The German minimal DJ returns to the spotlight with two hours of artfully subtle house and techno.

There's an old German proverb that goes "Der stete Tropfen höhlt den Stein." Literally, it means a constant dripping wears away the stone, but the point isn't about force but patience: slow, steady repetition can leave the deepest mark. It's an apt metaphor for the career of Kosta Athanassiadis, better known as XDB.

Active since the early '90s, first as a DJ and then producer by the decade's end, Athanassiadis has built a career less on hype than persistence. His catalogue spans labels like Dial, Metrolux and Echocord, alongside a steady trickle of EPs and remixes that have quietly cemented his reputation as one of minimal house and techno's undersung heroes.

That patience carries into his sound and production ethos. Where many of his peers embraced software upgrades and new workflows, Athanassiadis has long stuck to Cubase, a handful of trusty instruments and 30-year-old speakers he claims to have run "hundreds of thousands of tunes" through. He also still prefers to use inexpensive, straightforward gear—what matters, he insists, is not the tools but the feel. The result is a sound that’s stripped back, direct and enduring.

Lately, Athanassiadis has found himself back in focus. With minimal enjoying fresh attention, his calendar has filled, and with it a run of back-to-back sets—most often alongside PLO Man, a regular sparring partner this year. True to form, though, you won't find that his style has changed much. Over 30 years after his first gig, you can rest assured you'll still find him playing with patience, carving out long arcs rather than sharp peaks.

His RA Mix captures him in a reflective mood. Running just over two hours, RA.1003 is a hushed yet absorbing affair, moving seamlessly from the delicate atmospherics of Valentino Mora and Caldera to the machine funk of Robert Hood, Solid Gold Playaz and Marcellus Pittman. There are left turns folded into XDB's patient narrative arc, too: John Carpenter's brooding scores here, DJ Sprinkles' melancholic work with Will Long on "Acid Trax N (Acid Dog)" there.

It's the sound of a DJ who has been quietly chiseling away for three decades, and who understands the value of persistence as much as restraint.

@xdb

Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1021

RA.1003 XDB

Iana Go is a multimedia artist, working with sound as frequency, but also mixing, live looping and serving music. She's known for her passion in sound design, singing, painting, and psychology, which she combines through events, workshops, and festivals like Garbicz, Bucht der Träumer, Waking Life, Evolve, Pura Vida, Niemandsland and many more. You can find her on Instagram as @iana_go

In her music duo Uroboro together with Danielle Gallo, she creates a mystic journey channeling and improvising music and vocals in shamanic way, blending  them with live instruments, synths and loops. 
Her sets range seamlessly from 80 to 130 bpm, incorporating elements of ambient, deep nd hypnotic techno, ethnic, tribal, bass to create a deep and expansive journey that touches on all aspects of the human experience. 🤩

In her sets, she creates a journey from her home country Kyrgyzstan to dreams about Bali, back to Mexico, through Berliner Berghain, ambient slow flow and shamanic Uroboros @ambientritual that she curates, back to the minimal boogie and deep techno with hypnotic elements. 🦋 🌙😍

She is a resident at komrad.net, an independent underground radio station, with her Uroboros podcast. She also combines live painting and music in her project ARTibiotics.
Open to new collaborations.

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” 

-William Blake

contact: azul-blan@posteo.net
fka blanket

RA.1003 XDB

Resident Advisor