Think LOUD Podcast Series

LOTR x RWW - Ogazón - 30 Mar 2022

Multisexual Mix #9 Ogazón

Quest is one of those new school selectors who have taken the art of crate digging to an all-new level. Italian-born, Berlin-based but having spent time in London working at the legendary Vinyl Pimp, he has long been mining the depths of everything from UKG to outré techno, Italian hip hop to long-lost house. Importantly, he uses those sounds to tell his own stories, often with an air of mystery and intrigue that plays out like an adventure into the unknown. 

Many mixes follow a traditional arc of increasing energy levels but in this week's podcast, Quest plays with those expectations to build up and then pull back, threading together minimal rhythms then raw and crunchy wave sounds. Twisted electronics lead into celestial acid and the smooth and seductive sits next to the dark and edgy. It's a low-key, low-lit selection that draws from mutant strains of house, techno and electro that are both futurist and dystopian. Quest might be his moniker, but it is also a perfect description of his mission.

Dekmantel Podcast 436 - Quest

| LIVE FROM HIGH NOTE | w/ Myles Mac & DJ Possum

Queer Cult Take Over : Amina - 30 Juin 2025

Part two of RA.999: two NYC Downlow favourites go back-to-back for the first time with a jubilant homage to classic house.

The RA Podcast launched 19 years ago in 2006, making it one of the world's longest-running online mix series. As we gear up to celebrate the 1,000th episode, RA.999 lands with five mixes across five days with a cohort of artists who've left a singular mark on electronic music over the past few decades. The chemistry and legacy of these duos make for something very special—and worthy of such a huge milestone.

First up was 1morning and Regal86 with a live recording from New York's Bossa Nova. Next up? We move to NYC Downlow, and who better to capture Glastonbury's beloved queer utopia than Prosumer and Peach, going back-to-back for the first time.

If house is your thing, then Prosumer and Peach going one-for-one on the decks is nothing short of a treat. With Glastonbury still just about in the rearview mirror, this mix captures the spirit of NYC Downlow. If you're familiar, you'll know this means steamy euphoria all-night long, sweat dripping from the ceiling and an intoxicating feeling in the humid air.

And Prosumer is a true Downlow darling—a treasured custodian and storyteller of dance music who delivered his first RA Podcast way back in 2007. "If a record doesn't move me emotionally or physically, I won't play it out," he said at the time, befitting of the impeccable curation and irresistible body groove that became his trademarks. He is, in the words of the Johnny Dangerous track in the mix, the "King of Clubs."

For Peach, RA.999 marks a full-circle moment: Prosumer's 2019 closing set in the Downlow is one of her all-time Glastonbury memories. Since her first RA Podcast in 2021, the London-based artist has only grown more in-demand, with sets that typically traverse the house and techno lexicon—and occasionally R&B—with a distinctly peppy energy. "Neither of us are afraid to go deep," she said about playing with Prosumer. "We just had fun with it."

@ohpeach
@prosumer
Read the full interview at ra.co/podcast/1006

RA.999 Prosumer & Peach

RA.1000 launches with Theo Parrish, live at fabric: a vanishingly rare club mix from the king of deep crates and impossible transitions.

There are DJ sets and then there are Theo sets. No matter how many times you've caught him in action, every time still feels like the first. Running hot, levels smoking, isolator working over time. You think you know dance music? Think again.

Parrish's long-awaited debut on the RA Podcast is a milestone for the series, one we've sought for over 15 years. So it was only right that Theo led off our 1000th celebrations, the first of ten mixes this week. Recorded live at fabric last December as part of RA's collaborative party with the London club for their 25th anniversary, this three-hour segment documents the crescendo of his eight-hour marathon. 

The Detroit legend doesn't release mixes often, and when he does, they're usually studio recordings: think NTS shows, his 100% Detroit edition of DJ-Kicks or classic tapes Body (1997) and Methods of Movement (2020). A capture of the Sound Signature boss on the dancefloor is hard to come back. On RA.1000, you'll hear Theo in his element.

Sure, there's galvanising build-ups and crowd-pleasers, but laced throughout a Parrish beatdown are rarities designed to shock the system. In a business dominated by image-driven marketing, the vinyl master towers above thanks to a relentless hunger for lustrous melodies, moods and textures of all stripes, which he and he alone can fold into an inspiring and exhilarating joyride.

On RA.1000, blissful reggae precedes new wave disco; '80s R&B morphs into synthy techno; bleepy Chicago jack makes way for a poignant vocal ballad. Theo, once again, proves that anything and everything is possible with the right records.

@theoparrish @fabric @soundsignaturedetroit @crownruler

Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Theo Parrish

Andrew Weatherall's first official posthumous mix. The only b2b DJ Harvey ever agreed to. Six hours at Trouw. Full send — this one's special.

When mulling which direction to go in for RA's 1000th mix celebrations, many options came to mind. Some shadowy character 2-stepping around the fringe of our collective consciousness? An impossible-level IDM icon?

All tempting. But, ultimately, we are a DJ-forward publication and this is a DJ mix series. It felt truer to the history of the RA Podcast to release deep vault material from a time when the world of niche records felt different, tighter, more discrete.

The fourth-longest mix in the series' history is an unrepeatable marathon set recorded in 2012 at a superclub that no longer exists. 2012, incidentally, is farther away from 2025 than 2012 was from 2000... if we have to clock it, so do you.

It's the coming together of one British icon who passed away in 2020, and another whose time on the road has scaled back considerably as of late. DJ Harvey agreed to exactly one b2b set in his life: this one, with Andrew Weatherall.

The night took place at Trouw, an Amsterdam club already considered legendary before it shuttered its doors in the opening hours of 2015, as part of an RA series anchored around start-to-close combinations. Harvey was at the peak of an irresistible career second act, which dovetailed with a disco revival that dominated clubs for years. Weatherall, with infinite brownie points stockpiled from the '90s, remained everyone's favourite debonair psychonaut. 

What follows is 385 scintillating minutes of arpeggiated chug and slow-cresting climaxes, chronicling a moment when the resting heart rate of dance floors plunged lower than potentially any comparable point in the 21st century. A masterclass, and entirely self-contained in audio form.

If you've got time to spare, a fun side game is sussing out who plays what. A disco-dub cover of Echo & the Bunnymen? Smart money's on Weatherall. Exuberant EQ'ing of The Isley Brothers? Gotta be Harvey. As for the low 'n slow, lightly spangled house that was all the rage in the early 2010s (think Maxxi Soundsystem, Disco Bloodbath, Rub & Tug, C.O.M.B.I. and Full Pupp), it's anyone's guess. 127 BPM feels practically like a racecar.

When we kicked off our RA.1000 campaign, we outlined a few goals: tick off a handful of long-awaited dream guests, honour architects who shaped the world around us and deliver recordings you truly can't hear anywhere else. We sought to render an accurate picture of DJ culture in 2025 for the longhaul.

DJing and the mythmaking around it has undergone a quantum leap since 2012, let alone 2006, 1996 or 1989. For those of us who were kicking around in the former, there's a creeping melancholy that our prime is fast becoming a matter of historical record. The killing moon really did come too soon. 

Where will electronic music, DJ sets or any of this be in 2044? Hard to say. Best not to overthink that one. Instead, we want to say thanks to all contributors on the series so far. Now enjoy luxuriating in the company of two of the greatest to ever do it, together, for the first and last time.⁠ – Gabriel Szatan (Editor, RA)

@andrew-weatherall

Read the interview with DJ Harvey and Andrew Weatherall's family at https://ra.co/podcast/1016. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 DJ Harvey & Andrew Weatherall

For RA.1000, we take it back to the source with two never-before-heard tapes from Frankie Knuckles's private collection

There is no house music without Frankie Knuckles, literally or figuratively. The queer icon's luxurious DJ sets at Chicago's Warehouse gave a rising movement its name. From there, countless offshoots splintered and travelled the globe. But what did the genesis and growth of the sound really feel like?

The Godfather of House left behind not only timeless records, but personalised cassettes with hand-drawn liner notes handed out to friends and family. Two of those, dated to 1989 and 1996, have been digitised especially for RA.1000. (Thank you to the Frankie Knuckles Foundation.)

To put that in context: the first tape predates not only many of today's active clubbers, but the entire existence of jungle, drum & bass, UK garage, French touch, Jersey club, Afrobeats, IDM, baile funk, hardcore, footwork, dubstep, dub techno, tech house, breaks, minimal, maximal, gqom, gabber, grime and hyperpop.

In short… that's a very, very long time ago. The world of dance music was much smaller. DJ culture was functionally unrecognisable from the one we see in 2025. 

And yet, to some degree, what you'll hear on RA.1000 hasn't changed at all. It's a capture of not only what made Frankie Knuckles one of the beloved pioneers of first-generation dance music, but what draws people to club culture in the first place.

The mood on these Frankie Knuckles sets outlasts even its creator: a spirit of optimism that floods the world's best dance floors and keeps dance music pulsing on into the future, nearly 40 years later, in spite of it all. We end our 1000th mix celebrations here because it all starts there.

Find the tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1018. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Frankie Knuckles

The first episode of our new series of podcast has been recorded by Sakti P [Music Kabinet & Think LOUD]. 

Music curator at the Music Kabinet in Mauritius, Sakti P's musical universe is as diverse as you could possibly imagine. Eclecticism is at the heart of his musical style, and you're about to discover parts of it during this 62 minutes long mix. 
We are thrilled to announce Sakti P has recently joined the Think LOUD crew as dj and music curator !

Enjoy the ride !

Think LOUD Podcast 00: Sakti P (Music Kabinet / Think LOUD, Mru)

The second episode of our new series of podcast has been recorded by the Parisian based music crew Around The World.

Around The World have been making waves in Paris and beyond since 2014, preaching their broad musical inspirations to passionate groove lovers. Recently back from Sète, where they played at the Worldwide Festival alongside festival founder Gilles Peterson and Belgian druid Lefto, this exclusive mix is full of colours, sunshine, grooves & smiles. 
A real travel between eras and continents, we love it !

Enjoy the ride !

Think LOUD Podcast 01: Around The World (Paris)

The fourth episode of our new series of podcast has been recorded by the Parisian based djs Step Daw & Arthur Lastmann.

These two friends met in Berlin a couple of years ago before coming back to Paris and launching Confluence Records and Into The Deep Records with two solid EPs from Darand Land and Jose Rico respectively. Since then, they have been throwing memorable parties in iconic clubs in Paris, having guests such as Move D, Antal, or Hunee to name a few.
It's an absolute pleasure for us to propose you an exclusive vinyl mix with a strong late summer flavour from Step Daw & Arthur Lastmann.

Enjoy the ride !

Think LOUD Podcast 03: Step Daw & Arthur Lastmann (Into The Deep, Paris)

The third episode of our new series of podcast has been recorded by the Mauritian based dj Matsonic. 

Founding member of ill' MO., bringing eclectism to the the local musical scene, Matsonic is a skilled dj with a broad knowledge in music and a fine understanding of the art of djing. 
Since his first appearance at our party last year, he has become a regular guest, and a favourite among the Think LOUD team. 
This recording is an exploration in-between genres, showcasing Mathieu's sense of groove and ability on the decks. 

Enjoy the ride !

Think LOUD Podcast 02: Matsonic (Ill Mo, Mru)

The fifth episode of our new series of podcast has been recorded by the Parisian based dj & producer Design Default from Phonographe Corp.

He graces us with a solid mix of raw, hypnotic, and trippy house & techno. Get yourself prepared for an hour long of cutting-edge beats ! Fan of rougher and weirder vibes are in for a treat…
Member of Phonograph Corp since 2012, Design Default is playing at their 6th birthday celebrations next week at La Rotonde Stalingrad alongside headliner Batu, and the rest of the Phonograph crew. Join in if you’re around!

Enjoy the ride !

Think LOUD Podcast 04: Design Default (Phonograph Corp, Paris)

This is the last mix I've made with my backpacker-setup back then in 2008. In times of permanent transitions, on sunny days and even more on rainy days I'm glad to have at least one constant for sure - the bright shining of Rhythm & Sound.

Tracklist:

Density Outward
Aerial
Let We Go Version
Let We Go w/ Ras Donovan &amp; Ras Perez
Music A Fe Rule w/ Tikiman
Aground
What A Mistry Version
What A Mistry w/ Tikiman 
See Mi Version
See Mi Yah w/ Willi Williams
Dem Never Know w/ Jah Cotton
Chosen Brothers – Mango Walk (Dubwise Version)

--

Rhythm & Sound is a collaborative music project founded by Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, the same duo behind Basic Channel. The project began in the late 1990s and continued through the 2000s, and is known for its fusion of dub, techno, and reggae music.

One of Rhythm & Sound's most notable albums is "See Mi Yah," which was released in 2005 on their own Rhythm & Sound label. The album features a range of Jamaican vocalists, including Willi Williams, Sugar Minott, and Jah Cotton, who perform over Rhythm & Sound's signature deep, dub-infused grooves.

"See Mi Yah" is notable for its focus on traditional dub techniques such as echo and reverb, as well as its use of live instrumentation and vintage analog equipment. The album's sonic aesthetic is characterized by its warm, organic sound, which creates a sense of depth and spaciousness.

In addition to its musical qualities, "See Mi Yah" is also noteworthy for its collaborative and cross-cultural approach. Rhythm & Sound's fusion of dub and reggae with electronic music was innovative at the time, and their use of Jamaican vocalists helped to bridge the gap between different musical cultures.

Rhythm & Sound Mix (Basic Dub III)

Mixes exploring various musical dimensions featuring guests from all around the world sharing the same passion

>> Listen & subscribe on iTunes : http://tiny.cc/mlsl5y

Think LOUD Podcast 04: Design Default (Phonograph Corp, Paris)

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