RA Poll: Top 5 podcasts of 2007
You’ve judged them in the threads, now it’s our turn. RA podcast selector Richard Chinn tallies the votes for best RA podcast of the year.
Now in its second year, the RA podcast served up some excellent mixes in 2007. One of the strengths of the format is its immediacy: A DJ can mix their set, hand it in, and we get to listen to it as soon as Monday rolls around. Some of our podcasts—those from Brendon Moeller, Deadbeat, Dan Curtin, Prosumer, Samim, Guy Gerber and Redshape—all went live within days of the DJ recording the mix.
This year we’ve tried to harness this sense of immediacy by selecting DJs and producers for the podcast who we feel are bubbling under: we’re especially proud to have had new names like Sven Weisemann, Efdemin, Goon & Koyote, Redshape, Simon Baker and Tim Sweeney on the pod this year.
Because they are podcasts for home listening, not just club mixes, it’s also been fun to hear DJs deviating from the standard club-recording template. In 2007, we’ve heard a variety of styles including krautrock (Riton), glitch (Michael Fakesch), Italo (Alexander Robotnick), downbeat (Future Loop Foundation) and ambience (Joris Voorn, Alex Smoke, Stefan Goldmann). Samim took the home-listening idea a step further, mixing up Afrobeat, jazz and house and providing a handy colour-coded chart of his mix for listeners to follow along on the couch.
Finally, we’d like to say thank you all of the artists who handed in RA podcasts in 2007. In our biased eyes, all of them are winners. But since that’s not very scientific, in our contributor’s poll this year we asked voters to note down which podcasts they especially rated in 2007. If you've arrived late to the series, this Top 5 is a great introduction to what you've been missing...
05. RA.067 Anja Schneider
Reportedly Anja Schneider was a bit freaked out about having to deliver a podcast (and having all you people comment on it), but she needn't have worried. Arriving just as the European summer faded, RA.067 kicked off with the superb ‘Mumbling Yeah’ before headed in a refreshingly techno direction, all dark hypnotic vocals and insistent basslines in patented Anja style. Half Mobilee material and half Anja faves, the mix offered an early peek of Pan-Pot’s coked up Charly and Catz & Dogz Searching from the Berlin stable, but perhaps it was the subtle melancholy of Dapayk & Padberg’s ‘Black Beauty’ that made the mix—what a finisher.
04. RA.055 Sebo K
2007 was a busy year for Sebo K, who somehow managed to juggle fulltime study with becoming of one of most in-demand DJs around. Released in summer, RA.055 was actually taken from a triumphant Sebo K appearance at Watergate back in January, yet it still managed to sound prescient all summer long: deep house tracks like ‘Son of Raw’ and ‘Nip Slip’ sat alongside techno cuts from 2000 and One and Minilogue in very 2007-defining manner, and the result was a hands-in-the air set with lot of heart to it.
03. RA.048 Dixon
When I first contacted Dixon to do a podcast, he politely declined, saying his forthcoming Body Language Vol. 4 release precluded him from taking part. Luckily he changed his mind. Something of a promo mix for Body Language, RA.048 was the perfect companion to Dixon’s excellent commercial mix, even using some of the same tracks (Owusu & Hannibal’s honey-smooth ‘What's it About’, the climatic Buttrich remix of ‘It’s All True’). Mixing soulful vocals, pop and raw deep house, Dixon’s style in 2007 had obviously been honed during long nights in the clubs, and the double whammy of RA.048 and Body Language seemed something of a revelation from the veteran Berlin DJ this spring.
02. RA.057 Efdemin
In the early part of 2007, one mix that had the whole RA office charmed was Efdemin’s 'Live at the Betalounge', the only online mix available by Efdemin at that point. So naturally we had to beg him to do a podcast. Efdemin actually did two mixes for RA, the first of which had half the office dancing around with joy, but RA.057 (beta) will forever remain a lost classic because, ever the perfectionist, Efdemin decided to have a second shot. The result, happily, was even better. Thirty minutes longer, RA.057 was packed with house, groove, and many of RA's Top 30 tunes of 2007. Excellent stuff.
01. RA.062 Joris Voorn
Like last year’s winner Ewan Pearson, Joris Voorn spent a couple of days experimenting and trialling potential tracks for his RA podcast, and his efforts paid off big with listeners and voters. A silky smooth ride through deep house, techno and warm ambience, RA.062 was perfectly honed for the home-listening format, marrying club beats to passages of not-quite-club music that delightfully hinted at the pleasures of a good night out. In a year in which many eyes were on German DJs, Voorn proved that the Lowlands should not be ignored. All eyes on the Netherlands in 2008?
For a limited time only - or until we run out of bandwidth - the Top 5 RA podcasts are available via iTunes.
Click here to launch the RA Podcast in itunes and hit the 'subscribe' button. Alternatively follow our 3 simple steps to subscribing in your favourite music player here.
What were your favourite RA podcasts in 2007?
Have your say in the RA forums
Voters: Chris Arden, Jeremy Armitage, David Berkley, Todd L. Burns, Paul Clement, Peter Chambers, Richard Chinn, Angus Dawson, Tami Fenwick, Ronan Fitzgerald, Stephane Girard, James Glazebrook, Mohson Iqbal, Alex Macpherson, Chris Mann, Joshua Meggitt, Steve Mizek, Patrick Munoz, Siana Petro, Carl Ritger, Nick Sabine, Bjorn Schaeffner, Colin Shields, Christopher Thomarios, Nik Torrens, Enrique Vanegas, Rick Warner, Jacob Wright, Sean-Michael Yoder, Robbie Younan.
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