RA Podcast

The vinyl purist discusses his late-career ascent, the discipline of the marathon set and the shifting class dynamics threatening the underground. In an era where the word "techno" is often used as a broad marketing catch-all, Alessio Armeni, AKA Freddy K, stands as one of the sound's most uncompromising activists. The Berlin-based DJ and Key Vinyl label head has spent over three decades operating in every corner of the industry. From his early days on Rome's Virus Radio in the '90s to his legendary 16-hour vinyl marathons at Berlin's now-defunct party Homopatik, he has seen the culture from the perspective of a record store clerk, a distributor, a label boss and now a global headliner. But as his own star has risen, Armeni has become increasingly vocal about the cracks forming in the foundation of the scene he loves. In this RA Exchange, he discusses the renewed normalisation of all-male lineups, the rising upper-class barrier to entry in DJ culture and the complex economics of vinyl—a medium he champions

The singular percussionist turns inward for a rare solo excursion. Valentina Magaletti at the drums is a picture of freedom: laughing, loose-limbed, entirely absorbed. For RA.1029, the London-based percussionist channels that instinct into a rare solo outing—a personal excursion through her musical archive. The atmosphere moves as freely as she plays, shifting from ominous and claustrophobic passages to contemplative field recordings. Collaboration is one of the central ways she continually reinvents herself, whether it be spiritual dub excursions with Shackleton and Holy Tongue, or post-punk melancholia with Moin. As she told The Guardian in 2024, "dialogue is more interesting than monologue." Take her work with Princípe associate Nídia, in which she used Angolan kuduro as a springboard for new acoustic visions of dance music. But Magaletti is also a solo artist in her own right, and RA.1029 is the sound of her own monologue. The 90-minute mix sees her roving through her personal archive, from wild drum

A kaleidoscope of polyrhythms and post-dubstep. "Music was a way to speak Arabic… It's my way of being confident that I am, in fact, Lebanese," Jared Beeler AKA DJ Plead told Crack Magazine in 2022. Often framed as an Australian producer threading Arabic rhythmic structures through techno and post-dubstep, DJ Plead's music is better understood as tradition embedded inside contemporary club forms, where percussion and bass move as one. First surfacing in the late 2010s with releases on DECISIONS and Nervous Horizon, he has since become one of the most consistent voices in leftfield dance music, defined by the tactile clarity of their drum programming and Maqam-informed phrasing. RA.1028 opens with Bruce's "Just Getting On With It" from Livity Sound's ten-year compilation, a fitting nod to the kind of rhythmic experimentation that runs through the set. From Iran to London to Miami and back again, the 90-minute mix pulls a wide frame into focus, including several unreleased DJ Plead tracks. Whether it's th

Two hours of groove, texture and Black excellence from new-school New York royalty. New York native JADALAREIGN has always represented Black excellence, but in recent years her vision crystallised. The in-demand act and former Nowadays booker has fine-tuned her creative practice, experimenting with tempo and selection in ways that have led to a deep, nuanced relationship with Black artistry, one that centres musical education through storytelling. Behind the decks, JADALAREIGN is principled. They say wisdom brings sorrow, but RA.1027 suggests the opposite. It opens with a vocal sample whose message mirrors her wider creative practice: "I'm an African woman who believes in justice for all people. The priorities of this planet have to completely change." From there, the mix ricochets through rumbly drums and sci-fi whirr, peppering house melodies with slo-mo bleeps and techy steppers. She moves across club genres with fluid ease, keeping the cadence loose-limbed yet dynamic throughout. It's strange and tacti

The Sonic Youth cofounder opens up about her solo output, the intersection of art and music, and her new album, PLAY ME. For over four decades, Kim Gordon has navigated the edges where fine art meets noise. Her claim to fame was as a founding member of Sonic Youth, the band that took the nihilistic, abrasive energy of New York's no wave scene and forged it into a new language for rock. After Sonic Youth's public breakup in 2011, Gordon returned to her original creative practice: visual art. But in recent years, she has undergone a staggering creative transformation that's led her back to music. At 72—an age when most legends are content with the heritage circuit—she has instead dived headlong into the sounds of the present: industrial electronics, Chicago footwork and the blown-out low-end of SoundCloud rap. Aiming to break with her Sonic Youth legacy, Gordon released her first two solo albums, No Home Record and The Collective, in 2019 and 2024, respectively. And now, she's back with her third LP: PLAY ME

A b3b for the ages, straight from Detroit techno's Hall of Fame. "Let's just go through some shit, let's see what we got here." In that unmistakable drawl, Moodymann opens RA.1026—and from there, you know you’re in good hands. Mike Banks, Carl Craig and Moodymann are artists of the utmost standing. As founders of Underground Resistance, Planet E and Mahogani Music respectively, their catalogues have shaped electronic music in profound ways, from Moodymann's 2004 LP Black Mahogani and Craig's era-defining remixes, to Banks's uncompromising output as Underground Resistance. But the records are only part of it. All three artists show you can build something lasting without corporate backing, that creative freedom is a discipline as much as a right. Through their work, house and techno became vehicles for resistance, identity and pride. Recorded live at Movement in Detroit, RA.1026 captures Banks on keys, Craig on the decks and Moodymann on the mic, weaving through Motor City staples, '80s classics and deep

The Brazilian party starter unveils 60 minutes of sun-drenched house. Minas Gerais isn't the typical Brazil of postcards. Yet from this landlocked terrain emerged one of its most accomplished sons. As OMOLOKO, João Vitor has mastered the art of summoning summer on the dance floor. Armed with a pair of CDJs and a USB, he carries sun-kissed house dreams shaped by countless hours lost in Discogs rabbit holes, forgotten corners of YouTube and the dust of hidden record shops. Vitor was born in Rio Grande do Norte, in Brazil's northeast, before moving south as a child when his family set out in search of new opportunities—a well-worn path in the world's fifth-largest country. Adopting the alias OMOLOKO in the late 2010s, he quickly became a beacon in Belo Horizonte's bubbling electronic scene. Carrying sounds from home deep in his memory alongside a restless desire to make the world dance to his own findings, he carved out a singular voice with genre-hopping sets, grounded in an affection for infectious grooves

The Memphis artist also known as Cities Aviv delivers 60 minutes of stirring electronics and industrial abstractions. Since his first release in 2010, Gavin Mays, AKA African-American Sound Recordings and Cities Aviv, has been living multiple lives. The D.O.T. label boss has put out work under various aliases, spanning post-hip-hop, ambient electronics and soul-inflected abstraction, consistently challenging and rearranging the scope of every genre he works within. African-American Sound Recordings is Mays' "side project"—as hobbies go, it's a formidable one. Since its launch in 2019, he's released ten albums built from a dense palette of samples: distorted voices drift alongside warm currents of jazz and acoustic instrumentation, painting ambient vignettes that swerve between the serene and the industrial. It's no coincidence that Mays cites Sunday service as a formative space. Samples of gospel worship and memories of communal ritual are the fil rouge running through the project, reimagining Black musica

The Texan prodigy transmits the sound of sci-fi techno in 2026. What does the future feel like in 2026? In an era dominated by nostalgia and electronic revivalism, even techno—a genre once defined by futurism—has begun to feel stagnant. Enter Gautham Garg, aka Decoder. Raised in Dallas, the 21-year-old offers a refreshed vision of techno for the present moment. While comparisons to techno stargazers like Mills and Richie Hawtin are inevitable, RA.1023 reveals a broader palette. Microtonal flourishes recall Aleksi Perälä’s Colundi era, while the patient structures lean closer to Perlon-style minimalism than early-2000s severity, with nods to Ricardo Villalobos and Margaret Dygas. Built largely from unreleased material, RA.1023 captures Garg’s vision of techno for this decade. There’s weight, but it’s more body than bite: elastic, finely tuned drums and a buoyant hypnotism that persists even in rougher moments. Though often labeled sci-fi, Garg’s sound adds layers to cold futurism—instead, optimism shines th

The newest XL signing delivers 60 minutes of blistering explorations across the hardcore continuum. Don't expect KAVARI to take anything too seriously. The Glasgow-based artist thrives on contradiction: a pop-adjacent instinct colliding with a love of discomfort, abrasion and noise. After years of releasing independently, 2026 marks a new chapter with PLAGUE MUSIC, her debut on XL, out in February. But her instincts remain the same: push harder, strip things back, make it stranger. It comes as little surprise, then, that she's earned the support of fellow mould-breakers like Aphex Twin, Ethel Cain and Hudson Mohawke. Of her RA Mix she shrugs: "I honestly don't remember making it." That irreverence is audible: disembodied voices mutter club-floor mantras, as she drags grime, drum & bass and dubstep through distortion, friction and collapse. If that all sounds chaotic, well, that's kind of the point. The aim is to unsettle but o nce you find your footing, RA.1022 reveals itself as genuinely thrilling dan

Sensational ambient techno, dub pressure and acoustic visions, sculpted for dreaming and dancing. In 2023, we called Mariachiara Troianiello one of techno's most exciting producers. And time has only confirmed that statement. Belonging to a new school of head-spinning artists following in the lineage of Donato Dozzy and Cio D'or, the Turin producer put out her debut EP as Katatonic Silentio, Emotional Gun, in 2019, exploring breakbeat and IDM through a distinctly introspective lens. Since then, her evolution has been striking: from hyperkinetic, post-rave intensity to the sound design-rich tapestries heard on releases for Delsin, Ilian Tape and Mantis. At first glance, Troianiello's RA Mix ends on an unlikely note: "Technologystolemyvinyle," Moodymann's gloriously disjointed 2007 house cut. But this is a mix best understood in two halves. The opening stretch leans heavily into acoustic, organic sonics before kick drums gradually emerge in the second half. Even at its most stripped back, RA.1021 feels ful

Stumble into 2026 with the 3XL favourites' uncanny vision of ambient. It's become a tradition that the first RA Mix of every year eases listeners into January with soft, gentle and unhurried tones. For RA.1020, though, crimeboys take a different approach. Made up of Ben Bondy, Special Guest DJ and Pontiac Sterator, the US trio are all loosely associated with 3XL. Over the past decade, the Berlin-based label, run by Special Guest DJ, has helped define a strain of ambient that foregrounds strangeness, texture and eccentric detail. This energy comes through immediately on RA.1020. Listen to the first ten minutes and you might not quite feel soothed. Stick with it, though, and a different logic begins to emerge, as church bells, corroded electronics and industrial abrasion give way to long passages of dub pressure, shadowy rhythm and low-lit propulsion. Across two hours, the trio draw a map of influences both internal and external to the 3XL universe, from foundational reference points like Skinny Puppy,

We close out 2025 with a rare studio mix from the gifted London DJ. DJing is a craft. It reveals itself over time rather than all at once, and few embody that better than OK Williams. Active since 2019, the London DJ has built a reputation through steady accumulation rather than acceleration, becoming one of the city's most trusted and widely admired selectors in the process. Williams has never been interested in narrowing her taste into a single calling card, and it's no coincidence that her roots lie at NTS Radio. She learned to DJ at the Hackney station, starting out as a volunteer producer in 2017. Musically, she moves easily between moods—sometimes cheeky, sometimes deep—and tempos, playing everything from 160 BPM jungle and amapiano to baile funk, deep house and dub techno. For her RA Mix, Williams offers up her "purist" side. Despite her background in radio, Williams doesn't share mixes often and RA.1019 arrives as a relatively rare studio document. Recorded at home on vinyl, the 90-minute sessio

"The Budots Three" showcase the thrilling sound of Filipino dance music. If you were on TikTok in the summer of 2024, there is a good chance you heard "Emergency Budots (Paging Doctor Beat)." The DJ Johnrey track spread fast, soundtracking countless dance clips, and just as quickly sparked a wave of corrections. Budots, viewers were told, wasn't new. And most people weren't dancing it right. To understand Budots, DJ Love, DJ Danz and DJ Ericnem are a useful starting point. The three producers have been making Budots music since the early 2000s, developing the genre largely outside formal club infrastructure, and across the trio's RA Mix, the genre's playful character comes into focus. Bouncy like a ball, it's primary elements are clipped vocal samples, pitched-up synth hooks and tightly looped rhythms. Heard in full, RA.1018 plays out as an hour-long joyride, making it difficult to square the music’s buoyancy with Budots' earlier local associations with disorder and crime. DJ Love has been central to re

The Leisure System co-founder talks psychology, behavioral science and his standout album of the year, Stochastic Drift. Sam Barker's influence on contemporary electronic music culture spans many levels—not only as a producer and DJ pushing against traditional genre boundaries, but also as key figure behind the scenes as head of the label Leisure System. He came into RA HQ to talk about the central thesis in his current work: exploring organic, human timing in a genre that has become increasingly obsessed with mechanized grids. The Berlin-based artist tells us about how he puts this theory into practice in his standout album of the year, Stochastic Drift, and his recent collaborative project with saxophonist Bendik Giske. Beyond the technical, he also reflects on the evolution of the Berlin scene, the surprising arguments for liberation in the streaming economy and the role of art in imagining a utopian future. Listen to the episode in full.

The London-via-Bilbao DJ marks 15 years of Cartulis with two hours of punchy techno and electro, recorded live at FOLD. When you think of London label and party Cartulis, dark, muscular electro and tough tech house spring to mind. But the name is more revealing than it first appears: in founder Unai Trotti's native Bilbao dialect, cartulis translates to "nerd." Like any labour of love, the project is driven by a deep, obsessive dedication, centred around sound, mood and community. Recorded at Cartulis' 15th anniversary party this autumn, RA.1017 captures why Trotti is such a compelling DJ. Playing only vinyl, he has a deft ability to balance functional club pressure with more leftfield selections, and as he outlines in his Q&A below, it comes from a belief in creative limitation, committing to a finite set of records and trusting instinct over abundance. Across the two hours, there are plenty of big, physical tracks built for the dance floor, but also some genuinely strange, confrontational stretches. Ar

One of the defining producers of the 21st century steps up for a rare, era-spanning mix. We've been in a reflective mood lately: mulling emergent icons, modern classic and the cyclical nature of trends. All things bend around eventually, but if you lived through the mid-'00s the first time, it felt tricky to envision some specifics of those interim years making a second splash. More fool us. Amongst many other things, dubstep is well and truly back. This resurged appetite for low-end has been a central storyline in 2025. Clear tells were there in the form of Introspekt's Moving The Center and Tracey's "Sex Life," two major highlights of the past 12 months. Alternately, cup your ear to the tremors rumbling across the world and you'd find Mala packing up crowds with gusto. Which makes closing out the year with a mix from the man himself serendipitous. The South Norwood-born sub sensei has held an anchor role in the movement since its earliest days. A little like what Upsetter was to Black Ark, the principles

A rare mix from the Dutch artist also known as A Made Up Sound, 2562 and ex_libris. What makes something sound like Dave Huismans? His music carries a signature you can't quite name, a tension which has defined every chapter of his career. And unlike most producers, he really does operate in phases. A man of many monikers, Huismans resurfaced this year after nearly a decade away with two new aliases, ex_libris and In Transit. His latest ventures, though sonically a world away from the work under his most recognised projects, share the same slipperiness, intricacy and disregard for tidy genre borders. "Naiveté and a lack of prejudice… a really wide-eyed type of open-mindedness," Huismans once told RBMA, recalling his youthful forays into dance music and that ethos is alive and well on RA.1015. Huismans's second RA Mix is as equally thrilling as his first one 15 years ago, traversing a map of influences from Madlib and Gyrofield to Prince and Autechre. There's no shortage of atmosphere (Losoul's "Sunbea

A sun-soaked broadcast from two of Naarm's most loved selectors. Asked once how the name for their joint project started, Simon TK and Edd Fisher responded casually: "We were asked to produce a record fair many moons ago, Wax'o Paradiso was the name of that event," they recounted in an interview. Happy accident or not, the name rings true more than a decade later. What started as a record fair has since evolved into an event series and now a record label, with Fisher and TK becoming true pillars of Naarm's local scene in doing so, crafting paradisiacal musical worlds wherever they go. Wax'o Paradiso is a live act first and foremost. Rarely relying on conventional venues, their parties have become the stuff of urban lore, held everywhere from Fairfield Amphitheatre to an old convent and even a children's farm. Often outdoors, these gatherings carry a breezy, open-hearted feeling, and that flows directly into their sets. Think of it as Australian Balearic: eclectic explorations through warm and rolling shad

A lesson in "diva house and horniness" from a modern New York darling. Ask Kilopatrah Jones who their favourite DJ is, and they'll give you an unequivocal answer: Junior Vasquez. And the influence is telling. Both born and raised in Queens, the two share a sense of house as a life force. Not in a new-age, spiritual sense. For Jones, it means being "sweaty, panting and free." The NYC DJ can play anything from techno to drum & bass, but when playing house, there's a particular sense of clarity: they understand the genre in the same lineage as Vasquez, Larry Levan and his peers, as the sound of reinvention, transgression, glamour and joy. Across the following two hours, RA.1013 immerses you in that world. It feels like walking into the Sound Factory at peak-time, bodies in glorious motion, fog thick in the air. The Lot Radio resident runs through familiar classics, bringing it home with a gag-inducing sweep of Donna Summer, Celine Dion, CeCe Peniston—and fittingly ends with Madonna, a wink to Jones's hero