This month’s episode welcomes Reykjavik based Australian producer, composer, and sound artist @BenFrost. Early albums like Theory of Machines, By The Throat, and Solaris established Ben Frost as a frontrunner in conceptual, boundary-pushing, and sometimes aggressive electronic music — echoed in his earth shaking live performances, which themselves are celebrations of spine tingling bass frequencies and volume. 

Not for the faint of heart, his music is inspired by punk rock guitar, minimalism, and in the case of his most recent album, heavy metal, often eschewing storytelling altogether in favour of a visceral, physical musical experience. And yet, his work in film and TV scoring, dance, and even opera suggests he’s still interested in narrative artwork. 


In this conversation, Ben and I explore the different facets of storytelling, or lack thereof, as a musician, his new album Scope Neglect, and his approach to composition across these decidedly different fields.


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Music:

"Unreal in the Eyes of the Dead" - Ben Frost (2024)
"Chimera" - Ben Frost (2024)
"Ich Dachte, Ich Haette Mehr Zeit" - Ben Frost, from the Netflix series Dark (2019)
"The Burning World" - Ben Frost (2022)

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AIR 065 / Ben Frost

first single -  'Angel Crisis' EP out Feb 25th

BUY/STREAM

Beef

Un resumen de lo que fui mezclando en Primavera Sound y Sala Apolo 

GTC Dj set

Still Time

Xenia

Un Poquito

Zarbak II

Zarbak II (DJ Plead Remix)

One of the defining producers of the 21st century steps up for a rare, era-spanning mix.

We've been in a reflective mood lately. All things bend around eventually, but if you lived through the mid-'00s the first time, it felt tricky to envision some specifics of those interim years making a second splash. More fool us. Amongst many other things, dubstep is well and truly back.

This appetite for low-end has been a central storyline lately. Tells were there in the form of 2025 highlights like Introspekt's Moving The Center and Tracey's "Sex Life." Alternately, cup your ear to the tremors rumbling across the world and you'd find Mala packing up crowds with gusto. Which makes closing out the year with a mix from the man himself serendipitous.

The South Norwood-born sub sensei has held an anchor role in the movement since its earliest days. A little like what Upsetter was to Black Ark, the principles Mala, Coki and Loefah's DMZ laid down have been expanded on by Deep Medi, whose loyal fandom watch over the catalogue like a hawk. 

(Six years of frothy debate and knowing in-jokes between MEDi 99 and MEDi 100 paints a picture of both steep expectations and a warmth for ribbing their leader.)

But Mala's banner 2025 hasn't relied on the heads alone. Those fissuring basslines and barrel-chested vocals draw people into his orbit, and that's without mentioning qualities like pacifism, reinforced on DMZ's greatest tune; or contemplation, inked on flyers beseeching the crowd to meditate on bass weight.

In that spirit arrives a mix we've asked after for years. Subtitled The Listening Session, it's rare on two counts. Despite his enduring popularity, Mala is a conspicuous absence on most DJ series. It's not that he doesn't enjoy recording, we're told: he just gets spooked by the reaction.

A three hour studio set—spaciously paced and laced with freshly-cut dubplates and some of the biggest anthems in the genre's history—is unheard of. No tracklist for now, though, on Mala's request.

RA.1016 is the kind of document that jogs the memory back to when dubstep was a discrete enterprise, something you could only fleetingly access by, say, dialling into Youngsta on Sub FM, ripping 320s of "Circling" off long-forgotten blogs or hugging the back wall of Mass. Which, in service of thinking the evolution of 21st century electronic music, is pretty perfect really.  – Gabriel Szatan

Find the interview at ra.co/podcast/1035

@maladmz
@deep-medi-musik

RA.1016 Mala

Grabació en directe del B2B DJ Set de Lucero & @musicakinetica a Apologia ON AIR x dublab-bcn.
Grabación en directo del B2B DJ Set de Lucero & Kinética en Apologia ON AIR x dublab BCN.
Live recording of Lucero & Kinética's B2B DJ set at Apologia ON AIR x dublab BCN.

Apologia ON AIR X dublab BCN: Lucero b2b Kinética @ la CINC (Sala Apolo) [2025.12.19]

made this one to slip into dj sets a while back, something to cut thru the winter
download here -- https://jacquesgreene.bandcamp.com/track/lumidee-never-leave-you-edit

Yo me voy de aquí

KINÉTICA

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