RA Podcast Folgen

The first weekend of February was a big one for Ahad Elley, AKA Ahadadream. On the Friday, he was featured in Vogue India alongside other South Asian artists and crews currently lighting up UK dance music. 24 hours later, he launched a residency at London club Colour Factory, playing to a packed crowd who, during a brief power cut, chanted his name like adoring teenagers. To outsiders, this might feel like a story of overnight success, but Elley has been grafting away for years: DJing, producing, running a label (More Time), throwing parties (No ID) and, perhaps most importantly of all, co-founding the first edition of London festival Dialled In, which launched last September. As well as showcasing a wealth of South Asian talent, the event fostered a new community of ravers who, in Elley's words, "felt seen in a club space for the first time." When he was younger, Elley shied away from centering his Pakistani heritage in his music. Today, it's a huge part of his identity, from the events he runs and the music he makes to the tunes he plays. But, as RA 825 shows, his DJ sets also go way beyond South Asia and London, spanning gqom, Egyptian percussion, Portuguese Afro house and classic Peverelist. This is Elley at peak time, the kind of thing you might hear at his next Colour Factory gig. "The idea was just to include tracks that bring me joy and make me move," he said. "I hope they do the same for you." Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/825 @ahadadream

Nicolá Cruz is a master of meaningful engagement. Whether he's studying North African melodies or spiritual chants, he shows profound respect for a given sound's cultural context. This is evident across his entire discography. His earliest releases on Multi Culti and ZZK Records layerered traditional woodwinds and percussion with folktronica and tribal house, reflecting a holistic understanding of global rhythms. His more recent work takes an adventurous, polyglot approach to club music, with EPs on Highlife, Rhythm Section and Tra Tra Trax exploring breaks, acid and other spirally sounds. But even his deep, drum-heavy techno cuts feel unusually organic, vibrant polyrhythms bursting with character. For his RA Podcast, the Ecuador-based producer shows off his rave education. This display of futuristic chuggers and electro—Marcela Dias Sindaco's "A Flor Da Pele" is a particular highlight—speaks to Cruz's deep appreciation for body music. He treats dance floor jams with the same nuance as culturally significant sounds, a testament to his versatility, knowledge and experience. Journeying across acid basslines and dubby electronics, the 73 minute-long ride flirts with psychedelia, distortion and experimental bleeps, with many of the selections reflecting his own taste for colorful patterns. It's energetic and warm, flush with life, until the very end. Read more: http://ra.co/podcast/824 @nicolacruz

Chris Clark's music is hard to describe, but if you wanted to explain it to an electronic music fan, you might use the dreaded term "IDM" to encompass the many strange and alluring records, some frantic, some chill, the UK producer has put out through Warp over the years. We can be a bit more specific: he uses field recordings, out-there drum patterns and all kinds of hardware (seriously, there's a lot) to make make meticulously processed music, some of which you can dance to. Lately, though, he's turned his attention to classical music, scoring films and televisions shows and culminating in last year's Playground In A Lake for vaunted label Deutsche Grammophon, which featured guests like AFRODEUTSCHE and Oliver Coates and a member of Grizzly bear on a moving, string and horns-led suite about climate change. You hear all these ideas at once on Clark's stirring RA Podcast, which features music, as he explains, from 1922 all the way to 2022. Classical rubs elbows with Burial and Ricardo Villalobos, as once familiar tracks melt into new (mis)shapes. It also features plenty of Clark originals—maybe some glimpsse of the new album? The best part isn't even the formidable selections, but the way he puts it altogether. Far from a seamless DJ mix, this one is full of peaks and valleys and clever transitions that'll make you check the tracklist and wonder what you just heard. It's the kind of all-over-the-place mix that captures the brilliance of Clark's in a DJ format. Maybe he should do this more often. Read more: https://ra.co/podcast/823