UNBOUNDED @ Open Source Radio (18/04/2025)

Notes from Kỳ Mỹ:
"Emotions have their highs and lows, and I ride them too...Let the music speak your feelings and your soul. As a queer person, I believe in the beauty of raw emotion. Don’t hold back, let your feelings move, shift, and speak.

Ky My, one of the member of Loop Collective and Bung Lon ( LGBT+ party ), also known as curator of Kéncore ( Experimental Party ). I love to play blending ambient, experimental, and deep feelings into sound. Kéncore is my way of sharing the things I can’t explain in words.

My  favorite part of the mix: Intro opening ( 15s - 1'20s ) - Middle ( 5'10s - 5'51s ), ( 27'15s - 28' ), ( 38'11s - 39'36s ) - Ending set: Echo - The Marias "

FMHMRADIO Guest 7: Kỳ Mỹ

For RA.1000, DJ Sprinkles' first mix in over a decade is a powerful meditation on the genocide in Gaza.

Dance music often relies on simple narratives: release, escape, unity. But those narratives can often feel inadequate, and even at times, hollow. Or, as Terre Thaemlitz might bluntly put it, just "shitty."

For her first mix in around 15 years, Terre Thaemlitz AKA DJ Sprinkles, challenges us to think differently. "I felt this 1000th podcast should reflect the moment in which it was made," she told us in her Q&A.

And what is this moment? Every day since Israel's 2023 assault on Gaza began, an average of 28 children have been killed. That's an entire classroom, every day, for over 600 days (at the time of writing). It's a staggering figure that only captures a fragment of the listless cruelty imposed on the strip.

Faced with such a genocide, what can music really do? How political can it truly be?  For their RA.1000, Thaemlitz gives us an unflinching rebuke to the idea that music should provide escapism. The mix weaves ambient fragments and jazz passages, woven around samples from Israeli media and the voices of outspoken Jewish critics like Gabor Maté and Norman Finkelstein. 

The result is not just a protest, but a document of our time. For Terre Thaemlitz, music is never just music. Her RA.1000 serves as a reminder that in an age of relentless suffering, the most political act is to reject the illusion of escape, and search for something greater.

Read the interview and find the tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1013. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Terre Thaemlitz / DJ Sprinkles

Seven and a half exhilarating hours from one of modern club's sharpest.

Tim Reaper's mammoth entry for RA.1000 is all about range. You thought the Future Retro London boss was just a jungle and hardcore head? Think again.

The mix's infinite-scroll tracklist (the longest we've ever published in full!) includes a who's who of top-rate producers, from A Guy Called Gerald and Cari Lekebusch to Batu, Mia Koden and the one and only Shackleton.

Opening with weighty grime and ending on head-spinning drum & bass, the mix journeys through US club, wobbly dubstep, classic techno and, of course, many shades of jungle. Rather than go the easy route, the Londoner approached the assignment with the curiosity, integrity and vulnerability of fellow shapeshifters like dBridge, Calibre and ASC.

"The idea was to represent other styles of electronic music that I've been a bit self-conscious about openly expressing my interest in," he told RA.

RA.1000 isn't just another side of Tim Reaper's artistry: thankfully for us, it feels like only the beginning.

@tim-reaper

Find the interview and tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1012. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Tim Reaper

One of the enduring powerhouses of our era returns for RA.1000 with a riotous mix.

When Helena Hauff made her first RA Podcast appearance back in 2013, she was on the eve of releasing her debut production on Actress' Werkdiscs imprint. In the 12 years that have elapsed, she's become not just a household name within electronic music, but the kind of rare talent that lives in seclusion from industry tumultt.

(Hauff, enviously, has never even owned a smartphone.)

Her calling card continues to be her penchant for rough and ready EBM, electro and new wave. Her unique ability is creating a singular listening experience from disparate or out-of-favour tracks, with a raw immediacy that functions as a redress to over-choreographed modern DJing.

Her outsider approach is on show once again for RA.1000. Threaded together by strobe-lit DIY electronica, old-school acid house and corrosive machine funk that chews up the ear, the nearly two-hour set raises the bar once again.

In the sci-fi themed first half, Hauff drops two Cybotron tracks, nodding to Juan Atkins' blueprint for electro. You'll also hear "Riot" by Underground Resistance, the definitive mission statement for a world ablaze. This is musical anarchism, executed to the highest degree.

Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1017. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Helena Hauff

A four hour document of dance floors in the 2020s, from one of modern club music's most passionate advocates.

One major shift since we went 5 for RA.500 ten years ago has been the rapid adoption of anything-goes DJing. What goes us there? Upgraded technology, audience appetite for thrills, instant access to music from every corner of the globe: take your pick.

To corral the infinite possibilities of our age, glide seamlessly across lanes and be a trusted conduit in a sea of over-saturation takes chops. And few do it with more gusto and charisma in the 2020s than Jyoty.

Recorded at a raucous Nowadays party just a few weeks ago for maximum freshness, Jyoty's RA.1000 finds room for 122 tracks dotted over the clubbing map (although, when you tally up all the blends, you can probably round up to 150).

From aya to Logan Olm, Hardhouse Banton to DJ Babatr, Busy Signal to Baalti, a delicious double splice of Kelela and a staggeringly unlikely remix of Noir & Haze's "Around" (yep), it's an audacious statement from a DJ who has made borderless selection their calling card.

With a heavy lean on bubbling and the far frontiers of Brazilian club wares, long passages of the set are maze of microgenres and regional movements worth getting lost in. Jyoty's RA.1000 is a reminder not just of her dynamism in the booth, but a reminder to keep ears open and expose their audience to as much of the future as possible, as quickly as possible. And what could be truer to the foundations of DJing than that?

@jyotysingh

Find the tracklist and interview at https://ra.co/podcast/1014. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Jyoty

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 the penultimate RA.1000, we take it back to the source with unreleased tapes from the private collection of Frankie Knuckles, the Godfather of House.

This is Pt.I, from 1989. The mix is provided courtesy of the Frankie Knuckles Foundation.

For RA.1000 Frankie Knuckles in full and all information on this unearthed audio, head to https://ra.co/podcast/1018 or 1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Frankie Knuckles Pt.I (1989)

For the penultimate RA.1000, we take it back to the source with unreleased tapes from the private collection of Frankie Knuckles, the Godfather of House.

This is Pt.II, from 1996. The mix is provided courtesy of the Frankie Knuckles Foundation.

For RA.1000 Frankie Knuckles in full and all information on this unearthed audio, head to https://ra.co/podcast/1018 or 1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Frankie Knuckles Pt.II (1996)

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

For the ninth edition of FOMOHOMO Radio, we're joined by Naim Abu for a truly special journey. Stepping away from the dark, chuggy tunes of the club, Naim delves deep into his personal library, unearthing hidden gems and weaving them into an hour of heartfelt and surprising selections. It's an intimate set, imbued with what he describes as an "extra queer" energy that is a beautiful change of pace that feels both personal and profound.

Here is what he has to say about his mixtape:
"After mostly playing dark and chuggy tunes in clubs this year, this was quite a nice change of pace and vibe. It was also a joy to find things in my library that I haven't played yet and it seems they always find a way to be shared one day or another. 

Recording this mix made me feel extra queer and even more knowing where it's heading too. Thanks for the opportunity and also fight the power, trans rights are human rights, be kind and nerds are hot.

Also would like to highlight The Sameer Project as my charity of choice, a charity runned by Palestinians for Palestinians. Please follow their Instagram and check their links for where you can donate. https://www.instagram.com/thesameerproject/"

About Naim Abu:
Born and partially raised in Singapore before finding his home in the Netherlands,
Naim Abu is an artist with a versatile spirit who is quietly stepping into the
spotlight. Formerly known for his behind-the-scenes work as the go-to stage
manager for electronic music and programming the next generation at Open Source
Radio all while earning recognition for his dynamic musical presence.

His deep musical understanding had led him on a journey to renowned stages in
The Netherlands and abroad where he effortlessly moves the crowd with infectious
basslines and irresistible vocals, creating an atmosphere of surprise and
anticipation that keeps the dancefloor alive.

FMHMRADIO Guest 9: Naim Abu (Open Source Radio)

🏳️‍🌈🇸🇬🇳🇱 
UNBOUNDED - Open Source Radio
For bookings: me@naimabu.nl