RA.978 Sandwell District

"I wanted to be at the forefront of the beat that would storm the world." The renowned musician talks about how reggae became the sound of resistance in the UK. How did reggae become the sound of resistance in the UK? In this RA Exchange, the influential Barbados-born guitarist, bass player and record producer Dennis Bovell talks about moving to South London aged 12 and navigating its tense racial and musical landscape. Through the music he wrote and produced, he responded directly to racist rhetoric and colonialist attitudes rocking the UK. After the arrival of the Empire Windrush ship in June 1948—which brought a generation of Caribbean people over to rebuild post-war Britain—the UK experienced new social pressures as the diaspora assimilated to their new lives. But London also became a melting pot of creative and cultural diversity. Reggae became resistance music, and artists like Bovell became bandleaders. Bovell speaks with writer and musician Tony Nwachukwu about music as social commentary, especially in his reggae band Matumbi, which was intentionally provocative, aiming to challenge the status quo and give voice to the Black British experience through its lyrics, themes and messaging. Matumbi was critical in developing the British reggae sound, and Bovell went on to record other musical projects that were key in shaping the early days of reggae, dub and lover's rock. He also reflects on his time engineering for artists in different scenes, like the German electronic duo Saâda Bonaire, the Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Bovell's unique ability to bring together different musical styles at the peripheries of dub made him a highly sought-after collaborator with a knack for navigating delicate dynamics in the industry, especially for Black artists. Listen to the episode in full. -Chloe Lula

"It starts within yourself." The DJ, vocalist and producer talks about self-improvement, moving to rural Portugal and working alongside long-time partner Steffi. There may be no voice as rich, vibrant or easily distinguishable in today's house and techno scene than that of Virginia. The Brazilian-German DJ, producer and singer has earned a name for herself as a hybrid house vocalist and a resident at Panorama Bar, where she plays sets featuring her own live vocals. Born in Munich to a family of musicians, she became enamoured with the soulful singing of artists like Sade, Whitney Houston and Tracy Chapman, who became her early guiding lights. It wasn't until her adolescence, when her sister took her to a nightclub, that it crossed her mind to begin blending these two musical worlds. By the mid-2010s, Virginia had relocated to Berlin to earnestly pursue a career in electronic music and create a new, house-focused musical vocabulary that's become completely her own. It was around this time that Virginia met her long-time partner, fellow DJ and producer Steffi. In this week's Exchange, she speaks with Chloe Lula about their personal and creative relationship, and their love of collaborating together in the studio and behind the decks. After more than two decades in Berlin, the couple relocated to rural Portugal in 2020, a move that's opened up a world of abundant rest and opportunity. They opened up a studio and residency called Candy Mountain (so called for its veritable candy shop of synthesizers and hardware), where they've found a new appreciation for taking things slow: going on walks in the countryside, engaging in botany and inviting friends and collaborators over to work on music. She reflects on what it means to step away from the demands of Berlin's bustling music industry and why her voice has remained such a powerful source of energy and inspiration over the course of her career, and her forthcoming album with Steffi on Dekmantel, Patterns of Vibration. Listen to the episode in full.

Raucous club jams from the trio setting pace for a new generation of electronic fans: Dazegxd, gum.mp3 & Swami Sound, AKA EldiaNYC. Something exciting is happening on the margins of online club music. As one generation ages out, another, predominantly made up of Zoomers and Zillennials who fell into rave music mid-pandemic or arrived via gaming, is on the rise. Some of the most dialled-in electronic fans out there have threadbare connection to formalised nightlife, filling their diet instead with DJ Ess, Jane Remover, Jet Set Radio and a thriving ecosystem of global splinter styles that would draw stares from anyone who settled into their preferences pre-2019. Leading the charge—while pointedly reaffirming the value of connection as they go—are EldiaNYC, whose combination of jungle, garage, vintage Black American dance music, regional rap and screen-glued splinter styles hits like a shot of adrenaline. Swami Sound broke first with sexy drill-laced 2-step edits, and last year we named gum.mp3's "Black Life, Red Planet" as one of our favourite records—but it could have just as easily been Dazegxd's breaks-splicing "exhibition mode" instead. Eldia stack sets on radio and at parties with startlingly-fresh producers, many still in their teens. This might also be the only RA Podcast to fold in soulful ghettotech from Mr De', head-in-the-clouds plugg from rising star 454, edits of both Bounty Killer and Toro Y Moi, and multiple names (Guido YZ, synta3x, DJ B) who haven't registered on the series before. With one eye on the occasion, Eldia tip their hats to lineage, too. The trio kick off with a double scoop of Fred P, before ramping up steadily through slick forthcoming material and ironclad modern anthems on their way to a crescendo of footwork chops, baile drums and breakbeat delirium. Leaders of a new wave in the US, it surely won't be long before Daze, gum and Swami have swept the international circuit. For now, RA.977 will leave your subs smoking. @dazegxd @eldia000 @masutaswami @gum_mp3 Find the interview and tracklist at ra.co/podcast/977

On Saturday evening, São Paulo favourite RHR turned Vesshcell upside down with a storming two hours of dancehall, techno, drum & bass and his beloved baile funk. Read our new Breaking Through 2025 feature on RHR here: https://ra.co/features/4423 @rhrmusiq

"We made something we could dance to." The Chicago juke and footwork pioneer reflects on 40 years of Dance Mania and his longtime collaboration with the late DJ Rashad. Anyone with a passing interest in footwork and juke will know of Traxman. Corky Strong has a long history in the world of Chicago dance music, first releasing on the legendary Dance Mania label—which is now celebrating 40 years—in the mid-'90s. He's since split his productions between ghetto house, juke and footwork, releasing alongside titans of Black American music like the late DJ Deeon and DJ Rashad. Strong went on to become a member of DJ Rashad's renowned Teklife crew, and he was one of the creators of the legendary mixtapes on coloured cassettes that became a prototype for juke and footwork's evolution. In this Exchange, Strong speaks with RA's Kiana Mickles in New York about how he first became introduced to this world through his cousins, with whom he'd listen to funk and slow jams, Parliament Funkadelic, Farley Jackmaster Funk, James Brown and a variety of hip-hop throughout the '80s. The pieces eventually fell into place, he recounts, when he met the "mysterious kid" DJ Rashad in 1997. Together, they helped shape the music scene in Chicago, and the rest, as they say, is history. Over the last few years, Strong has been celebrating footwork's past by putting out a series of albums called Da Mind of Traxman on Planet Mu. He's just released his third volume, and his first since 2014, which was crafted with the help of fellow Planet Mu artist Sinjin Hawke. Strong took on A&R duties to collate the best from hundreds of tracks dating back to 2005. The series is notable in part because it's a catalogue of footwork and its Chicago lineage—juke and house—as well as these genres' soul, funk and rock roots. Strong talks to Mickles about what Chicago's music scene was like in the '80s and '90s, why footwork was so rooted in dancing and where the genre is heading in the future. Listen to the episode in full. -Chloe Lula