RA Podcast

Depending on who you ask, Yousuke Yukimatsu is the best DJ in the world. Or at least in Japan. The eccentric Osaka-born, Tokyo-based DJ has built up an arsenal of fans and disciples—most famously Tzusing—who revere his cross-genre approach and knack for out-of-this-world blends. Case in point: he recently released a mostly ambient mixtape that somehow felt more gripping and propulsive than many techno DJ sets. He also used that release, Midnight Is Comin, to highlight Japan's underrepresented experimental electronic music scene, another sign of his wide-ranging and unusual tastes. To go with his voracious hunger for all kinds of music, Yukimatsu can play alll different kinds of sets, from the meditative to the peak-time, all with the blending ingenuity and expert pacing we've come to expect. Just check his mind-blowing Boiler Room set from 2020. If that performance was nightclub madness and Midnight Is Comin was a slowly unfurling coil of downcast textures and moods, then Yukimatsu's RA Podcast is something

If you haven't heard of Nikki Nair at this point, we'd invite you to come out from under that rock you're living in. But jokes aside, the last 12 months have been the Atlanta producer's year. He's toured seemingly endlessly, has found his way into a number of local scenes and has put out records for labels like Dirtybird, Lobster Theremin and Scuffed Recordings. If that weren't enough, he's also been putting out an illuminating series of monthly singles on his Bandcamp that show off both his restless muse and his seeming ability to both perfect and put his own stamp on any sub-genre or style he tries. People usually use some form of the word "bass" to describe Nikki Nair, because of the way his music flits between dubstep, drum & bass, electro and more. One moment he's making staggering hip-hop instrumentals that would have fit right into the old LA beat scene, the next minute he's making pneumatic techno or uptempo stuff that would fit right in one Juke Bounce Werk. His voracious appetite for new sounds c

As anyone who's been to a Nordic country in the summer will tell you, there's a certain magic in the temperate air that you only get from a place that is cold and dark for most of the rest of the year. That probably goes some way towards explaining how a country like Sweden produces some of the sunniest music around, whether we're talking about pop or underground dance. Since she debuted on Stockholm label Studio Barnhus in 2018, Bella Boo has been at the forefront of this sound, making clever, fun and joyous house music on records like Once Upon A Passion, where pop instincts embed into deep house grooves. Bella Boo's RA Podcast both highlights her distinct personality and also the sound of Stockholm in full summer bloom, featuring local producers like Kornél Kovács, Axel Boman, Genius Of Time and Samo DJ. It's full of catchy basslines, hooky vocal snippets, luxurious melodies and plenty of brilliant transitions. It's kind of like listening to one of her records: a restless and kaleidoscopic approach to hou

"You can't take a sound and exclude the people who created it and say, this is our sound," DJ Noir said in our 2020 feature about Juke Bounce Werk, the label she-cofounded. "No, it's either Chicago footwork or it's other." Back then, the Los Angeles-based imprint and crew was still primarily focused around footwork, but Noir and co—including artists like Kush Jones, DJ SWISHA, Surly and Sonic D—have branched out into all sorts of uptempo sounds, touching on house, UK garage, jungle and funk, but always with the fleet-footed approach that makes JBW what it is. "We used to sit down and say, we have to make 160, or we have to keep it footwork and juke," Jones said in that same feature, "but we are also like, if you are strong and developed in another sound, then you should also be free." Sitting atop this empire of boundary-breaking, innovative dance music is DJ Noir, who is one of LA's best uptempo DJs, or honestly, of any genre. Her sets can be speedy and intense, sure, but it's the way she lets off steam a

Nadia Struiwigh immediately turned heads with her debut album, Lenticular, on CPU Records. It wasn't her first record, but it was an auspicious release at an auspicious time for a label that was at the centre of a revival of early '90s IDM and electro styles. You could use those terms to describe Dutch producer Struiwigh's music, but you'd have to also mention ambient—just check out her last album, Pax Aurora, for Rotterdam powerhouse Nous'klaer Audio—and techno, which is the subject of her new RA Podcast. Those familiar with Struiwigh only through her records might be surprised by this mix, which is over two hours of alternately atmospheric and pummeling techno. It highlights the versatility and potential of the genre, as well as Struiwigh's own outlook on it. She was a techno DJ before she started making the softer, weirder stuff, and she can recognize the music's innate emotional qualities, even at its most functional. As she says below, her intention is to "glue the best of both worlds" to create a "rare

eviewing their 2021 EP on Livity Sound, RA's Henry Ivry said that the duo—along with collaborator DJ Polo—represented a "micro-history of jungle, garage, dubstep and, of course, their bread-and-butter, UK funky." Now, you might not be familiar with them, but these two London producers, LR Groove and Razzler Man, have been doing their thing in the UK capital for nearly two decades, both together and apart. They reunited in 2018, inspired by the changing and cyclical tastes of UK dance music fans and, perhaps most importantly, the international rise of South African dance music and its interplay with other genres around the world. The duo have now released two records for Livity Sound, which is among the biggest badges of honour you can get in this sector of electronic music. Effortlessly combining UK funky, dubstep and snatches of gqom and amapiano, the duo's music feels organically adventurous, but hardly trendy—in fact, the space and reverb of their beats still sounds a lot like the music they were associat

If we were to pick one word to describe Ziggy Devriendt, AKA Nosedrip, it would probably humble. He runs a one-man empire out of the modest Belgian coastal town of Ostend, and his STROOM label is one of the most quietly brilliant outfits in Western Europe. A mixture of obscurer-than-obscure reissues and quirky new material makes for a label as unpredictable as it is essential, and Devriendt's unusual touch is all over it—he prefers to make up his own compilations and sequences instead of just repackaging old records, for example, which explains how important curation and putting songs together is to him. So it's not a surprise that , in addition to being a music nerd supreme, Devriendt is also a remarkably good DJ, whose ear for oddball cuts translates well into intuitively danceable music. Judging from his RA Podcast, he's had trance on the mind—the mix features flighty beats that range from CJ Bolland and Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia to new-school practitioners like J-Zbel, plus a major highlight from Peter V

Imagine growing up near Berlin, getting into dance music, going to Berghain for the first time and getting your mind blown by techno. Then, ten years later, you become a resident DJ at the fabled club. Not many people—any people?—can claim this story, but for Fadi Mohem, what would be so many DJs' dreams became a reality. After getting his 2017 debut 12-inch Reckless in the hands of all the right people in Berlin, Mohem established a bold, bouncy techno sound with releases on Modeselektor's Seilscheibenpfeiler, Ben Klock's Klockworks and FJAAK's SPANDAU20, pretty much the cream of the crop of modern techno. Now, this year, he's becoming one of Berghain's newest residents, alongside other exciting names like Sedef Adasï and Naty Seres (and Lakuti upstairs at Panorama Bar). As heard on his recent collaborative with Ben Klock, Mohem has modern techno down to a science, thanks to a combination of reverence for the old-school and clever rhythmic touches, like the irresistible snare pattern on "Prefix." His RA Pod

Welsh artist Kelly Lee Owens has a special grasp on techno. She can make it sound wild and naturalistic, like wind blowing through a dense forest, or make it feel cold and sleek, like a gleaming slab of chrome. Either way, though, it's always full of emotion, thanks to the intricate textures and distinctive tones of her voice. You might even say she takes a singer-songwriter approach to techno, but that doesn't mean her music isn't suited for the dance floor. Her most recent album, LP.8, marks a step away from the dance floor, however, and into a place a little more dark, more unpredictable. It's also some of her most gorgeous work, centering around "Anadlu," an eight-minute cut that feels perfectly pitched between ambient and techno, with heavy, lumbering drums but an otherwise lightweight, almost wispy feel. 
Owens' RA Podcast occupies this zone almost perfectly. Beginning with 11th century music from Hildegard von Bingen, it ties all sorts of traditions together, from Pan Sonic to Throbbing Gristle to Mar

Camila Milieme has been playing techno long enough to experience a few of its boom-and-bust cycles. Starting off in Brazil in the late '90s with the kind of rippling, tooly techno you'd expect from that era, Milieme lost interest once things started going minimal and took a break from techno to take up studying instead. By the time she checked back in, the genre had taken a turn closer to the stuff she used to play, so she packed up her bags and moved to Berlin, where she's become an indispensable part of the techno scene. As The Lady Machine, Milieme has released on Mote-Evolver and also runs her own label, Unterwegs, with UK producer Decka. As you'll hear on her RA Podcast, she prefers a classicist (yet, still, modern) style of techno that mixes toughness with texture and detail. With plenty of unreleased tracks from her cohort and tracks from British Murder Boys, Jeff Mills, Dave Clark and Christian Wunsch, this is a timeless techno mix for heads from any generation, from the '90s to the '20s. @theladym

"Working my ass off, to be honest," is how Eli Escobar starts our interview below. That basically sums up his vibe. The New Yorker might not have the same household name status of other DJs who have been soundtracking Manhattan clubs since the early '90s, but he certainly deserves it. Any New York resident worth their salt should have him near the top of the list of their favorite local DJs. He plays anywhere and everywhere in the city, and he can play pretty much anything he wants to, as his RA Podcast will attest. When it comes to his own music, Escobar puts out records equally informed by disco, hip-hop and house—in other words, a very New York sound. He hasn't been producing as long as he's been DJing, but his albums and EPs for labels like Classic, Night People and Razor N Tape are full of the soul, humor and talent of someone who knows dance music inside out. As Escobar says below, he doesn't really have any one type of sound. His DJing varies greatly from night to night, and he's always adding to hi

Last year, New Jersey group OSSX wowed us with a mix of completely original material that blended infectious edits of Janet Jackson and September with tracks like "Split Wig"—one of last year's indisputable breakbeat anthems—that showed how the then-duo could bring together generations of American dance music into one compelling, vibrant mix that celebrates all shades of East Coast club. Their RA Podcast might not be an all-originals mix, but it shares the same spirit. OSSX—now a trio, with Juke Bounce Werk member Elise joining original duo Equiss and Lektor Scopes—sprinkle the mix with more of their excellent unreleased originals, in-between canny and clever edits new and old, like DJ Sega's rework of Basement Jaxx's "Where Your Head At," which makes for an early highlight, along with DJ Swisha's Baltimore club edit of Robin S.'s "Luv 4 Luv" and the bouncy DJ Problem version of Mary J. Blige's classic "Family Affair." You can hear both the evolution and history of these genres through this mix, along with c

Spend enough time at (or listening to) The Lot Radio, and chances are all you'll find Gabrielle Kwarteng. Even though she lives in Berlin now, the American DJ wears New York on her sleeve, repping for the station that helped make her name (she won a Mixcloud award for "Best Eclectic Show" pretty early on). Sure, you could call her sound eclectic—she jumps from house to Afrobeat to Jersey club and beyond—but it seems like "intuitive" might be a better word. She has the taste of someone raised by musical parents on a diverse diet of albums, of someone who eats, breathes and sleeps records. Buoyed by her success in the US, Kwarteng moved to Berlin in 2019, not too long before the pandemic. Like so many other up-and-coming DJs, her momentum almost stalled as a result. But here we are in 2022 and Kwarteng is more successful than ever, with a string of upcoming festival dates highlighting her wide, transatlantic appeal. Her RA Podcast is equally welcoming, with a taste for house music that feels perfectly pitched

We probably don't need to tell you who Deadbeat is. (He even did a previous RA Podcast for us, all the way back in 2007.) But if you need a refresher, he's one of the most important and revered artists in dub techno. The Canadian artist came up in the Montreal scene alongside other trailblazers like Akufen and other Canadians (think Cobblestone Jazz, Mathew Jonson, Wagon Repair, etc). His early records for ~scape are some of the most classic and influential minimal there ever was, but dub is always at the heart of his work, and runs in the veins of BLKRTZ, the prolific label he runs himself. Sa Pa, on the other hand, sits somewhere in the ambient zone. Originally from Adelaide, he's found a powerful creative sparring partner in Deadbeat. The two released their first album together, The Mountain, earlier this year. It's the 50th release on BLKRTZ and maybe one of the most monumental records in either artist's catalogue, a triple-LP that harks back to the hypnotic, plink-plonk days of yore with the strong cros

Marco Weibel is the epitome of modesty. Over the past decade, the New York artist has quietly amassed a loyal following through expansive DJ sets that touch on everything from spiritual jazz to disco, but rather than credit himself, he lets the tunes speak for themselves. This humble attitude has won him the respect of veterans such as Lefto, as well as a growing fanbase from all corners of the musical spectrum. When he's not DJing, Weibel curates nights at various New York venues and co-runs Darker Than Wax, a label based out of Singapore (where he was born and raised). His selections showcase rhythm and texture over drops, but he always has an arsenal of radiant house cuts or UK garage to fire up a crowd. Cavernous crates aside, the cadence of his sets is perhaps their most distinguishing feature. On his weekly shows at Lot Radio, Hawaiian funk is followed by broken beat while at the club, 2-step spills into dembow techno and rich amapiano. While his mixes and performances usually start out on the melodic

Emerald is a name that should be familiar to any Rinse FM devotee—she's been DJing on the UK dance music radio giant since 2014, and has just started a new flagship slot called The Dance Show on Friday nights. The Londoner is a consummate radio DJ, blending together genres and tempos with pitch-perfect mixing and an ear for hooks that makes each track stand out. (She calls herself "genre fluid.") She's said so much in the lengthy, excellent interview below, so we can keep this part brief. Her RA Podcast combines newer favorites from Lauren Flax, Queer On Acid and Neil Landstrumm with older, recently acquired records from DJ Deeon (1994) and FSOM (1992). If this is your introduction, then take a listen and make a note to check out The Dance Show next Friday. And if you already know Emerald, then you know this is gonna be a good one. Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/834 @ emerald-rose

Nick León is part of a newer generation of Miami producers who infuse modern-day club music with sounds from around the region, everything from Miami bass to reggaeton. In León's case, his most recent—and most exciting—music has focused on beats inspired by reggaeton and its sub-genre perreo, but with a musical palette that speaks to a love of electronic music from Aphex Twin to Burial to music on labels like NAAFI and TraTraTrax. (This is a predilection he shares with DJ Python, whom León just launched a new party with.) It's on the latter label he released the Rompediscoteka EP, one of the canniest genre fusions he's done yet, meant to hark back to the feeling he had when he first discovered reggaeton. (It came with eye-opening remixes from Maral, Kelman Duran and Henzo, producers whose personal-but-global approach mirrors León's own.) He also head a head-turning EP on Future Times, which threw Miami-style electro into the mix, with an ambient touch. Like his productions, the young Miami DJ's sets can ra

Toronto's Cindy Li, AKA Ciel, has a knack for balancing warmth and pressure. Her productions and mixes often feel coated in an iridescent gloss, evoking the trippy stylings of '90s UK tech house and the swung drums of classic New York house. In between that, though, there's lots of vigor via sleek electro, rippling trance, barrelling techno and big, bad breakbeats. Her style may lean towards the atmospheric but it's loaded with moxie, giving her the versatility to close out a main room or kick off the afters. Her fluid movements between bouncy basslines, spiraling synth patterns and weightless house grooves are just one facet of her impressive rise as a DJ and producer. When she's not behind the decks, presenting radio shows or working on the excellent Parallel Minds label she runs alongside other Toronto acts Yohei S and Daniel 58, Li throws herself into community work. Committed to diverse dance floors, affordable housing and overall equality in the music industry, she's a hard worker in the realest sense

Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/831 @madam_x

The decade-spanning career of Roy Davis Jr. is intrinsically intertwined with the history of house music. As one of the defining voices of Chicago's underground, he's worked both behind the decks and behind-the-scenes. From handling Strictly Rhythm's A&R sector in the '90s to joining seminal production crew Phuture to launching his own Undaground Therapy Muzik label, Davis Jr. isn't just a veteran but a compendium of dance music knowledge. Daft Punk cites him as an influence while the likes of Disclosure, Zed Bias and Waajeed have sought him out for collaborations. He may be best known for his 1998 single Gabriel with Peven Everett—now a garage anthem on both sides of the Atlantic—but his discography and DJ sets go well beyond club hits. Weaving in soul, gospel, disco, techno and acid into a deep house framework, he marries raw funk, plush melodies, hypnotic synths and stripped-down arrangements. All these elements are beautifully captured on his RA Podcast. Moving from a state of eyes-closed bliss to body-m