Radio 1's Essential Mix

Eris Drew "Essential Mix"

Pure energy from one of electronic music's brightest lights: Sofia Kourtesis. Clamour had built around the Peruvian artist's poignant brand of house music following a string of EPs and 12"s, culminating in last year's Madres—a passionate, vulnerable and excellent album that resonated widely.

Madres packed in rare specificity for a dancefloor record, combining paeans to the power of sound with direct tributes to the neurosurgeon who saved the life of Kourtesis' mother. (Kourtesis even took him clubbing in Berlin as an additional thank you.) The album's earworm melodies and approachable aura helped launch Kourtesis from bubbling to breakthrough on the global stage. In both sound and impact, it mirrors another record: Swim, the 2010 classic made by Kourtesis' friend and mentor, Dan Snaith.

Speaking of @caribouband: RA.943 kicks off with a brand new Sofia Kourtesis & Daphni collaboration, before powering through summer-ready cuts from LUXE, Floating Points, IceMorph, DJ ADHD and an old Oliver Lieb classic. Even as her reputation as a recording artist swells, this power-hour mix is a sharp reminder of Kourtesis' DJing chops, teeing up a victory-lap summer ahead.

@sofia-kourtesis

Read more at ra.co/podcast/943

RA Podcast

RA.943 Sofia Kourtesis

Floating Points’ 5hr Set from Boiler Room, New York, Sep 24

Floating Points (5 Hour Set) | Boiler Room New York  17th July 24

A wintry collage from one of 2024's breakout stars.

As far as crossover electronic success goes, Barry Can't Swim's 2024 scorecard would take some beating. His singles have racked up hundreds of millions of streams, he bagged a Mercury Prize nomination and has the range to both pack out festivals as a DJ and sell out tours worldwide with a string-accented live show. 

Barely 12 months on from the release of debut album "When Will We Land?", it's fair to say Josh Mannie is one of the most in-demand artists working in dance and electronic music right now, with a follow-up LP nearly done, he says.

For RA.968, he pulls in the complete opposite direction from any of that. Sure, there are nods to Mark Leckey and late-night jazz haunts throughout his catalogue, and the ruminative clouds drifting across his signature golden-hour glow do suggest an artist with a sharp grasp on meteorological melancholy. But a beatless collage featuring Suso Sáiz, Slow Attack Ensemble and Lorenzo Senni? It's a surprise, and a welcome one at that.

Speckled with exclusive airings of brand-new ambient material, Barry Can't Swim's RA Podcast charts a path from This Mortal Coil to Ryuichi Sakamoto, with a detour through some Linkwood and Anthony Naples deep cuts we've not heard for a good while. (He even includes a Stars of the Lid favourite which namechecks Fulham's home ground, an act of mid-table grace for the diehard Everton fan).

RA.968 has the crackle of a frosty night walk set to tape—a holiday gift from one of the most popular acts in the game. 'Tis the season.

@barrycantswim

Read more at ra.co/podcast/968

RA.968 Barry Can't Swim

Playing a special breakfast show at @thelotradio. Packed some records from home, stuff I don’t usually get to play out.

https://www.instagram.com/jamie___xx

@jamie-xx-official

Jamie xx @ The Lot Radio 01-09-2025

Poté B2B Bonobo - 28 Juin 2025

Four Tet at Dark Skies, Horst Arts & Music 2025

The arena-conquering duo glide from gritty rave to skyscraping arpeggios on RA.1000, a mix many years in the making.

A new name undeniably entered the pantheon of major electronic live acts over the past decade: next to Faithless, The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers, now sit @feelmybicep.

The Belfast duo's music doesn't half reach for the stars: a melodic blend of ambient, breakbeat, trance and tech house, able to turn the biggest arenas into intimate affairs.

If anything, mainstream success, BRIT Award nominations and mammoth dance crossovers like "Glue" have only hardened Andy Ferguson and Matt McBriar's resolve to keep innovating.

Their prized blog, running for nearly as long as the RA Podcast, regularly platforms upcoming artists. And you won't find many festival headliners releasing climate change-themed records with Indigenous artists, as they did recently on Takkuuk.

RA.1000 exists in that spirit. After many polite declines, and before a year off to usher in the next era, Bicep come through at the last: from dub techno and screwface breaks to São Paulo garage, before a tide of signature synths floods the zone. Stadium-sized intimacy at its finest.

@feelmybicep 

Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1015. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Bicep

Tame Impala @ The Lot Radio 09-13-2025

Recording of Joy Orbison and Solar's set at Dekmantel Festival 2016.

Dekmantel Festival 2016

Joy Orbison & Solar at Dekmantel Festival 2016

LIVE FROM THE BOARD + CROWD MIC RECORDED MARCH 4TH 2017 FOR THE HYDRA LONDON

Floating Points (5 Hour Set) | Boiler Room New York 17th July 24

welshbulb