thaemlitz / DJ Sprinkles

ARTHUR BAKER INTERVIEW - STRONGROOM ALIVE - 20/02/12

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/love2jdtwitch

This is a mix that long ago lived on the internet, then ended up properly mastered as one of the cassettes in our 15th anniversary box set. We're releasing it again now to bring attention to our friend, Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch, who's been diagnosed with a brain tumor. The liner notes for the cassette, below, lay out how formative our experiences of Optimo (Espacio) were as we built our thing. Keith played the very first Mister Saturday Night, and we went on to develop a long friendship with both him and Jonnie. We are forever grateful to them and hope you will support Keith and his family now as they deal with one of the most difficult moments of life. Love live Keith McIvor. Long live Optimo. 

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/love2jdtwitch


*Original Liner Notes*

Optimo were huge inspirations when Justin and I threw our first Mister Saturday Night parties in 2009. Justin had seen them play at the Motherfucker party at Limelight sometime in 2004, while I spent time at the weekly Sunday night parties that JD Twitch (Keith McIvor) and Jonnie Wilkes’ threw in Glasgow during my college days. We were both taken by Keith and Jonnie’s ability to incorporate just about any music into their sets while still pleasing everyone in the room, record diggers and punters alike.

This particular set is from the summer of 2010, a party we hosted in a Bushwick back alley, and it encapsulates Optimo's knack for party-rocking in the most unconventional way. Classic house gives way to afrobeat, builds up into a high energy Italo track that drips to a halt, before revving into a sequence that includes an off-kilter Comeme record, “Pump Up The Jam,” ‘80s electro, lo-fi techno and Jesse Jackson’s “I Am Somebody” speech, before Liquid Liquid's Sal Principato grabs the mic and sings “Optimo,” the track for which Keith and Jonnie named their project. To hear is to believe.

— Eamon Harkin

MSN Tape 1510 - Optimo

Part 1. A Fundraiser for JD Twitch / Optimo, 2010 in NYC (featuring Sal P from Liquid Liquid)

Optimogeddon Pt 4 of 5

2012 Mix for the Electronic Groove (@EGroove) Podcast series

01. Andres - Sha's Revenge - Mahogani Music
02. Scuba - The Hope (Recondite's Morning Promenade) - Hotflush
03. Alveol - Glitter Path (Kassem Mosse Remix) - Mule Musiq
04. Schleppstigg - Spiral - Aereal Records
05. Midland - Through Motion - Aus Music
06. DJ Druzz Vs. Omega Mus - Apeman (Monty Luke Remix) - Throne Of Blood
07. B.D.I - Decoded Messages Of Life & Love (Original Mix) - Rush Hour
08. Joy Orbison - Ellipsis - Hinge Finger
09. DJ Sprinkles - Grand Central Part 1 (Motor City Drum Ensemble Remix Dub) - Mule Musiq
10. Cisco Cisco - If You Want Me (Jay Shepheard Remix) - Apersonal Music
11. Appaloosa - Patchwork (Bostro Pesopeo Remix) - Discotexas

Electronic Groove podcast

EG.321 Diego Andrés [2012]

Despite missing the last two and a half hours we still managed to record a good bit of our all night b2b2b2b2b2b session for AUF LEIWAND at Celeste on 9.11.2024 with Alaska Al, Heap, Julian, Luziprak, Marc Graebnor and myself playing only Austrian tunes all night. In its slightly chaotic amateurishness, i think its a great representation of the giant potpourri that is the more obscure side of Austrian pop and dance music history of the latter part of the last century ;)

https://soundcloud.com/digatone
https://soundcloud.com/heapvienna
https://soundcloud.com/giuliodj
https://soundcloud.com/luziprak
https://soundcloud.com/goldcutcrates

Alaska Al, Heap, Julian, Luziprak, Marc Graebnor, Mike Burns - Auf Leiwand @ Celeste 9.11.2024

Andrew Weatherall's first official posthumous mix. The only b2b DJ Harvey ever agreed to. Six hours at Trouw. This one's special.

When mulling which direction to go in for RA's 1000th mix celebrations, many options came to mind. Some shadowy character 2-stepping around the fringe of our collective consciousness? An impossible-level IDM icon?

All tempting. But, ultimately, we are a DJ-forward publication and this is a DJ mix series. It felt truer to the history of the RA Podcast to release deep vault material from a time when the world of niche records felt different, tighter, more discrete.

The fourth-longest mix in the series' history is an unrepeatable marathon set recorded in 2012 at a superclub that no longer exists. 2012, incidentally, is farther away from 2025 than 2012 was from 2000... if we have to clock it, so do you.

It's the coming together of one British icon who passed away in 2020, and another whose time on the road has scaled back considerably as of late. DJ Harvey agreed to exactly one b2b set in his life: this one, with Andrew Weatherall.

The night took place at Trouw, an Amsterdam club already considered legendary before it shuttered its doors in the opening hours of 2015, as part of an RA series anchored around start-to-close combinations. Harvey was at the peak of an irresistible career second act, which dovetailed with a disco revival that dominated clubs for years. Weatherall, with infinite brownie points stockpiled from the '90s, remained everyone's favourite debonair psychonaut. 

What follows is 385 scintillating minutes of arpeggiated chug and slow-cresting climaxes: a moment when the resting heart rate of dance floors plunged lower than any comparable point in the 21st century. A masterclass, entirely self-contained in audio form.

If you've got time to spare, a fun side game is sussing out who plays what. A disco-dub cover of Echo & the Bunnymen? Smart money's on Weatherall. Exuberant EQ'ing of The Isley Brothers? Gotta be Harvey. As for the low 'n slow, lightly spangled house that was all the rage in the early 2010s (think Maxxi Soundsystem, Disco Bloodbath, Rub & Tug, C.O.M.B.I. and Full Pupp), it's anyone's guess. 127 BPM feels practically like an F1 car.

When we kicked off our RA.1000 campaign, we outlined a few goals: tick off a handful of long-awaited dream guests, honour architects who shaped the world around us and deliver recordings you truly can't hear anywhere else. Full send.

DJing and the mythmaking around it has undergone a quantum leap since 2012, let alone 2006, 1996 or 1989. For those of us who were kicking around in the former, there's a creeping melancholy that our prime is fast becoming a matter of historical record. The killing moon really did come too soon. 

Where will electronic music, DJ sets or any of this be in 2044? Hard to say. Best not to overthink that one. Instead, we want to say thanks to all contributors on the series so far. Now enjoy luxuriating in the company of two of the greatest to ever do it, together, for the first and last time.⁠ – Gabriel Szatan (Editor, RA)

@andrew-weatherall

Read the interview with DJ Harvey and Andrew Weatherall's family at https://ra.co/podcast/1016. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 DJ Harvey & Andrew Weatherall

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

Here we go... FINALLY!!! This mixtape has been around the globe many times & now here you have it, a copy of thee actual master. Armando Gallop aka Land Of Confusion Live on 102.7 FM WBMX, Chicago. Big upz 2 my GodFather, Farley "JackMaster" Funk 4 introducing the Chicago airwaves 2 Armando. Farley has done a lot in mentoring other DJ'z who became HUGE DJs/Producers/Remixers, 1 being Steve 'Silk' Hurley.
I also want 2 give BIG prop'z 2 the man who recorded this mixtape, Mario Luna, The man behind the series of books 'Beyond Heaven'. If you're a TRUE CHICAGO HOUSE HEAD, these books r a MUST HAVE!!! I also want 2 give BIG PROPZ 2 Bill Schmilke of Unscene Records, Chicago.
This truly is a master class mixtape of the legendary Armando. I would have 2 say he was & still is the Prince of Chicago Acid House right behind Phuture.
Now I know you're going 2 dig this!!! As alwayz, downloadable... Why??? Cuz I can't take all these tapez with me 2 Heaven... & this is my way of giving back 2 my studentz & simply 2 those that didn't live it like I did.

God Bless,

Manny Cuevas
aka
DJ M-TRAXXX
aka
Thee House & Techno Muzik Professor

Psalms 150=Thee Truth

Manny Cuevas'z Tapez

Armando aka Land Of Confusion Live on 102.7 FM WBMX, Chicago 1987' (Manny'z Tapez)

Hamburg's king of vinyl houses it up in a deliciously deep style on this week's RA podcast.

RA.161 Lawrence

The "Godfather of House" mixes up this week's RA podcast.

RA.169 Frankie Knuckles

wide style since 1997 at Groove Jet

Co-founder: @Safe_Sound, Public Records NYC and The Electric Pickle Co. [2008-2019]

EG.321 Diego Andrés [2012]

Diego Andrés

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