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 Mala, Coki and Loefah's DMZ laid down have been expanded on by Deep Medi, a label that has cultivated a loyal fandom who watch over the catalogue like a hawk. (Six years of frothy debate and knowing in-jokes between MEDi 99 and MEDi 100 paints a picture of both steep expectations and an affinity for gently ribbing their leader.)
But Mala's banner 2025 hasn't relied on the heads alone. The adrenaline of his fissuring basslines and barrel-chested vocals have drawn people into his orbit, and there are rarer qualities at play, too—like pacifism, winked at by the demilitarized name and reinforced on their all-time greatest tune; or contemplation, inked on flyers beseeching the crowd to meditate on bass weight.
In that spirit arrives a mix we've asked after for years. Subtitled The Listening Session, it's rare on two counts. Despite his enduring popularity, Mala is a conspicuous absence on most DJ series. (It's not that he doesn't enjoy recording, just gets spooked by the reaction.)
A nearly-three hour studio set—spaciously paced and laced with a combination of 2025 highlights, freshly-cut dubplates and some of the biggest anthems in the genre's history—is unheard of. No tracklist for now, on Mala's request. Soon come.
RA.1016 is the kind of document that jogs the memory back to when dubstep was a discrete enterprise, something you could only fleetingly access by, say, dialling into Youngsta on Sub FM, ripping 320s of "Circling" off long-forgotten blogs or hugging the back wall of Mass. Which, in service of thinking the evolution of 21st century electronic music, is pretty perfect really. – Gabriel Szatan
Find the interview at ra.co/podcast/1035
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