good sets in general

Recorded live at Observe Los Angeles, November 25, 2023

Live @ Observe: Los Angeles

Dustin Zahn x Truncate Live @ Observe Los Angeles (11/25/23)

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

(tracklist below) 

This is part 2 of 3 of the recording from my set at Nowadays Nonstop on April 7, 2024.

I played from 9am-3pm, between JASSS and Bearcat, and it was one of the most creatively fulfilling sets I can remember playing – one of those sets where the audience, environment, atmosphere, tech setup, phase of the moon, whatever, all somehow lined up for a full 6 hours. And happily, the recording is maybe my favorite I’ve managed to capture to date. Huge thanks to Kristin for inviting me and to everyone who was there that morning.


TRACKLIST – PART 2 – 11am-1pm

Ssiege – Drama Lover
Carrier – Harsh Features
Lithe – Modd
aya – Dexxy Is A Midnight Runner
Commodo – Shadowing
Galtier – Absentia Essentia
DJ Zinc – Unstable
Skee Mask – Dachtekker
David Spanish – One New One
Fadi Mohem – Recess
Konduku – Ebedi
Setaoc Mass – It's never too late, or is it?
T++ – Voices No Bodies
Objekt – ???
Marc Ashken – Size 3 (Skream Remix)
Icicle – Need A Job (Original Mix)
LAS – Mental Judgement
Cyrus (Random Trio) – The Watcher
The Bug – Gutted (Human Filth)
Hoavi – PHASE 10
hashman c3d-e – 0-02B
pretty sneaky – PRSN3 A
pretty sneaky – PRSN1 B
Mike Parker – Radar Signal
Fergus Sweetland – Dub 1
Stanislav Tolkachev – Till you get it off
Aphex Twin – Blackbox Life Recorder 22 [Parallax Mix]
qebrus – ༜°༜ ᓭᘳᓆ⊆⊂⊚⊃⊇ᓏᘰᓯ༜°༜
xupid – Grip
WTCHCRFT – What Do You Call A Flood
ASEC – Traffic
Joline Scheffler – Hathor
Vladimir Dubyshkin – Glucose Guardian
Tracing Xircles – Voyage
Jodey Kendrick – Body Hammer
Squarepusher – Snake Pass
Roma Zuckerman – Like My News
Sympletic – Noname
E-Unity – Avray Link
Arovane – yua:e
Mezey & Nosho – Liverbox Recordings
Phalcon – Foreseen
Ceephax Acid Crew – Red DX Acid
Dolo Percussion – DOLO 27
Dolo Percussion – DOLO 30
Manisdron – Restive Lines
Sepehr – Delicate Senses
Batu – Other Means
Lanark Artefax – Meszthread
RP Boo – Azzoutof Control
Mr. Ho featuring Gedvile Bunikyte – Medicine
DubGuy – Not Massive


Artwork by Brodie Kaman

Live at Nowadays 7 April 2024

Live at Nowadays 7 April 2024 - Part 2

Words by Ceci (@ccl-url): 

"Special thanks to Steevio & Suzybee & all the volunteers, workers & dancers 💙

This is my recording from Friday night Room 2, 12:30-2am, my first time being at the mythical Free Rotation. Playing one of the first sets & seeing the room, decor and the big bad subs of Room 2, years of fantastical lore and reality melded, I wanted to keep it sexy, wonky, trippy— imagining a psychic electric swamp and how one would levitate thru it... to the sky. No bpm trickery this time. Out to the heavenly bodies of the universe! ;)

Mastered by Wordcolour"


i <3

ani/live Fifty Six: CCL @ Freerotation

The Lot Radio Stage at Making Time ♾️ 2024

https://www.instagram.com/kiasvs

Kia @ MAKING TIME ♾️ 2024

In late 2023 I was chatting with a musician friend about labels, and whether they're really all that necessary these days. As someone mainly focused on self-releasing my music through Bandcamp, I think for the most part the answer is no. One should focus on passionately creating things and being involved in their local music community. Over time, label or not, things will hopefully start to take care of themselves on their own. I did however mention that there was one label I thought was really cool, and would definitely be interested in working with: it was Nous'klaer Audio. Incredibly, the next day I received an email from Sjoerd Oberman, who runs Nous'klaer, inviting me to join for a release and performance at Draaimolen. Of course, I was delighted to be involved. This would be my first show in the EU. I spent about 3 months preparing a new set. Having grown rather bored of CDJs and DJ mixers, I opted to prepare a live set, in which I control 8 channels of audio tracks along with drum machines and FX. This setup gives me a lot of freedom to explore new arrangements of my catalog, and better command the dynamic energy on the dance floor, pushing and pulling things forwards to capture the mood of the crowd. To prepare for Draaimolen, I organized several shows across Japan (where I live), further refining the setup after each performance, and deciding what tracks would be the best fit for the 60 minute peak time set I was scheduled to perform. I was very nervous about how my set would be received, but it ended up working very well, and was the highlight of my year. From the very start, the positive reaction from the crowd put me at ease, and Draaimolen's focus on sound and stage design gave me peace of mind, knowing that every frequency was being perfectly reproduced on the floor. I'm so grateful for the opportunity Nous'klaer and Draaimolen provided me. Long live Nous'klaer and long live Draaimolen. Thank you Sjoerd and Milo and Kani and Hannah! 
- Erik Luebs

Erik Luebs live at Draaimolen Festival 2024

A real pleasure to have the extremely gifted @xiaolinmusic from Hongkong for our fourth SoundSculptors episode 😍 She crafted a beautiful trip through many different moods and styles, capturing our musical heart and soul. It's such an interesting story accompanied by high skill not only in the electronic but also in the instrumental parts. Ambient, Downtempo, old school gamy sound, cantonese pop music vibes and more interesting colours appear in this versatile journey. Real earcandy 🍭

- 

More about Xiaolin ~

Xiaolin (曉霖) is a DJ, producer, vinyl collector and classically-trained musician from Hong Kong. Driven by a relentless curiosity for warm sounds, complex emotions and colourful textures, she enjoys crafting magnetic sets that draw audiences in, while her live ambient sets reveal the more contemplative side of her natural musicality as a former concert violinist.

Xiaolin spent a decade studying classical violin, jazz, world music and electronic composition at Juilliard (BM’14) and Berklee Valencia (MM ’15/’16), where she played in Batucada/jazz bands and began collecting records under her mentor, Nacho Marco. Having spent two years in London just before the pandemic, she developed an interest in UK underground culture and Detroit electro.

Inspired by sounds from the the mid 80’s-early 00’s, her love for video games, anime, nature as well as a respect for her Cantonese roots, Xiaolin’s analog synth-heavy productions range from gritty acid house and breaks with earthy percussion to tripped-out electro, bassy groovers and raw downtempo ambience that invoke deeper feelings of romantic adventure with a dreamy, theatrical touch.  

Despite her ever-evolving nature, Xiaolin’s ethereal-yet-raw sound remains a signature throughout all productions.

Xiaolin is sensitive to the dancefloor and crafts an intuitive journey unbound by genre, digging deep to discover dynamic connections.  Her energetic, acid-laden selections explore the vast in-between of house and techno, while her original live set has three formats: “Sun” for daytime settings, “Moon” for meditative settings and “Body” for nightclub settings.

Releases include two EP’s on 宀 Records, a collaborative track on Klasse Wrecks “Michaelsoft", VA contributions on 20/20 Vision (Exit Planet Earth – “Helium”), Polychrome Audio (“Diffraction EP”) and Harmony Rec (upcoming), as well as three 80’s Cantonese disco tribute EP’s on Sound Metaphors’ “Bless You” imprint (A&R by Jane Fitz).

Xiaolin's ‘HEX’ residency at 宀 (Hong Kong) has seen her invite & play alongside guests such as Polygonia, Mary Lake, Peach, Merve, Vlada, Joe Delon, Closet Yi, Jesse You, Maara etc.  She hosts a bimonthly show on Baihui Radio China and has done guest mixes on EYA, Test Pressing, The Mudd Show, The Lot Radio, NTS and Balamii amongst others.  

Recent highlights include Boiler Room (Singapore), Blitz Club (Unchained), and Panorama Bar on live set as part of Sound Metaphors’ 9-year-anniversary event (coinciding with the release of her second EP on Bless You), with upcoming sets at Wonderfruit Festival and Womb Tokyo.  She will make her Rainbow Disco Club live set debut with Kuniyuki Takahashi in April 2025.

- 

Follow Xiaolin
https://soundcloud.com/xiaolinmusic
https://www.instagram.com/oliviaxiaolin
https://ra.co/dj/xiaolin

More music from her
Bandcamp (Tower Moment EP)
https://xiaolin.bandcamp.com/album/tower-moment-ep
Bandcamp (MIHN002 EP)
https://xiaolin.bandcamp.com/album/mihn002

SoundSculptors No 4 - Xiaolin 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦

Recorded live at Villa San Michele during 53100 festival 2024. Photo by Teo Giovanni Poggi

Garçon @ 53100 - 2024

There was impressive scenery on the second floor on the last day of the festival. The time for Sunju Hargun, who was to take the stage with two different sets, dancing and listening, to heal the bodies of the dancers who had been dancing so long in the rain. Deep dub echoes, Layered drones, and healing sounds echoed through the room, melting listeners' consciousness and guiding them into a deep meditative state.

フェスティバル最終日、セカンドフロアの朝の光景は印象的なものでした。ダンスとリスニング、二種のセットで登壇することになったSunju Hargunが、雨で踊り続けたダンサーたちの身体を癒した時間です。とろけるようなダブエコー、ドローン、ヒーリングサウンドが室内に響き渡り、リスナーの意識を融解させる深い瞑想をガイドしました。

Sunju Hargun-Alternative Set at rural 2024

Kaleidoscopic psychedelia from one of Australia's finest.

While it might feel early to call bets on DJs of the decade, Kia Sydney, best known as Kia, is undoubtedly one of them. The Animalia founder began in Naarm's (Melbourne) underground scene in the mid-2010s, crediting a trip to the influential deep techno Japanese festival, Labyrinth, as the inspiration behind her sound.

Deep techno might not cut it as a descriptor for Sydney's sound, though. Hypnotic ribbons of steely techno mix with atmospherics and nimble grooves, drawing from IDM, dub and tech house, sharing as much with DJ Nobu and Donato Dozzy (try to find the track that overlaps with Dozzy's own RA Podcast) as well as modern practitioners like Priori and Beatrice M.

This distinctly Australian scuttling psychedelia has made Kia one of the most sought-after underground DJs globally. Her brainchild, Animalia, showcases a plurality of sounds and scenes, serving as living proof of the fruitful shift of the 2020s: less serious, perhaps, but with a sense of open-minded worldliness that offers a far more promising vision of what dance music can be and achieve.

Sydney's rare talent lies in forging connections, bringing people, sounds and ideas together with a distinct playfulness. Her RA Podcast showcases this alchemy in abundance, weaving classics like Monolake and Enya with peers such as OK EG, Cousin and Command D.

As she told us in her 2023 Breaking Through profile, "people tell me I have quite a distinctive sound but I can't tell so much because I hear so many different versions of it." RA.973 serves as confirmation that Kia's style is, to say the least, the mark of a generational talent.
 
@kia-sydney @animalia-label  @cirruslabel

Read more at ra.co/podcast/973

RA.973 Kia

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

Sleep D are a pair of Australian producers and DJ’s who also run the prolific record label Butter Sessions which has become a home to an array of artists including the likes of Jennifer Loveless, Hybrid Man, Ewan Jansen and more.

The label is rooted in underground club music and has been in operation for over ten years and has remained a consistent presence.

The pair themselves make music which sits somewhat between genres drawing upon elements of early trance, acid, downtempo, house and techno. It’s always raw and rugged, at times progressive in places but definitely rooted in clubland.

This mix is a stellar representation of the pairs musical outlook which is broad and fierce. It goes very deep and as such the length reflects the diversity and strength of narrative in the style of sets they tend to perform and play.

This one is a tour de force.

Sleep D: The Ransom Note Mix

01 Áchim György - You are the light at the end of my tunnel

Recorded live @mutek_montreal 2019
Mastered by @pheek

Priori - Live @ MUTEK Montreal 2019

Alright alright, here we are with another installment of Live and Direct after a few months off. Our first recording for 2020 comes from a memorable night last November when our resident Aurora Halal invited Pessimist in to share the booth. 

Aurora provided the opening (and closing) moments, which is a side of the beloved techno we are really enjoying getting to know. Known for her meticulously programmed sets that build with both patience and intensity, this opening stays true to her hypnotic style. Taking us from cinematic dub techno to pitched up club favorites and back again, it's a subterranean and psychedelic ride leading us to the surface just before Pessimist's dnb stylings took over for the night.

Aurora is back in our booth on March 28 alongside Wata Igarashi, DJ Python, Juliana Huxtable and more for Nowadays Nonstop. Tickets for that are available on Resident Advisor now.

RA.973 Kia

Resident Advisor

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