RA Podcast

Bitter Babe takes the second half of RA.997, revelling in the fullness of the Latin electronic continuum.

As part of our countdown to the 1000th edition of the RA Podcast, a milestone in the 18-year history of Resident Advisor's weekly mix series, we're switching up the usual format.

This week, following heady excursions through Lagos, Kampala, Detroit and Chicago, our focus shifts to Latin America—arguably the story in underground electronic music since the pandemic.

After years of being all but ignored internationally, the glut of special club sounds coming out of Peru, Brazil, Colombia and beyond have finally received their flowers.

Among the movement's great success stories are two artists who exemplify its refreshingly undogmatic energy: Verraco and Bitter Babe.

Bitter Babe, naturally, takes the B. As a DJ, she reflects the fullness of the Latin electronic experience—"diverse, messy, emotional, political and full of contradictions," as she says in her interview.

Her rollicking rides through guaracha, dembow, cumbia, techno and everything in between are powerful counters to anyone who believes the culture begins and ends with Shakira and Bad Bunny. And, as she'd like to remind everyone, "not every offbeat rhythm with Latin percussion is reggaeton."

Skip through the 60-minute mix and you'll hear wildly different rhythms at every juncture. Surely, you might assume, at the expense of flow? And yet enjoyed (as intended) from start to finish, the tunes gel like milk and honey, each silky transition subtly phasing in fresh tones and percussive flourishes. It's fast, feverish and intensely riveting.

@bitterbabe

Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1000

Correction: the final version of this mix was uploaded on Tuesday, July 15th.

The Medellín maverick opens RA.997 with another mind-altering home run.

As part of our countdown to the 1000th edition of the RA Podcast, a milestone in the 18-year history of Resident Advisor's weekly mix series, we're switching up the usual format.

This week, following heady excursions through Lagos, Kampala, Detroit and Chicago, our focus shifts to Latin America—arguably the story in underground electronic music since the pandemic.

After years of being all but overlooked internationally, the explosion of distinctive club sounds emerging from Peru, Brazil, Colombia and beyond has finally begun to get its due.

Among the movement's great success stories are two artists who exemplify its refreshingly undogmatic energy: Verraco and Bitter Babe, and the former handles the A-side of RA.997.

Is there a more compelling electronic artist around right now? Both in the studio and behind the decks, the Medellín-based DJ and producer currently sits in that coveted creative sweet spot, where every fresh musical morsel feels like a moment. To bask in any of his singular tracks on VOAM, Timedance and now XL Recordings, is to be bowled over by their rhythmic brilliance, madcap hooks and whirlpool basslines. ("Basic Maneuvers," anyone?)

His mix is tough to pin down—a blend of dubby techno, tribal atmospheres, slanted bass and sharp edits. Or, as he puts it in the accompanying interview: “an intersection between dub-infused techno but with some flow, reduced atmospheric tribal, edgy bass cuts, mental emo-tek.”

There’s plenty of unreleased TraTraTrax material here, alongside tracks from artists like Virginia, A Made Up Sound and a euphoric flip of Ploy’s “Ramos.” Slippery, emotional and surgically precise, it’s Verraco doing what he does best.

Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1001

The first half of RA.996 is Ron Trent's take on luxurious house.

As part of our countdown to RA.1000, a milestone in the 24-year history of RA's weekly mix series, we're switching up the usual format. The next few editions will pair two acts who complement each other's strengths, offering a fresh take on a particular community, scene or style.

This week, we're zeroing in on Ron Trent and Ash Lauryn, two names who fly the flag high for old-school US house—a foundational pillar of the electronic underground.

Trent takes the A-side. Hailing from Chicago, the birthplace of house, the pioneer is a master of finding the sweet spot where machine music meets organic instrumentation. Listen to any DJ set or record in his extensive back catalogue and you'll find a wealth of exquisitely expressive melodies and deep, spiritual frequencies, making him the ideal narrator for any survey on house. (If you've only got a moment, sink into "Morning Factory," nine minutes of perfection.)

Trent's return to the RA Podcast, 19 years after his debut in 2006, represents his many decades of expertise in fusing funk with gorgeous musicianship under the umbrella of heart-stirring house. Some may call it a masterclass but to us, it's just Trent doing what he does best.

Listened to as a whole, RA.996 is a powerful snapshot of house's elegance, class and most importantly, understated yet innately euphoric joy.

Find the interview and tracklist at ra.co/podcast/997

Part two of RA.996 comes from a modern-day house luminary.

As part of our countdown to RA.1000, a milestone in the 24-year history of RA's weekly mix series, we're switching up the usual format. The next few editions will pair two acts who compliment each other's strengths, offering a fresh take on a particular community, scene or style.

This week, we're zeroing in on two names who fly the flag high for old-school, US house—a foundational pillar of the electronic underground. The first half comes from Ron Trent, which you can read more about here.

On the B-side is Ash Lauryn. Hailing from Detroit, she's a modern-day house savant. Her comprehensive understanding of the genre's history—knowledge gained from the Detroit greats who that inspired her—and her own inimitable blend of old-world soul meets new-school grooves make her a force to be reckoned with.

A former RA contributor, Lauryn keeps it real, whether in the booth or beyond. A role model to a new generation of DJs, she can just as easily be found teaching workshops at Underground Music Academy in Detroit or sharing tricks of the trade in the green room at some of the best clubs in the world.

An unwavering champion of Black dance music, the Atlanta resident makes it a point to play as much Black American music as possible, as she told us in her 2019 podcast. Not much has changed since then. Her contribution to RA.996 spans favourites like Larry Heard, Mood II Swing, Byron The Aquarius, Moodymann, Ron Trent and plenty of Detroit heavy-hitters.

Listened to together, both mixes are a powerful snapshot of house's timeless elegance and, most importantly, understated yet innately euphoric joy.

Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/998

Kampire's half of a double-sided mix by two Nyege Nyege all-stars.

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Nyege Nyege is synonymous with radical sonic innovation. Since 2015, the boundary-pushing Ugandan festival and its associated label have become a vital hub for adventurous, experimental sounds emerging from East Africa and beyond. Its alumni roster includes some of the past decade's most thrilling and forward-thinking artists—DJ Travella, Nihiloxica, Juliana Huxtable, MC Yallah, and even New York's mayoral frontrunner, Zohran Mamdani. In the process, the collective has reimagined what club music can be.

On the B side mix is Kampire. The Kampala-based DJ has been a core member of the collective since the label's inception. Her mixes often feel like a lesson in musicology, weaving together narratives, tempos and genres while losing nothing in dance floor vitality. These talents are reflected in her contribution to RA.995. A typically kaleidoscopic blend of tough percussive workouts, infectious edits and raw, unreleased gems, the hour-long mix spans batida, singeli, bruxaria and countless more urgent sounds from the global underground.

The other half of this special release comes from the enigmatic DJ TOBZY, which you can find on the A-side.

Presented together, as the first edition of a new format marking the countdown to RA.1000, this two-sided mix offers a bracing snapshot of a label that has redefined electronic music over the last decade.

Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/996

DJ TOBZY's half of a double-sided mix by two Nyege Nyege all-stars.

Nyege Nyege is synonymous with radical sonic innovation. Since 2015, the boundary-pushing Ugandan festival and its associated label have become a vital hub for adventurous, experimental sounds emerging from East Africa and beyond. Its alumni roster includes some of the past decade's most thrilling and forward-thinking artists—DJ Travella, Nihiloxica, Juliana Huxtable, MC Yallah, and even New York's mayoral frontrunner, Zohran Mamdani. In the process, the collective has reimagined what club music can be.

The enigmatic DJ TOBZY is one of the freshest voices in this ever-expanding ecosystem. At the tender age of 23 years, he's at the forefront of the effervescent cruise scene in his adopted hometown of Lagos. Breakneck, unpolished and fiercely DIY, it's a sound journalist Giulio Pecci described as "a delirious blur of vocals and drums, influenced by other African dance music styles but moving only to its own strange, internal logic." TOBZY's mix captures the frenetic energy of a scene evolving in real time—bold, street-born and completely unfiltered.

His contribution to RA.995 sits alongside that of Kampala-based Kampire, a core Nyege Nyege member since the label's inception, and she takes the B-side.

Together, the two-sided mix forms the launch of a new series marking the countdown to RA.1000—offering a bracing snapshot of a collective that has redefined electronic music over the last decade.

Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/995

Waves of pulsing, layered techno from the revered Mala Junta resident.

If the electronic music industry is caught in the crosshairs of a battle over what makes for true techno, then D.Dan is one of the underground's great modern emissaries.

A figurehead from the new guard of DJs to arise in the '20s, the Berlin-based artist and Mala Junta resident is an ambassador for a sound that is strongly anchored in the classic roots of techno. His productions, like his mixes, are revved-up takes on the hypnotic wormholes that defined dance floors last decade, but with a fresh (and high BPM) millennial twist.

Originally from Seattle, D.Dan became enamoured with the spectral stylings of psych rock and shoegaze in adolescence. It's not difficult to see how the cosmic tapestry of bands like Cocteau Twins became a blueprint for the entrancing music he's gone on to make as an adult. His releases on Mutant Future and summerpup are latticeworks of loops and layered percussion, custom-tooled for lost hours on the dance floor and drawn-out mixes behind the decks.

This approach directly extends into his DJ practice, where he pairs song selections from contemporaries that mirror his own reduced, controlled approach to techno. RA.994 is a Grade A display of contemporary four-to-the-floor from flagbearers like Roll Dann and Marcal.

And like D.Dan's standalone records, his RA Podcast finds room for sweetness—the intermittent peal of an open clap, the steady ripening of a chord—while ultimately emphasising the beauty of function and form over flair.

@ddan-sounds

Find the full interview and tracklist at ra.co/podcast/994

A new studio set from one of the foundational icons of drum & bass.

Few names in drum & bass carry as much history as Peshay. Paul Pesce came up in the crucible of early rave and left fingerprints on labels like Mo' Wax, Good Looking and, most obviously, Metalheadz. By the time drum & bass was surging in the mid-'90s, he was bolted as one of the scene's most distinctive voices.

Where others were pushing clinical austerity or waves of dark pressure, Pesce's ear drew him to featherlight, jazzy chords instead. The atmospheric drum & bass movement—or intelligent, as it's sometimes known today—cohered in his hands with timeless staples like "The Piano Tune" and "Miles From Home."

To a contemporary generation, he may now be best known for Studio Set, which caught alight as a prime slice of algorithm fodder on YouTube in the late 2010s, racking up millions of plays. Alongside Bailey’s Intelligent Drum & Bass, the mix has taken on a second life as a seminal document of a genre in flux. All of which made its removal from the internet, based around a spurious copyright strike, a hot concern.

Although a little tad reserved than some of the scene's most dominant names, Pesce has remained a loyal custodian and historian of the sound. While Studio Set was down, we offered him a crack at making something fresh, and though it's thankfully back up, the Kafkian nightmare galvanised his commitment to preserve recorded history.

Known as a DJ for his dynamic way with a groove, extended blends have long been Pesce's signature. You’ll hear plenty of those on his RA Podcast, as golden-age rollers and contemporary vocal cuts push in and out for up to four minutes, painting a portrait of the genre’s vitality from someone who helped define its terms. True to form, RA.993 carries the touch of a jazz conductor and the assured cool of a veteran who's been deep in the culture for over 30 years.

@peshay-official

Find the interview and tracklist at ra.co/podcast/993

"I'm ready to bring back gatekeeping." The New Yorker staff writer discusses how to protect the underground, experimenting with drugs and her new book, Health and Safety.

Can drugs help us find meaning in music and nightlife? This is a question that today's Exchange guest, New Yorker staff writer Emily Witt, asks in earnest in her new book Health and Safety: A Breakdown. Just released in hardcover in the UK and Europe, the memoir traces Witt's life in her early-to-mid 30s. A journalist living and working in Brooklyn, she began experimenting with psychedelics and club drugs after years of living what she describes as a conservative, straight-and-narrow, middle-class life. She became enamoured with the borough's underground raves, frequenting events like the festival Sustain-Release, the party Unter and sets at Bushwick haunt Bossa Nova Civic Club, all while falling in love with an aspiring DJ and producer she calls Andrew.

As the book progresses, Witt documents the growing MAGA movement in America, gun rights rallies and mass shootings. As the country falls apart, she watches her romantic relationship fall apart, too. Drugs and Brooklyn nightlife, she writes, became both an escape and a way to rearrange a world that she starts to feel no longer makes sense.

Witt shares critical opinions about the underground scene's capacity to be a utopia and place of belonging in an increasingly hostile world, arguing that there should be more gatekeeping in place to protect a scene that's threatened by capitalism and the mainstream. She also interrogates what she calls "woke identity politics" in Brooklyn, the lack of change that came from the Black Lives Matter movement, empty calls for political protest that dominated the early days of the pandemic and why, despite everything, she's chosen to stay in Brooklyn for good. Listen to the episode in full. -Chloe Lula

A rare club mix from the ever-evolving artist, with 90 minutes of shadowy, atmospheric pressure.

Music's therapeutic value is often linked to relaxation—gongs, singing bowls and the like. Dense passages of foggy droning and eerie static aren't traditionally considered restorative, but Laurel Halo makes a pretty good case for it.

The Detroit-born, Los Angeles-based musician's abstract, often improvised productions are heavy on sound design and emotional climax. Driven by atmosphere rather than rhythm, they push listeners to grapple with their innermost insecurities, fears and dreams. "I'm lucky my music has helped people through crises," Halo once told Discwoman. It's easy to see why.

Since her 2010 debut King Felix, Halo has built a stunningly diverse catalogue of classically-informed records. A multi-instrumentalist—piano, violin, guitar, keys—her sharpest instrument is arrangement. Inspired by the surrealism of Italo Calvino and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, her releases, from Atlas to Behind The Green Door, unfold with slow-burning narrative and dense emotional weight. Her soundworlds are layered and labyrinthine—an architectonic space where self-reflection happens almost by force.

Even in the club, the sought-after composer excels in immersion. Her sets extend the expressionist palette of her records, trading traditional rhythm for tension, space and surprise. It’s no wonder she takes a genre-agnostic approach to the dance floor—her deep roots in freeform radio began at WCBN-FM in Michigan, followed by Berlin Community Radio, Rinse FM, and now a regular show on NTS.

RA.992 stitches foggy ambient loops, propulsive techno, mutant percussion and heady left turns with care. Tracks from DJ Rush, Octave One and Eddie Fowlkes nod to her Midwestern heritage, balanced out by deeper, psychedelic fare from the likes of Polygonia and Cousin. It's the mark of an artist revealing both deep curiosity and a precise hand as a selector. Rare, indeed.

@laurelhalo

Find the full interview at ra.co/podcast/992