Stumble into 2026 with the 3XL favourites' uncanny vision of ambient.
It's become a tradition that the first RA Mix of every year eases listeners into January with soft, gentle and unhurried tones. For RA.1020, though, crimeboys take a different approach.
Made up of Ben Bondy, Special Guest DJ and Pontiac Sterator, the US trio are all loosely associated with 3XL. Over the past decade, the Berlin-based label, run by Special Guest DJ, has helped define a strain of ambient that foregrounds strangeness, texture and eccentric detail.
This energy comes through immediately on RA.1020. Listen to the first ten minutes and you might not quite feel soothed. Stick with it, though, and a different logic begins to emerge, as church bells, corroded electronics and industrial abrasion give way to long passages of dub pressure, shadowy rhythm and low-lit propulsion.
Across two hours, the trio draw a map of influences both internal and external to the 3XL universe, from foundational reference points like Skinny Puppy, M.E.S.H. and DJ Krush to artists embedded within the label’s wider orbit, such as Perila, james K and Critical Amnesia. Together, these selections trace a throughline from '90s industrial and jungle into dub techno, experimental club and contemporary ambient's more unsettled edges.
RA.1020 isn't comfort listening in the conventional sense, but it does offer its own form of recalibration and release. Stay put, and you'll be rewarded.
Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1039
@triplexlarge
@benbondy
@pontiacstreator
@specialguest-dj
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Stumble into 2026 with the 3XL favourites' uncanny vision of ambient.
It's become a tradition that the first RA Mix of every year eases listeners into January with soft, gentle and unhurried tones. For RA.1020, though, crimeboys take a different approach.
Made up of Ben Bondy, Special Guest DJ and Pontiac Sterator, the US trio are all loosely associated with 3XL. Over the past decade, the Berlin-based label, run by Special Guest DJ, has helped define a strain of ambient that foregrounds strangeness, texture and eccentric detail.
This energy comes through immediately on RA.1020. Listen to the first ten minutes and you might not quite feel soothed. Stick with it, though, and a different logic begins to emerge, as church bells, corroded electronics and industrial abrasion give way to long passages of dub pressure, shadowy rhythm and low-lit propulsion.
Across two hours, the trio draw a map of influences both internal and external to the 3XL universe, from foundational reference points like Skinny Puppy, M.E.S.H. and DJ Krush to artists embedded within the label’s wider orbit, such as Perila, james K and Critical Amnesia. Together, these selections trace a throughline from '90s industrial and jungle into dub techno, experimental club and contemporary ambient's more unsettled edges.
RA.1020 isn't comfort listening in the conventional sense, but it does offer its own form of recalibration and release. Stay put, and you'll be rewarded.
Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1039
@triplexlarge
@benbondy
@pontiacstreator
@specialguest-dj
Three hours of incendiary techno, as two veterans go head-to-head.
When Speedy J described his studio dynamic with Chris Liebing back in 2014, he put it bluntly: "I try to piss him off a little." The result? Dance music that's as functional and precise as Liebing demands, with just enough chaos to keep it interesting. That tension has defined the duo's partnership, Collabs 3000, since their first releases, and it's alive and well on their debut RA Mix.
Both artists are techno heavyweights in their own right. Jochem Paap, AKA Speedy J, helped Europe slow down after the breakneck '90s, proving that techno could chug as well as pummel. Liebing, meanwhile, commanded his popular label CLR and went from transforming schranz into the hard techno sound that recently swept up a younger generation of ravers.
As a pair, Collabs 3000 undeniably has its ear trained on the big room. Paap and Liebing are both former Berghain regulars, and the Berlin club's influence is clear across RA.1006: taut, muscular techno, or "effective and structured" in Liebing's words, with Paap injecting the right amount of unpredictability. Their 2005 full-length, Metalism, remains a landmark: polished, uncompromising and dynamite for any large sound system.
With the album now remastered for its 20th anniversary, Collabs 3000's RA Mix brings that same ferocious energy into sharp focus: smouldering textures, peak-time pressure and three unrelenting hours of classic techno.
@chris-liebing
@jochempaap
Read the interview at ra.co/podcast/1025
RA Podcast
Stumble into 2026 with the 3XL favourites' uncanny vision of ambient.
It's become a tradition that the first RA Mix of every year eases listeners into January with soft, gentle and unhurried tones. For RA.1020, though, crimeboys take a different approach.
Made up of Ben Bondy, Special Guest DJ and Pontiac Sterator, the US trio are all loosely associated with 3XL. Over the past decade, the Berlin-based label, run by Special Guest DJ, has helped define a strain of ambient that foregrounds strangeness, texture and eccentric detail.
This energy comes through immediately on RA.1020. Listen to the first ten minutes and you might not quite feel soothed. Stick with it, though, and a different logic begins to emerge, as church bells, corroded electronics and industrial abrasion give way to long passages of dub pressure, shadowy rhythm and low-lit propulsion.
Across two hours, the trio draw a map of influences both internal and external to the 3XL universe, from foundational reference points like Skinny Puppy, M.E.S.H. and DJ Krush to artists embedded within the label’s wider orbit, such as Perila, james K and Critical Amnesia. Together, these selections trace a throughline from '90s industrial and jungle into dub techno, experimental club and contemporary ambient's more unsettled edges.
RA.1020 isn't comfort listening in the conventional sense, but it does offer its own form of recalibration and release. Stay put, and you'll be rewarded.
Find the tracklist and interview at ra.co/podcast/1039
@triplexlarge
@benbondy
@pontiacstreator
@specialguest-dj
