Was auch nicht besser geht, ist der das lesenswerte RA Interview rahmende Begleittext von Gabriel Szatan:

One of the defining producers of the 21st century steps up for a rare, era-spanning mix.

We’ve been in a reflective mood lately: mulling emergent icons, modern classic and the cyclical nature of trends. All things bend around eventually, but if you lived through the mid-’00s the first time, it felt tricky to envision some specifics of those interim years making a second splash. More fool us. Amongst many other things, dubstep is well and truly back.

This resurged appetite for low-end has been a central storyline in 2025. Clear tells were there in the form of Introspekt’s Moving The Center and Tracey’s „Sex Life,“ two major highlights of the past 12 months. Alternately, cup your ear to the tremors rumbling across the world and you’d find Mala packing up crowds with gusto. Which makes closing out the year with a mix from the man himself serendipitous.

The South Norwood-born sub sensei has held an anchor role in the movement since its earliest days. A little like what Upsetter was to Black Ark, the principles Mala, Coki and Loefah’s DMZ laid down have been expanded on by Deep Medi, a label that has cultivated a loyal fandom who watch over the catalogue like a hawk. (Six years of frothy debate and knowing in-jokes between MEDi 99 and MEDi 100 paints a picture of both steep expectations and an affinity for gently ribbing their leader.)

But Mala’s banner 2025 hasn’t relied on the heads alone. The adrenaline of his fissuring basslines and barrel-chested vocals have drawn people into his orbit, and there are rarer qualities at play, too—like pacifism, winked at by the demilitarized name and reinforced on their all-time greatest tune; or contemplation, inked on flyers beseeching the crowd to meditate on bass weight.

In that spirit arrives a mix we’ve asked after for years. Subtitled The Listening Session, it’s rare on two counts. Despite his enduring popularity, Mala is a conspicuous absence on most DJ series. (It’s not that he doesn’t enjoy recording, just gets spooked by the reaction.)

A nearly-three hour studio set—spaciously paced and laced with a combination of 2025 highlights, freshly-cut dubplates and some of the biggest anthems in the genre’s history—is unheard of. No tracklist for now, on Mala’s request. Soon come.

RA.1016 is the kind of document that jogs the memory back to when dubstep was a discrete enterprise, something you could only fleetingly access by, say, dialling into Youngsta on Sub FM, ripping 320s of „Circling“ off long-forgotten blogs or hugging the back wall of Mass. Which, in service of thinking the evolution of 21st century electronic music, is pretty perfect really.

On point. Und ab!

Wenn eine Podcast-Serie wie die vom Resident Advisor die 500. Ausgabe erklimmt, reicht es offenbar nicht mehr, einen ganz besonderen Mix zu liefern. Deshalb bringen die gleich mal eben ganze fünf davon. Mit dabei: keine Geringeren als Dixon, Steffi, Nicolas Jaar, Ben UFO und Omar-S, so das auch wirklich für jeden was dabei ist. Musik bis fast hinein ins nächste Jahr.

Monday 6th March, 2006 is a significant date here at RA. This was the day we released our first podcast, RA.001 Troy Pierce. „When we started it was an interesting musical time,“ says Richard Chinn, who launched the RA podcast and has been central to it ever since. „Progressive house was out. Electro house and new rave were in. Minimal was breaking. Genre cycles were speeding up.“ RA was the first online dance music magazine with a podcast, although Chinn’s inspiration for the series, Tim Sweeney’s Beats In Space, had already been going for five years. Aside from a couple early hiccups, RA has gone on to release a mix each Monday ever since. The scene around us has changed immeasurably during this time, but the basic idea behind the podcast has remained the same: we ask some of the world’s best electronic music artists to submit a 60 to 90-minute mix.

When it came to deciding who to ask to record our 500th podcast, we furiously scratched our heads. How to encapsulate almost a decade of podcasting? We discussed various artists and approaches, and eventually landed on an idea that felt about right. As we only ever feature a given act once in the podcast (aside from the odd time when an artist has also appeared as part of a duo) why not invite back some of our favourites? Then, to further spice things up, we managed to lock in an artist we’ve been after for years. Everyone involved has, in their own unique way, been a key figure in the world of RA.

Ich packe mir hier jetzt mal den von Nicolas Jaar rein. Weil der aktuell meine Stimmung trifft. Alle anderen der Mixe dann drüben bei Resident Advisor.

[audio:
http://ra5.residentadvisor.net/RA500_151228_Nicolas-Jaar-x-residentadvisor.net.mp3]
(Direktlink)

Tracklist:
Kayan Kalhor & Ali Bahraini Fard – Between the Heavens and Me – World V
Alva Noto – Module 1 – Raster Noton
Ø – Syvâys – Sähkö
ENA – Divided 10 – Samurai
Ancestral Voices – Vine Of The Soul – Samurai
Lydia Lunch – Conspiracy Of Women – Other People
Talk Talk – The Rainbow – EMI
Lashun Pace – I know I’ve Been Changed – Savoy
Terekke – Wav1 – Self-Released
Angel – Dark Matter Leak – Mego
Barn Owl – Lotus Cloud – Not Not Fun

Keith Jarrett – You Don’t Know What Love Is (edit) – ECM
Diseño Corbusier – Chiquillo & Golpe de Amistad – Auxilio De Cientos
Against All Logic – LKJ – Other People
Kobayashi Maru – Typical Male Behavior – Voodoo Down
Steve Reich – Come Out
AAL – Fourteen Steps To A Better Life – Other People
Angel – Out – Mego
How To Dress Well/Lorenzo Senni – Words I Don’t Remember (Original dub)
Skee Mask – Cylo – Ilian tape
Nicolas Jaar – No One Is Looking At U – Other People

Terry Riley – Harp Of New Albion – Celestial Harmonies
Muslimgauze – Untitled – Muslimlim
Marcel Khalife & Mahmoud Darwish – Ahmad Emerges From Ancient Wounds
Nicolas Jaar – Swim – Other People
Dialogue: $13 Opera For Peace
Sound of two orange-tufted sunbirds running into each other mid-flight (Inaudible)