RA Podcast

The Dutch phenomenon unpacks the myth of overnight success and the story behind his debut album, Lost, Found & Forgotten. They say it takes ten years to become an overnight success, and in the case of this week's guest, that math almost checks out. Born in Leiden, Chris Stussy has been sharpening his tools for over a decade, and in the years since the pandemic, the world has caught onto his sleek, relentlessly groovy strain of house music. It's been a stratospheric rise for Stussy, culminating in sold-out shows of iconic venues like London's Alexandra Palace, where tickets were gone in a matter of minutes. But if you look past the viral TikTok clips and the fandom that follows him from Ibiza to Coachella, you'll find a dedicated student of the craft—someone who spent his formative years absorbing the grit of the Utrecht underground as well as the foundations of Chicago and New York house. RA editor Gabriel Szatan caught up with Stussy during a rare moment of reflection. His long-awaited debut album, Lost, Found & Forgotten, which officially lands April 3 on his own Up The Stuss imprint, and it stands as his most expansive and personal statement to date. The project is divided into three interconnected chapters: 'Lost' breathes new life into sketches he started earlier in his production career; 'Found' captures contemporary inspirations; and 'Forgotten' nods to the heads and diggers, focusing on deeper cuts that reward patient listening. Stussy also traces the arc of his early releases to his current status as a torchbearer for a new generation of clubbers, and considers how club culture has changed along the way. Listen to the episode in full.

'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 iconoclastic slogan that defined a generation of anti-fashion kids, is a fitting touch for a duo transforming '90s nostalgia into something distinctly modern. That irreverence still runs through Lewis and Shanny Wise. Indie kids turned club kids, Fcukers draw from big beat, filter house, dance punk, drum & bass, reggae and dub. Their rise has been swift, catching ears across music and fashion circles alike — including Hedi Slimane, who flew them to Paris to soundtrack a show afterparty. Behind the attitude is a genuine education in dance music lineage, an instinct that's since drawn the attention of artists like Charli XCX and Tiga. Their RA Mix channels the wide-eyed optimism of an era they clearly hold dear. And with debut album Ö landing this week, success seems to have found them all the same. Find the tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1051 @fcukers

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 recordings, his output will be familiar to any raver who has touched grass at the likes of Sustain-Release, Dekmantel or Waking Life in recent years. The "Priori touch" is easy to spot. It shapeshifts as you listen: strange, synthetic textures, enveloping low-end, everything draped in a fine silk gauze that seems to hover just above the surface. But for all its hallmarks, it's also deeply versatile. Priori is prog, Priori is dub, sometimes Priori is even pop. Just as you think you've grasped his sound, it slips away. This is by design. Priori takes inspiration from myriad genres and mediums—as likely to be moved by an obscure illbient 12-inch as a Wong Kar-wai film. "I love world-building," he once told Butter Sessions, and that instinct lends his productions a sense of richness. Making his long-overdue debut on the RA Mix, Priori opens the door to the chillout room. RA.1031 is built on thick, enveloping bass and atmospheric drift, as dub, prog and electronica cuts are folded together with ease. Who knows what thrilling new forms await in the future. Find the tracklist and Q&A at ra.co/podcast/1050 @priori-ties @naffrecordings

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 tastemakers. Ordained as the king of the speed garage shuffler, a Main Phase track is easy to spot: infectious swing and rippling melodies, underpinned by a sensual, determined mood. With Interplanetary Criminal, he now co-runs ATW Records, invigorating what was once a exploratory imprint into one of the scene's most crucial nurturers of new talent. Some listeners might press play expecting the corybantic ragga edits of "100%," but patience is required: what you may expect from a Main Phase set only pokes its head out briefly (there's exactly one speed garage drop, two hours in). Instead, treat RA.1030 as Main Phase 101. Opening with a dub-techno soundbath, the mix traces the roots and outer edges of his sound, and lands like an artistic statement he has been building towards since he was an awestruck teenager, racing home to catch Rinse FM. Read more at ra.co/podcast/1049 @mainphase001 @atwrec

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 passages to contemplative field recordings. Collaboration is one of the central ways she continually reinvents herself, whether it be spiritual dub excursions with Shackleton and Holy Tongue, or post-punk melancholia with Moin. As she told The Guardian in 2024, "dialogue is more interesting than monologue." Take her work with Princípe associate Nídia, in which she used Angolan kuduro as a springboard for new acoustic visions of dance music. But Magaletti is also a solo artist in her own right, and RA.1029 is the sound of her own monologue. The 90-minute mix sees her roving through her personal archive, from wild drum excursions and Midwestern industrial to frenetic free jazz, eerie gqom and Ukrainian electro. It captures, she says, her current inner state, a feeling of being "suspended between introspection and anticipation." Fitting, then, for a groundbreaking artist who thrives in the spaces in between. Find the tracklist and Q&A at ra.co/podcast/1048 @magadrum

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, where percussion and bass move as one. First surfacing in the late 2010s with releases on DECISIONS and Nervous Horizon, he has since become one of the most consistent voices in leftfield dance music, defined by the tactile clarity of their drum programming and Maqam-informed phrasing. RA.1028 opens with Bruce's "Just Getting On With It" from Livity Sound's ten-year compilation, a fitting nod to the kind of rhythmic experimentation that runs through the set. From Iran to London to Miami and back again, the 90-minute mix pulls a wide frame into focus, including several unreleased DJ Plead tracks. Whether it's the dry snap of hand-drum hits or sub-bass that lands with chest-caving weight, RA. 1028 is a reminder that rhythm can be a direct path back to the self. Find the tracklist and Q&A at https://ra.co/podcast/1047 @1djplead

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 that centres musical education through storytelling. Behind the decks, JADALAREIGN is principled. They say wisdom brings sorrow, but RA.1027 suggests the opposite. It opens with a vocal sample whose message mirrors her wider creative practice: "I'm an African woman who believes in justice for all people. The priorities of this planet have to completely change." From there, the mix ricochets through rumbly drums and sci-fi whirr, peppering house melodies with slo-mo bleeps and techy steppers. She moves across club genres with fluid ease, keeping the cadence loose-limbed yet dynamic throughout. It's strange and tactile—and it sounds like freedom. JADALAREIGN seems surer than ever about all aspects of her career, and it shows in her RA Mix. If you see her at the function, her joy for her work is ever bountiful. For US Black History Month, it's a timely reminder that history isn't only something we look back on; JADALAREIGN is making it, live. Find the Q&A and tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1046

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 Youth's public breakup in 2011, Gordon returned to her original creative practice: visual art. But in recent years, she has undergone a staggering creative transformation that's led her back to music. At 72—an age when most legends are content with the heritage circuit—she has instead dived headlong into the sounds of the present: industrial electronics, Chicago footwork and the blown-out low-end of SoundCloud rap. Aiming to break with her Sonic Youth legacy, Gordon released her first two solo albums, No Home Record and The Collective, in 2019 and 2024, respectively. And now, she's back with her third LP: PLAY ME. Working alongside producer Justin Raisen, she uses beat-oriented frameworks to interrogate what she calls the "tyranny of frictionless culture." From naming Spotify playlists in her lyrics to donating proceeds to reproductive rights, her work remains a vital, confrontational critique of late capitalism and technocratic fascism. In this RA Exchange, Gordon discusses the process of moving closer to solo work, as well as the masculinity of rock; her evolving relationship with electronic music; the politics of the "body;" and why, after thinking she was done with music, she keeps getting pulled back in. Listen to the episode in full.

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 have shaped electronic music in profound ways, from Moodymann's 2004 LP Black Mahogani and Craig's era-defining remixes, to Banks's uncompromising output as Underground Resistance. But the records are only part of it. All three artists show you can build something lasting without corporate backing, that creative freedom is a discipline as much as a right. Through their work, house and techno became vehicles for resistance, identity and pride. Recorded live at Movement in Detroit, RA.1026 captures Banks on keys, Craig on the decks and Moodymann on the mic, weaving through Motor City staples, '80s classics and deep cuts, including "The Final Frontier" and "Knights Of The Jaguar." As Black History Month continues in the US, the mix feels especially momentous Coming in at just under two hours, it’s about chemistry, shared history and timeless records. Read the Q&A with Carl Craig at ra.co/podcast/1045. @moodymann313 @carl-craig-official @underground-resistance

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 rabbit holes, forgotten corners of YouTube and the dust of hidden record shops. Vitor was born in Rio Grande do Norte, in Brazil's northeast, before moving south as a child when his family set out in search of new opportunities—a well-worn path in the world's fifth-largest country. Adopting the alias OMOLOKO in the late 2010s, he quickly became a beacon in Belo Horizonte's bubbling electronic scene. Carrying sounds from home deep in his memory alongside a restless desire to make the world dance to his own findings, he carved out a singular voice with genre-hopping sets, grounded in an affection for infectious grooves and warm, rolling kicks. In recent years, Vitor's fine-tuning of his craft behind the decks have made him more than a familiar face at countless essential nightlife hubs around the world, from Panorama Bar to Dekmantel, São Paulo's Gop Tun to Ibiza's DC-10. His résumé, already impressive, is expanding nicely. So to mark the beginning of carnaval in Brazil, who better for RA.1025. Vitor's RA Mix draws deeply from the lineage of house's most celebrated names, alongside obscure gems your Shazam wouldn't dare recognise. With slow-cooking patience, the session follows wherever the language of dance leads: South African kwaito, diva vocal flashes, funk-laced deep house, vibraphone-led strides and salsa-laced drumwork. It’s like a dream team of house offshoots, all meeting for the very first time at the beach. Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/1044 @OMOLOKOO

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 challenging and rearranging the scope of every genre he works within. African-American Sound Recordings is Mays' "side project"—as hobbies go, it's a formidable one. Since its launch in 2019, he's released ten albums built from a dense palette of samples: distorted voices drift alongside warm currents of jazz and acoustic instrumentation, painting ambient vignettes that swerve between the serene and the industrial. It's no coincidence that Mays cites Sunday service as a formative space. Samples of gospel worship and memories of communal ritual are the <i>fil rouge</i> running through the project, reimagining Black musical traditions as a living system. RA.1024 has one of the shortest tracklists in the series to date: three total. The final two tracks, gospel recordings ripped from his own CD collection, arrive like sunlight breaking through the clouds. Find the tracklist and interview at https://ra.co/podcast/1043 @user-512973206

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 stargazers like Mills and Richie Hawtin are inevitable, RA.1023 reveals a broader palette. Microtonal flourishes recall Aleksi Perälä’s Colundi era, while the patient structures lean closer to Perlon-style minimalism than early-2000s severity, with nods to Ricardo Villalobos and Margaret Dygas. Built largely from unreleased material, RA.1023 captures Garg’s vision of techno for this decade. There’s weight, but it’s more body than bite: elastic, finely tuned drums and a buoyant hypnotism that persists even in rougher moments. Though often labeled sci-fi, Garg’s sound adds layers to cold futurism—instead, optimism shines through. In his hands, techno’s future still feels bright. Find the Q&A and tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1042 @iamdecoder

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 February. But her instincts remain the same: push harder, strip things back, make it stranger. It comes as little surprise, then, that she's earned the support of fellow mould-breakers like Aphex Twin, Ethel Cain and Hudson Mohawke. Of her RA Mix she shrugs: "I honestly don't remember making it." That irreverence is audible: disembodied voices mutter club-floor mantras, as she drags grime, drum & bass and dubstep through distortion, friction and collapse. If that all sounds chaotic, well, that's kind of the point. The aim is to unsettle but o nce you find your footing, RA.1022 reveals itself as genuinely thrilling dance music, far removed from convention. Because nobody gets anywhere interesting without ruffling a few feathers. Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1041 @kavarimusic