Front left since 2001.
The titan of UK bass delivers a head trip through dub's past, present and future, one year on from RA.1000.Time has a way of slipping through the fingers. A year ago, RA.1000 marked the 1,000th release in the RA Mix series. Now, 52 weeks on, we've arrived at RA.1052—and first up is Kevin Richard Martin, AKA The Bug, finally making his long-awaited debut on the series. Ask anyone who's stood within…
Decades after walking away from trance, the superstar DJ unpicks the machinery behind his own brand, and what a career spent at the top actually costs. Tiësto has been one of the biggest DJs in the world for the better part of 30 years. Since the '90s, the Dutch artist has been part of an elite inner circle who dominate major festival bills, residencies in Ibiza and Las Vegas, and command some of…
An antidote to the summertime banger, with an hour of breezy ambient from the Vienna artist. When we picture the summertime banger, we picture high energy. But with record-breaking heatwaves from South Korea to the South of France, a different soundtrack makes sense. Cue RA.1051. Across an hour of woozy lo-fi electronics—many his own productions—Mietze Conte offers the alternative, inspired, as he…
The Príncipe all stars transmit the future sound of batida, live from Waking Life. In theory, a supergroup should be a carefree yet thrilling assembly of well-known talents, bound to multiply each other's creative output. But in practice, bringing out the best in every artist on stage, especially for electronic musicians, most of whom are used to working solo, is not an exact science. O…
The long-anonymous Peak Oil favourite breaks cover with two hours that run from post-punk and dub to vintage New York house. Mystery is a powerful force. What stays unknown stays enticing—negative space the listener fills in for themselves. Minimalists may be its largest constituency, and few have held the line as long as Topdown Dialectic. That changed with False LP A, which finally named him:…
A masterclass in the art of the all-nighter, as one of France's finest purveyors of funk delivers six hours live from Robert Johnson. What does minimal sound like in 2026? Ask five DJs and you'll get five answers, from the acidic electro and techno of Montevideo to the dubby loops of Montreal. A real contender for the face of contemporary minimal, though, is Romain Poncet, AKA Traumer. Poncet is,…
77 minutes of wickedly twitchy grooves from the belly of the New York underground. "Music is meant to be shared. Music is meant to be shared. Music is meant to be shared." This phrase is written again and again in the About section for the mix series and label pi pi pi. For deep creep, the force behind the popular platform, it serves as a radical promise: music is, and must always be, collective…
90 minutes of scintillating house and techno, primed for the heart of summer. There's something delightfully paradoxical about Jennifer Loveless. Her productions skew hedonistic yet minimal; her DJing feels both spacey and oceanic. Hell, even her artist bio underlines her taste for opposites: "Jennifer Loveless is contrary to her name, all heart." This yin and yang runs through RA.1046. Built…
Two sublime hours of house and techno from the Berlin-based DJ and producer, making his long-awaited RA Mix debut. Before clubs shut down in 2020, Christian AB was one of the underground's best-kept secrets. The London-born DJ built a cult following through sets that fused deep house, techno and impossibly rare records, earning a reputation as an IYKYK selector with encyclopaedic taste. Now based…
A lesson in universal love, told via deep club grooves. When future heads look back at New York nightlife from the mid-2010s onwards, the name Love Injection will stand out. As historians, stewards and disciples of underground dance music, Barbie Bertisch and Paul Raffaele live and breathe the culture's inclusive, anti-commercial and anti-egotistical ideals. Underlining their myriad…
The Drain Gang cofounder talks about mysticism, Gen Z and his new album, Sulfur Surfer. Bladee's work as a founding member of the Swedish collective Drain Gang has shaped a new generation of underground music. The group's sound, which is rooted in cloud rap and Auto-Tune experimentation, and pulls from trance, noise, metal, goth and grunge, has earned them an enormous following of fans—AKA…
90 minutes of wistful house from a talented Steel City Dance Discs affiliate—perfect for easing into the night or winding down after the party. Since Resident Advisor dubbed Pretty Girl "a star in the making" in 2023, the Melbourne DJ has played Coachella, gone viral on Boiler Room, and remixed Romy and Fred Again.. But she’s taken stardom on her own terms. Instead of stadium-ready adrenaline, her…
Seven hours of camp, chug and genre-hopping hedonism from techno's two princes of darkness, recorded live at Kyiv's ∄. Hear the names Hayden Payne, aka Phase Fatale, and Pablo Bozzi, and it might conjure visions of dark techno. As Berghain and KHIDI residents, both artists are synonymous with the heavier strands of misfit dance music. But Soft Crash, their lockdown-born joint venture, offers…
Entirely unreleased, undeniably funky techno. Charles Accarisi, AKA Chlär, treats techno like a science. From his earliest days as an audio engineer, the Lisbon-via-Switzerland artist has approached techno with the precision of a seasoned experimentalist, dissecting our love of listening to kick drums in dark, sweaty clubs down to its very bones. Before launching his label, Primal Instinct, in…
The São Paulo-based artist tears through baile funk, ballroom, Latin club and techno in a turbo-charged showcase of global club music's cutting edge. Take one look at Clementaum behind the decks and she seems less like a DJ than a force of nature. Dressed to the nines and usually keeping time with a fan, she mixes impossibly chaotic drum patterns that ricochet from baile funk to ballroom,…
Sleek, sensual bass science from the NYC SLINK boss, sketching a new blueprint for dub in the 2020s. Kenzo Perron, AKA K Wata, uses bass the way a poet uses punctuation. Sub weight, subtle wobbles and snaking rhythms become commas, dashes and periods—tiny gestures that shape movement, tension and release. Perron's sound sits somewhere between the cavernous minimalism of Rhythm & Sound and the wiry…
90 minutes of blissful, sun-soaked house from the essential UK producer duo. For a certain type of DJ, a record from The Trip is a buy-on-sight proposition. Even if the name is new, you’ve likely heard their tracks in sets from Job Jobse, Shanti Celeste or Avalon Emerson. With a catalogue full of records equally at home at Pitch Music & Arts or fabric Room 2, Oliver Hiam and Max van Dijk have…
The emergent star of the Belgian underground delivers 80 minutes of spectral techno, electro and leftfield obscurities. Lola Haro has clubbing in her DNA. The Brussels-based DJ grew up around electronic music, with parents who were regulars at Antwerp’s Café d’Anvers and a childhood shaped by record stores and a household soundtracked by Villalobos mixes. Since emerging in the late 2010s, she’s…
A rare snapshot of house music's early days, captured through an unheard 1986 broadcast from the East Coast pioneer. For Humphries' long overdue debut on the RA Mix series, we publish an original, unedited radio recording from 1986, during Humphries' glorious reign over KISS FM's airwaves at the right hand of Shep Pettibone. Drawn from Humphries' own archives, the Running Back-sanctioned release…
The star of São Paulo chops up 60 minutes of futuristic, global club sounds. It's an oft-heard cliché to describe an artist as truly singular. But with Roniere Santos, AKA RHR, it couldn't be more true. Part of a generation of Brazilian and Latin American artists reshaping club music, Santos and his peers have propelled it to unprecedented global reach. His sets—fearsome, bass-driven and unbound…
A maximalist sprint through IDM and acid from the Filipino DJ, producer and lore magnet. Ramon Tambucon is, in his own words, "an EDM trap oldhead" through and through. But he takes his work seriously: on TikTok, the LA-based artist has become Gen Z's de-facto electronic music historian, equally at home with Mark Fisher and Skrillex, and has even featured in Forbes discussing IDM. His world…
The lost art of the slow burn, courtesy of the rising London house DJ. In an attention economy, where hype cycles rise and fall faster than ever, our careers, our lives and our club nights are increasingly structured around instant gratification. But not Isaac Carter. The London artist's approach to DJing is understated and unhurried. You'll still find his RA Mix charged with serious bursts of…
'90s nostalgia, big beat and bargain-bin house courtesy of the NYC dance-pop duo. Fcukers don't really care about success. Or at least, that's how it started. "We don't give a shit. We're not going to have a music career. Who cares? We're going to do exactly what we want," Jackson Walker Lewis told Rolling Stone, recalling the duo's early mindset. The origin of their name, lifted from the…
A key architect of the 2020s underground debuts on the RA Mix. Scroll through end-of-year features or the tracklists of a certain kind of new-school techno DJ, and Priori is rarely far away. The Montreal artist has built a reputation as a kind of studio chameleon, working with the biggest names across the underground. Whether it be james K, Tiga or Paul St. Hilare, or his work co-running naff…
The ATW Records boss and honorary prince of UK Garage steps up with a mix that might surprise you. From the post-lockdown school of UK garage producers, Adam Emil Schierbeck, AKA Main Phase, is a rare international graduate. The Copenhagen producer has closely studied the British sound, shaping an international garage revival in his wake. Schierback stands as one of UK Garage's premiere…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
"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…
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…
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…
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. 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 appetite for…
A statement 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…
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…
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…
57 minutes of sharp, fast, freaky techno from the underground pop star. Long before SoundCloud made him famous, RJ Glasgow was already producing edits from his bedroom in Philadelphia. The artist now known as LSDXOXO spliced R&B classics with DMX Krew and Madonna, then graduated from bedroom producer to internet provocateur with his 2010 mix series Spit or Swallow, where La Roux met Ratatat and…
Dubwise atmospherics flood Guy Brewer's third RA Mix. Hear the word "Dionysus" and you picture the Greek god of ecstasy: overflowing tables, delirious revelry, chaos. Not the austere soundworld of Guy Brewer, AKA Carrier. On the surface, the UK artist's latest alias feels almost Spartan. But look closer and the Dionysian link starts to show: it's about shedding fixed forms and identities, to allow…
The German legend talks about the state of modern trance, what it takes to create a legacy and writing his most recent album. Poll the average dance music fan and they'll have almost certainly heard of Paul van Dyk. The German DJ and producer is so synonymous with trance that it's impossible to talk about the genre's history without mentioning his name. He's also been one of the most successful…
"Combining sounds that wouldn't normally be thought of together." So reads the final line of Mexican DJ and producer 1OO1O's short-but-sweet artist bio. It's a claim many make but few pull off. Are truly new fusions still even possible in 2025? Hasn't electronic music reached saturation point? Not in the hands of 1OO1O, AKA uno cero cero uno cero, or one O O one O. For the best part of a decade,…
The first-ever live recording from an elusive icon of dubby electronic music. Lore is an underrated quality. Neuroscientists have mapped that music elicits similar feelings in the brain to when we satiate cravings, but what about the psychological impulse that drives listeners of a certain disposition toward everything they don't know? It's tricky to put your finger on, but artists able to conjure…
There are few names as widely loved in clubland as Bristol-based producer Omar McCutcheon, AKA Batu. His label Timedance, currently celebrating its ten-year anniversary, has been instrumental in shaping a certain corner of contemporary electronic music. It champions a mutant, rhythmic, UK-flavoured sound that escapes any obvious genre touchstones, as well as spotlighting the careers of artists…
