RA.900 Bobby Beethoven (FKA Total Freedom)

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