EX.766 Surgeon

Three hours of high drama, recorded live at Nowadays in New York. We know what you're thinking: why did it take so long to get Binh on the RA Podcast? There's no easy answer, especially given that he's been a favourite of ours for over a decade now. So to make up for lost time, the revered digger lands on the series with a tantalising three-hour mix, recorded live at Nowadays in New York earlier this year. Crammed with rare and unreleased gems spanning house, techno, and electro, RA.989 is heavy on drama, catching the Düsseldorf native in unbridled performance mode. This is Binh in 2025. But rewind across the past two decades and you'll find a DJ who excels in pretty much any situation, whether warming up for Zip or Margaret Dygas, going back-to-back with masters like Nicolas Lutz or rolling out solo sets that stretch across ten or even 12 hours. He's acted out all these scenarios most often at Berlin institution Club der Visionaere, the cosy canalside club that became a kind-of spiritual home. (He'd sometimes spend every night of the week there, before parenting duties got the better of him.) To play for half a day you need a lot of records, and the backbone of Binh's craft has long been a freakish passion for vinyl. Along with Lutz, Vera, and others in CDV's orbit, he approaches the pursuit of wax, new and old, with next-level dedication and a fondness for blind buys. That's true of RA.989, although among the un-Shazamables are many tracks that are either out or coming out on Binh's popular Time Passages label. The mix finds him on a house-y tip, luxuriating in roomy basslines, driving 303s and twinkly melodies—with just the right amount of evil. Lock in and savour a one-of-a-kind DJ, completely in the zone. @binh Find the interview at ra.co/podcast/989

"Music kept me sane." The hard techno artist opens up about how life's greatest challenges have made her headstrong. To honour Mental Health Awareness week, the RA Exchange sits down with hard techno DJ Lee Ann Roberts, who opens up about her tough childhood in Durban, South Africa, and how music saved her life. While to some it may appear that Roberts broke through only a few years ago, she's been hard at work for much longer, starting out in South Africa's fashion scene before moving to Los Angeles and finally committing herself to pursuing a career as a DJ and producer. She speaks candidly about her abusive household and the limited opportunities for self-expression and creativity she had as a child. As a result, she's become headstrong; nothing has stopped Roberts from being herself and chasing her dreams, and she talks about how self-care, self-compassion, authenticity and a sense of humour have gotten her through some of the darkest periods of her life. As a member of the contemporary hard techno scene, Roberts also shares her reaction to the recent Resident Advisor feature on the movement and the underpinnings of a trend that has polarised the underground. Listen to the episode in full. -Chloe Lula

A clinic in minimal from the elusive Acting Press boss. Why do certain sounds cultivate a cult following? Simply put, it's often because they resist easy consumption. PLO Man and his imprint Acting Press lean into this. Searching for the Berlin-based DJ and producer, you won’t find much online presence, interviews or conventional PR. What you will find, if you look hard enough, is a catalogue of records and mixes with a kind of tape hiss charm (a spiritual successor to Basic Channel and Chain Reaction, but scuzzier and lighter on its feet). Founded in 2015, Acting Press once seemed to belong to the short-lived "outsider house" trend, but is now synonymous with a certain strain of modern minimal, one that is analogue, spacious and pointedly opaque. PLO Man's output is equally sparse by design: this week, he joins the RA Podcast with a characteristically elusive style, accompanying the near two-hour mix is a one-answer Q&A that gives almost nothing away. Stripped-back, ever-so-slightly sleazy and coated in dust, PLO Man's RA Podcast continues that lineage in style. Opening with the featherlight microhouse of Margaret Dygas, RA.988 unfolds into a carefully curated spectrum of minimal, dub and deep techno. Among familiar names—look out for the blinding Rhythm & Sound and Moodymann blend—are deep cuts and left turns alongside the odd outlier, like lovers' rock pioneer Gregory Isaacs. Like the best of his forebears, PLO Man wants RA.988 to take time for you to settle in. But once you do, you won’t want to leave. @p_el_oh Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/988

"Everyone tells me I'm terrifying." The powerhouse agent talks about being a woman in a male-dominated world and growing the careers of artists like David Guetta, Marlon Hoffstadt and more. What does it take to become a powerhouse agent in the male-dominated electronic music industry? No one can answer this question better than Maria May, a name that might be familiar to anyone who's had a brush with big-ticket dance music over the past 30 years. May is a longtime agent at CAA, or Creative Artists Agency, one of the largest booking agencies in the world. She was first hired a little over a decade ago to expand its representation of electronic music, back when the company saw that DJs were primed to become the new rockstars. She now looks after major acts like David Guetta, Paul Kalkbrenner, Marlon Hoffstadt and Sara Landry. But she isn't just a fierce businesswoman. She's also a tireless advocate for equity and inclusion in club culture. In this conversation recorded live at the International Music Summit in Ibiza, she talks about the obstacles she's faced over the course of her career as she's actively rebuilt the rooms in which major decisions are made. She was first inspired by her involvement in Britain's illegal rave scene, she recalls, which turned her onto the power of activism and showed her how on-the-ground organising can lead to real-life policy change. She also addresses the negative narrative taking hold of the music industry and the opportunities at hand to make positive, collective change. Listen to the episode in full. -Chloe Lula

Kinetic club energy generated by one of the sharpest talents in drum & bass and beyond. Much of the best electronic music rests along the axes of versatility and curiosity: being able to a pull a broad array of influences into your orbit and alchemise it into something distinctive and fresh. That's gyrofield to a tee. Kiana Li began making waves in drum & bass as a teenager, years before setting foot in a club or experiencing the sound on a proper rig. That's a key factor which helps explain how the deeply-considered, Hong Kong-born producer arrived at a style that eludes easy description. Li, one of the foremost trans women working in drum & bass today, marshals complex rhythms like a sluice and has a knack for detailed bass programming that floods the stereo field without ever dominating it. 2024's spellbinding These Heavens was the apotheosis of an already quietly prolific catalogue; we named it the seventh best record of last year, but in truth, it could have actually nudged up a bit higher. Li's RA Podcast is a blur of rapid motion, featuring stalwarts (Dillinja, Skee Mask, Calibre, upsammy, Marcus Intalex), contemporary limelights (Nestax, Ehua, Aquarian, Maude Vôs), 17 of their own productions and a grip of truly uncommon selections, like Burnt Friedman & João Pais Filipe's "18-140." It's an ambitious mix from one of the most exciting talents at the vanguard of outer-zonal club music right now. @gyrofieldmusic Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/987