RA Podcast

Resident Advisor

Front left since 2001.

  1. EX.787 Voices From The Lake

    4 DAYS AGO

    EX.787 Voices From The Lake

    For the Exchange's Season Two relaunch, the visionary duo discuss their first release in 13 years and the inspiration behind their trailblazing sound. Neel and Donato Dozzy, who perform and make music together as Voices From The Lake, first joined forces in 2011, when what was supposed to be a one-off performance in the Japanese Alps changed the trajectory of ambient techno forever. The music they made for the occasion was released as a self-titled album in 2012—a record that achieved mythical status in the underground and is still described as the Selected Ambient Works for the Berghain generation. Instead of following techno's standard linearity and instrumentation, the duo deployed a soft pulse, massive reverb trails and carefully placed silence to make their music feel like a living, breathing organism. Dozzy and Neel then went silent for 13 years, each pursuing their individual careers while fans pined for more music. And in December 2025, they finally delivered. II, which is dedicated to their late friend Nuel, manages to be both a continuation and a reinvention of the sound they pioneered more than a decade ago. In this RA Exchange, they uncover its guiding concepts, which draw deeply from the well of improvisational practices, concepts in Japanese design and aesthetics, and the minimalist visual art of contemporaries like Mike Parker. The duo also reveal their plans to veer away from the ambient blueprint altogether. Listen to the episode in full.

    1 hr
  2. RA.1025 OMOLOKO

    8 FEB

    RA.1025 OMOLOKO

    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

    1h 2m
  3. RA.1020 crimeboys

    5 JAN

    RA.1020 crimeboys

    Stumble into 2026 with the 3XL favourites' uncanny vision of ambient. It's become a tradition that the first RA Mix of every year eases listeners into January with soft, gentle and unhurried tones. For RA.1020, though, crimeboys take a different approach. Made up of Ben Bondy, Special Guest DJ and Pontiac Sterator, the US trio are all loosely associated with 3XL. Over the past decade, the Berlin-based label, run by Special Guest DJ, has helped define a strain of ambient that foregrounds strangeness, texture and eccentric detail. This energy comes through immediately on RA.1020. Listen to the first ten minutes and you might not quite feel soothed. Stick with it, though, and a different logic begins to emerge, as church bells, corroded electronics and industrial abrasion give way to long passages of dub pressure, shadowy rhythm and low-lit propulsion. Across two hours, the trio draw a map of influences both internal and external to the 3XL universe, from foundational reference points like Skinny Puppy, M.E.S.H. and DJ Krush to artists embedded within the label’s wider orbit, such as Perila, james K and Critical Amnesia. Together, these selections trace a throughline from '90s industrial and jungle into dub techno, experimental club and contemporary ambient's more unsettled edges. RA.1020 isn't comfort listening in the conventional sense, but it does offer its own form of recalibration and release. Stay put, and you'll be rewarded. Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1039 @triplexlarge @benbondy @pontiacstreator @specialguest-dj

    2h 35m
4
out of 5
15 Ratings

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Front left since 2001.

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