Chicago producer Kavain Space, AKA RP Boo, invented footwork with his 1997 track “Baby Come On.” By upping the tempo of ghetto house, he established a new template for an entire generation of dancers and producers. Space continues to produce and DJ around the world, his enduring success proving that there’s still no one quite like him. Here, RP Boo recalled the trials, tribulations, dances and productions that made him a pioneer of a unique Chicago sound.
Nov 12, 2018•1 hr 13 min
Many musicians genre-hop, but few have an inventive take on every style they touch. Cue Objekt. Across his output on labels like Hessle Audio, Leisure System and PAN, audacious sound design and arrangements twist dancefloor conventions. In parallel, Objekt has become a must-see DJs of his generation thanks to a deft mixing style and a technician’s mindset honed through work as an instrument developer at Native Instruments. Here, he delves into his sound design and meticulous approach to DJing.
Nov 05, 2018•53 min
Senegal-born, Kuwait-raised and Berlin-residing producer Fatima Al Qadiri pulls together personal and political geographies. As a child, she experienced the Gulf War firsthand – a trauma that was furthered by her love for video games and playing the Desert Strike video game barely two years after she saw her native Kuwait destroyed. Memory is a crucial element of her own hyper-digital, often beatless landscapes. Here, she recounts her personal history and talks about reframing disparate sounds a...
Oct 29, 2018•39 min
Malcolm Cecil was in a series of ’50s and ’60s jazz bands, but it was the synthesizer that really excited him. With Bob Margouleff he formed T.O.N.T.O.’s Expanding Head Band. The name was an acronym of a synth designed and built by Cecil himself. A dazzled Stevie Wonder instantly recruited Cecil and Margouleff, making them co-producers on his series of classic albums from Music Of My Mind through Fulfillingness’ First Finale. Here, Cecil discusses T.O.N.T.O., Wonder, what it means to produce and...
Oct 22, 2018•57 min
Robert Henke is one of the most significant figures in electronic music. Along with Gerhard Behles, Henke developed Ableton Live, the DAW that allows musicians to store and trigger samples during shows. He's also made abstract computer music and dance-derived techno as Monolake. Here, Henke discusses the at-times improbable story of how Live came to be. We begin by hearing about what Berlin was like when Henke first moved there and the beginnings of Monolake, setting the scene for the software's...
Oct 15, 2018•47 min
Ryuichi Sakamoto came to fame with Yellow Magic Orchestra, along with solo work and collaborations with the likes of David Byrne, Thomas Dolby, Iggy Pop and Berlin-based electronic artist Alva Noto AKA Carsten Nicolai. The pair met when Carsten was performing in Tokyo, and together they formed their own sound, with Sakamoto’s minimal piano complementing Nicolai’s glowing digital tapestry. Here, they discuss their musical backgrounds, their approach to collaboration and live performance.
Oct 08, 2018•1 hr 13 min
Hailing from Germany, Modeselektor work in a variety of tempos and styles with an emphasis on big, warpy synth sounds and heavy basslines that can threaten foundations. With plenty of artist albums and Moderat, their joint project with Apparat, it's as an audio/visual live act that they’ve truly conquered hearts and minds. Here, they bring the same anarchic disdain and chaos they’re known for in their live sets while discussing the fall of the Berlin Wall, German record store Hard Wax, Moderat a...
Oct 01, 2018•1 hr 10 min
Richie Hawtin always pushes the envelope: he started Plus 8 Records with John Acquaviva, formed the M-nus empire and developed Final Scratch. His works as F.U.S.E., the delicious desolation of Plastikman and his groundbreaking works with the Concept series and Decks, EFX & 909 are all firmly planted in techno's history. A fierce advocate of technology, he's continued to operate at the limits, whether via his CONTAKT events or his Ibiza night ENTER. Here, Hawtin reflects on his multifaceted c...
Sep 24, 2018•1 hr
After her family moved to Berlin, Hanin Elias ran away from home and into the city’s punk and hardcore scene. In 1992 she formed Atari Teenage Riot with Alec Empire and MC Carl Crack, fusing punk and techno into what they termed digital hardcore. In 1999, Elias left the band and focused on solo work and championing female and female-identifying artists through her label Fatal Recordings. Here, Elias retraces her steps from punk squats to festival stages and onwards to a lasting independent caree...
Sep 17, 2018•53 min
Mike Grinser made his name as one half of Manmade Mastering, alongside Tim Xavier. In addition, Grinser also works at Berlin's renowned Dubplates & Mastering. Grinser was a rock fan before being turned onto electronic music in clubs. Intrigued, he sought to understand how this music was created, learning to DJ before moving to production. Sitting in mastering sessions for his own records, he acquired a deep interest in the technical side. Here, Grinser shares details on what goes into gettin...
Sep 10, 2018•36 min
Alexander Hacke joined the influential Einstürzende Neubauten shortly after the band’s formation in 1980. Gareth Jones worked at the iconic Hansa Tonstudio, adding an industrial edge to recordings by Depeche Mode and others. Their paths crossed when Jones contributed production to the Neubauten albums Halber Mensch and Fünf auf der nach oben offenen Richterskala. Here, Jones and Hacke discuss their work with Neubauten, Berlin in the ’80s and what it means to create a signature sound.
Sep 03, 2018•1 hr 27 min
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, a young Alec Empire looked to the rebellious sounds of techno, acid house and punk to inform a new project: Atari Teenage Riot. The trio debuted in 1992 and became notorious for its self-styled digital hardcore sound. When ATR split in 2000, the group and its founder had become household names beyond their humble beginnings. In this episode recorded as part of the Red Bull Music Academy Bass Camp Berlin 2017, Empire recalls the city's reunification years an...
Aug 27, 2018•1 hr 35 min
Black Coffee, real name Nathi Maphumulo, serves as Durban's house music elder statesman. His style is, in his words, “home-brewed but future-focused.” Maphumulo's recording career began in 2005 with a remix of Hugh Masekela's 1972 hit "Stimela" and has gone on to include five solo albums, including 2015's 'Pieces of Me,' which has been certified double platinum in South Africa. Here, Black Coffee discusses the early club sounds of South Africa, breaking through in a burgeoning local industry and...
Aug 20, 2018•1 hr
Bernie Worrell came to prominence as a founding member Parliament/Funkadelic, radically utilizing emerging keyboard technology during the golden age of synths. Later, he resurfaced with the Talking Heads. Worrell has also been a prolific studio musician, contributing to projects by the likes of Keith Richards and Deee-Lite, and he’s among the most-sampled musicians ever. In his 2013 Red Bull Music Academy lecture, Worrell sat on the couch – and behind the Hammond – to discuss his biggest records...
Aug 13, 2018•1 hr 3 min
The Atlanta-born Michael Williams’ journey began with a gift from his father, a Korg ES-1 sampler, followed by his first break: producing for hometown hero Gucci Mane. While the man best known as Mike WiLL Made-It is capable of impeccable rap-pop, he saves his weirdest, most adventurous work for crossover wunderkinds like Miley Cyrus and Rae Sremmurd. The incomparable producer talked about all of this and more during his lecture at the 2016 Red Bull Music Academy.
Aug 06, 2018•1 hr 45 min
Grammy Award-winning musician, actor and activist Harry Belafonte is one of the most successful Jamaican-American artists of all time, renowned for bringing the Caribbean sound to the international mainstream. A close friend and adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Belafonte was also at the forefront of the civil rights movement. In this public conversation at the 2018 Red Bull Music Festival in NYC, he spoke with curator Kimberly Drew about activism, legacy and the power of folk art.
Jul 30, 2018•1 hr 1 min
Starting her career in the late 1960s, Cosey Fanni Tutti went on to become a seismic force in experimental music. Whether delivering confrontational performance art as part of COUM Transmissions, pioneering industrial music with Throbbing Gristle, or constructing a prototype for acid house in Carter Tutti, her work has frequently been years ahead of its time. In her fascinating lecture at the 2010 Red Bull Music Academy in London, she delved into emotion, meaning and provocation in art.
Jul 23, 2018•54 min
Originally a rock and blues guitarist, Junior Marvin became a member of Bob Marley & The Wailers from 1977 to 1981 after getting into reggae through Toots & The Maytals. He continued playing with the Wailers until 1997, and in his lecture at the 2016 Red Bull Music Academy, he looks back on a career that brought him close to greats like Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder and Jimi Hendrix.
Jul 16, 2018•1 hr 24 min
Around Berlin, Rashad Becker’s name is synonymous with sonic brilliance — a mastering engineer at the famed Dubplates & Mastering studio, he put the finishing touches on over 1,200 of your favorite techno, dub and house records. His album 'Traditional Music of Notional Species Vol. 1’ is a disorienting three-dimensional thrill ride inside Becker’s mind. In his 2014 Red Bull Music Academy lecture in Tokyo, he talked creating chewy and complex music, and how you can manipulate your sounds to d...
Jul 09, 2018•1 hr 2 min
Brian Reitzell is best known for his contributions to films by Sofia Coppola, including 'The Virgin Suicides,' 'Lost in Translation' and 'Marie Antoinette,' but he’s also composed scores for the football drama 'Friday Night Lights' and the TV series 'Hannibal.' In his 2015 Red Bull Music Academy lecture, Reitzell spoke about the trials and tribulations of licensing music for film and his collaborations with artists like Air, Kevin Shields, Aphex Twin and more.
Jul 02, 2018•1 hr 11 min
Jun 25, 2018•1 hr 1 min
If there’s one thing TOKiMONSTA taught us since attending the 2010 Academy as a participant, it’s that she’s never one to settle. Linking up Flying Lotus and the mighty Brainfeeder empire has led to a fruitful musical relationship with the LA electronic music scene, and her latest album featured collaborations with R&B and rap vocalists like Joey Purp and Isaiah Rashad. In her 2014 Red Bull Music Academy lecture, she went in-depth about getting her start, working with Anderson .Paak, and mor...
Jun 18, 2018•44 min
For many young indie music fans making their way through the "alternative" section of their local record store in the mid-90s, it was the music of Stereolab, and in particular the voice of chanteuse Laetitia Sadier, that provided a pre-Internet window into the worlds of French New Wave, German krautrock and a sprinkling of Marxist politics. In her 2015 Red Bull Music Academy lecture, Sadier discussed Stereolab’s "disastrous" relationship with the French music press, the influence of the Smiths a...
Jun 11, 2018•1 hr 23 min
Few nicknames in dance music have been as rightfully earned as DJ Storm's "First Lady of Drum & Bass." It all began in early 90s London, when she discovered the weird and wonderful world of UK rave. By the end of the decade, Storm and her friend Kemistry had become the quiet force behind Goldie’s Metalheadz empire. As part of the 2018 CTM Festival in Berlin, she sat down for an inspiring conversation about the joys of the mix and the trials and tribulations of maintaining a DJing career.
Jun 04, 2018•1 hr 33 min
Over the past decade Equiknoxx has become one of the most innovative production crews in Kingston, Jamaica. After working with some of the biggest names in dancehall – Aidonia, Beenie Man, T.O.K – Equiknoxx crash landed in the global arena with Bird Sound Power in 2016, a collection of 21st century riddims. In this public talk as part of the 2018 CTM Festival in Berlin, its members spoke with refreshing honesty about the politics of dancehall and how Jamaica seems to always twist things in unexp...
May 28, 2018•59 min
As one of the founding members of the legendary Detroit techno crew Underground Resistance – alongside Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills – Robert Hood’s legacy in the electronic music world is almost peerless. Pioneering the minimal techno sound with his 1994 album Minimal Nation, it was his Paradise LP as Floorplan that gave minimalism new, hot-blooded life. In his 2014 Red Bull Music Academy lecture, Hood passionately discussed his work with UR, the importance of hi-hats, and much more.
May 21, 2018•43 min
Beverly Glenn-Copland worked for years in children's television, notably composing music for Sesame Street, but when his 1984 electronic album Keyboard Fantasies was reissued by Invisible City Editions, its visionary combination of "digital new-age and early Detroit techno experiments" resonated with the ears of a new generation. In this very special lecture at the Red Bull Music Academy Bass Camp Montréal 2017 , Copeland spoke with refreshing honesty about the unifying and healing powers of art...
May 14, 2018•1 hr 5 min
Thanks to an early partnership with Drake, hip-hop producer Boi-1da helped define a new sound of Toronto. Playing yin to Noah "40" Shebib's yang, he made his mark with hit songs like "Best I Ever Had" and contributions to Eminem, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Meek Mill and more. In his lecture at the Red Bull Music Academy Bass Camp Montreal 2017, he talks making global hits "Work" for Rihanna and "Controlla" for Drake, reimagining dancehall for the streaming generation, and the music business.
May 07, 2018•1 hr 12 min
On November 16th, 2015, in the wake of devastating attacks in Paris, Laurie Anderson joined us on the lecture couch to talk about how art and artists respond to tragedy. Back in the ’70s, Anderson turned the pop world upside down by throwing together surreal performance, spoken word tone poems, and abstract synth grooves. Widely influential for her use of early samplers and invented electronic instruments, she has collaborated with Brian Eno, Andy Kaufman and late husband Lou Reed.
Apr 30, 2018•51 min
In this special edition of Couch Wisdom, we meet Oneohtrix Point Never, a confounding electronic musician who deploys the anxiety of the digital age to stunning effect. In one of the first interviews given about his new album, Age Of, and his live show/dystopian sci-fi opera MYRIAD, he speaks to Red Bull Radio's Vivian Host of Peak Time about Rabelais, fears both real and hyperreal, why James Blake told him to shut up and much more.
Apr 27, 2018•32 min
