RA Podcast

The musical polymath talks creative left turns, the collapse of music media and her new album as Avalon & the Charm, Written into Changes.

A decade after her first feature appearance in Resident Advisor, Avalon Emerson returns for a long-form chat about the arc of her career and her surprising left turn towards indie pop. After leaving a successful career in coding in the early 2010s, the American DJ and producer became, seemingly overnight, a headline act touring the world's best clubs. By 2016, she was one of the most vital voices in underground dance music: a regular at Panorama Bar, a master of art of the eight-hour set and an artist releasing tracks that defined an era of emotive techno.

Recently, Emerson has surprised fans and critics by making yet another unexpected pivot as Avalon & the Charm. After debuting the dream pop band in 2023, she's back with the second album, Written into Changes, leaning even further into songwriting, live instrumentation and collaborations across the music spectrum.

In this candid conversation, she unpacks the new release—the vulnerability of lyrics exploring regret, setbacks and love lost—alongside the financial realities of performing as a live act. She also reflects on the leap of faith it takes to change course in public, her move from Berlin to a more balanced life in upstate New York and the "meat grinder" of the modern music industry, including the state of music journalism today. Listen to the episode in full.

A maximalist sprint through IDM and acid from the Filipino DJ, producer and lore magnet.

Ramon Tambucon is, in his own words, "an EDM trap oldhead" through and through. But he takes his work seriously: on TikTok, the LA-based artist has become Gen Z's de-facto electronic music historian, equally at home with Mark Fisher and Skrillex, and has even featured in Forbes discussing IDM.

His world extends beyond content, too, obviously. Tabula Rasa, a platform with Jozef White that blends editorial, releases and showcases, has helped document scenes like California's UK garage wave, and Pang's records show a fine-tuned ear for melody.

RA.1034 is bright, buoyant and borderline ecstatic. When Pang's own "Forest Volt" hits early, it practically wriggles out of the speakers; from there he snaps between newcomers like Kooxla, '90s Belgian deep cuts from Gerome Sportelli and Burial, with bird calls, flutes and cascading chords flaring over heavy low-end and lightning-fast breaks.

Find the tracklist and Q&A at ra.co/podcast/1053

@ramonpang

The Irish veteran talks about his prolific output, making music beyond the drum & bass canon and his forthcoming album, Tricklemore Sea.

Dominick Martin—AKA Calibre—has spent the last three decades carving out one of the most singular paths in electronic music. Known to many as a cornerstone of drum & bass, the Northern Irish artist's work has always defied easy categorisation. His vast output spans house, techno, ambient and even folk. What unifies it all is a sense of what he calls "inner space," which has cemented him as one of the underground's most respected figures.

In this week's Exchange, Martin speaks about his creative philosophy, his "three-tunes-a-day" workflow and a recent turn towards abstract downtempo with RA's international content writer, Tom Gledhill. The new album, Tricklemore Sea, arrives on his Signature Records imprint on May 1st, marking a move away from the rigid protocols of the DJ booth toward a space that is deeply melancholic, personal and profoundly poetic. Listen to the episode in full.

The lost art of the slow burn, courtesy of the rising London house DJ.

In an attention economy, where hype cycles rise and fall faster than ever, our careers, our lives and our club nights are increasingly structured around instant gratification. But not Isaac Carter. The London artist's approach to DJing is understated and unhurried. You'll still find his RA Mix charged with serious bursts of pleasure (wait for the rattling subs to hit on Alexander Skancke's "You Get a Two" or the soaring pads on Sterac's "Mysterium"), but RA.1033 is a patient exploration of the deeper shades of house, and it's technically perfect—there isn't a single hi-hat out of place for its near two-hour run time.

Technical prowess aside, what's most impressive is his sense of groove. There are shifts in energy, including a distinctly after hours section about halfway in, but this is a session that could go on forever. It's a fautless soundtrack to ease us into a spring of swing.

Find the tracklist at ra.co/podcast/ 1052

The Dutch phenomenon unpacks the myth of overnight success and the story behind his debut album, Lost, Found & Forgotten.

They say it takes ten years to become an overnight success, and in the case of this week's guest, that math almost checks out. Born in Leiden, Chris Stussy has been sharpening his tools for over a decade, and in the years since the pandemic, the world has caught onto his sleek, relentlessly groovy strain of house music.

It's been a stratospheric rise for Stussy, culminating in sold-out shows of iconic venues like London's Alexandra Palace, where tickets were gone in a matter of minutes. But if you look past the viral TikTok clips and the fandom that follows him from Ibiza to Coachella, you'll find a dedicated student of the craft—someone who spent his formative years absorbing the grit of the Utrecht underground as well as the foundations of Chicago and New York house.

RA editor Gabriel Szatan caught up with Stussy during a rare moment of reflection. His long-awaited debut album, Lost, Found & Forgotten, which officially lands April 3 on his own Up The Stuss imprint, and it stands as his most expansive and personal statement to date. The project is divided into three interconnected chapters: 'Lost' breathes new life into sketches he started earlier in his production career; 'Found' captures contemporary inspirations; and 'Forgotten' nods to the heads and diggers, focusing on deeper cuts that reward patient listening.

Stussy also traces the arc of his early releases to his current status as a torchbearer for a new generation of clubbers, and considers how club culture has changed along the way. Listen to the episode in full.