As part of RA2122, our ongoing celebration of 21 years of club culture, we'll be featuring some of our favourite DJs from around the world, highlighting the parties or clubs most important to their lives in dance music. 

The first time we featured DJ Nobu on the RA Podcast, over ten years ago, we called him "one of Japan's best DJs." In hindsight, i think we can all agree that the country qualifier is no longer necessary: he's one of the world's best DJs, bar none. An absolute master at curating and mixing techno, Nobu has helped to inspire a Japanese school of techno that is psychedelic, hypnotic and often very pretty, without losing the genre's oomph or edge. And he's more popular than ever around the world, playing some of the best parties and clubs in pretty much any country or city you could name.

But DJ Nobu's roots and heart are close to home. Frustrated with techno in the Japanese capitol, he created his own party in his neighbouring hometown, Chiba, where nightlife was less pretentious and the vibe was a little looser. Future Terror quickly became known as one of Japan's premiere techno parties, and paved the way not only for Nobu himself, but many other Japanese DJs who Nobu and his later partner Haruka gave the chance to shine. The party also recently celebrated its landmark 20th anniversary with its first-ever party in London.

This mix is a direct tribute and encapsulation of Future Terror, what Nobu calls a "condensed story" of the series focusing on the more outré elements at the fore—an "awareness of techno" with plenty of more leftfield tracks thrown in. What follows might be a little gentler than you'd expect from Nobu, but it's all top-tier techno mixed with an expert hand.

@djnobu_bitta

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/855

RA podcast

RA.855 DJ Nobu

Voices from The Lake hybrid live at Draaimolen Festival 2024

Enter the wormhole with one of the techno artists we're most excited about in 2025.

Born in Osaka and now based in Tokyo, DJ MARIA. joins a decorated lineage of Japan's psychedelic elite, cut from a similarly explorative cloth as Wata Igarashi, Haruka and esoteric icons ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U and DJ Nobu. This nerdy sanctum of deep techno is a notoriously hard world to break into: only the very best make the grade. DJ MARIA.'s head-spinning sets emphasise why she's already part of the club firmament at home, and is now in the midst of a global breakthrough.

Her trademark is tapestries of acid, trance and techno that strike a perfect balance between vibrancy, impact and restraint. She bit the bug through a teenage discovery of DVDs showing legendary psytrance raves like Solstice and Vision Quest, yet it wasn't until 2014 that she started DJing, balancing gigs with shifts at Tokyo's Face Records and, as of late, motherhood.

Today, as well as producing and touring venues such as FOLD and Bassiani, she helps run two boutique forest festivals—Moment and Transcendence—both of which play a big part in upholding Japan's storied techno tradition. DJ MARIA. has reached these heights principally because of her exceptional talent as a DJ, which is on full display on this week's RA Podcast.

The two-hour mix is pure manna for psychedelic techno heads, though we're confident the depth of feeling, subtle pacing and seamless stitching will lure in fans from across the electronic spectrum. RA.971 is a total treasure—the latest wow moment from an artist destined to have a career littered with them.

@djmaria-jp

Read more at ra.co/podcast/971

RA.971 DJ MARIA.

Donato Dozzy has long been a revered figure in the global electronic music scene, known for his rare ability to craft hypnotic soundscapes that linger in the mind. Whether in contemporary clubs or classical settings, his sets consistently conjure deep moods and immersive atmospheres.

With this being his first mix release in over 5 years, we’re treated to an early insight into what he’ll bring to Continuum on February 1st. 

RA tickets: https://ra.co/events/2051095

051 - Donato Dozzy - fabric podcast

Polygonia (House Set) | Blitz, Munich 2025

@gigi-fm at Floresta

foto: fofo.altinell

GiGi FM at Floresta - Waking Life '24

Full Tracklist: https://bleep.com/bleep-mix-297--sandwell-district

For our latest Bleep Mix instalment, Sandwell District come through with a hefty programming of dark rollers fulfilling that promise of reinvigorated purpose they mentioned before: “Having a good time”. And with a wealth of exclusive unheard material it’s hard to refute the mission statement. Dropping straight into the cavernous environs of an unreleased Regis side Frosty Jack’s, the selection rides a restrained line building tension through a number of Nastia Reigel tracks deployed with utmost precision before upping its stride with Luke Slater’s Planetary Assault Systems and quickly landing first peak from The Wizard himself, with Jeff Mills' slamming ‘93 cut Step to Enchantment (Stringent). Taking in a track from their comrade Surgeon’s forthcoming album, as well as the simmering acid of their own tune Hidden, Sandwell District bring it back round full circle via two further unreleased reworks of heroes Meat Beat Manifesto providing a breakbeat singed rupture to close out the proceedings with the vocal snatches of MBM’s Helter Skelter summing it all up really: “It's in my brain now. This is it!”

Bleep Mix #297 - Sandwell District

Andreas Baumecker launched his DJ career in the early 90s, a Frankfurt native coming of age in the halcyon days of his country’s reunification. His first stop was the city’s storied and centrally located Romantica, then its affiliate Intimbar where reps from house label Playhouse picked him up for buying duties at record store Delirium. After an uptick in local bookings, he made a brief stop in Mannheim for more of the same before moving to Berlin in 2004, where a recently opened Panorama Bar scouted him as resident and offered him the role of in-house booker for its Berghain operations. As word got out and the city started to draw larger crowds he became a fundamental force in crafting the club’s story. Hesitant to define the upstairs-downstairs split as house and techno, he practices his preachings through an approach that embraces a range of different sounds. ‘Surprise is important’ and his 25,000 strong vinyl collection lends a hand in the process, an assemblage that oscillates between disco, house, electro, techno, breakbeat and pop; the key is to capture the spirit of a crowd. This strategy has borne not only his label Freundinnen (put on hiatus in 2007, relaunched in 2023), but a lasting collaboration with sparring partner Sam Barker as half or Barker and Baumecker (four 12” records and two albums on his alma mater’s imprint Ostgut Ton to prove it). nd_baumecker deals in all things funky and uplifting, a thread of life-affirming melodies and historically literate beats that drive seamlessly forward. Bassiani Podcast 255 alludes to his well stocked portfolio of references, with hints of disco and balearic house, it's more of what his fans know and love to usher in the warmer months; this latest episode is full of spacey tenor, refreshing and gently rolling, breezy chill-out expertly compiled by this fabled German veteran.

@ndbaumecker

Bassiani invites nd_baumecker / Podcast #255

my computer is about to give up on me so I share unreleased stuff from 2016 to 2023.
no master free download

guns companies

DVS1 came up as a raver in the Midwest, throwing techno parties for over 20 years and getting up to mischief, often next to huge stacks of speakers that still influence him to this day. He is now well-established as a vital DJ and resident at Berghain and Panorama Bar. 

This mix is something special and a side of DVS1 normally not heard or recorded! A true digger and passionate record collector running the eclectic Mistress Recordings and the more pure techno label HUSH. Here he crosses into house territory for a special dekmantel mix. 

Of the podcast we have here, he says, “This mix is two hours of a four hour rare “house” set recorded LIVE in Sept 2017 at an undisclosed location. I make it a point not to release many mixes and while most people know and follow me for my techno sets, this mix is for those who dig a little deeper and appreciate it all… Enjoy!" There is still a real sense of pace to the mix as it glides effortlessly though flurries of percussion into vocal numbers, cosmic curveballs and piano laced anthems. It’s a fascinating insight into a whole other side of one of techno’s foremost talents.

Dekmantel Podcast

Dekmantel Podcast 186 - DVS1

High-definition psychedelic techno.

Read more here: https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=681

@itsallhalal

RA.681 Aurora Halal

Resident Advisor

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