RA.1044 Love Injection

The Drain Gang cofounder talks about mysticism, Gen Z and his new album, Sulfur Surfer. Bladee's work as a founding member of the Swedish collective Drain Gang has shaped a new generation of underground music. The group's sound, which is rooted in cloud rap and Auto-Tune experimentation, and pulls from trance, noise, metal, goth and grunge, has earned them an enormous following of fans—AKA "drainers"—overwhelmingly under 30. Bladee has long been one of Drain Gang's most prominent voices, building a prolific solo career alongside the collective's output. His work engages with mysticism through vulnerable, diaristic lyrics about his state of mind. On his new album, Sulfur Surfer, he presents an autobiographical figure caught between "letting go and holding on"—a continuation of his longstanding interest in spirituality and the occult. He draws on the story of St. George, the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint and the occultism of British group Current 93, whose frontman David Tibet makes a guest appearance. In this RA Exchange, Bladee talks about making honest music, the role Drain Gang has played in pushing him to find his voice, his ambivalence about fame and his collaboration with Skrillex. Sulfur Surfer is out now on Trash Island. Listen to the episode in full.

90 minutes of wistful house from a talented Steel City Dance Discs affiliate—perfect for easing into the night or winding down after the party. Since Resident Advisor dubbed Pretty Girl "a star in the making" in 2023, the Melbourne DJ has played Coachella, gone viral on Boiler Room, and remixed Romy and Fred Again.. But she’s taken stardom on her own terms. Instead of stadium-ready adrenaline, her sound is a balanced cocktail of UK garage, sugary vocals, and '90s electronica whimsy, finding the sweet spot between the charts and the club. Her RA Mix perfectly captures this depth of emotion. The lush, unhurried session moves nimbly through Donato Dozzy, Tin Man, and unreleased Pretty Girl goodies. Full of overcast chords and melancholy arpeggios, it’s an exquisite journey that will sound just as good in the club as it will in the taxi home. Find the tracklist and Q&A at ra.co/podcast/1062

The queer icon and punk provocateur talks bodily autonomy, embracing ageing and her new album, No Lube So Rude. Merrill Nisker—known to most of the world as Peaches—has spent 25 years making music that refuses to behave. Since her 2000 breakthrough, The Teaches of Peaches, she's built a body of work at the intersection of performance art, punk provocation and dance music, becoming an international queer icon and a touchstone for anyone told their body or identity doesn't fit. Peaches' new album, No Lube So Rude, is out now on the Washington-based label Kill Rock Stars, also home to the likes of Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney. The title is a meditation on the friction and hostility that define this moment, and a frank reckoning with menopause, bodily autonomy and the systemic erasure of women who refuse to disappear quietly into middle age. In this RA Exchange, Peaches, now 59, talks about making the record after a decade of silence and what it means to keep making confrontational art. Listen to the episode in full.

Seven hours of camp, chug and genre-hopping hedonism from techno's two princes of darkness, recorded live at Kyiv's ∄. Hear the names Hayden Payne, aka Phase Fatale, and Pablo Bozzi, and it might conjure visions of dark techno. As Berghain and KHIDI residents, both artists are synonymous with the heavier strands of misfit dance music. But Soft Crash, their lockdown-born joint venture, offers something different: making the world's darkest dance floors fun again. RA.1042 is a crash course through the campier ends of the spectrum, pulling from Italo, disco, and house for a mix full of vocals, ascending chords, and bouncy arpeggios. Clocking in at a gargantuan seven-hour runtime, the mix perfectly balances both of their styles without the energy ever dipping. Swinging for the fences with chuggy, oddball bangers and trance euphoria, the duo weaves tracks from Steffi and Virginia, Goldfrapp, and Junior Jack, alongside climactic Easter eggs from Moby, Madonna, and Underworld. It's the sound of a party you never want to end. Read the Q&A at ra.co/podcast/1061

The Dutch photographer and art director on his longtime collaboration with Depeche Mode, moving into feature films and 50 years of documenting music culture. In 1979, the 24-year-old Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn talked his way into a Joy Division shoot in a London Underground tunnel by citing a magazine assignment he didn't have. The band posed with their backs to the camera, and subsequently, no magazine accepted the photo. Within a year, Ian Curtis was dead, and the picture became one of the defining images of post-punk. Corbijn has since become one of the world's best known music photographers, capturing artists like Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Bowie, Captain Beefheart and nearly every major name to enter the pop realm. In this RA Exchange, he reflected on a life spent documenting music culture and his new retrospective at Fotografiska, Corbijn, Anton, which spans five decades of his work. He also spoke in depth about his longtime relationship with Depeche Mode. As the band's creative director, he has worked on all of their music videos, stage design, album covers and more for over 40 years. Corbijn's retrospective will be on display until September 20th, 2026, and his new feature length film, Switzerland, will land in theatres this year. Listen to the episode in full.