RA Podcast

The singular percussionist turns inward for a rare solo excursion.

Valentina Magaletti at the drums is a picture of freedom: laughing, loose-limbed, entirely absorbed. For RA.1029, the London-based percussionist channels that instinct into a rare solo outing—a personal excursion through her musical archive. The atmosphere moves as freely as she plays, shifting from ominous and claustrophobic passages to contemplative field recordings.

Collaboration is one of the central ways she continually reinvents herself, whether it be spiritual dub excursions with Shackleton and Holy Tongue, or post-punk melancholia with Moin. As she told The Guardian in 2024, "dialogue is more interesting than monologue." Take her work with Princípe associate Nídia, in which she used Angolan kuduro as a springboard for new acoustic visions of dance music.

But Magaletti is also a solo artist in her own right, and RA.1029 is the sound of her own monologue. The 90-minute mix sees her roving through her personal archive, from wild drum excursions and Midwestern industrial to frenetic free jazz, eerie gqom and Ukrainian electro. It captures, she says, her current inner state, a feeling of being "suspended between introspection and anticipation." Fitting, then, for a groundbreaking artist who thrives in the spaces in between.

Find the tracklist and Q&A at ra.co/podcast/1048
@magadrum

The contemporary face of garage talks about obsession, overnight success and his turn towards a more mature image and sound.

Over the last few years, Zac Bruce—better known as Interplanetary Criminal—has become the definitive face of a global garage resurgence. He seemingly appeared overnight with his 2022 chart-topping anthem, Baddest Of Them All, made with singer Eliza Rose. But his story extends far beyond this career-defining moment. His journey is one of deep-rooted obsession: from the quiet stillness of producing lo-fi and jungle in his bedroom in Leeds, to co-founding the ATW (All Thru the Night) imprint, a label that has become a lighthouse for a new generation of garage heads.

This last year was a whirlwind for Bruce. He headlined a show at Brixton Academy and played at major festival stages around the world. But as you’ll hear in this conversation with RA editor Gabe Szatan, Bruce isn’t interested in the shallow shine of accolades. He’s a selector in the truest sense—someone who spends as much time digging for obscure white labels as he does A&Ring the next wave of talent.

He and Szatan also touch on the epidemic of “edit culture;” the cost of maintaining artistic integrity; his transition from the "silliness" of his early viral moments to a more mature sound; and the community of peers that make his ATW universe feel less like a brand and more like a family. This one has been a long time coming. Listen to the episode in full.

A kaleidoscope of polyrhythms and post-dubstep.

"Music was a way to speak Arabic… It's my way of being confident that I am, in fact, Lebanese," Jared Beeler AKA DJ Plead told Crack Magazine in 2022.

Often framed as an Australian producer threading Arabic rhythmic structures through techno and post-dubstep, DJ Plead's music is better understood as tradition embedded inside contemporary club forms, where percussion and bass move as one.

First surfacing in the late 2010s with releases on DECISIONS and Nervous Horizon, he has since become one of the most consistent voices in leftfield dance music, defined by the tactile clarity of their drum programming and Maqam-informed phrasing.

RA.1028 opens with Bruce's "Just Getting On With It" from Livity Sound's ten-year compilation, a fitting nod to the kind of rhythmic experimentation that runs through the set.

From Iran to London to Miami and back again, the 90-minute mix pulls a wide frame into focus, including several unreleased DJ Plead tracks. Whether it's the dry snap of hand-drum hits or sub-bass that lands with chest-caving weight, RA. 1028 is a reminder that rhythm can be a direct path back to the self.

Find the tracklist and Q&A at https://ra.co/podcast/1047
@1djplead

Two hours of groove, texture and Black excellence from new-school New York royalty.

New York native JADALAREIGN has always represented Black excellence, but in recent years her vision crystallised. The in-demand act and former Nowadays booker has fine-tuned her creative practice, experimenting with tempo and selection in ways that have led to a deep, nuanced relationship with Black artistry, one that centres musical education through storytelling.

Behind the decks, JADALAREIGN is principled. They say wisdom brings sorrow, but RA.1027 suggests the opposite. It opens with a vocal sample whose message mirrors her wider creative practice: "I'm an African woman who believes in justice for all people. The priorities of this planet have to completely change." From there, the mix ricochets through rumbly drums and sci-fi whirr, peppering house melodies with slo-mo bleeps and techy steppers. She moves across club genres with fluid ease, keeping the cadence loose-limbed yet dynamic throughout. It's strange and tactile—and it sounds like freedom.

JADALAREIGN seems surer than ever about all aspects of her career, and it shows in her RA Mix. If you see her at the function, her joy for her work is ever bountiful. For US Black History Month, it's a timely reminder that history isn't only something we look back on; JADALAREIGN is making it, live.

Find the Q&A and tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1046

The Sonic Youth cofounder opens up about her solo output, the intersection of art and music, and her new album, PLAY ME.

For over four decades, Kim Gordon has navigated the edges where fine art meets noise. Her claim to fame was as a founding member of Sonic Youth, the band that took the nihilistic, abrasive energy of New York's no wave scene and forged it into a new language for rock.

After Sonic Youth's public breakup in 2011, Gordon returned to her original creative practice: visual art. But in recent years, she has undergone a staggering creative transformation that's led her back to music. At 72—an age when most legends are content with the heritage circuit—she has instead dived headlong into the sounds of the present: industrial electronics, Chicago footwork and the blown-out low-end of SoundCloud rap.

Aiming to break with her Sonic Youth legacy, Gordon released her first two solo albums, No Home Record and The Collective, in 2019 and 2024, respectively. And now, she's back with her third LP: PLAY ME. Working alongside producer Justin Raisen, she uses beat-oriented frameworks to interrogate what she calls the "tyranny of frictionless culture." From naming Spotify playlists in her lyrics to donating proceeds to reproductive rights, her work remains a vital, confrontational critique of late capitalism and technocratic fascism.

In this RA Exchange, Gordon discusses the process of moving closer to solo work, as well as the masculinity of rock; her evolving relationship with electronic music; the politics of the "body;" and why, after thinking she was done with music, she keeps getting pulled back in. Listen to the episode in full.