RA Podcast

Expansive dub vibrations from the On-U Sound maestro. Adrian Sherwood has spent nearly five decades reshaping how dub is heard and felt. From absorbing reggae and funk as a teenager at the Newlands Club in High Wycombe to cofounding On-U Sound in 1979, he’s been a restless force in British sound system culture. His debut production, Dub From Creation, signalled his instinct to twist the Jamaican form into bold, experimental directions. That spirit defined On-U Sound, where reggae collided with post-punk, industrial and synth pop to forge a catalogue still unlike anything else. Sherwood became a crucial bridge, producing for legends like Prince Far I, Bim Sherman and Lee “Scratch” Perry, while also working with Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and Sinéad O’Connor. His RA Mix (yes, you read that right) arrives at a moment of renewal—RA.1001 is the first in a new era for the series. (After 1,000 editions of the RA Podcast, we're updating the name to better reflect what it's become.) Recorded at his Ramsgate studio, the 76-minute mix folds in cuts from The Collapse Of Everything alongside material from across the On-U Sound universe, plus collaborations with Panda Bear, Sonic Boom, Coldcut and Spoon. It's Sherwood doing what he's always done: stretching dub into endless new shapes. Find the interview and tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1019

A four hour document of dance floors in the 2020s, from one of modern club music's most passionate advocates. One major shift since we went 5 for RA.500 ten years ago has been the rapid adoption of anything-goes DJing. What goes us there? Upgraded technology, audience appetite for thrills, instant access to music from every corner of the globe: take your pick. To corral the infinite possibilities of our age, glide seamlessly across lanes and be a trusted conduit in a sea of over-saturation takes chops. And few do it with more gusto and charisma in the 2020s than Jyoty. Recorded at a raucous Nowadays party just a few weeks ago for maximum freshness, Jyoty's RA.1000 finds room for 122 tracks dotted over the clubbing map (although, when you tally up all the blends, you can probably round up to 150). From aya to Logan Olm, Hardhouse Banton to DJ Babatr, Busy Signal to Baalti, a delicious double splice of Kelela and a staggeringly unlikely remix of Noir & Haze's "Around" (yep), it's an audacious statement from a DJ who has made borderless selection their calling card. With a heavy lean on bubbling and the far frontiers of Brazilian club wares, long passages of the set are maze of microgenres and regional movements worth getting lost in. Jyoty's RA.1000 is a reminder not just of her dynamism in the booth, but a reminder to keep ears open and expose their audience to as much of the future as possible, as quickly as possible. And what could be truer to the foundations of DJing than that? @jyotysingh Find the tracklist and interview at https://ra.co/podcast/1014. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

Andrew Weatherall's first official posthumous mix. The only b2b DJ Harvey ever agreed to. Six hours at Trouw. This one's special. When mulling which direction to go in for RA's 1000th mix celebrations, many options came to mind. Some shadowy character 2-stepping around the fringe of our collective consciousness? An impossible-level IDM icon? All tempting. But, ultimately, we are a DJ-forward publication and this is a DJ mix series. It felt truer to the history of the RA Podcast to release deep vault material from a time when the world of niche records felt different, tighter, more discrete. The fourth-longest mix in the series' history is an unrepeatable marathon set recorded in 2012 at a superclub that no longer exists. 2012, incidentally, is farther away from 2025 than 2012 was from 2000... if we have to clock it, so do you. It's the coming together of one British icon who passed away in 2020, and another whose time on the road has scaled back considerably as of late. DJ Harvey agreed to exactly one b2b set in his life: this one, with Andrew Weatherall. The night took place at Trouw, an Amsterdam club already considered legendary before it shuttered its doors in the opening hours of 2015, as part of an RA series anchored around start-to-close combinations. Harvey was at the peak of an irresistible career second act, which dovetailed with a disco revival that dominated clubs for years. Weatherall, with infinite brownie points stockpiled from the '90s, remained everyone's favourite debonair psychonaut. What follows is 385 scintillating minutes of arpeggiated chug and slow-cresting climaxes: a moment when the resting heart rate of dance floors plunged lower than any comparable point in the 21st century. A masterclass, entirely self-contained in audio form. If you've got time to spare, a fun side game is sussing out who plays what. A disco-dub cover of Echo & the Bunnymen? Smart money's on Weatherall. Exuberant EQ'ing of The Isley Brothers? Gotta be Harvey. As for the low 'n slow, lightly spangled house that was all the rage in the early 2010s (think Maxxi Soundsystem, Disco Bloodbath, Rub & Tug, C.O.M.B.I. and Full Pupp), it's anyone's guess. 127 BPM feels practically like an F1 car. When we kicked off our RA.1000 campaign, we outlined a few goals: tick off a handful of long-awaited dream guests, honour architects who shaped the world around us and deliver recordings you truly can't hear anywhere else. Full send. DJing and the mythmaking around it has undergone a quantum leap since 2012, let alone 2006, 1996 or 1989. For those of us who were kicking around in the former, there's a creeping melancholy that our prime is fast becoming a matter of historical record. The killing moon really did come too soon. Where will electronic music, DJ sets or any of this be in 2044? Hard to say. Best not to overthink that one. Instead, we want to say thanks to all contributors on the series so far. Now enjoy luxuriating in the company of two of the greatest to ever do it, together, for the first and last time.⁠ – Gabriel Szatan (Editor, RA) @andrew-weatherall Read the interview with DJ Harvey and Andrew Weatherall's family at https://ra.co/podcast/1016. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

For RA.1000, we take it back to the source with two never-before-heard tapes from Frankie Knuckles's private collection There is no house music without Frankie Knuckles, literally or figuratively. The queer icon's luxurious DJ sets at Chicago's Warehouse gave a rising movement its name. From there, countless offshoots splintered and travelled the globe. But what did the genesis and growth of the sound really feel like? The Godfather of House left behind not only timeless records, but personalised cassettes with hand-drawn liner notes handed out to friends and family. Two of those, dated to 1989 and 1996, have been digitised especially for RA.1000. (Thank you to the Frankie Knuckles Foundation.) To put that in context: the first tape predates not only many of today's active clubbers, but the entire existence of jungle, drum & bass, UK garage, French touch, Jersey club, Afrobeats, IDM, baile funk, hardcore, footwork, dubstep, dub techno, tech house, breaks, minimal, maximal, gqom, gabber, grime and hyperpop. In short… that's a very, very long time ago. The world of dance music was much smaller. DJ culture was functionally unrecognisable from the one we see in 2025. And yet, to some degree, what you'll hear on RA.1000 hasn't changed at all. It's a capture of not only what made Frankie Knuckles one of the beloved pioneers of first-generation dance music, but what draws people to club culture in the first place. The mood on these Frankie Knuckles sets outlasts even its creator: a spirit of optimism that floods the world's best dance floors and keeps dance music pulsing on into the future, nearly 40 years later, in spite of it all. We end our 1000th mix celebrations here because it all starts there. Find the tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1018. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

The arena-conquering duo glide from gritty rave to skyscraping arpeggios on RA.1000, a mix many years in the making. A new name undeniably entered the pantheon of major electronic live acts over the past decade: next to Faithless, The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers, now sit @feelmybicep. The Belfast duo's music doesn't half reach for the stars: a melodic blend of ambient, breakbeat, trance and tech house, able to turn the biggest arenas into intimate affairs. If anything, mainstream success, BRIT Award nominations and mammoth dance crossovers like "Glue" have only hardened Andy Ferguson and Matt McBriar's resolve to keep innovating. Their prized blog, running for nearly as long as the RA Podcast, regularly platforms upcoming artists. And you won't find many festival headliners releasing climate change-themed records with Indigenous artists, as they did recently on Takkuuk. RA.1000 exists in that spirit. After many polite declines, and before a year off to usher in the next era, Bicep come through at the last: from dub techno and screwface breaks to São Paulo garage, before a tide of signature synths floods the zone. Stadium-sized intimacy at its finest. @feelmybicep Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1015. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

For RA.1000, DJ Sprinkles' first mix in over a decade is a powerful meditation on the genocide in Gaza. Dance music often relies on simple narratives: release, escape, unity. But those narratives can often feel inadequate, and even at times, hollow. Or, as Terre Thaemlitz might bluntly put it, just "shitty." For her first mix in around 15 years, Terre Thaemlitz AKA DJ Sprinkles, challenges us to think differently. "I felt this 1000th podcast should reflect the moment in which it was made," she told us in her Q&A. And what is this moment? Every day since Israel's 2023 assault on Gaza began, an average of 28 children have been killed. That's an entire classroom, every day, for over 600 days (at the time of writing). It's a staggering figure that only captures a fragment of the listless cruelty imposed on the strip. Faced with such a genocide, what can music really do? How political can it truly be? For their RA.1000, Thaemlitz gives us an unflinching rebuke to the idea that music should provide escapism. The mix weaves ambient fragments and jazz passages, woven around samples from Israeli media and the voices of outspoken Jewish critics like Gabor Maté and Norman Finkelstein. The result is not just a protest, but a document of our time. For Terre Thaemlitz, music is never just music. Her RA.1000 serves as a reminder that in an age of relentless suffering, the most political act is to reject the illusion of escape, and search for something greater. Read the interview and find the tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1013. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

One of the enduring powerhouses of our era returns for RA.1000 with a riotous mix. When Helena Hauff made her first RA Podcast appearance back in 2013, she was on the eve of releasing her debut production on Actress' Werkdiscs imprint. In the 12 years that have elapsed, she's become not just a household name within electronic music, but the kind of rare talent that lives in seclusion from industry tumultt. (Hauff, enviously, has never even owned a smartphone.) Her calling card continues to be her penchant for rough and ready EBM, electro and new wave. Her unique ability is creating a singular listening experience from disparate or out-of-favour tracks, with a raw immediacy that functions as a redress to over-choreographed modern DJing. Her outsider approach is on show once again for RA.1000. Threaded together by strobe-lit DIY electronica, old-school acid house and corrosive machine funk that chews up the ear, the nearly two-hour set raises the bar once again. In the sci-fi themed first half, Hauff drops two Cybotron tracks, nodding to Juan Atkins' blueprint for electro. You'll also hear "Riot" by Underground Resistance, the definitive mission statement for a world ablaze. This is musical anarchism, executed to the highest degree. Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1017. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 continues with the pride of Palestine's techno scene, Sama' Abdulhadi. What makes the sound of resistance? For Palestinian DJ and producer Sama' Abdulhadi, it's the freedom to explore her artistic expression in all its authenticity and complexity. What stands out in her mix for our 1000th celebration is defiant energy, the kind that galvanises more than just dance floors. Born in Ramallah but a student of Beirut's underground scene, Abdulhadi plays charging, self-assured techno, as calibrated for basement parties as for conquering festival main stages. Her sets are powerful journeys through moods, tempos and stimuli, connected by a deep sense of love. A love for the music, the craft, the soil from which Abdulhadi grew. It's a love we've explored in a cover story, a film and now one of our ten RA.1000 mixes. As Abdulhadi notes in her accompanying interview, her entry to the series forms a link back to another "pride and joy of Palestine," with Bethlehem-descending Nicolás Jaar's entry on RA.500. Yet ten years on, the landscape is altered beyond all recognition. As we all watch the ongoing destruction of Palestinian land, this mix is an unequivocal reminder that we cannot look away. It continues techno's decades-old lineage as vital resistance music. @sama_abdulhadi Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1010. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

The mastermind behind Basic Channel, Hard Wax and Rhythm & Sound doesn't do mixes. For RA.1000, he made an exception. Trace Mark Ernestus's path, and you trace the evolution of electronic sound itself. The timeline of contemporary Berlin is unimaginable without him. At first, that meant Hard Wax, the crucial hub that shaped the early era of the city's techno revolution. Carl Craig once said it plainly: "Mark was ground zero." From there, Ernestus never stopped. There's the birth of dub techno and the near-flawless catalogue that followed through Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound. There's his immersion in Senegalese mbalax with Ndagga Rhythm Force. Lately, that means Open Ground the Wuppertal bunker that's letting people hear music as never before. As part three of RA.1000, Ernestus has kindly supplied his first studio DJ mix. As you might expect, it's technically immaculate, but more than that, it feels like a substantial and generous conduit to one of the world's most vital genres. Amapiano remains underexplored in music media. Publications like our own are still learning to keep pace with the South African sound's global pull, animating millions across the globe. You'll hear the range and richness of the genre across the near two-hour mix, from the gothic, percussive stomp of Caltetonic's "Bambela" to the devotional glow of GemValleyMusiq's "Something Spiritual." Through all of this, Ernestus has remained understated. He lets the music speak for him, with a quiet honesty that lies in decades of opening doors—creating the conditions for new sounds and scenes to flourish and carry the culture forward. @opengroundclub @hardwax Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1011. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

Seven and a half exhilarating hours from one of modern club's sharpest. Tim Reaper's mammoth entry for RA.1000 is all about range. You thought the Future Retro London boss was just a jungle and hardcore head? Think again. The mix's infinite-scroll tracklist (the longest we've ever published in full!) includes a who's who of top-rate producers, from A Guy Called Gerald and Cari Lekebusch to Batu, Mia Koden and the one and only Shackleton. Opening with weighty grime and ending on head-spinning drum & bass, the mix journeys through US club, wobbly dubstep, classic techno and, of course, many shades of jungle. Rather than go the easy route, the Londoner approached the assignment with the curiosity, integrity and vulnerability of fellow shapeshifters like dBridge, Calibre and ASC. "The idea was to represent other styles of electronic music that I've been a bit self-conscious about openly expressing my interest in," he told RA. RA.1000 isn't just another side of Tim Reaper's artistry: thankfully for us, it feels like only the beginning. @tim-reaper Find the interview and tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1012. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co