RA Exchange Archive [Episodes 100-600]

RA Exchange podcast

The weekly RA Podcast features an exclusive mix of electronic music from top producers and DJs around the world.

RA Podcast Archive: 001-500

RA podcasts

Every month RA Live heads to Brilliant Corners, a cosy listening bar in East London equipped with a Bozak mixer, McIntosh amps and huge wooden Klipsch speakers. In this intimate setting, DJs take the opportunity to play their favourite leftfield records, showing a side to their tastes not usually heard at clubs and festivals.

Resident Advisor at Brilliant Corners and Giant Steps

Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/786

@marron-official

Resident Advisor podcast

RA.786 MARRØN

A nearly three-hour tour de force of drum & bass and dubstep.

Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/791

@quartz

RA.791 Quartz

A three-hour journey—and we mean journey—through downtempo, disco and techno.

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/807

@fortromeau

RA podcast

RA.807 Fort Romeau

Eclectic, global club selections from one of Rinse FM's most beloved DJs.

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/814

@jyotysingh

RA.814 Jyoty

A sunny live recording of the Peckham DJ in Melbourne.

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/816

@bradleyzero

RA.816 Bradley Zero

"My real gift is arrangement." William Orbit opens up on his 40-year career. 
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Born in Hackney, London, in 1956, Orbit has been writing, producing and arranging music for four decades. With almost 1,200 credits to his name on Discogs, his vast and varied body of work spans classical, pop and electronic. He produced for some of pop music's most seminal artists—Madonna, All Saints, Blur, Robbie Williams, Pink—as well as being, as his interviewer Matt McDermott explains, "one of the most prolific electronic music remixers of the '90s." He released 11 solo albums and seven collaborative albums—as part of Torch Song, Strange Cargo and Bassomatic—and founded Guerilla Studios in the '80s, working with artists like Cabaret Voltaire and Gary Numan. In 1995, Orbit released the Pieces In A Modern Style LP, which paved the way for musicians like Nils Frahm and Jon Hopkins, who bring together classical arrangements with electronic production in revelatory ways. 

The journalist Kate Hutchinson described Orbit as "the Mark Ronson or Jack Antonoff of his day." But as this conversation with RA highlights, Orbit is once again enjoying his day. Having, in his own words, "spent 20 years becoming disengaged," he has just put out his first solo release in seven years—the Sunbeam EP on Anjunadeep—and things are feeling good. "I know how to have fun," he said. 

In conversation with McDermott, Orbit shares stories about his fascinating career, how to make a great record, working with Madonna and how to stay relevant in a fickle industry.  


Tracklist:
William Orbit - Diso [Anjunadeep]
William Orbit - Wordsworth [Anjunadeep]

@williamorbit

EX.596 - William Orbit

Suzi Analogue spoke with Kadallah Burrowes about using her label Never Normal to champion innovative Black creators.  

Suzi Analogue is a loudspeaker for innovative Black creators. In this week's RA Exchange, the producer, singer, songwriter and founder of Never Normal Records speaks with trans-disciplinary artist, musician, creative technologist Kadallah Burrowes about championing art from across the African diaspora. This is the first of two Exchanges hosted by Burrowes, who, next week, will be exploring the term "Afrofuturism" in an audio documentary that forms part of our celebration of Black History Month in the US. 

Suzi Analogue first experienced club and electronic music in her hometown of Baltimore. Starting out in her teens as a songwriter and producer, her engagement with creative platforms online led to her involvement in events and community radio while studying in Philadelphia.  

It was when she moved to The Bronx in New York that Analogue first started to feel there wasn't space for young and innovative Black electronic artists to showcase their work. As she played shows abroad and across Europe, she felt encouraged to start a platform of her own, a space to build her own archive and celebrate fellow artists. In 2014, she launched her label Never Normal, a commitment to bolstering Black femme-identifying people to advocate for music, whether through running labels, parties or just shouting about the new music you love. Since its launch, the label has featured work from artists in Atlanta, Oakland, Chicago, Brooklyn, Miami and more. "They're originators in their cities," she explained. "Never Normal is a journey that's building over time." 

In conversation with Burrowes, Analogue discussed the politics of Black futurism, travelling to Uganda as a US state department cultural diplomat and the importance of capturing and echoing ancestral messages through art and sound. 

Tracklist:
Suzi Analogue - Slow [Never Normal]

@uziklip
@sunjiru

EX.597 - Suzi Analogue

Kadallah Burrowes explores the term "Afrofuturism" with the help of Suzi Analogue, Neema Githere, Mia Imani Harrison and Jackie Queens.

This past Juneteenth, Burrowes held a digital event called A Moment In Between (after which this podcast is named) at COMMON, a digital club that forms part of Currents.FM. It was, in their words, "a digital pan-African celebration of Black liberation." The interviewees in this week's Exchange all helped make A Moment In Between possible: artists Jackie Queens and Suzi Analogue, plus cultural critics Neema Githere and Mia Imani Harrison. 

In this documentary-style podcast, which forms part of our celebration of Black Futures Month in the US, Burrowes et al. discuss the term "Afrofuturism. They discuss its imperfect, controversial nature (it was coined by a white academic), how it intersects with electronic music and its relationship to the legacy of the writer Octavia Butler. 

Last week's Exchange saw Burrowes in conversation with Analogue, the producer, singer, songwriter and founder of Never Normal Records. This week, Analogue delves deeper into her connection to the concept of Afrofuturism. "Afrofuturism to me is just being Black," she said. "It's a bunch of things. Self-determination, self-preservation and self-expression." 

Born in Nairobi and now based in Brooklyn, Neema Githere is a guerrilla theorist who works within the digital diaspora. In 2017, Githere coined the term "Afropresentism," which presents the idea that the Afrofuturism being theorised in the '90s and early '00s exists here and now. "Afrofuturism is concerned with space," Githere said. "Afropresentism is concerned with earth." 

Mia Imani Harrison is an interdisciplinary artist and conceptual creator working within dream technology. Her part in A Moment In Between saw COMMON, which had primarily been a space for music, become a place for Black people to come and talk about their dreams. Harrison's understanding of Afrofuturism began with "intergalactic Black folks" in music—Sun Ra, Grace Jones, Parliament-Funkadelic—and has grown into an interest in artists that build worlds and galaxies in their work. "I've always been interested in expanding our concept of the realities we exist within," she said. "Especially as Black people, because we're already told what we can and cannot do, and the perimeters of the spaces that we exist in." 

The final speaker is Jackie Queens, singer, songwriter, label and agency founder, and community member of Currents.FM and electronic music network female:pressure. Queens' thoughts about Afrofuturism tie in with Githere's Afropresentism. "People say Africa is the future," Queens said. "But I don't like to look at it that way. I always feel like we're the present."

https://ra.co/exchange/598

EX.598 - A Moment In Between

The jungle and drum & bass pioneer—and captivating storyteller—unpacks his life, career and new book.

Alongside peers like Fabio, Grooverider, Jumping Jack Frost, Randall, Micky Finn, LTJ Bukem and Nicky Blackmarket, Ray Keith played a leading role as jungle took over London in the mid '90s. His new autobiographical book, Dark Soldier, is a reflection on his life: his personal journey, his career, the highs and lows, and the many people who have influenced him. It's also the story of how he and the scene moved from analogue into electronic music. 

"I was in the right place at the right time," he said in this week's Resident Advisor Exchange, referring to the many Monday nights spent at Heaven in London, catching sets from the likes of Carl Cox, Paul Oakenfold and Paul "Trouble" Anderson. "I was a purist, absorbing the sounds." 

Keith has put out so many records over the years, under so many different aliases, that he's lost count. He's also had radio shows on Vibe FM, Kiss FM and recently Thames Delta radio, cofounded a booking agency and headed up several record labels. He's a legend in the scene with a wealth of stories to tell.  

In this week's Exchange, Keith talks about growing up in Colchester, the importance of record stores as a community hub, dubplate culture, how music saved his life and the thrill of watching his daughter, AKA LO Selecta, play her first DJ set.

Tracklist:
Dark Soldier - Need Me (Forthcoming)
Dark Soldier - Newman Elec (Forthcoming)

EX.599 - Ray Keith

Southeast Asia is made up of diverse dance music markets that feel strongest when united. A steady stream of cross-border collaborations has come to define the region's underground nightlife, with Bangkok-based Sunju Hargun at the forefront of many of these exchanges. Over the years, he's honed a signature sound of minimal techno, tribal rhythms and deep downtempo while playing in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam. Inspired by the traditional music of these countries, his DJ sets and productions are lush tonal sound baths, with plenty of nature references. Shimmering ambient evokes misty mountain tops while whiffs of Goa trance nod to beach sunrises.

His current project, Siamese Twins Records, is also rooted in pan-Asian connections. A platform to explore old-world chants and ceremonial percussion, the label hosts much of Hargun's own work, including Bollywood-inspired acid made as Mogambo, a production outfit he runs with Jerom Doudet. All these myriad styles are present on Hargun's RA Podcast, an hour-long trip where flickering synths reverberate like gongs before morphing into an amorphous mass of dub techno, jungle noises and meandering modular sequences.

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/821

RA.821 Sunju Hargun

GiGi FM is a trained dancer, which gives her a deeper insight into the intrinsic relationship between music and bodily movement. You can read a lot more about her philosophy and approach in the interview below, but you don't even need to know about it to hear this in her RA Podcast—a collection of swirling deep techno that rivals anything made by the usual cohort of "hypnotic" techno heads.

Looking at the tracklist doesn't really do it justice, but the names involved give you an idea of what to expect: Varuna, ASC, Donato Dozzy, The Orb, Sunju Hargun. This is techno that ripples rather than bludgeons, that moves with an ethereal grace, where tracks bleed into one another beautifully, with a few surprises, too. While you're here, you should check out her Magnetite EP for Bambounou's label Bambe, already one of the young year's most bewitching techno records. But if this is your introduction, then turn off the lights, light a candle or some palo santo, and sink into two hours of your new favorite techno DJ.

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/822

@ gigi-fm

RA.822 GiGi FM

The 600th episode of the Exchange marks a pivot in Resident Advisor’s audio coverage. Source Material, one of our new series, moves towards in-depth, documentary-style reports on the electronic music community and beyond. For the inaugural edition of Source Material, we invite perspectives from Ukraine following the country’s invasion by Russia, which has sparked a humanitarian crisis with over 1.5 million displaced refugees.

Starting in 2014, Kyiv became a global dance music destination, due to its world-class venues and festivals, plus the government’s relatively hands-off approach towards enforcing social gathering regulations during Covid. Many flocked to its dance floors during a time when other countries operated under stringent lockdowns, and interest in the city only continued to grow. But the promise of Kyiv’s fertile club scene has been completely decimated by the war.

Those who made the community so vibrant are now faced with  the unimaginable decision to either flee or fight. The voices within this episode include Timur, known as the producer John Object, an affiliate of CXEMA, who is defending his country as part of the Territorial Defense Force, and Margareeta, RA’s City Manager for Kyiv, who discusses the emotional toll of fleeing from the war. Woven throughout are also interviews with anti-war protestors in the streets of Berlin and the volunteers helping refugees at the city’s main train stations.

Guests: John Object, Margarita Evi
Interviewer: Whitney Wei

Tracklist: 
John Object - Draft (2010)
John Object - Xanax & Silk (Live) (2016)
John Object - Kiss (2018)

EX.600 - Source Material: Kyiv’s Club Community, Fractured By War

Nicolá Cruz is a master of meaningful engagement. Whether he's studying North African melodies or spiritual chants, he shows profound respect for a given sound's cultural context. This is evident across his entire discography. His earliest releases on Multi Culti and ZZK Records layerered traditional woodwinds and percussion with folktronica and tribal house, reflecting a holistic understanding of global rhythms. His more recent work takes an adventurous, polyglot approach to club music, with EPs on Highlife, Rhythm Section and Tra Tra Trax exploring breaks, acid and other spirally sounds. But even his deep, drum-heavy techno cuts feel unusually organic, vibrant polyrhythms bursting with character.

For his RA Podcast, the Ecuador-based producer shows off his rave education. This display of futuristic chuggers and electro—Marcela Dias Sindaco's "A Flor Da Pele" is a particular highlight—speaks to Cruz's deep appreciation for body music. He treats dance floor jams with the same nuance as culturally significant sounds, a testament to his versatility, knowledge and experience. Journeying across acid basslines and dubby electronics, the 73 minute-long ride flirts with psychedelia, distortion and experimental bleeps, with many of the selections reflecting his own taste for colorful patterns. It's energetic and warm, flush with life, until the very end.

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/824

@nicolacruz

RA.824 Nicolá Cruz - 2022.03.21

Physical Therapy has as many vibes as he does aliases. You never really know what you're going to get from his sets—you can probably count on a bit of UK garage and some breakbeats, but beyond that, it's a free-for-all. He's gone through phases ranging from DIY pop edits to grayscale Berlin techno to all the fantastic and unpredictable music on his label Allergy Season to his latest EP of vocal-heavy 2-step tracks, part of a recent move towards more emotional dance music that he says captures his "twee" side. If there's anyone that truly believes in the power of crying on the dance floor, it's him. 

He's an expert at themed mixes, pulling together loosely categorized sections of his vast and sometimes hilarious collection. (Other sets, like his revered Honcho Campout recording, are gloriously all over the place.) But for his RA Podcast he's gone straight for the dance floor, choosing the kind of thing he would play at a club rather than one of his NTS sets. It's typically era-spanning and adventurous, yet woven together with an expert touch, running from an underrated Texas dubstep label (Pushing Red) to old-school IDM to vintage Miss Kittin and even an obscure (or just forgotten) turn-of-the-millennium cover of "How Soon Is Now" that would only really sound right in his hands.  

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/826

@physical-therapy

RA.826 Physical Therapy

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.829 HAAi

The decade-spanning career of Roy Davis Jr. is intrinsically intertwined with the history of house music. As one of the defining voices of Chicago's underground, he's worked both behind the decks and behind-the-scenes. From handling Strictly Rhythm's A&R sector in the '90s to joining seminal production crew Phuture to launching his own Undaground Therapy Muzik label, Davis Jr. isn't just a veteran but a compendium of dance music knowledge. Daft Punk cites him as an influence while the likes of Disclosure, Zed Bias and Waajeed have sought him out for collaborations.

He may be best known for his 1998 single Gabriel with Peven Everett—now a garage anthem on both sides of the Atlantic—but his discography and DJ sets go well beyond club hits. Weaving in soul, gospel, disco, techno and acid into a deep house framework, he marries raw funk, plush melodies, hypnotic synths and stripped-down arrangements. All these elements are beautifully captured on his RA Podcast. Moving from a state of eyes-closed bliss to body-moving grooves, the near two-hour session is as grounding as it is free-floating. Spiritual, sensual and tightly mixed, it's a lesson in multifaceted house music.

RA.830 Roy Davis Jr

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/831

@madam_x

RA.831 Madam X

Toronto's Cindy Li, AKA Ciel, has a knack for balancing warmth and pressure. Her productions and mixes often feel coated in an iridescent gloss, evoking the trippy stylings of '90s UK tech house and the swung drums of classic New York house. In between that, though, there's lots of vigor via sleek electro, rippling trance, barrelling techno and big, bad breakbeats. Her style may lean towards the atmospheric but it's loaded with moxie, giving her the versatility to close out a main room or kick off the afters.

Her fluid movements between bouncy basslines, spiraling synth patterns and weightless house grooves are just one facet of her impressive rise as a DJ and producer. When she's not behind the decks, presenting radio shows or working on the excellent Parallel Minds label she runs alongside other Toronto acts Yohei S and Daniel 58, Li throws herself into community work. Committed to diverse dance floors, affordable housing and overall equality in the music industry, she's a hard worker in the realest sense of the phrase.

Li's RA mix is a treat. Rolling through scintillating drum work, wonky rhythms and dreamy pads, it feels like quintessential Ciel. In her interview below, she described how she enjoys "the challenge of trying to combine and make cohesive all the diverse styles of music I loved in a DJ set." Judging by this mix alone, it's safe to say that Li succeeded.

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/832

@ciel_dj

RA.832 Ciel

We probably don't need to tell you who Deadbeat is. (He even did a previous RA Podcast for us, all the way back in 2007.) But if you need a refresher, he's one of the most important and revered artists in dub techno. The Canadian artist came up in the Montreal scene alongside other trailblazers like Akufen and other Canadians (think Cobblestone Jazz, Mathew Jonson, Wagon Repair, etc). His early records for ~scape are some of the most classic and influential minimal there ever was, but dub is always at the heart of his work, and runs in the veins of BLKRTZ, the prolific label he runs himself.

Sa Pa, on the other hand, sits somewhere in the ambient zone. Originally from Adelaide, he's found a powerful creative sparring partner in Deadbeat. The two released their first album together, The Mountain, earlier this year. It's the 50th release on BLKRTZ and maybe one of the most monumental records in either artist's catalogue, a triple-LP that harks back to the hypnotic, plink-plonk days of yore with the strong cross-genre underpinning that marks Deadbeat's work these days, and plenty of lovely atmospheric wiggles.

The duo's lengthy RA Podcast, taken from two different recordings at their Absurd Dub Lustre party in Berlin, mirrors the LP's sound, weaving through tracks new and old. It's full of warm, dubby vibrations and smooth transitions.

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/836

@sapaofficial

RA.836 Deadbeat & Sa Pa

Spend enough time at (or listening to) The Lot Radio, and chances are all you'll find Gabrielle Kwarteng. Even though she lives in Berlin now, the American DJ wears New York on her sleeve, repping for the station that helped make her name (she won a Mixcloud award for "Best Eclectic Show" pretty early on). Sure, you could call her sound eclectic—she jumps from house to Afrobeat to Jersey club and beyond—but it seems like "intuitive" might be a better word. She has the taste of someone raised by musical parents on a diverse diet of albums, of someone who eats, breathes and sleeps records.

Buoyed by her success in the US, Kwarteng moved to Berlin in 2019, not too long before the pandemic. Like so many other up-and-coming DJs, her momentum almost stalled as a result. But here we are in 2022 and Kwarteng is more successful than ever, with a string of upcoming festival dates highlighting her wide, transatlantic appeal. Her RA Podcast is equally welcoming, with a taste for house music that feels perfectly pitched between the classic and the new. You can hear an old soul, but she also has cutting-edge tracks from the likes of NIkki Nair, and a gutsy, fantastic edit of "Can You Feel It?" by Tom Carruthers. The mix also reflects her recently getting back in touch with her roots, featuring smatterings of East Coast club music and ballroom, all wrapped up with an exquisite finishing touch courtesy of a long Moodymann play-out.

Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/837

RA.837 Gabrielle Kwarteng

Last year, New Jersey group OSSX wowed us with a mix of completely original material that blended infectious edits of Janet Jackson and September with tracks like "Split Wig"—one of last year's indisputable breakbeat anthems—that showed how the then-duo could bring together generations of American dance music into one compelling, vibrant mix that celebrates all shades of East Coast club.

Their RA Podcast might not be an all-originals mix, but it shares the same spirit. OSSX—now a trio, with Juke Bounce Werk member Elise joining original duo Equiss and Lektor Scopes—sprinkle the mix with more of their excellent unreleased originals, in-between canny and clever edits new and old, like DJ Sega's rework of Basement Jaxx's "Where Your Head At," which makes for an early highlight, along with DJ Swisha's Baltimore club edit of Robin S.'s "Luv 4 Luv" and the bouncy DJ Problem version of Mary J. Blige's classic "Family Affair." You can hear both the evolution and history of these genres through this mix, along with cuts that touch on UK garage, ballroom and jungle. Trust us when we say that this is over an hour of pure fun, showing the ingenuity and timelessness of American dance music through the decades.

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/838

RA Podcast

RA.838 OSSX

"Working my ass off, to be honest," is how Eli Escobar starts our interview  below. That basically sums up his vibe. The New Yorker might not have the same household name status of other DJs who have been soundtracking Manhattan clubs since the early '90s, but he certainly deserves it. Any New York resident worth their salt should have him near the top of the list of their favorite local DJs. He plays anywhere and everywhere in the city, and he can play pretty much anything he wants to, as his RA Podcast will attest.

When it comes to his own music, Escobar puts out records equally informed by disco, hip-hop and house—in other words, a very New York sound. He hasn't been producing as long as he's been DJing, but his albums and EPs for labels like Classic, Night People and Razor N Tape are full of the soul, humor and talent of someone who knows dance music inside out.

As Escobar says below, he doesn't really have any one type of sound. His DJing varies greatly from night to night, and he's always adding to his considerable collection, so no one set is quite the same as another. For his RA Podcast, put together painstakingly with many specially edited tracks and recorded in a hotel room in Colombia, he strikes a relatively reflective tone, but it's still eminently danceable. He moves gradually through two hours of house and disco that ranges from celebratory to muted, from minimalist to rich with live instrumentation. It's the sound of New York dance music as passed through generations, from one of its best and most beloved musical storytellers.

@eliescobar

Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/839

RA.839 Eli Escobar

Camila Milieme has been playing techno long enough to experience a few of its boom-and-bust cycles. Starting off in Brazil in the late '90s with the kind of rippling, tooly techno you'd expect from that era, Milieme lost interest once things started going minimal and took a break from techno to take up studying instead. By the time she checked back in, the genre had taken a turn closer to the stuff she used to play, so she packed up her bags and moved to Berlin, where she's become an indispensable part of the techno scene. 

As The Lady Machine, Milieme has released on Mote-Evolver and also runs her own label, Unterwegs, with UK producer Decka. As you'll hear on her RA Podcast, she prefers a classicist (yet, still, modern) style of techno that mixes toughness with texture and detail. With plenty of unreleased tracks from her cohort and tracks from British Murder Boys, Jeff Mills, Dave Clark and Christian Wunsch, this is a timeless techno mix for heads from any generation, from the '90s to the '20s.

@theladymachine

Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/840

RA.840 The Lady Machine

Welsh artist Kelly Lee Owens has a special grasp on techno. She can make it sound wild and naturalistic, like wind blowing through a dense forest, or make it feel cold and sleek, like a gleaming slab of chrome. Either way, though, it's always full of emotion, thanks to the intricate textures and distinctive tones of her voice. You might even say she takes a singer-songwriter approach to techno, but that doesn't mean her music isn't suited for the dance floor.

Her most recent album, <a href=/reviews/34853 target="_blank"><i>LP.8</i></a>, marks a step away from the dance floor, however, and into a place a little more dark, more unpredictable. It's also some of her most gorgeous work, centering around "Anadlu," an eight-minute cut that feels perfectly pitched between ambient and techno, with heavy, lumbering drums but an otherwise lightweight, almost wispy feel.
 Owens' RA Podcast occupies this zone almost perfectly. Beginning with 11th century music from Hildegard von Bingen, it ties all sorts of traditions together, from Pan Sonic to Throbbing Gristle to Marco Shuttle to Oneohtrix Point Never & Rosalía. It floats, it accelerates, it loops and doubles back in on itself, an hour of gripping electronics from one of techno's most distinctive voices.

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/841

RA.841 Kelly Lee Owens

Imagine growing up near Berlin, getting into dance music, going to Berghain for the first time and getting your mind blown by techno. Then, ten years later, you become a resident DJ at the fabled club. Not many people—any people?—can claim this story, but for Fadi Mohem, what would be so many DJs' dreams became a reality. After getting his 2017 debut 12-inch Reckless in the hands of all the right people in Berlin, Mohem established a bold, bouncy techno sound with releases on Modeselektor's Seilscheibenpfeiler, Ben Klock's Klockworks and FJAAK's SPANDAU20, pretty much the cream of the crop of modern techno.

Now, this year, he's becoming one of Berghain's newest residents, alongside other exciting names like Sedef Adasï and Naty Seres (and Lakuti upstairs at Panorama Bar). As heard on his recent collaborative with Ben Klock, Mohem has modern techno down to a science, thanks to a combination of reverence for the old-school and clever rhythmic touches, like the irresistible snare pattern on "Prefix." His RA Podcast sounds like what you might expect from a new generation of Berghain resident: aerodynamic, heavy and, honestly a little midtempo compared to a lot of other young techno DJs. It's the sound the club has made world-famous, with cuts from Reeko, Heiko Laux and Truncate, plus some special moments from aya, DJ Deeon and Petar Dundov. It takes a certain kind of DJ to get to this hallowed place, and Fadi Mohem deserves it.

@fadimohem

Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/842

RA.842 Fadi Mohem

Berlin has witnessed an alarming number of drug and needle spiking incidents in recent months, raising worries about nightlife safety in one of the world's top clubbing destinations. In this edition of Reflections, a new series on the RA Exchange that breaks down important journalism on our site, staff writer Anu Shukla and managing editor Chloe Lula examine the context surrounding recent spiking claims.

Shukla, discussing her article on the topic, describes how she spoke to two women who said they were spiked with needles at Berghain and Sisyphos. Their stories have pushed others to share their own experiences with spiking, Shukla says. Lula, who has been looking into the socio-economic and political climate behind spiking, notes how some clubbers may now feel unsafe going out alone. The pandemic has brought about a rise in anti-social behaviour and regressive attitudes towards sex, which could be a factor behind spiking, she describes.

Listen to the full conversation to understand how spiking poses serious implications for women and minorities in nightlife.

For resources on community care, harm reduction and mental health, revisit our list from earlier this year: https://ra.co/features/3961

EX.620 Reflections: Inside Nightlife’s Spiking Epidemic

If we were to pick one word to describe Ziggy Devriendt, AKA Nosedrip, it would probably humble. He runs a one-man empire out of the modest Belgian coastal town of Ostend, and his STROOM label is one of the most quietly brilliant outfits in Western Europe. A mixture of obscurer-than-obscure reissues and quirky new material makes for a label as unpredictable as it is essential, and Devriendt's unusual touch is all over it—he prefers to make up his own compilations and sequences instead of just repackaging old records, for example, which explains how important curation and putting songs together is to him.

So it's not a surprise that , in addition to being a music nerd supreme, Devriendt is also a remarkably good DJ, whose ear for oddball cuts translates well into intuitively danceable music. Judging from his RA Podcast, he's had trance on the mind—the mix features flighty beats that range from CJ Bolland and Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia to new-school practitioners like J-Zbel, plus a major highlight from Peter Van Hoesen that you might remember from Marcel Fengler's Berghain 05 mix and plenty of new material from Stroom. (He's also putting out a compilation of Belgian trance, which might explain the direction of this mix.) It's a three hour-ride that varies from jaw-dropping mixing to abrupt, almost shocking transitions that might startle you out of your chair. 

@ziggy-devriendt

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/843

RA.843 Nosedrip

A repeat episode from 2020.

Lafawndah's second album, The Fifth Season, on French label Latency, is a journey through science fiction, friendship and cinematic storytelling. 

It saw the Paris-born artist expand the myths of NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy and cover the likes of Beverly Glenn Copeland and Lili Boulanger. The record continues a four-year run of avant pop jewels, kicked off by her a debut EP for Warp and a collaboration with minimalist composer Midori Takada in 2018, before her first full-length statement, 2019's Ancestor Boy.

Here, she speaks with Martha Pazienti Caidan about the making of The Fifth Season, an LP that's elemental, emotional and uncannily fitting for the present moment.

EX.621 - Lafawndah (Archive)

Patrick Topping's love of dance music stretches back to his early teenage years when he discovered mákina, a subgenre of hard Spanish techno that's popular in North East England. "I still love that music now," he says on this week's episode. Since those early days as a young raver in Newcastle, Topping has become an in-demand artist known for a wide range of styles that includes happy hardcore, classic pop and gospel-inflected house.

Currently holding down a summer residency at DC-10 in Ibiza, which he describes as "the pinnacle of my career," the UK artist explains how he reached this stage after starting out in the industry as promoter, following in his father's footsteps. After being mentored by Jamie Jones, Topping says he's now in a position to pass on insights to younger artists as well as support emerging talents through his residency and label, Trick.

Topping then goes onto his discuss why he prefers to play sober these days—"it changed my relationship with DJing"—and why he controls his own social media presence—"you're pulling together bits of media to tell your story, it's kind of like DJing."

Listen to the full conversation for more details.

EX.622 - Patrick Topping In Conversation

eviewing their 2021 EP on Livity Sound, RA's Henry Ivry said that the duo—along with collaborator DJ Polo—represented a "micro-history of jungle, garage, dubstep and, of course, their bread-and-butter, UK funky." Now, you might not be familiar with them, but these two London producers, LR Groove and Razzler Man, have been doing their thing in the UK capital for nearly two decades, both together and apart. They reunited in 2018, inspired by the changing and cyclical tastes of UK dance music fans and, perhaps most importantly, the international rise of South African dance music and its interplay with other genres around the world.

The duo have now released two records for Livity Sound, which is among the biggest badges of honour you can get in this sector of electronic music. Effortlessly combining UK funky, dubstep and snatches of gqom and amapiano, the duo's music feels organically adventurous, but hardly trendy—in fact, the space and reverb of their beats still sounds a lot like the music they were associated back in the '00s, in the best way. Their RA Podcast is a journey into the musical borderlines they operate, made up mostly of their group tracks and solo, along with cuts from like-minded artists such as Scratcha DVA, KG and Karizma. It's a whole lot of UK and a little bit South Africa, the sound of Black British dance music in flux and perpetual evolution.

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/844

RA.844 Tribal Brothers

This volume of the Critics Roundtable, Resident Advisor's monthly podcast that showcases staff selections, looks back at the summer's important moments and releases in electronic music. Over the course of 40 minutes, podcasts chief Martha Pazienti Caidan, events writer Katie Thomas and content intern Fahad Akinsanya each recap a memorable news story, record and live performance from the past two months. 

Offering insights, opinions and most importantly, discussion, the trio praise the reopening of London venue The Cross and analyse The Jaguar Foundation's latest report on gender diversity in UK dance music. Also on the agenda is the public backlash against RA's critical review of Beyonce's new album. In terms of new releases, the new EP by Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal gets a mention, as does Sierra and CalvoMusic's "Fast Lingo." Finally, the trio highlight their favourite festival gigs, which include Vanyfox and Tame Impala at Primavera Sound.

Listen to the episode for all the details.

EX.623 - Critics' Roundtable [August 2022]

Nadia Struiwigh immediately turned heads with her debut album, Lenticular, on CPU Records. It wasn't her first record, but it was an auspicious release at an auspicious time for a label that was at the centre of a revival of early '90s IDM and electro styles. You could use those terms to describe Dutch producer Struiwigh's music, but you'd have to also mention ambient—just check out her last album, Pax Aurora, for Rotterdam powerhouse Nous'klaer Audio—and techno, which is the subject of her new RA Podcast.

Those familiar with Struiwigh only through her records might be surprised by this mix, which is over two hours of alternately atmospheric and pummeling techno. It highlights the versatility and potential of the genre, as well as Struiwigh's own outlook on it. She was a techno DJ before she started making the softer, weirder stuff, and she can recognize the music's innate emotional qualities, even at its most functional. As she says below, her intention is to "glue the best of both worlds" to create a "rare energy" with her DJing and production.

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/845

RA.845 Nadia Struiwigh

Like countless others, Steve Goodman played a lot of video games during lockdown. At the time, the artist known as Kode9 and founder of the iconic Hyperdub label found himself imagining a game about Scotland and the country's plan to set up a colony in Panama back in the 1690s. Those thoughts later crystallised into Astro-Darien, an AV installation, "sonic fiction" and album that explores Scotland's space program and its past colonial ambitions through the lens of a video game.

Speaking to RA on this week's episode of the Exchange, Goodman delves into the various facets of this project, including Escapology, his score to Astro-Darien. The album, released in July, is "like a film trailer that's giving you a little taste of various bits of story and strands of a kind of palette of sounds and a world," he explains. "So if you want, there's places to go deeper on it but if you are not interested in that, just treat it as a slightly weird dance music record."

Science fiction aside, the Hyperdub founder also discusses the cyclical nature of music and why jungle is currently experiencing what many have called a revival. "Music doesn't move forward, it doesn't progress in a linear fashion," he describes, attributing that to "generational relationships."

For more deep thoughts and Goodman's guide on hiking in the Scottish Highlands, listen to the conversation in full.

EX.624 - Kode9

"You can't take a sound and exclude the people who created it and say, this is our sound," DJ Noir said in our 2020 feature about Juke Bounce Werk, the label she-cofounded. "No, it's either Chicago footwork or it's other." 

Back then, the Los Angeles-based imprint and crew was still primarily focused around footwork, but Noir and co—including artists like Kush Jones, DJ SWISHA, Surly and Sonic D—have branched out into all sorts of uptempo sounds, touching on house, UK garage, jungle and funk, but always with the fleet-footed approach that makes JBW what it is. "We used to sit down and say, we have to make 160, or we have to keep it footwork and juke," Jones said in that same feature, "but we are also like, if you are strong and developed in another sound, then you should also be free."

Sitting atop this empire of boundary-breaking, innovative dance music is DJ Noir, who is one of LA's best uptempo DJs, or honestly, of any genre. Her sets can be speedy and intense, sure, but it's the way she lets off steam at just the right moments, or gracefully dips into halftime, maybe even a spot of dubstep, that really sets her apart. The LA scene is spoiled to be able to see her DJ quite frequently, but along with the artists she tirelessly promotes and develops with JBW, she deserves a wider, more global spotlight. We hope her RA Podcast might convince you of that, too, an hour of remarkable DJing and skillful blending that connects continents and scenes, from Alix Perez to INVT to Nikki Nair and Bastiengoat. Buckle up!

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/846

RA.846 DJ Noir

As anyone who's been to a Nordic country in the summer will tell you, there's a certain magic in the temperate air that you only get from a place that is cold and dark for most of the rest of the year. That probably goes some way towards explaining how a country like Sweden produces some of the sunniest music around, whether we're talking about pop or underground dance. Since she debuted on Stockholm label Studio Barnhus in 2018, Bella Boo has been at the forefront of this sound, making clever, fun and joyous house music on records like Once Upon A Passion, where pop instincts embed into deep house grooves.

Bella Boo's RA Podcast both highlights her distinct personality and also the sound of Stockholm in full summer bloom, featuring local producers like Kornél Kovács, Axel Boman, Genius Of Time and Samo DJ. It's full of catchy basslines, hooky vocal snippets, luxurious melodies and plenty of brilliant transitions. It's kind of like listening to one of her records: a restless and kaleidoscopic approach to house, where the rhythms shift and a new earworm is always around the corner. Bella Boo has all the makings of a star, and this mix feels like another step in her impressive rise.

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/847

RA.847 Bella Boo

If you haven't heard of Nikki Nair at this point, we'd invite you to come out from under that rock you're living in. But jokes aside, the last 12 months have been the Atlanta producer's year. He's toured seemingly endlessly, has found his way into a number of local scenes and has put out records for labels like Dirtybird, Lobster Theremin and Scuffed Recordings. If that weren't enough, he's also been putting out an illuminating series of monthly singles on his Bandcamp that show off both his restless muse and his seeming ability to both perfect and put his own stamp on any sub-genre or style he tries.

People usually use some form of the word "bass" to describe Nikki Nair, because of the way his music flits between dubstep, drum & bass, electro and more. One moment he's making staggering hip-hop instrumentals that would have fit right into the old LA beat scene, the next minute he's making pneumatic techno or uptempo stuff that would fit right in one Juke Bounce Werk. 

His voracious appetite for new sounds comes across on his RA Podcast, which is a sprawling two-hours-plus of genre hopping and careful mixing, hopping from mood to mood like a 2-D video game platformer. It starts off perhaps a little slower than you'd expect, but weaves through countless Nikki Nair tracks, older selections from Wolfgang Voigt and Drexciya and mind-melting club tracks from newer producers including DJ ADHD, Despina, Limewax and more. If you want to know what the hippest, most inventive dance music sounds like, bridging continents and oceans, this mix is it.

@nikki-nair

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/848

RA.848 Nikki Nair - 2022.09.05

Depending on who you ask, Yousuke Yukimatsu is the best DJ in the world. Or at least in Japan. The eccentric Osaka-born, Tokyo-based DJ has built up an arsenal of fans and disciples—most famously Tzusing—who revere his cross-genre approach and knack for out-of-this-world blends. Case in point: he recently released a mostly ambient mixtape that somehow felt more gripping and propulsive than many techno DJ sets. He also used that release, Midnight Is Comin, to highlight Japan's underrepresented experimental electronic music scene, another sign of his wide-ranging and unusual tastes.

To go with his voracious hunger for all kinds of music, Yukimatsu can play alll different kinds of sets, from the meditative to the peak-time, all with the blending ingenuity and expert pacing we've come to expect. Just check his mind-blowing Boiler Room set from 2020. If that performance was nightclub madness and Midnight Is Comin was a slowly unfurling coil of downcast textures and moods, then Yukimatsu's RA Podcast is something in-between. 

Over two captivating hours, Yukimatsu brings in beats only to jettison them, returning several times to artists like Palmistry, Tzusing and Ryo Murakami. He anchors the mix with familiar tracks and voices before letting it drift out to sea again. It's also deeply personal, focusing on tracks from people he played with at his Zone Unknown parties in Osaka and Kobe, as well as his friends who participated in Midnight Is Comin.

Some of these blends need to be heard to believed. But more important is the pacing: the mix moves at such a slow but intuitive speed that it's almost tantric, the work of someone who knows how to keep the party going at a simmer without giving into the temptation to go faster. (He even says that the mix was supposed to be longer.) With hooky tracks from Palmistry and Equiknoxx up against explosions of noise and heavy EQing, Yukimatsu's RA Podcast is like dipping your head above and below water, soaking in and appreciating the beauty of both realms at once.

@yousukeyukimatsu

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/849

RA.849 ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U

Whether you're hearing a track or a DJ set, you can usually tell it's Nene H pretty quickly. In just a few years, Beste Aydin has developed a very specific approach within the realm of techno. She inhabits the genre yet colours just enough outside the lines without losing the plot—or the pull—entirely. The focus is on fun, on groove and on hooks, with sets that dip into trance, electro, ghetto house and even hints of hyperpop, tying in neon threads into techno's all-black garb. 

She's used techno as a jumping off point for orchestral and choral performances, as well as the poignant expression of grief (on her stellar debut album). She's become a regular at Berghain and groundbreaking festivals like CTM, traversing a highbrow-lowbrow line that posits that every kind of dance music deserves the highbrow treatment. Her RA Podcast is an irresistible hour of techno full of what she calls "Neneisms," turns into pop hooks amidst hulking techno beats and dips into funky, electro-informed beats.

@nenetreat

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/850

RA.850 Nene H - 2022.09.19

For some dance music fans, Hamish & Toby may be their new favourite DJs thanks to a recent US tour and excellent sets at festivals like Glastonbury, Dimensions, Houghton and Freerotation. 2022 was, after all, a breakthrough year for the UK duo. But in their own, close-knit world of Discogs fanatics and vinyl purists, Hamish Cole and Toby Wareham are admired and established names. They met while studying in Leeds, bonding over a shared love of wiggly bombs at countless clubs and hazy afterparties. They ran events (Butter Side Up, Dog Eat Dog), DJ’d tirelessly and continued to dig for obscure gems. Within a few years, they were both working full-time music jobs in London, booking Dimensions Festival (Hamish) and The Pickle Factory (Toby). (Hamish is now a director at Dimensions.) All in all, they’ve dedicated the past 15 years of their lives to dance music.

For all their behind-the-scenes work, Hamish & Toby’s true love is DJing together. They’re known for their long, expressive sets that go, in their own words, “all over the map.” Their RA Podcast, which was recorded live at Philadelphia party Subsurface in May, is a four-hour odyssey through golden-era house, tech house and UK garage. Proper party music, in other words. According to the duo, they were “fully locked in, as comfortable as we’ve ever felt DJing.” It really shows.

@hamishcole
@tobynicholas

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/851

RA.851 Hamish & Toby

This week's RA Podcast marks something of a debut for Infinity Division, the new solo project from Canadian artist Ash Luk, best known as one half of EBM-techno duo Minimal Violence. (Minimal Violence had itself been a solo project since last year, when cofounder Lida P left the group.) Getting his start in Vancouver's punk scene as part of the band Lié, Luk's approach to dance music is informed not only by those origins but by Western Canada's long history with industrial music and techno (spot Skinny Puppy and Tunnel Canary in the tracklist).  

Minimal Violence first impressed us with their hardware-focused house and techno, a harder-edged version of the sound that was sweeping Vancouver at the time, before moving on to Ninja Tune sub-label Technicolour and then Tresor for a series of records that saw their sound become more expansive, sharper and more melodic, incorporating not just techno and punk influences but also trance, EBM and more. These are the genres that feed into Infinity Division, and Luk's RA Podcast hurtles through everything from old Prodigy, '90s German hard trance, Canadian breakcore and new tracks from his project. This is heavy dance music that's also heavy on melody, unafraid of huge crescendoes that hit that sweet spot between punishment and euphoria. Buckle up.

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/852

RA.852 Infinity Division

Our fifth Resident Advisor podcast comes from Finnish talent Kiki.

RA.005 Kiki

Our fourth Resident Advisor Podcast is provided by Fabric and Panorama Bar regular, Margaret Dygas.

RA.004 Margaret Dygas

The third Resident Advisor podcast comes from Jay Haze.


RA.003 Jay Haze

The second Resident Advisor podcast comes from DJ and production duo Pig&Dan.


RA.002 Pig & Dan

Our debut podcast comes from Berlin resident Troy Pierce.


RA.001 Troy Pierce

RA's #1 DJ steps away from the dance floor.

Dixon, Steffi, Nicolas Jaar, Ben UFO and Omar-S mark our 500th podcast.

Read more: http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=500

@dixon


RA.500 Dixon

Exceptional house and techno from the Panorama Bar resident.

Steffi, Dixon, Nicolas Jaar, Ben UFO and Omar-S mark our 500th podcast.

Read more: http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=500

RA.500 Steffi

A strange and lovely bricolage.

Nicolas Jaar, Dixon, Steffi, Ben UFO and Omar-S mark our 500th podcast.

Read more: http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=500

RA Podcast: @nicolas-jaar

RA.500 Nicolas Jaar

A leader of the scene looks to the future.

Ben UFO, Dixon, Steffi, Nicolas Jaar and Omar-S mark our 500th podcast.

Read more: http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=500

@benufo

RA.500 Ben UFO

Tune in for three hours of FXHE radio.

Omar-S, Dixon, Steffi, Nicolas Jaar and Ben UFO mark our 500th podcast.

Read more: http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=500

RA.500 Omar-S

The Lullabies For Insomniacs founder played some of her deepest records at our third and final RA Live event at Giant Steps for 2018.

RA Live - 16.09.18 - Izabel at Giant Steps

Music From Memory cofounder Jamie Tiller showed off his enviable collection of pretty ambient records on a cosy Sunday evening at Brilliant Corners.

RA Live - 03.02.19 - Jamie Tiller at Brilliant Corners

Trippy, arpeggiated tunes from the likes of Scribble, Oceanic and Pump were on the menu as Red Light Radio's Orpheu The Wizard stopped by the latest RA Live session at Brilliant Corners.

RA Live - 03.02.19 - Orpheu The Wizard at Brilliant Corners

On Sunday, April 7th, we returned to Brilliant Corners for another evening of music discovery with Lukid and Gigi FM. 

Lukid has been a consistently inventive artist for more than a decade, releasing his first album on Actress’s Werkdiscs label in 2007. Since then he’s released another two albums under that alias, put out a string of unclassifiable EPs, remixed Radiohead and formed one half of Rezzett. On this drizzly Sunday afternoon he took us on a trip through the a world bunch of sounds that inspire his various monikers.

RA Live - 07.04.19 - Lukid at Brilliant Corners

On Sunday, April 7th, we returned to Brilliant Corners for another evening of music discovery with Lukid and Gigi FM.

London-based DJ Gigi FM has a knack for weaving club tracks with trap and UK drill as well as plenty of other shades of music. She has a deep record bag, making the Netil Radio host a natural fit for Brilliant Corners.

RA Live - 07.04.19 - GiGi FM at Brilliant Corners

Two hours of trance bombs, old and new.

Read more: https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=756

@roza-terenzi

RA.756 Roza Terenzi

An uplifting ode to queerness and love.

Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/769

@octoocta

Resident Advisor

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