British-Nigerian-born, Berlin-based Richard Akingbehin (@richard-akingbehin) is behind many crucial projects in electronic music, and most of them revolve around his exploration of deep and dubby sounds. Not only is he a co-founder of the excellent Refuge Worldwide radio station, but he also runs the experimental label Kynant Record and has some key residencies when not headlining other cult clubs around the world. His label recently released the first new album from dub techno don Tikiman in almost 20 years and this summer the pair will be playing together again as part of a mini tour. 

Ahead of joining us at Dekmantel Selectors later this year, Richard recorded this week's mix for us in the Refuge Worldwide studio with the aim of showcasing what he is playing in the clubs at the moment. It takes in his signature blend of dub techno styles with music from the likes of Parallel 9, Tikiman, Dialog and Delano Smith. It's spacious and unhurried but slowly ramps up the pressure to get you on your toes and vibing to his ever-warm, supple and minimal rhythms.

Dekmantel Podcast

Dekmantel Podcast 457 - Richard Akingbehin

New York hailing underground staple, Mutual Dreaming label head and founder of Sustain-Release Aurora Halal, takes to the tools on the latest Crack Mix with a warm, groove-laden 55 minutes

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Crack Mix 581: Aurora Halal

Recording of Identified Patient's set at Dekmantel Ten

Pre-register for Dekmantel Festival 2025 here: bit.ly/4fyWKXc

Identified Patient at Dekmantel Ten

Recording of mad miran & stranger's set at Dekmantel Ten

Pre-register for Dekmantel Festival 2025 here: bit.ly/4fyWKXc

mad miran & stranger at Dekmantel Ten

Recording of Identified Patient's set at Dekmantel Selectors 2024.

Dekmantel Selectors 2024

Identified Patient at Dekmantel Selectors 2024

Regis and Function's first mix in over 10 years is a unique paean to Silent Servant, heavy on unreleased material.

When it came time for RA to compile our Albums of the 2010s, one record with a tauntingly limited availability of 500 copies was never in doubt: Sandwell District's era-defining 'Feed-Forward'. Encompassing Karl O'Connor (Regis), Peter Sutton (Female), David Sumner (Function) and Juan Mendez (Silent Servant), Sandwell District had the underground in a vice grip for over a decade.

The collective imploded in 2013, with Sumner and O'Connor's relationship appearing beyond repair. And yet, an unlikely second phase is here, featuring imminent comeback LP 'End Beginnings' and their return to the RA Podcast after 16 years. In 2023, the trio of Function, Regis and Silent Servant had been performing and laying down new material before the latter's shock death last January. It's in the shadow of loss that this unique mix was forged.

Founded in 2002 as a spiritual sister to seminal Downwards, Sandwell truly began to hit its straps in the late '00s, as shadow-stalking cuts sliced through clubland orthodoxy like a switchblade. In parallel, the label's artwork—a noir recombination of Burroughs cut-ups, DIY zines and arthouse amour that Silent Servant made his own—helped fortify a movement which placed an aesthetic premium on grit, grain and sadism.

By the early 2010s, this fixation on the dark arts had utterly permeated the mood inside techno's masonic temples. Labels like Blackest Ever Black, Stroboscopic Artefacts, Avian and Modern Love were in their pomp, razorwire legends like Severed Heads and Chris & Cosey benefited from second winds, and it was briefly a jailable offence to not have a press photo in black and white. 'Feed-Forward' was the exceptional coronating statement.

RA.978 features a stack of unheard recordings from each of the trio, as well as close allies Stefanie Parnow and Tropic of Cancer, while also gathering many of Silent Servant's all-time favourite songs, including Psychic TV, Grace Jones and Galaxie 500. It's a strikingly vulnerable listen, one without many parallels on the Podcast. We're glad to run it. – Gabriel Szatan

Read more and find the tracklist here: ra.co/podcast/978
Read our new feature with Sandwell District here: https://ra.co/features/4426

RA.978 Sandwell District

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

artist: @mariemontexier
recorded on the 04th of april 2025 (Tribalism)
length: 03h43min14s

[Tribalism] Marie Montexier (full recording) @ essaim, Paris / 04april2025

Ciao tutti 🌸 My latest NTS episode is up ~ a special full production mix & cosmic reading from yours truly ✨

This mix is a journal ~ mostly unreleased material woven through dub, jungle, techno, poetry, and field recordings. Moments I’ve carried across borders and seasons. Meant to be felt whole 🌀

🎨 Art by MeteFYI 

~ with love & gratitude ~ 
GiGi 🧿🧜‍♀️💖

NTS Radio ~ GiGi FM ~ Production Mix 21.05.2025

Recorded at SOUNDIT Plaza in Barcelona on 5 April 2025.

“IF THIS ISNT RA MIX OF THE DAY WE’LL STOP PRESSING PLAY 🤪"

Blasha b2b Allatt b2b Steffi b2b Virginia @ SOUNDIT Plaza (Barcelona)

@MattiasElMansouri
Wildeburg Festival
July 12, 2025 - Bud x Kas
Kraggenburg, Netherlands
www.wildeburg.nl

Mattias El Mansouri - Wildeburg 2025

Amsterdam based DJs, events company and record label. - support@dekmantel.com for all your webshop and label enquiries.

mad miran & stranger at Dekmantel Ten

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