pi/live: Aurora Halal b2b deep creep @ Mansions 02-16-2024

"The forest is such a special place because it is simultaneously rowdy and psychedelic. The timing of my afternoon set, leading from day to night, meant I wanted to play a set that moved from deep and dreamy to joyful and riotous, the momentum and energy building and blooming like a flower. I think it very much turned out as I intended, and it was totally so so special to play as I did in front of this incredibly giving and open-minded audience. Thank you Draaimolen for the incredible opportunity." - Ciel

Ciel at Draaimolen Festival 2024

Recording of CCL & Objekt's set at Dekmantel Selectors 2024.

CCL & Objekt at Dekmantel Selectors 2024

Regis and Function's first mix in over 10 years is a unique paean to Silent Servant, heavy on unreleased material.

When it came time for RA to compile our Albums of the 2010s, one record with a tauntingly limited availability of 500 copies was never in doubt: Sandwell District's era-defining 'Feed-Forward'. Encompassing Karl O'Connor (Regis), Peter Sutton (Female), David Sumner (Function) and Juan Mendez (Silent Servant), Sandwell District had the underground in a vice grip for over a decade.

The collective imploded in 2013, with Sumner and O'Connor's relationship appearing beyond repair. And yet, an unlikely second phase is here, featuring imminent comeback LP 'End Beginnings' and their return to the RA Podcast after 16 years. In 2023, the trio of Function, Regis and Silent Servant had been performing and laying down new material before the latter's shock death last January. It's in the shadow of loss that this unique mix was forged.

Founded in 2002 as a spiritual sister to seminal Downwards, Sandwell truly began to hit its straps in the late '00s, as shadow-stalking cuts sliced through clubland orthodoxy like a switchblade. In parallel, the label's artwork—a noir recombination of Burroughs cut-ups, DIY zines and arthouse amour that Silent Servant made his own—helped fortify a movement which placed an aesthetic premium on grit, grain and sadism.

By the early 2010s, this fixation on the dark arts had utterly permeated the mood inside techno's masonic temples. Labels like Blackest Ever Black, Stroboscopic Artefacts, Avian and Modern Love were in their pomp, razorwire legends like Severed Heads and Chris & Cosey benefited from second winds, and it was briefly a jailable offence to not have a press photo in black and white. 'Feed-Forward' was the exceptional coronating statement.

RA.978 features a stack of unheard recordings from each of the trio, as well as close allies Stefanie Parnow and Tropic of Cancer, while also gathering many of Silent Servant's all-time favourite songs, including Psychic TV, Grace Jones and Galaxie 500. It's a strikingly vulnerable listen, one without many parallels on the Podcast. We're glad to run it. – Gabriel Szatan

Read more and find the tracklist here: ra.co/podcast/978
Read our new feature with Sandwell District here: https://ra.co/features/4426

RA.978 Sandwell District

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

"Designing clubs is about understanding psychology." The famed architects talk about bringing emotions, durability and hidden logic into era-defining nightlife spaces.

How do you design the world's best clubs? Studio Karhard, the architecture firm started by Thomas Karsten and his wife, Alexandra Erhard, in 2003, know exactly which ingredients go into a successful nightlife space. The Berlin-based duo are the visionaries behind Berghain and ∄ in Kyiv, as well as a number of private residences, businesses and smaller venues around the world. Their specialty, they say, is salvaging forgotten spaces and resurrecting them to serve a new purpose. 

In this RA Exchange, Karsten talks about first coming across the building that's now Berghain and working tirelessly with engineers and city planners to preserve its neoclassical facade. As he explains, creating a memorable atmosphere goes beyond just designing for aesthetics. There are countless hidden design features that serve to make venues like Berghain comfortable. 

But according to Karsten, Studio Karhard's masterpiece is ∄, which they began designing in 2018. He describes the special experience of first visiting the abandoned  brewery—which was then in extreme disrepair—and bringing the lessons they took away from building Berghain to make this Ukrainian space their most successful project yet. 

This episode takes a look under the hood of the psychology, anthropology and emotional study that inform the venues that have shaped underground electronic music culture. Listen to it in full. -Chloe Lula

EX.775 Studio Karhard

The Sustain-Release co-founder steps up to the Phonica mix just ahead of the acclaimed festival’s 11th year. 
New York has an iconic history when it comes to club music, and over the years has seen many great names emerge from its underground scene. In modern times, Aurora Halal is undoubtedly one of those names. 
Aurora has become a staple at forward-thinking institutions like Berghain, De School, and her home base, Nowadays, where she holds a residency. Alongside her international touring, she’s carved out her own vital space through the long-running Mutual Dreaming parties and Sustain-Release, the DIY-rooted festival she co-founded, which continues to push boundaries as it enters its second decade.
Her Phonica mix offers a vivid snapshot of her deep, intuitive approach to DJing—captured live at Mansions, a cozy NYC wine bar turned house party haven. Known for her genre-fluid sets that blend hypnotic techno, house, acid and experimental textures this is the perfect calling card to showcase why she can hold it down with a range of greats like DJ Nobu, Vladimir Ivkovic and more.
We had a chat about the mix with Aurora as well as touching off Sustain and some of her favorite moments at the festival.

Phonica Mix Series 134: Aurora Halal

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

THEMESTHEME

In original form his single ‘Hexaline’ is an intense and driving bit of techno with majestic synth patterns that light up the whole track as they dance up and down the scale whilst the slick drums power on below. It’s a terrific techno cut for the peak of the night to get hands in the air, with a powerful sound courtesy of Ulrich Schnauss’ masterful mixdown.
Hiroshi Watanabe then steps up to remix after strong outings on labels like Transmat earlier in the year. He is one of Japan’s leading electronic producers on labels likes Mule, King Street Sounds and Kompakt and here he totally reworks the track into a nine minute techno symphony with icy drums doing a restless dance as swirling pads bring a cosmic feel. It’s epic, elegant techno that takes you on a real trip.
The next remix is from A.Mochi, one of Len Faki’s key label associates on Figure and someone with a live PA and DJ set that leaves you spellbound. From CLR to Mote-Evolver he has released on the best contemporary techno labels and played at places like Berghain so is an unquestionably vital artist. His excellent rework is deep, slow burning and hugely atmospheric, with pensive pads and tender one-finger synth notes ringing out into the sky.
Techno rarely gets better than this EP

Beroshima - HEXALINE_original

The Urban Tribe leader flexes his turntable talents on this week's RA podcast.

RA.1000 Helena Hauff

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