On Oct 6th 2021, about 2 years after my last set in London, I played from open to close (11pm to 5am) at Village Underground in Shoreditch. Here's a recording of the whole night with a bit of the crowd noise. 

Perhaps a full tracklist at some point... some unreleased stuff in here. 

Even though it had been a while, we had all night so no use in rushing things! I came across a lot of lovely music this year, but it mostly lived in my rekordbox or in a radio mix. I actually record a lot of my sets but it always feels like they're in a constant state of iteration, making it hard to pick just one "version" to release. Over the years I feel like this has led me to only very sparingly drop live-recorded sets. A "party" doesn't often lend itself to the archivable realm, maybe the memories are best suited to the ephemeral. 

Anyway, eternal gratitude crystals to those who came and those who danced, and to those listening now.

-av

Avalon Emerson Live in London (6 hour dj set) Oct 2021

There's a track on HAAi's upcoming debut album, Baby, We're Ascending, called "Louder Always Better." That kind of sums up her approach right there. (See also: "Biggest Mood Ever.") Since her first record, 2017's "Be Good" her approach to dance music has been to make as dense, overwhelming and uplifting as possible. Much has been made of her background in psychedelic rock, which definitely informs records like the muggy, intense Motorik Voodoo Bush Doof Musik, but it's not the whole story. A better point of reference might be DJ Harvey lost in the Australian desert, but comparisons are beside the point. At this point, HAAi is completely unique.

The Australian producer has made quite a name for herself as a DJ in her adopted hometown of London, and while her album shoots off in all directions—from ecstatic rave-pop to sultry stunners—her RA Podcast captures the spark that makes her such a beloved force behind the decks. Weaving powerful techno from artists like Atrip and Piska Power with weirder, adventurous music courtesy of Cocktail Party Effect and Sha Sha Kimbo—plus a few tastes of HAAi's new album—it's an eclectic mix that's as windy and unpredictable as her records. Plus, it ends with classic track by The Cure. That's just good taste.

RA podcast

RA.829 HAAi

DJ Nobu's exclusive mix for RDC 2024 podcast:

A rare house/disco set recorded back at RDC "Sound Horizon" 2023 by one of the most highly acclaimed techno djs from Japan who travels across the globe.

RDC 072 - DJ Nobu

Living, breathing, banging techno from an artist defining the highly-textured new frontier of the sound in 2024.

Lindsey Wang, AKA Polygonia, has an amorphous style you could call organic—or, better yet, harmonious. She interweaves unfamiliar elements with a mercurial touch. Wang can make something completely otherworldly sound totally, well, natural. It's made her a fixture everywhere from Munich's BLITZ to major festivals like Sustain-Release and Draaimolen.

Unsurprisingly, Wang is not one to be pinned down. Be it the sound design-anchored side project Lyder, her own label QEONE, or co-producing an album's worth of experimental percussion alongside jazz drummer Simon Popp, it's fair to say her personal output matches the feverish energy of her mixes. There's multidisciplinary, and then there's Wang: Poly-disciplinary, you might say.

Wang's entry into the RA Podcast series is no different, another stellar emphasis of her artistry. RA.955 is a voyage into wild variations of texture, rhythm and feeling, guided along by the principle of endless metamorphosis. Supple driving grooves meet crinkled surfaces, scuttling hi-hats meet chattering sonics, and good luck keeping hold of a consistent drum pattern for long. Behold a living organism raised by the club and the great outdoors in equal measure.

@polygonia

Read more at ra.co/podcast/955

RA Podcast

RA.955 Polygonia

Daniel Avery b2b u.r.trax — Nuits sonores 2024

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

@faited b2b @octoocta
Coming at you direct from the Little “T” LUV NRG Soundsystem truck radio! All the galloping and rolling late 90s tech step and proto-neurofunk that Octo Octa and Faited blast out of a tiny bluetooth speaker inside the cab of an Isuzu NPR HD.

This set was played live at Envelope Soundsytem’s 2024 Ēostre ritual deep in the redwood forest within the Oakland, CA hills. The intention behind this ritual: 

“Ēostre marks a period of rejoining with queer family and community, and of setting intentions towards the approaching sun-drenched days. We celebrate this ritual to conjure the collective dream, and to see the fractal paths toward our individual dream’s first concrete forms. But dreaming alone can not dispel living nightmares—we must speak our dreams aloud and act towards them in anger. Come, you and yours, come weave your hopes with ours.”

Eostre 2024 - Faited b2b Octo Octa

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)

“Rhythm racing your heart”, “Groove takes control “Don’t fight the beat” Introducing ”Acido Raw capitulo 5”, from the track of the conceptual set “Nocturnian.” – a musical dive into the workings of the left hemisphere of the brain.
137 BPM, layered arpeggios, melodic pulses, and deep grooves.
“Sonic waves surround you”


Acido Raw Kap.5 - Nocturnian Set - Alejandro De Nardi

The Fading Aurora

HPT 010 - Track 05

Nuits sonores brings in its third decade with the just as much passion and conviction as before along with a real drive for innovation and reinvention. The festival’s philosophy remains unchanged – to develop an urban environment open to multidisciplinary contemporary fields such as music, graphic design, scenography, visual creation and digital culture.

Daniel Avery b2b u.r.trax — Nuits sonores 2024

Nuits sonores

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