RA Exchange

The Dutch producer on flow state, communal music-making and his new album, Music for Existing.

Martijn Deijkers, AKA Martyn, has spent close to three decades resisting labels. He grew up in a small Dutch village as a vinyl obsessive, buying his first 7-inch from a store that doubled as a sweet shop, before travelling to London in the mid-'90s to chase jungle and drum & bass. He later became one of the first artists from outside the UK to shape the capital's dubstep scene, fusing it with the Detroit techno and hip-hop of his youth. Since then, he has held a residency at Panorama Bar, started a successful label, 3024, and hosted a long-running monthly jazz show on NTS, Darkest Light.

In this Exchange with RA's Performance Content Lead, Tom Gledhill, Deijkers talks about dubplate culture in '90s London, the mentoring programme that's shaped his approach to creativity and his new album, Music for Existing, a collection of jazz-inflected electronics that explores the powerful, communal act of making music together. The LP is out now on 3024. Listen to the episode in full.
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The UK pirate radio crew and cult TV stars discuss their rebirth and forthcoming EP, Grindah's Decided We're Doing Music Again.

Many UK natives will be familiar with the show People Just Do Nothing, a mid-2010s comedy about pirate radio crew Kurupt FM, who ride the UK garage wave, broadcasting from the outer boroughs of London.

Kurupt FM's core members—MC Grindah, DJ Beats, DJ Steves and DJ Decoy—went quiet for more than a decade after the last episode aired in 2014. After a stretch of solo ventures—books, stand-up, Grindah's domestic upheaval following his split with long-time partner Miche, as depicted in People Just Do Nothing—the crew has reconvened for a new EP, Grindah's Decided We're Doing Music Again.

In this RA Exchange, Grindah, Beats and Steves meet for a rare interview to talk about their rebirth and what's happened in the years that have elapsed since the world last heard from them. They also reflect on Grindah's early run-in with Skepta, their case for the ongoing power of pirate radio in the age of AI and the current UKG revival. They engage in a familiar argument about who owns the lineage of the genre, and for Kurupt FM, the answer isn't complicated: if you weren't there the first time around, you just don't get it. Their new EP will be out on August 21st. Listen to the episode in full.
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The masked duo go on the record to address criticisms, identity and their forthcoming album, Infinite Now.

Anonymous DJ-and-producer duo Two Shell are both loved and reviled. They've spent the last few years making the question of their identity inseparable from their music, earning an enormous fanbase with their original, up-tempo productions, and then alienating much of it through relentless pranks. Some of their most illustrious capers have included selling albums embedded in rocks, sending decoys to give fake interviews and booking stand-ins to perform in their place at major gigs and festivals.

But after their headline set on Glastonbury's IICON stage last summer—a proper, career-spanning 90 minutes that they actually turned up for—fans flooded their inbox with the same comment: "we know it wasn't you up there! classic!!" Their response was an Instagram post that broke the script. "Anonymity sometimes feels like a mistake," they wrote. And now, on the eve of a new album called Infinite Now, they've agreed to sit down for their first-ever video interview.

In this RA Exchange, Two Shell directly address the criticisms that have been levelled against them over the years; discuss what they owe their fans; and unpack their creative process, embrace of AI and more. Listen to the episode in full.
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The Drain Gang cofounder talks about mysticism, Gen Z and his new album, Sulfur Surfer.

Bladee's work as a founding member of the Swedish collective Drain Gang has shaped a new generation of underground music. The group's sound, which is rooted in cloud rap and Auto-Tune experimentation, and pulls from trance, noise, metal, goth and grunge, has earned them an enormous following of fans—AKA "drainers"—overwhelmingly under 30.

Bladee has long been one of Drain Gang's most prominent voices, building a prolific solo career alongside the collective's output. His work engages with mysticism through vulnerable, diaristic lyrics about his state of mind. On his new album, Sulfur Surfer, he presents an autobiographical figure caught between "letting go and holding on"—a continuation of his longstanding interest in spirituality and the occult. He draws on the story of St. George, the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint and the occultism of British group Current 93, whose frontman David Tibet makes a guest appearance.

In this RA Exchange, Bladee talks about making honest music, the role Drain Gang has played in pushing him to find his voice, his ambivalence about fame and his collaboration with Skrillex. Sulfur Surfer is out now on Trash Island. Listen to the episode in full.
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The queer icon and punk provocateur talks bodily autonomy, embracing ageing and her new album, No Lube So Rude.

Merrill Nisker—known to most of the world as Peaches—has spent 25 years making music that refuses to behave. Since her 2000 breakthrough, The Teaches of Peaches, she's built a body of work at the intersection of performance art, punk provocation and dance music, becoming an international queer icon and a touchstone for anyone told their body or identity doesn't fit.

Peaches' new album, No Lube So Rude, is out now on the Washington-based label Kill Rock Stars, also home to the likes of Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney. The title is a meditation on the friction and hostility that define this moment, and a frank reckoning with menopause, bodily autonomy and the systemic erasure of women who refuse to disappear quietly into middle age.

In this RA Exchange, Peaches, now 59, talks about making the record after a decade of silence and what it means to keep making confrontational art. Listen to the episode in full.
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