RA Podcast

Imagine growing up near Berlin, getting into dance music, going to Berghain for the first time and getting your mind blown by techno. Then, ten years later, you become a resident DJ at the fabled club. Not many people—any people?—can claim this story, but for Fadi Mohem, what would be so many DJs' dreams became a reality. After getting his 2017 debut 12-inch Reckless in the hands of all the right people in Berlin, Mohem established a bold, bouncy techno sound with releases on Modeselektor's Seilscheibenpfeiler, Ben Klock's Klockworks and FJAAK's SPANDAU20, pretty much the cream of the crop of modern techno. Now, this year, he's becoming one of Berghain's newest residents, alongside other exciting names like Sedef Adasï and Naty Seres (and Lakuti upstairs at Panorama Bar). As heard on his recent collaborative with Ben Klock, Mohem has modern techno down to a science, thanks to a combination of reverence for the old-school and clever rhythmic touches, like the irresistible snare pattern on "Prefix." His RA Podcast sounds like what you might expect from a new generation of Berghain resident: aerodynamic, heavy and, honestly a little midtempo compared to a lot of other young techno DJs. It's the sound the club has made world-famous, with cuts from Reeko, Heiko Laux and Truncate, plus some special moments from aya, DJ Deeon and Petar Dundov. It takes a certain kind of DJ to get to this hallowed place, and Fadi Mohem deserves it. @fadimohem Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/842

Welsh artist Kelly Lee Owens has a special grasp on techno. She can make it sound wild and naturalistic, like wind blowing through a dense forest, or make it feel cold and sleek, like a gleaming slab of chrome. Either way, though, it's always full of emotion, thanks to the intricate textures and distinctive tones of her voice. You might even say she takes a singer-songwriter approach to techno, but that doesn't mean her music isn't suited for the dance floor. Her most recent album, LP.8, marks a step away from the dance floor, however, and into a place a little more dark, more unpredictable. It's also some of her most gorgeous work, centering around "Anadlu," an eight-minute cut that feels perfectly pitched between ambient and techno, with heavy, lumbering drums but an otherwise lightweight, almost wispy feel. 
Owens' RA Podcast occupies this zone almost perfectly. Beginning with 11th century music from Hildegard von Bingen, it ties all sorts of traditions together, from Pan Sonic to Throbbing Gristle to Marco Shuttle to Oneohtrix Point Never & Rosalía. It floats, it accelerates, it loops and doubles back in on itself, an hour of gripping electronics from one of techno's most distinctive voices. Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/841

Camila Milieme has been playing techno long enough to experience a few of its boom-and-bust cycles. Starting off in Brazil in the late '90s with the kind of rippling, tooly techno you'd expect from that era, Milieme lost interest once things started going minimal and took a break from techno to take up studying instead. By the time she checked back in, the genre had taken a turn closer to the stuff she used to play, so she packed up her bags and moved to Berlin, where she's become an indispensable part of the techno scene. As The Lady Machine, Milieme has released on Mote-Evolver and also runs her own label, Unterwegs, with UK producer Decka. As you'll hear on her RA Podcast, she prefers a classicist (yet, still, modern) style of techno that mixes toughness with texture and detail. With plenty of unreleased tracks from her cohort and tracks from British Murder Boys, Jeff Mills, Dave Clark and Christian Wunsch, this is a timeless techno mix for heads from any generation, from the '90s to the '20s. @theladymachine Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/840

"Working my ass off, to be honest," is how Eli Escobar starts our interview below. That basically sums up his vibe. The New Yorker might not have the same household name status of other DJs who have been soundtracking Manhattan clubs since the early '90s, but he certainly deserves it. Any New York resident worth their salt should have him near the top of the list of their favorite local DJs. He plays anywhere and everywhere in the city, and he can play pretty much anything he wants to, as his RA Podcast will attest. When it comes to his own music, Escobar puts out records equally informed by disco, hip-hop and house—in other words, a very New York sound. He hasn't been producing as long as he's been DJing, but his albums and EPs for labels like Classic, Night People and Razor N Tape are full of the soul, humor and talent of someone who knows dance music inside out. As Escobar says below, he doesn't really have any one type of sound. His DJing varies greatly from night to night, and he's always adding to his considerable collection, so no one set is quite the same as another. For his RA Podcast, put together painstakingly with many specially edited tracks and recorded in a hotel room in Colombia, he strikes a relatively reflective tone, but it's still eminently danceable. He moves gradually through two hours of house and disco that ranges from celebratory to muted, from minimalist to rich with live instrumentation. It's the sound of New York dance music as passed through generations, from one of its best and most beloved musical storytellers. @eliescobar Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/839

Last year, New Jersey group OSSX wowed us with a mix of completely original material that blended infectious edits of Janet Jackson and September with tracks like "Split Wig"—one of last year's indisputable breakbeat anthems—that showed how the then-duo could bring together generations of American dance music into one compelling, vibrant mix that celebrates all shades of East Coast club. Their RA Podcast might not be an all-originals mix, but it shares the same spirit. OSSX—now a trio, with Juke Bounce Werk member Elise joining original duo Equiss and Lektor Scopes—sprinkle the mix with more of their excellent unreleased originals, in-between canny and clever edits new and old, like DJ Sega's rework of Basement Jaxx's "Where Your Head At," which makes for an early highlight, along with DJ Swisha's Baltimore club edit of Robin S.'s "Luv 4 Luv" and the bouncy DJ Problem version of Mary J. Blige's classic "Family Affair." You can hear both the evolution and history of these genres through this mix, along with cuts that touch on UK garage, ballroom and jungle. Trust us when we say that this is over an hour of pure fun, showing the ingenuity and timelessness of American dance music through the decades. Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/838

Spend enough time at (or listening to) The Lot Radio, and chances are all you'll find Gabrielle Kwarteng. Even though she lives in Berlin now, the American DJ wears New York on her sleeve, repping for the station that helped make her name (she won a Mixcloud award for "Best Eclectic Show" pretty early on). Sure, you could call her sound eclectic—she jumps from house to Afrobeat to Jersey club and beyond—but it seems like "intuitive" might be a better word. She has the taste of someone raised by musical parents on a diverse diet of albums, of someone who eats, breathes and sleeps records. Buoyed by her success in the US, Kwarteng moved to Berlin in 2019, not too long before the pandemic. Like so many other up-and-coming DJs, her momentum almost stalled as a result. But here we are in 2022 and Kwarteng is more successful than ever, with a string of upcoming festival dates highlighting her wide, transatlantic appeal. Her RA Podcast is equally welcoming, with a taste for house music that feels perfectly pitched between the classic and the new. You can hear an old soul, but she also has cutting-edge tracks from the likes of NIkki Nair, and a gutsy, fantastic edit of "Can You Feel It?" by Tom Carruthers. The mix also reflects her recently getting back in touch with her roots, featuring smatterings of East Coast club music and ballroom, all wrapped up with an exquisite finishing touch courtesy of a long Moodymann play-out. Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/837

We probably don't need to tell you who Deadbeat is. (He even did a previous RA Podcast for us, all the way back in 2007.) But if you need a refresher, he's one of the most important and revered artists in dub techno. The Canadian artist came up in the Montreal scene alongside other trailblazers like Akufen and other Canadians (think Cobblestone Jazz, Mathew Jonson, Wagon Repair, etc). His early records for ~scape are some of the most classic and influential minimal there ever was, but dub is always at the heart of his work, and runs in the veins of BLKRTZ, the prolific label he runs himself. Sa Pa, on the other hand, sits somewhere in the ambient zone. Originally from Adelaide, he's found a powerful creative sparring partner in Deadbeat. The two released their first album together, The Mountain, earlier this year. It's the 50th release on BLKRTZ and maybe one of the most monumental records in either artist's catalogue, a triple-LP that harks back to the hypnotic, plink-plonk days of yore with the strong cross-genre underpinning that marks Deadbeat's work these days, and plenty of lovely atmospheric wiggles. The duo's lengthy RA Podcast, taken from two different recordings at their Absurd Dub Lustre party in Berlin, mirrors the LP's sound, weaving through tracks new and old. It's full of warm, dubby vibrations and smooth transitions. Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/836 @sapaofficial

Marco Weibel is the epitome of modesty. Over the past decade, the New York artist has quietly amassed a loyal following through expansive DJ sets that touch on everything from spiritual jazz to disco, but rather than credit himself, he lets the tunes speak for themselves. This humble attitude has won him the respect of veterans such as Lefto, as well as a growing fanbase from all corners of the musical spectrum. When he's not DJing, Weibel curates nights at various New York venues and co-runs Darker Than Wax, a label based out of Singapore (where he was born and raised). His selections showcase rhythm and texture over drops, but he always has an arsenal of radiant house cuts or UK garage to fire up a crowd. Cavernous crates aside, the cadence of his sets is perhaps their most distinguishing feature. On his weekly shows at Lot Radio, Hawaiian funk is followed by broken beat while at the club, 2-step spills into dembow techno and rich amapiano. While his mixes and performances usually start out on the melodic side, his RA Podcast switches things up. Unleashing a whirlwind of jungle before moving onto '90s-flavored house and other loopy styles, his session highlights local talents with plenty of delightful transitions throughout. Peter Brown's spacey soul flows into Aquarian's pulverising breaks, Ayesha's percussive techno precedes heart-tugging house and heavy dub morphs into Kerri Chandler's acid. Fluid and rolling, this is a true digger's delight. Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/835 @marcoweibel

Emerald is a name that should be familiar to any Rinse FM devotee—she's been DJing on the UK dance music radio giant since 2014, and has just started a new flagship slot called The Dance Show on Friday nights. The Londoner is a consummate radio DJ, blending together genres and tempos with pitch-perfect mixing and an ear for hooks that makes each track stand out. (She calls herself "genre fluid.") She's said so much in the lengthy, excellent interview below, so we can keep this part brief. Her RA Podcast combines newer favorites from Lauren Flax, Queer On Acid and Neil Landstrumm with older, recently acquired records from DJ Deeon (1994) and FSOM (1992). If this is your introduction, then take a listen and make a note to check out The Dance Show next Friday. And if you already know Emerald, then you know this is gonna be a good one. Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/834 @ emerald-rose

Nick León is part of a newer generation of Miami producers who infuse modern-day club music with sounds from around the region, everything from Miami bass to reggaeton. In León's case, his most recent—and most exciting—music has focused on beats inspired by reggaeton and its sub-genre perreo, but with a musical palette that speaks to a love of electronic music from Aphex Twin to Burial to music on labels like NAAFI and TraTraTrax. (This is a predilection he shares with DJ Python, whom León just launched a new party with.) It's on the latter label he released the Rompediscoteka EP, one of the canniest genre fusions he's done yet, meant to hark back to the feeling he had when he first discovered reggaeton. (It came with eye-opening remixes from Maral, Kelman Duran and Henzo, producers whose personal-but-global approach mirrors León's own.) He also head a head-turning EP on Future Times, which threw Miami-style electro into the mix, with an ambient touch. Like his productions, the young Miami DJ's sets can range from slow and low to high and tight, and his RA Podcast captures León in peak-time mode. It's a Latin-spin on everything from techno to tech house to cool-kid club music, with selections from Nico, Simisea, Siete Catorce, Ricardo Villalobos and MM adding up to a vibrant and rhythmically restless hour that soars across genres and scenes. Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/833 @NICKLEON