A three-hour journey—and we mean journey—through downtempo, disco and techno.

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/807

@fortromeau

RA podcast

RA.807 Fort Romeau

Move D B2B Optimo at RBMA x Boiler Room Berlin

https://soundcloud.com/optimo-music
Artwork: https://soundcloud.com/greta-motif
🔊 https://youtu.be/TNU3wcC81FI

Jonnie Wilkes, signed here as J.G. Wilkes of Optimo fame, is driving eclecticism to new frontiers for your ears only. Belfast-made and Glasgow-situated artist/DJ keeps us entertained on the shores of Leftfield, House, and Wave in his two-hour ride for LAYERcatalogue.

We hear a monument to a curiosity that naturally fits with studying Fine Art like Jonnie did. He put his art career aside to pursue music full-time with occasional visits to the world of galleries.

LAYER358 is that testimony of impeccable taste and a great sense of dance floor dynamics.

Play on YouTube

LAYER #358 | J.G. Wilkes (Optimo)

Deep house with heaps of soul to guide spring into summer.

"House music to me is about emotion… it's about how it moves you," says Suze Phaff, better known as Suze Ijó. Emerging from a thriving Dutch scene, Ijó belongs to a generation of DJs reshaping dance culture from the ground up, restoring soul and musicality to the centre of house music. It's a conversation happening not just in her home town of Rotterdam, but globally, among kindred spirits like MUSCLECARS and Dee Diggs in New York, Errol and Alex Rita of Touching Bass in London, and OMOLOKO in Belo Horizonte.

You could call Ijó a deep house DJ, but it's much deeper than that. Her sets embody house music in its most musical sense, rich in nimble percussion, woodwinds, calypso drums, gospel vocals, and romantic string sections. They channel the jazz-inflected heartbeat of the East Coast, the breeze of Balearic shores, and the light-footed rhythms of the Caribbean.

As Ijó explains in her Q&A, her RA Podcast "hopefully feels like a loving embrace." Opening with Key Trunks Ensemble's "Calypso of House (Paradise Mix)," she sets a buoyant, life-affirming tone that carries through the next 90 minutes. As the mix unfolds, her affinity for timelessness is clear, with selections that hark back to the golden age of house, from Lonesome Echo Production's "Sweet Dream (Shrine Sweet Mix)" to the euphoric swell of Blaze's "Klubtrance."

Listening to RA.986, it's no surprise that The Loft—David Mancuso's legendary, much-missed New York party—serves as a key influence for Ijó. "He wasn't confined to just one genre but would just play 'good music' in the right context," she explains. "He allowed the music to breathe."

If ambient music is defined by its ability to breathe in and reflect its surroundings, then Ijó's RA Podcast is ambient in the truest, most human sense: a deep, enveloping soundscape that feels like sunrise, like community, like home—wherever you may choose to listen.

@suze_ijo

Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/986

RA.986 Suze Ijó

https://www.instagram.com/justinstrauss1


JUSTIN STRAUSS @ The Lot Radio 07-03-2025

Banging In Belgium

Recording of Satoshii Tomie's live set at the Selectors stage during Dekmantel Festival 2025.

Satoshii Tomie (live) at Selectors - Dekmantel Festival 2025

This week on the pod is the disco vibe of New York's Tim Sweeney.

RA.046 Tim Sweeney

The Detroit techno legend takes to the decks for RA's 200th podcast.

RA.200 Carl Craig

House, techno, electro and all other assorted leftfield records — is there anything Optimo cannot do? Listen back to these Dekmantel regulars simply being at their best once again.

Optimo at Dekmantel Festival 2018

Mixtape for Feel My Bicep from March 2020. 

Tracklist & DL: http://www.feelmybicep.com/fmb-mixtape-139-richard-fearless/

FEEL MY BICEP MIXTAPE 139 | RICHARD FEARLESS

RICHARD FEARLESS