RA Exchange

EX.655 Surgeon Talks Live Performance and Improvisation

"Live improvised hardware connects so directly to the fundamental rawness of electronic music." UK techno lynchpin Surgeon reflects on his connection to machines and making music on the fly.
Surgeon, also known as Anthony Child, has been one of techno's most influential and consistently brilliant artists since the mid-'90s. For the last decade, he has spent most of his creative resources on developing his abilities as a live performer, in his usual techno environment as well as more abstract settings. As Child reinforces in this live Dekmantel Exchange with Aaron Coultate, his live performance practice is at the heart of his creativity. "There was literally one day I woke up and realized that having the computer—DJing, as it were—was getting in the way of taking this form of performing further," he says. "That was determining the structure of what I was doing. And to be truly freeform and improvisational I had to be free of this imposed structure."
This archived conversation comes on the heels of Surgeon's most recent LP, Crash Recoil, which RA music critic Kiana Mickles hailed as "one of his best albums ever." To get an inside look into this risk taking artist's production process and approach to dance floor composition, listen to the episode in full.

EX.654 Critics’ Roundtable [March 2023]

"Dance music artists are creating in an environment where they can be more outspoken about their queerness, which means that their work becomes extensions of their queerness." RA's critics discuss expressions of gender and sexuality in the underground scene during this month's roundtable.
Each month, Resident Advisor reviews a number of standout EPs, albums and singles, but there are some that resonate with us more than others. In this episode, our in-house music critics Andrew Ryce and Kiana Mickles join RA's Senior Producer, Chloe Lula, in a deep dive into the releases that they considered to be the most noteworthy from this month: Surgeon's new LP, Crash Recoil; Fever Ray's much-anticipated new full length, Radical Romantics; and I. JORDAN and SHERELLE's split two-tracker.
Beyond just assessing the music itself, we also debate bigger questions that these works raise. We discuss how some of this month's music invokes themes of love, romance and desire—which are relatively new to the electronic music underground; how representations of queerness are shifting in the contemporary music landscape; and the perennial pop-electronic music crossover, which has defined the contours of the last few weeks' worth of releases yet again. Listen to the conversation in full.
This week's intro and outro music, "Transience," was composed by Jo Johnson.

EX.653 Tony Andrews on Sound and Spirituality

“I actually believe that humans are made for more than what we're currently doing. We just need to switch on parts of our brains that we're not." Funktion-One creator Tony Andrews reflects on music and spirituality live from AVA London.
According to visionary sound system designer Tony Andrews, the creator of Funktion-One, there’s a spiritual current that unites humanity—and good sound is the first way for us to explore our communal mind.
In this RA Exchange recorded live from AVA London, the founder of one of the best high-end speakers on the market reflects on his experience engaging in the broader, spiritual meaning of music and the universe and how his decision to start Funktion-One in 1992 sprung from a desire to help humans connect with each other. Far from being a technical deep dive into loudspeaker design and engineering, this conversation delves into his first forays into the world of sound as well as the broader implications of music and how it can incite a paradigm shift in how we experience the human experience and consciousness.
Listen to the full, live talk and Q&A moderated by RA contributor Will Lynch.

EX.652 dweller festival with OK Williams

Since the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, there have been renewed efforts to shine a light on dance music's roots in Black communities. Still, there's a critical need for more Black-forefronted collectives and programmers—as well as more thoughtfully curated and balanced rosters of talent in clubs and festivals—to keep the origins of electronic music alive.
In comes Brooklyn’s dweller festival, founded in 2019 by Discwoman's Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson, which aims to highlight exclusively Black talent from across the globe. This year’s edition featured a live RA Exchange with Nigerian-British selector OK Williams, who spoke to RA music critic Kiana Mickles about some of the deep-rooted inequities that continue to bar Black artists from contributing to the contemporary dance music landscape. They also discuss Williams’ ascent on the global stage—beginning from her Early Bird residency at NTS and full-fledged touring career post-pandemic—and her first forays into production. This is a lively discussion that includes questions from the audience. Listen to the episode in full.

EX.651 Source Material: Music and Iran’s Fight for Women’s Rights

"I don't know what I would do if my life was on the line." In a new audio documentary, female Iranian musicians reflect on the implications of speaking out against the country's misogynistic regime.
On September 16th, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini—from the northwestern Kurdish city of Saqez—was arrested by Iran's morality police for not wearing her headscarf in accordance with the Islamic Republic's clerical standards. The circumstances of her death were suspicious; while authorities deny beating Amini and insisted in a statement that the cause of death was sudden heart failure, eyewitnesses, including women who were detained with Amini, reported that she was severely beaten and that she died as a result of police brutality. The incident sparked a series of protests described by the media as the most widespread in Iran in almost 10 years.
In honour of International Women's Day, this week's RA Exchange examines the ongoing fight for women's rights in Iran. At the time of this writing, the situation on the ground has escalated, with the government arresting and killing protestors who have spoken out against the country's oppressive policing practices, and even inciting suspected poison attacks against dozens of schoolgirls in the country's capital. According to our guests, women and minorities face more discrimination than ever as the Islamic Republic continues to extend and entrench its grip over Iranian society. "It is this conflict that has to do with the regulation of women's bodies that has been at the core of the Islamic Republic's main agendas," says one interviewee. "By controlling women, they're also somehow solidifying their power within the society."
RA Exchange's Senior Producer Chloe Lula starts this episode with a reflection on RA staff writer Anu Shukla's news piece from last autumn, which documented the protests when they first erupted, before speaking with Iranian musicians Azin Zahedi, Farahnaz Hatam and a third woman who asked to be removed from this episode for fear of her life. They reflect on the repercussions of the protests, the implications for the Iranian diaspora and how music and art can amplify sociopolitical issues—and galvanise communal action and positive change. Listen to the episode in full.
Tracklist:
Jo Johnson - Transience
Jo Johnson - Vigil
Shervin Hajipour - Baraye

EX.650 Critics’ Roundtable [February 2023]

In 2023, we're refreshing our Critics' Roundtable format, inviting RA's in-house staff writers and industry specialists to reflect on the releases that resonated with them, as well as the trends and news that's circulating around the music sphere. March's roundtable features Andrew Ryce and Kiana Mickles.
In addition to discussing the much-anticipated EPs and albums that they've enjoyed—Caroline Polachek, Nene H, Fadi Mohem and more—the duo also raise important questions about the contemporary club music landscape: how should we consider an artist's core audience, especially when their music taps into an uncharted trend? What is the strategy behind releasing multiple albums at once, like Skrillex's recent double LP? What can we make of the new pop-electronic crossover, and what are the deeper implications of mainstream musicians appropriating underground tropes and themes?
We explore these issues and more in this month's roundtable RA Exchange, and talk about our most anticipated new releases for the coming weeks. Listen to the conversation, moderated by RA's Senior Producer Chloe Lula, in full.

EX.649 Irvine Welsh: 30 Years on From Trainspotting

In this week's episode of the RA Exchange, we host an exclusive talk with Scottish novelist and playwright Irvine Welsh, who's best known for his 1993 book, Trainspotting. His work raises crucial and provocative questions around class, identity and the human condition, as well as running themes around nightlife and DJ culture. Welsh has always harbored an avid love of electronic music—and acid house specifically.
In this live keynote interview at the Night Time Industries Association conference at E1 in London, he talks to RA's Senior Producer, Chloe Lula, about his enduring love of nightlife as well as the grueling creative process, his new record label and how club music has changed with the advent of new music production technologies and the rise of the bedroom techno producer. "All the good things really happen at night, the real freedom happens at night, the real expression happens at night," he says. Listen to the episode in full.

EX.648 Source Material: The Power of Radio in Times of Crisis

In honour of World Radio Day—which landed on February 13th—this week’s RA Exchange celebrates the power of radio in a documentary-style deep dive. UNESCO inaugurated World Radio Day in 2011 in order to commemorate its efficacy in reaching remote communities, connecting with people everywhere regardless of their education level, and providing a platform for positive and democratic discourse. It's also critical in spreading critical information during times of crisis or emergency. According to UNESCO, "increasing radio's journalistic standards and capacity should be considered as an investment in peace."
On a more modest level, podcasting and radio, especially in the world of underground music, can help forge in-person and virtual networks and celebrate and spread new and lesser-known music. During the pandemic, it also held together underground music scenes when people couldn't be together in the club, and sustained a kind of intimacy and connection by letting people share music over the airwaves and community platform chat rooms.
In this episode, we hear from various radio producers around the world—including Jamz Supernova, Hana Walker Brown, Dublab Barcelona and Hong Kong Community Radio, among others—about why radio resonates so strongly with them. "Good radio is always an exercise in connection, especially host-led radio,” says Rory Bowens, NTS’s Head of Radio Production. “The fact that it's a live experience is really crucial. People can listen to something in real time with a huge audience of other listeners at the same time, and that intrinsically connects them to each other." Take a listen to the episode in full.

EX.647 I. JORDAN

London-based musician I. JORDAN—a disciple of fast-paced, high-energy dance music—has undergone a creative renaissance since 2021. Last February, they were nominated for Best Producer at the annual NME awards, and they celebrated a jam-packed touring and release schedule, which included signing to Ninja Tune. Now, they're on the heels of a residency they oversaw designed specifically for trans and nonbinary artists, produced by Brighter Sound and Generator. They're also planning a tour with close friend and collaborator SHERELLE. "There is something really beautiful about trans only spaces, something that I can't put words into," they tell host Vanessa Maria in this week's RA Exchange. "It's just a feeling. Trans people get it. Trans people know it. It just does stuff to you, and I can't really explain."
Their conversation touches on the power of community, the spectre of imposter syndrome and the growing importance of nurturing creative outlets for marginalised musicians. Critically, I. JORDAN and Maria also take stock of what the underground scene can do to support trans and nonbinary artists by reconfiguring some of the industry's deeply rooted discriminatory practices from the ground up. Take a listen to the episode in full.
This episode was recorded at Qube in East London.

EX.646 DJ Perception and Timehri Records

DJ Perception is lauded as one of the leading voices in the contemporary UK garage landscape. His sets are widely known for being jam-packed with exclusive dubplates and sought-after cuts of slick 2-step, and his productions are just as highly revered, blending elements of UK garage with house and soul. “I like to make all types of garage, but never commercial music," he tells moderator Heléna Star in his interview. "It’s just underground.”
In this live listening party hosted by Timehri Records and the Black Artist Database, the artist talks with Timehri head T Dunn about the production of his most recent LP, Journey To The Star, which landed on the label in October 2022. They also listen to segments of the record and discuss its wider concept and construction with a live audience. "The music I make has to be soulful," DJ Perception says. "It can be dark, but it has to be groovy and it has to be soulful. That's how I work."
To hear more about the album, the diversity of the UK garage continuum and the underrated practice of bedroom music production, listen to the conversation in full.