gopher talk

Built To Spill - Jokerman

You might have first heard of Earth Trax under his original alias, The Phantom. Or maybe his given name, Bartosz Kruczyński, which he uses for gorgeous ambient music. Or Pejzaż, where he cuts up Polish records from his vast collection. Or as part of Ptaki, another sample-based project he did with fellow Warsaw resident Jaromir Kamiński. You get the idea—dude makes a lot of music. And a lot of it is very good. Earth Trax is the project that really made us swoon, with a soft-focus, sunset-hued meld of techno, breakbeat, progressive house and trance.

On wonderful records like LP1, melancholy is the operative word, but Kruczyński isn't exactly a sadsack. It's more complex than that, nailing the tears-on-the-dance-floor vibe with the part that many people forget: it's still club music. That's why tracks like "Dream Pop," which kicks off this mix, are so successful—they're heavy but never weighed down by emotion, with a skip in their step and a robust low-end to go with the sighing vocals. 

Kruczyński's RA Podcast is something of an excavation of this sound, using his own tracks and those of like-minded producers to sketch out a style that's equal parts rousing and pensive, midtempo but still propulsive. Over two and a half hours he lets these tracks breathe and leisurely mixes them together, almost like an old-school progressive house double mix CD but in the more vibrant, varied clothes of today—before it starts to unravel into an extended, beatless outro that's worth sticking all the way until the end for.

@earthtraxonline

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/863

RA podcast

RA.863 Earth Trax

Snowman - Hyena

http://thecorner.co.nz/2011/05/25/awesome-feeling-5-sharpie-crows-endless-empty-eye

Sharpie Crows - Endless Empty Eye

For the second annual Cassette Store Day we will release the 12 track compilation 'Jam Kids: 20 Years since Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain'.

Shared interests go a long way in small towns, so when two goofy teenagers bonded over a mutual love of Pavement it laid some pretty solid foundations for 4 years of running a label together. When we realised it had been 20 years since the release of their seminal album ‘Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain’ we thought we had better do something about it.

We’ve got together with some of our favourite friends, finest DIY noise makers and bands we never expected a  yes from and asked each artist to cover a separate track from the album. What’s come out the other end is truly something truly spectacular. 

1. Junk - Silence Kid
2. Shunkan - Elevate Me Later
3. Paws - Stop Breathin'
4. Dog Legs - Cut Your Hair
5. Joey Fourr - Newark Wilder
6. Year of Birds - Unfair
7. Pet Cemetry - Gold Soundz
8. Flamingods - 5-4=Unity
9. Trust Fund - Range Life
10. Beat Easton - Heaven is a Truck
11. The Black Tambourines - Hit the Plane Down
12. Poledo - Fillmore Jive 

As it’s a bit weird making profit from other people’s music, we will be donating all profits from this release to DIY Space for London (http://diyspaceforlondon.org). The release is limited to 200 and comes with a series of badges. If you’d like to ensure that you get your hands on a copy, please contact your local record shop and ask them to stock the release on September 27th. Any leftover copies will be sold via our shop on October 4th – if you’d like to be notified when these are available – please visit here...
http://artishardrecords.limitedrun.com/products/532747-jam-kids-20-years-since-crooked-rain-crooked-rain


03 - Paws - Stop Breathin' (Pavement cover)

At Field Maneuvers 2023, Optimo (Espacio) played the final set in the Sputnik tent as part of the Watching Trees takeover. "We expected everyone to be on their final reserves of energy," they said. "But it was instantly apparent that there was electric energy in the tent. It ended up being one of the most joyous, life-affirming gigs of [the year]."

@optimo-music @fieldmaneuvers

Find out more about Field Maneuvers 2024: https://ra.co/news/80472

RA Live - Optimo (Espacio) - Field Maneuvers, UK

John Talabot live from the Patio at #GALA24.

_

Signup for lineup and ticket updates on #GALA25 > https://presale.thisisgala.co.uk/

Live from the Patio – John Talabot

BIG DISH GO were great parties in Dublin about 15 years ago and the basement at Kennedys some kind of legendary place. The boys found back a few old recordings of our nights. They are what they are :)

IVAN SMAGGHE & ROMAN FLUGEL - BDG KENNEDYS OCT 2011

▪️ Soundcloud: @massimilianopagliara
▪️ Resident Advisor: ra.co/dj/massimilianopagliara
▪️ Instagram: instagram.com/massimilianopagliara_/

TASCAM DR-44WL

MASSIMILIANO PAGLIARA - RECORDED LIVE AT WAS. UTRECHT (17.02.24)

Black Eyes

my official summer mixtape contribution
recorded at the wonderful fidelity for subject dublin on july 4th 2025 - what a night - thank you!! <3<3<3

move d @ fidelity, subject dublin 25-07-04

Dekmantel Podcast 25 stars not just one fine artist, but offers both Amsterdam don Young Marco and French forerunner Gilb'R. The two played a stunning back to back set in the end of May at this year's Lente Kabinet, Dekmantel's sister festival based in the surroundings of Amsterdam. This podcast is a recording of that set as it was played at a lively Red Light Radio stage. Young Marco and Gilb'R pairing up for a great session of playing energetic, unheard gems, seems a very logical thing to do as both men have their roots in record digging and producing out of the ordinary house music.

Dekmantel Podcast 025 - Young Marco X Gilb'R

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

RA.269 Tornado Wallace

House music for the end of summer.

Read more: https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=535

@kornel


Resident Advisor podcast

RA.535 Kornél Kovács

Off of Hummingbird (out January 29, 2013)

Local Natives - Breakers

Founded in the UK in 2008, The Quietus is one of the world’s leading independent websites for quality longform writing on visionary and modernist music and culture, covering all genres with an equal weighting.

The Quietus treats the emerging artists of the genre-melting present with the same reverence the mainstream reserves for the stale canon of yesteryear. We look to reappraise and revitalise those artistic pioneers abandoned in the hinterland.

We champion trailblazing and illuminating cultural journalism from around the world – numerous successful writers and broadcasters are first published on our pages.

After years held back by a creaking old website, The Quietus (tQ to our friends) has been regenerated, providing an indispensable portal to a realm of cultural discovery, devilment and debate.

“The Quietus believes in the power of cultural criticism to cut through the noise of social media and the ultimately disappointing guidance of tech platform algorithms. To write down a series of words that have never been combined before, expressing a complex series of emotions, thoughts and experiences that unites writer and reader at a level that feels telepathic and changes the joint experience of reality: That is the definition of magic.” – tQ Co-founder John Doran.

Snowman - Hyena

The Quietus

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