RA Podcast

For our 905th RA Podcast, we're proud to welcome Goldie, one of the most famous, talented and important electronic music artists of all time. Starting out as a graffiti artist, he eventually made music under the name Rufige Kru, helping push the then-nascent genre of jungle forward with tracks like "Krisp Biscuit (Power)" and "Terminator." The latter was released under the name Metalheads, which would later become the name of his label (with a z instead of an s). Metalheadz—which he cofounded with DJ Storm and the late Kemistry—celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and remains the defining outlet of drum & bass, the genre that grew out of jungle that Goldie helped invent with records like 1995's massive crossover album Timeless (alongside countless other classics). He's a producer, DJ, actor and all-around celebrity, a huge personality in UK electronic music. Goldie is also RA's guest curator this month, and his tenure starts with this mix. We'll have more to come starting this week—check our editor's letter later today for more information—but for now, here's a survey of drum & bass past and present from a man who helped invent the genre. With plenty of new Metalheadz material plus a healthy dose of older tracks, these two hours lay out the history of Metalheadz, drum & bass and its various subgenres, from twinkling liquid to rumbling techstep. It's the first part of a month celebrating Goldie's legacy, and we can't wait to show you the rest. @goldie-official Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/905

When Smoke Machine started doing parties in Taipei, and then created a revered online mix series, it was clear that it was the work of someone with impeccable taste. That would be Diskonnected, once a resident at the beloved Taiwan club Korner who now posts up at Pawnshop and 宀 in Hong Kong. He's also behind Organik, a festival that takes place on the coast of Taiwan and has become one of the world's top techno gatherings in just over a decade. True to his alias, the elusive artist likes to switch off from the world. He rarely makes his presence known online, sparingly accepting press and mix requests. He's not one to seek attention—in fact, he actively avoids it—but there's a spotlight on him regardless. Everything Diskonnected does is executed with patience and class, but don't mistake that for restraint. His style of weightless techno shimmers with the spirit of nature, moving with aerodynamic force. On his RA Podcast, we hear a six-hour all-night set recorded at 宀 earlier this year, keeping an open-ended view of techno as it barrels on, gradually getting faster all the while. It's clichéd to say that if you know you know, but truly, anyone who knows about Diskonnected knows that he's one of the world's greatest techno DJs, with a style and flair that feels both old-school—or maybe just late '00s—but also cutting-edge. @diskonnected Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/904

For the past few years, RA cover star Jlin has been churning out complex percussion compositions that sit at the intersection of IDM, trap, mutant techno and sound art. Her tracks are tactile and structurally complex, stacked drums interlocking with glistening melodies and heaving basslines on groundbreaking albums like Dark Origami. Her rhythms gracefully crosscut over one another like towering blocks in an architecture sketch for a truly cerebral experience. Growing up in Gary, Indiana, the former steel factory worker wears many hats. She produces mind-bending club music—usually for Mike Paradinas's label Planet Mu—scores modern dance performances and arranges for instrumental ensembles. Her process of collaboration is deeply symbiotic, as shown on her new EP, Perspective The acoustic version of the record, written for and performed with Chicago's Third Coast Percussion, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize this year, an unprecedented honour for a dance music artist. Jlin's style is sometimes described as avant-garde, but modernist is a better word. She originally started out making footwork and despite moving away from the genre in recent years, footwork's jittery energy still flows through her productions, a testament to her ability to experiment across styles. Being a math whiz only adds to the angular, carefully calculated feel of her production. In celebration of Jlin's career, Mike Paradinas serves up a 40 minute mix that shows off her range and most importantly, her passion for this music. @mikep @jlinnarlei Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/903

Di Linh name-checks Ben UFO and DJ Masda as two of her favourite DJs in the interview below, which underlines the lovely duality of her style: her sets are adventurous but buttery smooth. One of Vietnam's most buzzed-about DJs—and a resident at the all-important Hanoi club Savage, as well as Equation festival—she was a punter before she was a DJ. She fell in love with the music at Savage and eventually playing her first-ever gig there, as if it were all kismet. Her sets are remarkably diverse but also remarkably consistent, with a refreshing, mid-tempo pace marked by well-placed bursts of energy. And so her RA Podcast is impeccably mixed, with the pacing and patience you'd expect from someone who has been DJing for decades. Bookends from Dust-e-1 sandwich an hour of house and techno from the likes of Kerrie, Schacke and Mac Declos. Linh finds a common thread that's all about tactile textures, catchy melodies and beautifully mixed-down drums, a sound you'll hear across the current wave of increasingly revered Southeast Asian DJs who prefer mood and storytelling over genres. Di Linh is one of the best of them. @dilinhofficial Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/902

New York party Merge is often described as a queer techno extravaganza. Over the past two years, it's built a loyal community from the ground up while integrating everything from high-energy trance to disorienting acid into its rave repertoire. Resident Clarisa Kimskii has played a defining role in the collective's growth, largely thanks to the ultra-kinetic and rhythmic pace of her DJ sets. Time and time again, the Washington DC native has demonstrated her ability to lock in dancers through captivating and hypnotic selections across various sub-styles of techno. There are tribal, witchy cuts. Jacking, Detroit-style funk. Psychedelic, DJ Nobu-style grooves and austere sounds that nod to Sandwell District. It's the kind of range that explains why Kimskii has been booked worldwide many years over, and more and more as of late. Her deep understanding of techno's myriad flavours come from two decades of industry experience as well as esoteric productions on labels like Mysteries Of The Deep and L.A.G. (her own short-lived, underrated, essential techno platform). Kimskii's long time in the techno scene, her experience and her expertise is expressed in full form on her RA Podcast Moving from industrial grit to gentle transcendence to heady acid, the mix feels free, fluid but also remarkably precise, just like Kimskii herself. @kimskii Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/901

Ashland Mines, AKA Total Freedom, AKA Big Gay Idiot DJ, AKA Bobby Beethoven, is one of the best and most influential DJs of the 21st century. Starting out at pioneering parties like Mustache Mondays and Wildness (which he cofounded with Wu Tsang)—and a regular at GHE20G0TH1K—Mines helped to define the style that would become known, however cringe-inducingly, as experimental club or deconstructed club, directly inspiring fellow visionaries like Arca. Like some of the best DJs before him, Mines uses the CDJs as an instrument, but that doesn't mean just fancy tricks and looping. Instead, he artfully throws together clashing sounds—effects, samples, monologues, pop and R&B acapellas, and beats that run the gamut from dancehall to kuduro to breaks and techno. He's not afraid of the grotesquerie of human life and movement (just check out the monologue at the beginning of this mix), and he likes to push buttons. Once he put on a party where dancing wasn't allowed. Some of his sets are intentionally anxiety-inducing, evoking horror movies and modern classical composers like Penderecki, while others are bouncy and ebullient, weaving between genres and tempos like an old-school platformer. The best are both. On Mines's RA Podcast—a milestone 900th in the series—he shows off this inimitable style, sharpened and reinforced over a decade-and-a-half of playing some of the world's best parties, fashion shows, you name it. He's the kind of DJ who creates his own music as he goes along. He makes you hear old tracks—especially pop music and R&B—in a whole new way. Titled "Cursed Piercing," this is a near-hour of controlled chaos that'll confound you at one moment and deeply move you the next. Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/900

Talk to any veteran artist and they'll tell you consistency is the secret to longevity. Staying relevant in a competitive industry requires unwavering dedication to the craft—a lesson that nobody knows better than the godmother of house music, Stacey Hotwaxx Hale. The gear head, educator, music nerd and Detroit legend is considered the Motor City's first woman DJ to play underground house music. Her inquisitive mind, passion for audio equipment and community spirit has led to a decades-spanning career that has inspired countless women and expanded Detroit's rich musical heritage.  As a teenager, she learned to record on reel-to-reel tapes before learning the ropes from club king Ken Collier in the late '70s. Mastering the art of what she called "sneak-a-mixx"—seamlessly mixing vinyl records continuously—she beat over 600 artists to win the 1985 Motor City Mix competition. DJing remained a given in her life, even when she pursued a full-time engineering degree. She's often described in interviews how she would do math homework in between mixing tracks during gigs in her 20s. When she's not behind the decks or playing in the live ensemble Nyumba Muziki, she teaches DJing and production classes with the goal of teaching her students self-expression. Hale's sound is warm and dynamic, incorporating everything from gospel, electro, hip-hop, techno and live instruments with the goal of spreading positivity and happiness. Those feelings and cross-genre moods are all tangible on her RA Podcast. Moving gracefully between disco, funky techno, R&B and classic house, Hale's mix feels like the perfect night out, showcasing her versatility, love for vibrant rhythms and her sharp ear. @hotwaxx Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/899

People in Los Angeles usually remember the moment they first saw Colored Craig DJ. He cuts a memorable figure: throwing down records on the turntables and dancing like he's in the crowd, not behind the decks. He's one of those rare selectors who's almost as fun to watch as he is to listen. But the rest of the world should be listening. Over the past few years, Colored Craig has become one of the LA area's most in-demand DJs, not just because of his considerable skills, but because of his old-school, loved-up ethos. He plays classic house records with a verve and style that you can't really teach or learn. You just have to have it. A choreographer by trade, everything about Craig has to do with movement, the joy of it, the energy you both gain and lose through dancing. His RA Podcast, recorded in his living room (a sort of nightclub in itself) gets across the infectious, uplifting energy of his sets, blazing through tracks from Kerri Chandler, Masters At Work and Chez Damier, and even including a disco house track that samples the Price Is Right theme. You might call this sound nostalgic, but it doesn't feel that way coming from Colored Craig, who is obsessed with the now, and the power of the moment. That outlook is all over this mix, and with any luck, you'll be hearing and watching him DJ around the world outside of LA sometime soon. @coloredcraig Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/898

In this podcast, they discuss broken beat music and its collaborative nature, focusing on the early pioneer of bruk, IG Culture. They talk about his influences, such as jazz and reggae, and his seminal productions. The podcast also explores the infrastructure built for the hybrid sound, including the legendary CoOp party. Additionally, there are chapters featuring musical performances and glitch segments.

Kerrie started a label called Dark Machine Funk, a name which hints toward the kind of music she plays. And while the Irish artist might be a capital-T techno DJ, her idea of "dark" is a little different than the black-clad legions of her generation. You won't find whiplash-inducing BPMs or racy pop edits in her sets. Her idea of techno is more classicist, without veering towards the stuffy or the retro. Her DJIng and her productions bridge the divide between Euro and American styles. Hints of breakbeat or other broken patterns bring in ideas from the UK techno that she loves so much, such as the pivotal label Blueprint, where she's become a regular as of late. With her, the devil's in the details (listen to those deliciously twisted hi-hats in recent track "Transient Belief"), and that comes down to mixing records, too. Her RA Podcast is a fast but measured run-through of 90 minutes of techno by artists like Exium and Tensal and from labels such as Token and Soma. Though none of her own tunes make the tracklist, this mix perfectly captures Kerrie's style. She's someone who appreciates that the real power and force of techno comes from its groove, not just the impact of the kick drum or pure speed. @kerrie_DJ Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/896