‘For home use only’ is an anti-club social, a chance to get to know someone/something. A series of transmissions purely dedicated to exploring the other side.

Eighty six comes fresh from the murky depths of Eora, from none other than Command D aka Charles Fester, born of royal blood, professor of mad dubs, and a 4 wheeled aficionado. Saturate your speakers in fat for the next 70 minutes and then fry until crisp. Stone-cold static rhythms, deep-ended depth charges, and echoes beyond space.

his sounds >>> https://soundcloud.com/commandd

FHUO # 86 // Command D

adobeprincess @ Nowadays Nonstop (07.27.24)

Command D summons the gods of the deep to have us completely submerged in a world of interdimensional dub techno, traversing us through an hour and a half of infinitely looped reflections and subaquatic soundscapes. 

@commandd

Q. This certainly feels like one of your most immersive mixes to date, deeply contemplative and full of dreamy dub techno atmospherics. What inspiration did you draw upon, and what type of setting or situation could you imagine it being enjoyed in? 

A. I started to get into this sound when I was putting together my mix for the Moonshoe mix series. I didn’t know what to call it at the time but I found all of those tunes and tied them together with a certain feeling that was really inspiring me then, it was very organic and that is still one of my favourite mixes. You can hear dub elements scattered throughout that whole mix.

As I started incorporating more dub elements into my productions I discovered artists like Stephen Hitchell and Rhythm & Sound that had created a kind of music that was really extremely satisfying for me to listen to, especially considering my developing love for hi-fi and larger sound systems. I incorporated those artists into my FHUO mix which was a much more considered exploration of the style. Looking back on the process of making the mixes and how much I enjoyed them really assures me that the deep and contemplative sound is a big part of who I am.

For this mix I’ve taken inspiration from the MDC series itself which I’ve been listening to for years. I wanted to add little hints of deep house sounds as a nod to the mixes of the past. I personally think mixes like this are the best to listen to when you’re travelling and looking out a window, otherwise maybe sitting at a desk on a rainy day doing some work. I’d like people to listen to this in a time where they won't be distracted by something else or feel the need to skip forward, I’d want people to just throw it on and let it play, drifting in and out of the tracks and their own thoughts.

Q. Are there any songs in the mix that are especially close to your heart, and what is it about these tracks that resonate with you so much?

A. My favourite tracks in the mix are Saftig Komposition by Rasmus Hedlund and Sedlec Ossuary by Persuasion. At a base level I love these tracks because they take a more modern approach to a dub techno track with tight production. Going deeper, the thing that really resonates with me is hard to put into words and best left unsaid. I think this kind of music (along with many other kinds) allows the listener to feel emotions that aren't able to be put into words, part of why I love it so much. I find that dub techno specifically can feel sad and happy at the same time like lots of jazz ballads. That to me is a really beautiful sound that kind of encapsulates life in general.

Q. Tell us about the development of your live set, and where things are currently at with it? Do you feel like you’re able to explore different shades of your sound when playing in a live setting?

A. Putting together my first live set was an awesome experience. I got to play it all around Australia from clubs to rainforests. I’ve put the current live set to bed for now and am starting to work on a new one with a slightly different setup. Although it was a challenging experience, I loved making a live set because often when I would dig for tunes to play out I’d think ‘I wish I had a song like this’ and writing a live set meant that I could bring those ideas to life and curate a set exactly how I wanted. I think I’m really starting to settle into ‘my sound’ in production and DJing, but there are creative limitations in both like finding new music or learning new skills. Overcoming technical barriers in production allows me to get closer to my most true form of expression when it comes to what’s coming out the speakers so I’ve been really working on that recently. Hoping the next live set will be bigger and better : )

MDC.302 Command D

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

@garcon at Waking Life 2024, 23h - 02h after L.B. Dub Corp and before Vlada at Floresta <3

ani/live Sixty Seven: garçon @ Waking Life

Full spectrum session, recorded in Tokyo, 30 March 2025.

In flight

A clinic in minimal from the elusive Acting Press boss. 

Why do certain sounds cultivate a cult following? Simply put, it's often because they resist easy consumption. PLO Man and his imprint Acting Press lean into this. 

Searching for the Berlin-based DJ and producer, you won’t find much online presence, interviews or conventional PR. What you will find, if you look hard enough, is a catalogue of records and mixes with a kind of tape hiss charm (a spiritual successor to Basic Channel and Chain Reaction, but scuzzier and lighter on its feet).

Founded in 2015, Acting Press once seemed to belong to the short-lived "outsider house" trend, but is now synonymous with a certain strain of modern minimal, one that is analogue, spacious and pointedly opaque. PLO Man's output is equally sparse by design: this week, he joins the RA Podcast with a characteristically elusive style, accompanying the near two-hour mix is a one-answer Q&A that gives almost nothing away.

Stripped-back, ever-so-slightly sleazy and coated in dust, PLO Man's RA Podcast continues that lineage in style. Opening with the featherlight microhouse of Margaret Dygas, RA.988 unfolds into a carefully curated spectrum of minimal, dub and deep techno. Among familiar names—look out for the blinding Rhythm & Sound and Moodymann blend—are deep cuts and left turns alongside the odd outlier, like lovers' rock pioneer Gregory Isaacs.

Like the best of his forebears, PLO Man wants RA.988 to take time for you to settle in. But once you do, you won’t want to leave. 

@p_el_oh

Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/988

RA.988 PLO Man

Deep, dubby and most importantly trippy sounds from Melbourne-based selector https://soundcloud.com/isabel-nak. Layered with rich textures and pulsating rhythms, Nak's BSRMIX showcases her signature style in 1 hour and 40 minutes of deep listening bliss.

BSRMIX #158 - Nak

"Astro Glider, Vol. 1" by 104 Records. The first project for the expanded soundtrack for the upcoming IOS game "Astro Glider". 

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Buy on Itunes

Limitless

Primeiro announces debut vinyl release: Music for Horses I & II

Unsettling the boundaries between the human and the non-human weaves through the fabric of Primeiro’s practice. Both his new album, inspired by a horse-related accident, and his project Feed the River—a festival where music is made in collaboration with bodies of water—seek to blur these lines.

Initially released digitally in 2024, Music for Horses I drew comparisons to the tranquility of Japanese cult artist Hiroshi Yoshimura, but a closer listen revealed deeper layers of intricate craftsmanship. Primeiro himself defines his style as “ambient manija” (rough translation: “obsessive ambient”).

Now, in June 2025, Music for Horses I & II arrives on vinyl through a collaboration between Sonôsfera (Buenos Aires), Danzee (Berlin), and EX:IN | IN:EX (Chemnitz). The record is split into two parts: side B was recorded prior to a horse-riding accident that deeply marked Primeiro’s life and released in 2024; side A was composed in the period following the accident and has not being released yet. 

The album’s sonic approach is rooted in floating arpeggios and meticulously crafted repetitive sequences, exploring the threshold between ambient and handcrafted electronics.

The digital version accompanying the vinyl release presents a reinterpretation of Music for Horses I. After receiving the vinyl pressing, Primeiro slowed down the record on a turntable, re-recorded the tracks, and layered them with drum machines. During his residency at EMS Stockholm, he further reshaped the sound, adding sub-bass textures using Buchla 100 and 200 synthesizers, and processing the material through tape machines to create warped, time-stretched versions of the original compositions.

In recent years, YouTube has sparked a quiet revolution in how we listen to music. "Stretched versions" of albums—where artists like Brian Eno, Hiroshi Yoshimura, and even pop songs like Justin Bieber’s “U Smile” are slowed down dramatically—have gone viral. These time-stretched interpretations turn melody into atmosphere, attack into pure decay, and songs into vast, ambient environments. Primeiro’s digital version of Music for Horses resonates deeply with this phenomenon. 

Music for Horses resonates within Primeiro’s broader body of work, where there is space for the non-human, much like in his Feed the River project, a site-specific performance that uses rivers as sonic bridges between musicians, audiences, and the environment. It has been carried out along the Spree in Berlin, the Elbe in Hamburg, and the Chemnitz River in Chemnitz. Artists are positioned along the riverbanks, creating a dialogue shaped by distance, flow, and acoustic resonance, inviting a collective re-imagining of our relationship with water as a living entity.

Label: Sonôsfera (Buenos Aires), Danzee (Berlin), and EX:IN | IN:EX (Chemnitz)
Cat. No.: 001
Formats: Digital - Vinyl
Release Date: 18/07/2025

Distribution: Self-distributed
Bandcamp: https://primeiro-segundo.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-horses-i-ii
Credits:
Recorded and mixed by Primeiro
Mastering by Ariel Schlichter

https://soundcloud.com/user-442847447

PREMIERE: primeiro - Movement No. 2 (Escápula)

We welcome Kia to our podcast series. Her contribution follows up on our recent appetite for broken and deconstructed rhythms. 

We were interested in her influences and the extent to which they relate to Melbourne - her home base. Explore the answers on the instagram @harmony_rec.
 
@kia-sydney

MDC.302 Command D

Melbourne Deepcast

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