This track is by the respected Ricardo Villalobos - Ichso 🤯❤️‍🩹

Chris Clark's music is hard to describe, but if you wanted to explain it to an electronic music fan, you might use the dreaded term "IDM" to encompass the many strange and alluring records, some frantic, some chill, the UK producer has put out through Warp over the years. We can be a bit more specific: he uses field recordings, out-there drum patterns and all kinds of hardware (seriously, there's a lot) to make make meticulously processed music, some of which you can dance to. Lately, though, he's turned his attention to classical music, scoring films and televisions shows and culminating in last year's Playground In A Lake for vaunted label Deutsche Grammophon, which featured guests like AFRODEUTSCHE and Oliver Coates and a member of Grizzly bear on a moving, string and horns-led suite about climate change.

You hear all these ideas at once on Clark's stirring RA Podcast, which features music, as he explains, from 1922 all the way to 2022. Classical rubs elbows with Burial and Ricardo Villalobos, as once familiar tracks melt into new (mis)shapes. It also features plenty of Clark originals—maybe some glimpsse of the new album? The best part isn't even the formidable selections, but the way he puts it altogether. Far from a seamless DJ mix, this one is full of peaks and valleys and clever transitions that'll make you check the tracklist and wonder what you just heard. It's the kind of all-over-the-place mix that captures the brilliance of Clark's in a DJ format. Maybe he should do this more often.

Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/823

RA podcast

RA.823 Clark

BARKER mixes are few and far between here on the 'cloud but we are super proud that this genre bender is gracing our 3024 TAPES series, enjoy & spread the word!


3024: Please describe the mix in a single sentence ?

I thought I’d make a mix in the currently popular yet controversial 140-160bpm range, as there’s some amazing music in this space between techno and jungle that doesn’t revolve around straight kicks, and I think it deserves more attention.

3024: What DJ inspires you at the moment / has inspired you throughout the years and why?

Throughout the years.. well apart from this guy Martyn I’d have to say Andi Baumecker. I don’t know many DJs with such a depth of knowledge across so many genres. His passion for music is relentless and continuously inspiring.

Recently I’ve been really into Polygonia. Brilliant producer and DJ from Munich creating ethereal worlds through sound so convincing you can almost step into them. I went to see her open Berghain last September and it was incredible, like being in a rainforest on acid. 

3024: What are you working on / what have you got forthcoming?

There’s a new EP coming this summer which will be announced soon, and a few remixes before that, for Jakojako and Hercules & Love Affair (with Mr Baumecker). Otherwise, I’m having fun developing a new live set involving MIDI controlled lights, which I premiered at Superbooth last week.

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3024 TAPES 005 : Barker

My set closing out Room 2 on the Saturday night of Freerotation 2024.

Pariah @ Freerotation 2024, Baskerville Hall, UK (06/07/24)

"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

The Dekmantel favourite kicks off 2025 in an exploratory mood.

Since her breakout in 2017, Thessa Thorsing has built an enviable CV: a debut release on Nous'klaer Audio, an album on Dekmantel and a residency at former Amsterdam clubbing institution De School. Over these years, she's honed a singular sound, navigating wild variations in tempo and mood that dance along the edges of techno, IDM and drum & bass (we could list many more, but you know the drill).

Her creative arc has seen her delve into ever more abstract concepts, such as 2024's ambient-leaning album, Strange Meridians, exploring the interplay between synthetic and natural textures through drumless experimentations. As she explained in her 2018 RA Breaking Through profile, "I just want to hear the weirdness in the music."

Thorsing's RA Podcast showcases exactly why she's one of the most  consistently adventurous names in dance music. Describing it as "a mix with a narrative," the former landscape architecture student flexes her ability to build sonic environments, beginning in a landscape more akin to a swamp than a club.

Across 90 minutes, she moves through numerous layered terrains, exploring everything from Skee Mask's lucid, beatless techno to the piercing acid of Mike Parker. Unfolding with a restless sense of curiosity, RA.970 captures an artist challenging the boundaries of electronic music, ever upward.

@upsammy

Read more at ra.co/podcast/970

RA.970 upsammy

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

Full tracklist: https://bleep.com/bleep-mix-300-barker

Fresh from Stochastic Drift, Barker’s buzzing second album named Bleep Record of the Month alongside an exclusive 12”, Barker sends a mix that really digs deep into the unique sonic methodology he has constructed across his solo career width a suitable breadth for what is also a milestone in the series, Bleep Mix #300.

From Debiasing to Utility to Stochastic Drift, Barker has been reimagining club music without its definitive thump, instead driven by melody and tactile synthesis, and this selection of tracks expands Barker’s soundworld with a host of artists walking a similar path. “For this mix, I picked out some of my favourite uptempo ambient tracks, recorded at home with two decks and a mixer. It’s music I've used in a lot of different contexts, as a DJ and listener, and I hope you enjoy it.”

Though the occasional dancefloor thump makes itself known, such as on Adriana Lopez’ ‘What Lies Behind’, it’s mostly in quaking subs rather than actual four to the floor, providing some ground for this mix’s airy freeform variety to fly over. We have the wooden plunks and seaspray of Afefe Iku’s Kenyan island sound, the wonky gamelan of Tyler Friedman’s maze of bells and chimes, the dense atmosphere of shaker-produced rain and electrical chirps forged deep in the ruins of The Future Sound Of London.

The midsection of this mix contains some magic in particular: the maestro of drumless trance Lorenzo Senni creates motion from pure jagged synth energy on ‘The Power of Failing’, dissolving into the aether of an unreleased Barker track, which further discharges into the kaleidoscopic stutters of Caribou’s ‘Never Come Back’ with jubilant piano chords and vocal clips wrought into a glitchy, swirling maelstrom of Koreless' prickly warmth. Digital Justice’s ‘Theme From It’s All Gone Pearshaped’ follows, a timeless staple for anyone wishing to dabble in melodic motion and synthsmithery, or any DJ set seeking to add some lift without losing momentum, of which this mix is in no short supply.

Bleep Mix #300 - Barker

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.823 Clark

Resident Advisor

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