Currrent Rotation

ivan smagghe at floresta

foto: fofo.altinell

Ivan Smagghe at Floresta - Waking Life '24

Next up on the GROOVE Podcast is Maayan Nidam (@maayan). For interview and track list, check bit.ly/MaaPod

GROOVE Podcast 442 – Maayan Nidam

Mix number 14 in our series, and the first live recording from Bonanza 2025 from none other than Ivan Smagghe. 

Recorded on the Sunday night of the festival, Ivan ushered the terrace through the penultimate set, handing over to Unai Trotti just before the light began to creep in over the river for the final sunrise of Bonanza. This is Ivan in deep, trippy and bewitching mode, just how we like it. 

In his own words, “I am always unsure recordings translate what happens in the moment, but people like them”. Hopefully some of the electricity from what was an incredibly special experience at the time trickles though your speakers at home xx

Rio 014 - Ivan Smagghe (recorded live at Bonanza 2025)

@Sevensol
Wildeburg Festival 
July 13, 2025 - Bamboebos 
Kraggenburg, Netherlands
www.wildeburg.nl

Sevensol - Wildeburg 2025

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

477 RA.477 Jane Fitz - 2015.07.20

Yamour at Waking Life 2025

Buy on Bandcamp

Mr Manic - Louboutins (Red Soul)

Sublime rhythms from the London selector.

RA.477 Jane Fitz

The fabric resident drops three hours of heat.

Read more: https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=554

Resident Advisor podcast

RA.554 Craig Richards

RA.573 DJ Koolt

yoyaku instore session : Daniel Bell

Funk-filled house and insatiable grooves from a godfather of microhouse.

Download: https://www.xlr8r.com/podcasts/2018/02/podcast-529-akufen/

XLR8R Podcast

Download

XLR8R Podcast 529: Akufen

Maayan Nidam Live @ Revolt - 27.01.18

1,5h of a 5h DJ Mix - recorded live at Waking Life Festival 2017 in Crato, Portugal

RA.573 DJ Koolt

Resident Advisor

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