2025 vibes

ambient

Gi Gi's set recorded live at 123 on February 17th, 2024 for KUDZU AUDIO.

Gi Gi - Live at 123

Umfang & Q Media - Studio Mix

The in-demand US DJ unfurls dubby, dance floor poetry.

Where does sentimentality fit on the dance floor? For Liv Klutse, AKA livwutang, the answer is everywhere. The New York-based DJ is guided by a deep desire to stir connection, finding themes and points of correspondence across an impressively broad range of sounds, tempos and eras. 

This emotional intuition lends Klutse's sets a depth few others can match. Her selections can seem unpredictable, rooted in an appreciation for feeling over genre—hard and soft sounds are carefully balanced with surrealism and bursts of nostalgia (for instance, the Lazy Dog bootleg edit of Everything But The Girl's "Tracey In My Room"). But as versatile as she is, a few signature traits colour her style, such as a love for dubwise music and rhythms from across the Black diaspora, alongside a refreshingly introspective energy that invites dancers to find moments of meditation—even during peak time. 

A former staffer at our New York office, Klutse has long merited an RA Podcast. Her slow-burning blends and mystical selections have graced near-enough every major festival and club out there, from Dekmantel and Sustain-Release to Nowadays, where she's been a resident since 2022. Despite this cross-continental touring schedule, she still plays plenty of grassroots venues—testament to her days with TUF collective and Orphan Radio in Seattle, as well as her enduring belief in the power of DIY, community-orientated dance music. 

"How did you come down off life?" James Massiah asks at the beginning of RA.975. Across nearly 90 minutes, Klutse's downright beautiful mix seeks answers to this question, reflecting on hedonism in times of political decay. She's in full-on dub mode, moving through meditative bassweight, glitchy house and flat-out weirdo techno with a deftness we've come to expect from one of the most promising, singular voices in dance music right now. She's got there all on her own terms—and we couldn't be prouder.

@livwutang

Read more and find the tracklist ra.co/podcast/975

RA.975 livwutang

Chicago formed experimental outfit blends atmospheric ambient, pulsing percussion, and deep dub flourishes to create thoughtful rhythms and immersive music

https://www.instagram.com/pureliiink

Purelink @ The Lot Radio 02-18-2025

TTT Bandcamp

TTT NTS 03.03.25

Furtive brings you a broad range of rave-related material with ambient tangents and excursions.

Listen live - 3rd Mondays, 6-8PM ET on www.greatcircles.net

Ashen Vanity w/ Furtive - 17March2025

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Music for healing with Brooklyn DJ Shira Dennis

"In early January, I was roofied at a club I have spent a lot of time at. In my subconscious I think I recognized that I had been drugged because I started feeling uncomfortable. I tried to leave once I felt this but unfortunately collapsed unconscious and hit my head. I suffered a skull fracture and hematoma that had me in the hospital for a week, followed by months of recovery where I had to re-learn how to engage in daily life. It has taken me away from DJing in the way I’ve been doing it for almost ten years, and also took me away from being a teacher until just two weeks ago when I went back to work. It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to go through in a really long time. Once I was home from the hospital and settled a bit into recovery mode, I really wanted to engage with DJing but didn’t know how. I’ve always loved Theory Therapy and also listened to a lot of the mixes in my hospital bed so I reached out to see if I could contribute. I never had made a mix of this nature, and had to do it as a studio mix via Abelton because I couldn’t DJ or even really stand up. My friend Karl, who is amazing, helped me learn Abelton in little chunks and we did a lot of this together. It was really emotionally healing for me to learn something new, have creative time with my friend, and also lean into the music I was listening to in the hospital, and create something that was different from my usual style and mixes."

Full Q+A: https://www.lowendtheorists.com/theory-therapy-mixes/shi-shi

@djshishiiii

Theory Therapy 77: Shi Shi

A ethereal experience, curated by Glasgow based DJ and sound artist Conna Haraway (@connaharaway), a figure tracing the liminal edges of the ambient and electronic avant-garde.

Artwork x Isidora Amenábar

FR102 Conna Haraway (Glasgow, SCT)

subcast is born, an incantation of adventurous sonic alchemy behind radiant subs. The inimitable Razrbark kicks things off. Strap in for a chemistry-altering ride.
@razrbark's interview below--->

ℚ: ℍ𝕠𝕨 𝕨𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕕𝕖𝕤𝕔𝕣𝕚𝕓𝕖 ℝ𝕒𝕫𝕣𝕓𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝕚𝕟 𝕒 𝕗𝕖𝕨 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕕𝕤?

A: Live edge, live wire

Q: Describe the story behind Razrbark's Specific Heat.

A: Specific Heat measures how resistant (or not) substances are to temperature changes, specifically how much energy is needed to raise the temperature of something by one degree. This concept from chemistry has always stuck with me and is something I thought of after listening to the finished product of this mix/let's be real I just think it sounds cool.

When I first started prepping for this mix, I went in a very different direction and had a rough draft, but it felt tedious, trying to force ideas and tracks in a way that required a lot of energy with little output. Sometimes, things pour out of you and sometimes, they don't. 

One day, a very exciting booking came through (spoiler alert: it was Honcho @ Hot Mass). With the adrenaline rush of the booking, I immediately started mixing tracks from the extremes of my USB, and everything flowed really easily. I decided to hit record, and it came together in a way that felt much more organic. I also unearthed many tracks I had forgotten about that were collecting cobwebs on my stick but that I always loved.

Anyway, all this to say, just like in chemistry, sometimes you need the right conditions for a reaction to truly take off~~~

Q: What is your ideal dancefloor (fictional or real).

The Bronze.

Q: When is the last track that made subs glow for you?

A: Two specific tracks come to mind:
https://snappedankles.bandcamp.com/track/come-play-the-trees-crooked-ankles-2
To me this is the perfect track. I played it at Hot Mass in Pittsburgh sometime after 6am a bit slower than this. I love how it has so much raw power behind it. Big chug NRG. I've always loved this song from the same band. It has a very Iggy Pop/Plastic Bertrand sensibility to it, but I've never been able to play it on a dance floor, so I was happy when I found this edit that is a bit more dance floor friendly and still has the rock/dance vibe that I feel is a hallmark of my sound.

Another track:
I just played this song towards the end of my set at Afterlife in Seattle this weekend. The bass was so intense my drink literally bounced across a table and fell to the floor. I'd say the subs were glowing hard.
https://normalpleasure.bandcamp.com/track/heart-palpitations-on-the-m1

Q: What track/artist was a musical game-changer for you?

A: Föllakzoid. It's psych rock, it's techno, it's everything. Each time I've seen them play, it's world-building and expansive. 

Q: If this mix was a book or a movie what would it be? 

A: It would be in Walk Hard Part 2, when Dewey goes through his drum and bass era.

subcast #1 ✹ Razrbark's Specific Heat

Our 60th podcast comes from Mike Midnight.

Over the past decade, Mike has established himself as a versatile DJ, with standout downtempo EPs like Angel Hours and the collaborative trickpony with Roza Terenzi and Gem K. His productions channel early 2000s nostalgia through lush textures, emotional pulls, and playful sampling.

Recent mixes for NTS’s Braden Wells, Rinse.fm’s Baraka, and pipipi showcase his deep knowledge of club music, trip hop, and downtempo. With a delicate grip on energy and flow, Mike delivers a hazy morning-after remedy of hopeful synth pads, angelic vocal washes, and bleepy melodies.

Left Bank 060 - Mike Midnight

https://teethrecs.bandcamp.com/album/teeth002

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Oliver Kay