RA Podcast

"We're getting better at what we do." The Australian dance music trio discuss their longtime creative collaboration and their new album, Inhale / Exhale. Australian electronic dance trio Rüfüs Du Sol—composed of the artists Tyrone Lindqvist, Jon George and James Hunt—is synonymous with catchy, vocal-led bangers. They've received a huge amount of success in more commercial and underground scenes in the more than 10 years that they've been active. In fact, they hit it big from their very first release, Atlas, which peaked at #1 in the Australian charts when it came out in 2013. In the years that have elapsed since, they have won a Grammy Award (and multiple nominations) and sold out stadium shows around the world. In this Exchange, they talk to RA editor Gabriel Szatan in a closed door interview recorded at San Francisco's Portola Festival. The trio took a break from music-making for a period and even moved to different cities. Since they've reconvened, they've undertaken a number of measures to refine their inter-group communication, which has included wellness exercises, group therapy and breath work. They talk about this in some detail, as well as the realities of touring as they've gotten older and started having families. The time required to "fill their bucket" in between tours, as they say, is more critical than ever. As an outfit that's worked together for a long time, they also reveal the intricacies of their now well established creative process, such as how they create internal momentum in songwriting, and their newest album, Inhale / Exhale, which they will tour throughout 2025. Listen to the episode in full.

A dubstep legend roars back. When dubstep ruled the roost in the late '00s, electronic music had no shortage of icons and spinoff variants to rally around. But one rumble from Bristol stood out: the Purple sound. Popularised by Joker, AKA Liam Mclean, with Guido and Gemmy in support, it hit like a beam of bright light flooding through the basement dank. When America cottoned onto bass quakes in the next decade, Mclean's taste for chiptune-coded synths and maximum intensity kept his vision alive at arena level, even while he retreated from view as an actively touring performer. In 2023, "Tears," a collaboration with Skrillex and Sleepnet, helped remind the world just how much Joker's juddering sound could put us in a headlock. True to form, this year's gargantuan "Juggernaut"—Mclean's first solo single in six years—crashes through the speakers with as much glorious crunch as earlier classics like 2009's "Purple City." Mclean has kept busy in the studio applying his perfectionist streak as a producer and engineer to many sound system anthems, which means his influence is never far from a dance floor being turned inside out. The fact that Joker had never laid down an RA Podcast before was, being honest, a blemish in our copybook. RA.962 fixes that in style. @jokerkapsize Read more at ra.co/podcast/962

Dubstep-tech hybrids from one of 2024's most forward-thinking breakouts. Born in France to English parents, Beatrice M. is a product of two environments. And like many third culture kids, this lends the Rinse France resident and Bait label head a knack for seeing the realm of possibility beyond arbitrary borders and binaries. Beatrice M. is a part of a wider cohort of artists spearheading an elastic take on dubstep: take Carré and Introspekt in the US, EMA in Dublin and Mia Koden in London, to name a few. Collectively, they are not only pushing greater representation and diversity, but ensuring a broader palette of sounds find home within the genre's renaissance. Where dubstep got trapped down a brostep cul-de-sac in the early 2010s, 2020s already seems to be all about a charming phrase Beatrice M. employs: siblingstep. Their RA Podcast, a "full femme, non-binary, trans productions set," is testament to that. RA.961 finds Beatrice M. embracing the softer, more intimate edges of their sonic world. There's cuts from Grace Jones and rRoxymore, a fresh tech-house venture under the alias B. McQueen and heaps of siblingstep. All in, it's an hour of past reverberations, present rhythms and glimmers of future horizons. @beatricemasters Read more at ra.co/podcast/961

A new record for the longest RA Podcast ever: Ten hours from the powerhouse duo sweeping techno, Chlär and Alarico. Both commanding performers in their own right, sparks fly when the Swiss-Italian duo of Funk Assault combine. The buzz surrounding their productions, DJing and their label Primal Instinct is at fever pitch, and short wonder: when it comes to gritty, high-impact sets that barrel through multiple shades of techno, few are in their league right now. RA.960 was laid down at Watergate this March during a signature Funk Assault marathon. The pair ramp up incrementally, and even before they hit top velocity, you can hear them ripping through records with tenacity and verve. You don't need elbows in your face to tell the place is rocking. We're informed that ID'ing the set would probably take longer than playing it (fair enough), so no tracklist for this one. Instead, fill in the blanks at your leisure. As well as 150+ BPM stompers and groove wormholes, there's everything from tribal to ballroom, electro to bassbin rattlers, and plenty of classics. As an encapsulation of a night out's full arc, RA.960 does the business—and best of all, you won't even need a trip to the bar for water. The gauntlet has been thrown down. @primalinstinctrecords @funkassault_og @chlaer @alarico_katana Read more at ra.co/podcast/960

Effervescent club cuts from one of Southeast Asia's rising DJ stars. In Indonesia, the term santai (relaxed) is more than just an adjective—it's a lifestyle, one endearingly embodied by DITA. The New Delhi-born, Bali-rooted DJ's breezy attitude to life is reflected in dreamy, blissful euphoria. DITA's RA Podcast is a window into both her disposition and sound, blending wiggly breakbeat into tweaking acid, Detroit house into Spanish electro, Balearic to '90s house and some grittier club fare, too. Her sets are rooted in a feel-good philosophy that allows her to freely play with energy and mood. Don't just take our word for it: DJ Harvey hand-picked DITA to be a resident at his new club Klymax, nestled within the world-renowned Potato Head Bali, where DITA is also Head of Music. With gigs at everywhere from Panorama Bar (the first Indonesian woman to play) to Rainbow Disco Club and Dekmantel under her belt, the world is now taking notice of DITA's killer groove. A breakout 2025 surely beckons. @dita-putri-widyanti @headstream Read more at ra.co/podcast/959

A journey through 35 years of house from the godfather of UK rave. In popular mythology, the '90s are without question, the halcyon days of dance music—an era of free raves and unadulterated hedonism. It's a myth that Matthew Nelson, AKA Slipmatt, knows better than most–he was there. During the late '80s, as the rave scene in the UK began to boom, Nelson began moonlighting as a DJ. He would land his first residency at Raindance, the East London rave that launched in September 1989 and would become the UK's first legal rave. By 1991 , he'd reach number two in the UK charts with "On A Ragga Tip" as one-half of SL2 and two years later, sell over 10,000 copies of the first pressing of SMD#1. Nelson has got a lot to share (as you'll see in his interview) so we'll let him do the talking. He's been variously called the godfather of rave and happy hardcore, but what you'll hear on RA.958 is as "a journey through my 35 years of house." A DJ with this much pedigree brings much more than that, of course: touching on the breakbeat, jungle and acid house that soundtracked that golden age, as well as nods to the rich cross-pollination with scenes beyond the UK, from Joey Beltram's "Energy Flash" to Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You." @slipmatt-1 Read more at ra.co/podcast/958

The singular Príncipe artist showcases her shapeshifting sound. Before she was simply Nídia, Nídia Borges was Nídia Minaj. Modelled after a musical idol of hers, Nicki Minaj, in 2017, she shed the borrowed surname. As she later said in an interview with The New York Times, "Today I have my own identity. I'm not going to imitate something that someone has done already." And Nídia couldn't be further from an imitator. As one of Príncipe's two non-male members, her body of work stands apart even within Príncipe's unique sonic universe. She traverses a broader emotional territory and extends to collaborations with Fever Ray, Kelela and Yaeji. Her RA Podcast is a restless affair–60 minutes of pushing, pulling, tiptoeing and gliding through the sounds of the Príncipe universe. True to the label's communitarian foundations, the mix contains predominantly original and unreleased material from her colleagues. In 2014, DJ Lilocox told RA: "Whatever your age, skin colour, sexual orientation, money in the wallet, clothes on: Noite Príncipe is for all who come to dance... forgetting the outside world." A decade on, RA.957 echoes this sentiment, a celebration of Príncipe's enduring magic: delirious, transcendent dancing for all. @nidiasukulbembe Read more at ra.co/podcast/957

Maximalist house from the sibling duo at the forefront of Berlin's new wave. Berlin is built on dance music. But of the many DJs who live, work and play there, few represent the evolution in the city's club culture like Tania and Dominik Humeres-Correa, AKA S-candalo. If the city was once governed by the tyranny of minimal, the post-pandemic era has cemented its reputation as the spot for "more-is-more" club soundtracks. It's still house and techno, but the chords are big, the drums are big and the basslines are even bigger. Nowadays, S-candalo are firm favourites at hotspots across the German capital, from Panorama Bar to Multisex and Radiant Love (not forgetting La Noche, their own burgeoning party). The duo find rich inspiration in '90s-era Latin house, a sound that takes New York house and incorporates rolling percussion from Latin genres such as samba, popularised on labels like Cutting Records and Strictly Rhythm (there's not one but two records from the latter in this mix). RA.956 fittingly lands at the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month in the US (more on that to come) and it's a resolutely fun affair. The duo's RA Podcast has got drive, sultry vocals and enough bounce to make you want to keep dancing way beyond the 90-minutes, marrying percussion-heavy house and ballroom with trance-inflected Eurodance from the '90s and early 2000s. (Oh, and a Shakira moment.) Genres aside, the duo's musical raison d'etre is pleasure. Perhaps the real scandal here is how it took us so long to get them on the series. @s-candalo @thc_dj @dhc_bln Read more at ra.co/podcast/956

Living, breathing, banging techno from an artist defining the highly-textured new frontier of the sound in 2024. Lindsey Wang, AKA Polygonia, has an amorphous style you could call organic—or, better yet, harmonious. She interweaves unfamiliar elements with a mercurial touch. Wang can make something completely otherworldly sound totally, well, natural. It's made her a fixture everywhere from Munich's BLITZ to major festivals like Sustain-Release and Draaimolen. Unsurprisingly, Wang is not one to be pinned down. Be it the sound design-anchored side project Lyder, her own label QEONE, or co-producing an album's worth of experimental percussion alongside jazz drummer Simon Popp, it's fair to say her personal output matches the feverish energy of her mixes. There's multidisciplinary, and then there's Wang: Poly-disciplinary, you might say. Wang's entry into the RA Podcast series is no different, another stellar emphasis of her artistry. RA.955 is a voyage into wild variations of texture, rhythm and feeling, guided along by the principle of endless metamorphosis. Supple driving grooves meet crinkled surfaces, scuttling hi-hats meet chattering sonics, and good luck keeping hold of a consistent drum pattern for long. Behold a living organism raised by the club and the great outdoors in equal measure. @polygonia Read more at ra.co/podcast/955

Three sizzling hours from the mind behind one of the world's best labels, Kalahari Oyster Cult. What you'll hear on this week's RA Podcast is the closing slot of 2024's Organik Festival—already a coveted moment. But as the sun dipped on Taiwan's north coast, something else was going on: Rey Colino was laying down quite possibly the set of his life. We're big fans of Colino, AKA Colin Volvert, here at RA. Few do it better when it comes to the type of pacy, lysergic thumpers that have become synonymous with both Kalahari and the distro One Eye Witness. A quick glance over the Belgian label's impressive alumni confirms how deeply his work flows through contemporary clubs. On RA.954, Volvert's sharp ear and swaggering DJ style are on full display. He locks in with many shades of his record bag, alongside a grip of new and forthcoming KOC cuts—some so fresh, the ink on the deal is barely even dry. We could go into the particulars, but it's best to just get stuck in: this one's a deep, deliriously effective trip. @reycolino @kalaharioystercult @oneyewitness @smokemachinetaipei Read more at ra.co/podcast/954

In time for 9/9, here's… 999999999. The Italian duo's reputation as a rave demolition crew has made them one of the most in-demand acts on the global circuit. Too nosebleed for 'business', and too close to Defqon.1-level hardstyle to be hard techno in the classic sense, 999999999's headline sets practically require a new category to convey the sense of scale: let's call it megatechno. Following a string of unsubtle yet undeniably impactful hit records in the late 2010s, Carlo B. & Giovanni C. became fast favourites of a generation who prefer their 303 cranked to 11. Their rampant velocity arrived at the right moment, proving parallel compatibility with acid lifers and younger audiences making the leap from EDM to hard dance. Flash forward to 2024 and they're flanked by flamethrowers while mashing down colossal crowds at festivals like Awakenings. Here, they purposefully strip it back and emphasise the core elements of the 9x9 formula—high drama, jackhammering kicks and the kind of tweaked-out acid air sirens that would make the likes of Hardfloor and Miss Djax scrunch their noses in approval. In other words, non-stop wrecking balls trained squarely at the foundations of a hangar near you. @999999999music Read more at ra.co/podcast/953

90 mins of Two Shell, live from Horst. We've been angling for an RA Podcast from Two Shell ever since they shifted from lowkey producers into hijinx hackers rummaging around the dance music mainframe. Now that we've bagged a mix from clubland's premier iconoclasts, it still poses more questions than it answers: Was this pre-recorded? What's the deal with that AI voice guiding the set along? How can we be sure it was even them? Hang on: is "even them" even them? What we can tell you is that the duo floored RA's stage at Horst Arts & Music 2024. Few genres were left untarnished as they veered off-piste on a thrill seeking mission toward breaking the 170+ BPM speed barrier. No tracklist, so ID crew over to you (Alex Gaudino makes an appearance, you can have that one as a freebie.) True to form, Two Shell always do it their own way. @twoshell @horstartsandmusicfestival Read more at ra.co/podcast/952

Ask Berlin's network of revered deep diggers who their favourite "DJ's DJ" is, and there's a strong chance you'll hear one name immediately pop up: KRN. Phil Kearney, AKA KRN, is one of those rare types who has built a reputation away from the limelight. Formerly a resident at The Ghost's Hoppetosse party as well as a Get Perlonized devotee (plus, full disclosure, reviewing events and working at RA in the mid-2010s), he's well-versed in both wiggle and waft. The hubbub around KRN can be put down to the fastidiousness of his approach: he unearths rare gems from the roots of the underground, before mixing it up with a deft hand. Kearney's RA Podcast, sweetly subtitled "Dadhouse," is an ode to his partner and newborn, as well as a window into his personal palette. He starts in serene IDM territory, before shifting into playful grooves and tactile house oddities. Good lucking ID'ing many of the tunes—we asked for a tracklist but, deep down, already knew the answer. We know this, too: one listen and you'll be hooked. @k_rn @theghost Read more at ra.co/podcast/951

A glorious ode to sound system culture. For her RA Podcast, Brooklyn-based DJ Ayanna Heaven celebrates vibrations echoing down the ages, connecting seven decades of trailblazers and trendsetters. It's a soundtrack we've timed with an eye to that golden late summer run of Notting Hill Carnival, Brooklyn's West Indian Day Parade and several crucial dates in the Jamaican calendar. Since 2020, the Brooklyn-based DJ, ethnomusicologist, dancehall advocate and promoter has held down two shows on the city's most popular stations: the monthly "Sounds of Heaven" on The Lot and biweekly "Across 110th Street" on WKCR. That's roughly 72 hours of radio every year. Light work for Heaven, though, whose sound traverses the limitlessly fertile ground of reggae, dancehall, funk, soul and beyond. From Sly & Robbie, Aswad and Vybz Kartel through contemporary heaters and reskins of platinum-plated standards like "No Games" and "Sun Is Shining," RA.950 is a story of a thriving culture, grounded in the past yet with intentions set firmly on the future. @ayanna-heaven Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/950

A roaring hour from one of the most vital talents in Naarm: First Nations producer Paul Gorrie, AKA DJ PGZ. The Gunai/Kurnai and Yorta Yorta artist is a fixture of forward-thinking dance music in Australia, with releases on labels like Butter Sessions, Pure Space and !K7, as well as numerous club and festival gigs on the circuit. An international breakout moment for the Naarm (Melbourne)-based talent feels inevitable. There's much to be said about the lack of visibility and support for Indigenous artists within the global electronic ecosystem, but at the root of all PGZ's disparate interests are community building and the advancement of marginalised peoples. To that end, DJ PGZ's RA Podcast is notably laced with multiple cuts from Nene H's Gaza fundraising compilation. It's distinctly fresh—the oldest track you'll find is from 2022—as he gallops through Kalahari-style wigged-out prog and techno, through to harder drum syncopations. Consider this a firm tip from us: PGZ is the truth. @dj-pgz Read more at ra.co/podcast/949

Speedy percussion meets screwface basslines: the Parisian club maestros are in session. Trying to find one word to describe the music of Amor Satyr and Siu Mata could run you into difficulty. But if we were to try, we'd reach for amphibian: slippery, nimble and evading borders with ease. With solo and shared releases on labels like SSPB, HARDLINE, TraTraTrax and their own WAJANG, they have evident kinship with what moves contemporary dance floors. The pair are also linked to the rise of an alchemical style they like to call "speed dembow"—taking the looping rhythm of dembow before pitching it up to modern club tempos and adding muscle. Combining tribal techno, baile funk, dubstep, jungle, dancehall and beyond, their RA Podcast makes for one hell of a ride, with over two hours of romping percussion, lysergic effects, high drama and plenty of wobble. @amorsatyr @siumata Read more at ra.co/podcast/948

What does great techno sound like in 2024? Enter LYDO. This week's RA Podcast captures @lydole in full flow, combining the old-school vernacular of European and North American techno—reduced rhythms, hi-hats and punchy 909s—with tracks from the new guard (Sev Dah, GiGi FM, D.Dan) sprinkled throughout. After moving to New York in 2015, the Vietnamese-American sound artist and X-XTRA.SERVICES founder became one of BASEMENT's first residents; the scene built around the revered Queens club has helped nurture their adventurous sound. Lately they've been making waves beyond North America, playing with the MARICAS crew in Barcelona and locking down slots at De School, Bassiani and Draaimolen. RA.947 is the sound of artful hypnosis: it's techno with elegance, depth and just the right amount of thump. Rig this up on a proper system, turn off the lights and any worries—about the genre's direction of travel, or otherwise—might melt away. Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/947

Bangers from around the globe. Dar Disku launched with a question: how to channel heritage into dance floor elation? Well, when your name translates to 'home of the disco,' the brief feels pretty self-explanatory. In the first few years, that meant crafting edits of Khaliji hi-NRG and Bollywood soundtracks to fit contemporary 'crates. They took off as DJs through a run of radio and parties in the UK—where they currently reside—flexing deep finds from across the SWANA region. Their vibrant debut album, out in September on Soundway, furthers the mission. True to form, their RA Podcast is stuffed with heaters from all over the map: Algeria, India, Chile, Jordan, Australia, Turkey, Libya and Morocco get a look-in, as well as a few staple acts that betray the kind of high-wattage European festivals the duo increasingly frequent. It's not hard to see why—this mix is 90 minutes of sunshine. @dardisku @soundway-records Read more at ra.co/podcast/946

Wormhole techno from a DJ you need to know. KYRUH is a high-impact specialist forced in the crucible of modern NYC's notable spaces, including WIRE, Dweller and Bossa Nova Civic Club. Their sound is that of a DJ skilled at pressure without requiring shortcuts through obvious terrain, adept at hammering it without defaulting to speed alone. After years burning a hole through the American underground, 2024 is proving to be a tipping point. KYRUH's appearance on Kelela remix compilation RAVE:N in spring lit the touchpaper for a run of gritty productions and increasingly prominent slots across North America and Europe. The tracklist for their RA Podcast goes deep, accommodating producers like x3butterfly and Faster Horses alongside veterans Lady Starlight, Femanyst, House of God resident Paul Damage Bailey and underrated Swedish ripper Tobias Von Hoftsen. To those still wondering where to find 'proper techno' in 2024: look no further. @kyruhx Read more at ra.co/podcast/945

As a producer and DJ, TSVI is in the form of his life—which you can't always say for an artist a decade in. He's been an enduring presence through several underground cycles for a reason: the man knows how to flow. TSVI's RA Podcast features a solid number of new and forthcoming cuts from the current vanguard pushing club music forward, amongst them Verraco, Surusinghe, DJ Plead, Doctor Jeep, DJ JM, WOST and Dj Babatr—who just dropped a split 12" with TSVI on TraTraTrax last month. Alongside the names you might expect, TSVI also leans into a streak of personal history. On RA.944 you'll hear fast, deep and percussive '90s and '00s cuts from Spain, Latin America and his native Italy, with a particular focus on the kind of playful progressive trance minted by the late, great Franchino. It makes for a truly dynamite mix. @tsvisions @nervoushorizon Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/944