RA Podcast

Sultry low-end grooves from a rising house enchantress. "What kind of music do I actually want to play?" Every artist asks themselves this at some point in their career. What is a sound? And why do we personally identify with it? For Lea Lang, AKA dj sweet6teen, this question is the guiding force behind her RA Mix. Born in Aachen, a German spa city close to the border with Belgium, Lang found her musical feet in the vibrant student hub of Cologne. It was while studying social work at the Technische Hochschule that she fell into the nightlife scene. Finding her sound wasn't an instant process. Lang cut her teeth on breaks-heavy house and prog (think Angel D'Lite), traces of which you can hear peppered across RA.1004. But as she explains in this week's Q&A, the pandemic years were, musically, a turning point. "High BPMs and short-lived trends became very dominant and I realised I couldn't stand the pace anymore," she writes. "That's when my sound naturally shifted into something more minimalist and timele

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 "hundr

From speed garage to Arabic pop, one hour of borderless club energy from the Saudi DJ and curator. "We're making history tonight," hollered the MC at the start of Nooriyah's London Boiler Room in 2022. Sat next to the decks was her baba (Arabic for father), dressed in traditional Saudi garb. He opened the one-hour performance by playing the oud, a Middle Eastern instrument similar to a lute. Surrounded by smiling faces and pumping arms, it's a picture of joy. The set was a turning point—and not just for Nooriyah's career. Scroll through the comments on YouTube and you'll find notes of endearment, gratitude and teary appreciation, proof of how powerful it was for people to see Middle Eastern music placed at the centre of contemporary club culture. This speaks to Nooriyah's MO. Born in Saudi Arabia, raised in Japan and now based in the UK, her musical vision reflects her global upbringing. But her style isn't eclecticism for eclecticism's sake—she's spoken about the importance of carving out space for unde

Expansive dub vibrations from the On-U Sound maestro. Adrian Sherwood has spent nearly five decades reshaping how dub is heard and felt. From absorbing reggae and funk as a teenager at the Newlands Club in High Wycombe to cofounding On-U Sound in 1979, he’s been a restless force in British sound system culture. His debut production, Dub From Creation, signalled his instinct to twist the Jamaican form into bold, experimental directions. That spirit defined On-U Sound, where reggae collided with post-punk, industrial and synth pop to forge a catalogue still unlike anything else. Sherwood became a crucial bridge, producing for legends like Prince Far I, Bim Sherman and Lee “Scratch” Perry, while also working with Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and Sinéad O’Connor. His RA Mix (yes, you read that right) arrives at a moment of renewal—RA.1001 is the first in a new era for the series. (After 1,000 editions of the RA Podcast, we're updating the name to better reflect what it's become.) Recorded at his Ramsgate s

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 exa

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.

One of the enduring powerhouses of our era returns for RA.1000 with a riotous mix. When Helena Hauff made her first RA Podcast appearance back in 2013, she was on the eve of releasing her debut production on Actress' Werkdiscs imprint. In the 12 years that have elapsed, she's become not just a household name within electronic music, but the kind of rare talent that lives in seclusion from industry tumultt. (Hauff, enviously, has never even owned a smartphone.) Her calling card continues to be her penchant for rough and ready EBM, electro and new wave. Her unique ability is creating a singular listening experience from disparate or out-of-favour tracks, with a raw immediacy that functions as a redress to over-choreographed modern DJing. Her outsider approach is on show once again for RA.1000. Threaded together by strobe-lit DIY electronica, old-school acid house and corrosive machine funk that chews up the ear, the nearly two-hour set raises the bar once again. In the sci-fi themed first half, Hauff drops

A four hour document of dance floors in the 2020s, from one of modern club music's most passionate advocates. One major shift since we went 5 for RA.500 ten years ago has been the rapid adoption of anything-goes DJing. What goes us there? Upgraded technology, audience appetite for thrills, instant access to music from every corner of the globe: take your pick. To corral the infinite possibilities of our age, glide seamlessly across lanes and be a trusted conduit in a sea of over-saturation takes chops. And few do it with more gusto and charisma in the 2020s than Jyoty. Recorded at a raucous Nowadays party just a few weeks ago for maximum freshness, Jyoty's RA.1000 finds room for 122 tracks dotted over the clubbing map (although, when you tally up all the blends, you can probably round up to 150). From aya to Logan Olm, Hardhouse Banton to DJ Babatr, Busy Signal to Baalti, a delicious double splice of Kelela and a staggeringly unlikely remix of Noir & Haze's "Around" (yep), it's an audacious statement from

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 t

For RA.1000, DJ Sprinkles' first mix in over a decade is a powerful meditation on the genocide in Gaza. Dance music often relies on simple narratives: release, escape, unity. But those narratives can often feel inadequate, and even at times, hollow. Or, as Terre Thaemlitz might bluntly put it, just "shitty." For her first mix in around 15 years, Terre Thaemlitz AKA DJ Sprinkles, challenges us to think differently. "I felt this 1000th podcast should reflect the moment in which it was made," she told us in her Q&A. And what is this moment? Every day since Israel's 2023 assault on Gaza began, an average of 28 children have been killed. That's an entire classroom, every day, for over 600 days (at the time of writing). It's a staggering figure that only captures a fragment of the listless cruelty imposed on the strip. Faced with such a genocide, what can music really do? How political can it truly be? For their RA.1000, Thaemlitz gives us an unflinching rebuke to the idea that music should provide escapism. T

Seven and a half exhilarating hours from one of modern club's sharpest. Tim Reaper's mammoth entry for RA.1000 is all about range. You thought the Future Retro London boss was just a jungle and hardcore head? Think again. The mix's infinite-scroll tracklist (the longest we've ever published in full!) includes a who's who of top-rate producers, from A Guy Called Gerald and Cari Lekebusch to Batu, Mia Koden and the one and only Shackleton. Opening with weighty grime and ending on head-spinning drum & bass, the mix journeys through US club, wobbly dubstep, classic techno and, of course, many shades of jungle. Rather than go the easy route, the Londoner approached the assignment with the curiosity, integrity and vulnerability of fellow shapeshifters like dBridge, Calibre and ASC. "The idea was to represent other styles of electronic music that I've been a bit self-conscious about openly expressing my interest in," he told RA. RA.1000 isn't just another side of Tim Reaper's artistry—it's a full and verdant sp

The mastermind behind Basic Channel, Hard Wax and Rhythm & Sound doesn't do mixes. For RA.1000, he made an exception. Trace Mark Ernestus's path, and you trace the evolution of electronic sound itself. The timeline of contemporary Berlin is unimaginable without him. At first, that meant Hard Wax, the crucial hub that shaped the early era of the city's techno revolution. Carl Craig once said it plainly: "Mark was ground zero." From there, Ernestus never stopped. There's the birth of dub techno and the near-flawless catalogue that followed through Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound. There's his immersion in Senegalese mbalax with Ndagga Rhythm Force. Lately, that means Open Ground the Wuppertal bunker that's letting people hear music as never before. As part three of RA.1000, Ernestus has kindly supplied his first studio DJ mix. As you might expect, it's technically immaculate, but more than that, it feels like a substantial and generous conduit to one of the world's most vital genres. Amapiano remains undere

RA.1000 continues with the pride of Palestine's techno scene, Sama' Abdulhadi. What makes the sound of resistance? For Palestinian DJ and producer Sama' Abdulhadi, it's the freedom to explore her artistic expression in all its authenticity and complexity. What stands out in her mix for our 1000th celebration is defiant energy, the kind that galvanises more than just dance floors. Born in Ramallah but a student of Beirut's underground scene, Abdulhadi plays charging, self-assured techno, as calibrated for basement parties as for conquering festival main stages. Her sets are powerful journeys through moods, tempos and stimuli, connected by a deep sense of love. A love for the music, the craft, the soil from which Abdulhadi grew. It's a love we've explored in a cover story, a film and now one of our ten RA.1000 mixes. As Abdulhadi notes in her accompanying interview, her entry to the series forms a link back to another "pride and joy of Palestine," with Bethlehem-descending Nicolás Jaar's entry on RA.500. Ye

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

Part four of RA.999: the sound of shared history, courtesy of two legends of minimal house in full flow. A lot can happen in 20 years. Especially in dance music, where movements rise, collide and dissolve at dizzying speed. It takes conviction, dynamism and a formidable record collection to stay the course. That’s why Margaret Dygas and Sonja Moonear have remained such enduring underground favourites. Step into one of their sets, solo or side by side, and an assured calm takes over the floor. You're in the sleekest, safest hands imaginable. Recorded live at fabric's 25th birthday, their RA.999 captures that feeling perfectly. High-tempo, irresistibly groovy and full of quiet authority, it marks a return to the series for both: Moonear with RA.520, and Dygas with the fourth-ever RA Podcast all the way back in 2006. They also gave rare interviews, reflecting on a deep musical connection that began in 2007, the legacy of minimal and lessons from a life spent in DJ booths the world over. "I felt excited and

Part three of RA.999: a celebration of soulful footwork and the timeless influence of DJ Rashad. As we gear up to celebrate the 1,000th episode, RA.999 lands with five mixes across five days. First up was 1morning and Regal86, then Prosumer and Peach. Today, we turn our eyes to Chicago, with two of footwork staples, DJ Spinn and Manny, taking the reins of the third installment of RA.999 (both make their RA Podcast debut). Ten years ago, Teklife Records was founded, following the untimely death of DJ Rashad in 2014. His collaborators started the label to honor the Chicago-born producer’s musical genius and continue his legacy of soulful footwork. Its first release would be Afterlife, a compilation of unreleased Rashad material that, in the words of Pitchfork, "captured the spirit of familial connection and experimentation integral to the Teklife crew." Listening to RA.999, it doesn't take long for any footwork fan to realise that this is an hour-long homage to Rashad's phenomenal discography. The first lyri

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 t

Five days, five mixes. RA.999 launches with two of the 2020's most exciting techno producers tearing a portal to the future. When it comes to purveyors of contemporary hardgroove, it's hard to top 1morning and Regal86. The duo have emerged from a buzzy, and decidedly funk-oriented techno scene on the American West Coast, repping Los Angeles and Monterrey respectively. Bound by a shared love of old-school flair and intuition behind the decks, you'll often find Regal86 ditching headphones altogether in favour of studying waveforms in real time, while 1morning's vinyl-only sets are steered by the movements of the dance floor and the fire in his heart. So it comes as no surprise that we had to invite them back in session. In the last week before we celebrate the 1000th RA Podcast, we'll drop five back-to-backs over the course of the week. From the NYC Downlow to Berlin's Bar25, what unifies this cohort is a sense that they capture where dance music has been—and crucially, where it's going. Kicking off the week

The trance queen opens RA.998 with her cheeky, break-heavy vision. The RA Podcast began with RA.001 in 2006. Since then, it's spotlighted the best and brightest in dance music every week, without fail. As we approach our 1,000th episode next month, we're switching things up, pairing artists whose sounds complement one another and, in doing so, zeroing in on the forces shaping the past, present and future of electronic culture. This week, we shift lanes to Roza Terenzi and Kim Ann Foxman, two artists who strike a rare balance between reverence and reinvention. Both are key figures in queer clubbing circles, deeply informed by the halcyon days of '90s and early '00s club music yet fully committed to pushing it forward. Each artist has carved out a distinct path. Roza Terenzi started out in Perth, Australia, before making a home in Berlin in 2020, while the Hawaii-born Foxman made her name in New York by way of San Francisco in the early '00s. For RA.998, they've contributed separate mixes, to be enjoyed toge

A queer icon steps up for RA.998's B-side. The RA Podcast began with RA.001 in 2006. Since then, it's spotlighted the best and brightest in dance music every week, without fail. As we approach our 1,000th episode next month, we're switching things up, pairing artists whose sounds complement one another and, in doing so, zeroing in on the forces shaping the past, present and future of electronic culture. This week, we shift lanes to Roza Terenzi and Kim Ann Foxman, two artists who strike a rare balance between reverence and reinvention. Both are key figures in queer clubbing circles, deeply informed by the halcyon days of '90s and early '00s club music yet fully committed to pushing it forward. Each artist has carved out a distinct path. Roza Terenzi started out in Perth, Australia, before making a home in Berlin in 2020, while the Hawaii-born Foxman made her name in New York by way of San Francisco in the early '00s. For RA.998, they've contributed separate mixes, to be enjoyed together as two parts of the