Rave to the Grave

In the final epsidoe of our hardcore series with Dance or Die, we're joined by London-based DJ, producer, and Rag & Bone label founder Jason Alexander, better known as Warlock, who documents his 36 years inside UK rave culture. We revisit the early days of breakbeat hardcore, the impact of Belgian and Dutch rave records, and the rapid mutations of jungle, darkcore, techno and dubstep. We talk abou...

This is Part 2 of our episode with Baseck, as part of our collaborationg with Holly Dicker and her book, Dance or Die. We pick up where episode 1 left off, with Baseck discussing his later journey in the hardcore rave scene, the formation of L.A. crew Dark Matter Soundsystem and his transition from turntablism to using drum machines and modular synths. We talk about his collaborations with Boys No...

In this special collaborative episode with Dance or Die, I'm talking to Derrick Estrada, better known in the worlds of breakcore, hardcore, jungle and sonic synthesis as Baseck. Baseck was raised in Lancaster, California halfway between the Angeles National Forest and the Mojave Desert. As a youth he became intoxicated by car bass test CDs, scratch records, jungle mixtapes, gangster rap, and illeg...

In this special collaborative episode with Dance or Die, author Holly Dee sits down with Siuli Ko in the Netherlands. Siuli has been integral to the Dutch free party rave scene since its late '80s acid punk beginnings. From fronting the noisy DIY group MINIGOD to organising some of The Hague's first basement raves, Siuli was a rebel youth with a diehard love of music and bringing people together b...

This episode kicks off our collaborative mini-series with Dance or Die on hardcore and what better way to start the whole thing than by talking to Holly Dicker aka Holly Dee. Holly is a music journalist and raver who has devoted over a decade to covering the history of hardcore while working for places like Resident Advisor, Boiler Room, Tresor and PRSPCT Records. Then she spent four years of bloo...

Journey from Montreal to various raves on the African continent with San Farafina and Hervé from Montréal's post-border interdiscipinary collective Moonshine. We explore their journey from throwing full-moon house parties in 2014 to linking up with the African diaspora around the globe, along the way building a brand, creative hub, and party institution. We hear about what's going on in Kinshasa,...

Vanyfox is a DJ/producer taking the Portugal-born dance music genre batida to the world. Raised on the outskirts of Lisbon near the Quinta do Mocho neighborhood (home to many batida pioneers including Marfox and DJ Nervoso) and based in France, Vanyfox discusses his early memories and the emotions, experiences and production techniques that influence his sound, which borrows from trap, deep house...

Paul Harrington is a British raver with a story to tell. A story about getting arrested in Ibiza with hundreds of E's in a cereal box. A story about the London acid house spots of the late 1980s and early 90s and running with violent football firms until euphoric anthems and a night on the doves at Legends turned his life around. A story about trading Hummers for mangoes with Afghani arms dealers....

Terre Thaemlitz aka DJ Sprinkles talks about her musical life, from the roller discos of Minnesota and Missouri to the transsexual bars and ambient rooms of NYC in the 80s and 90s, from deep house and noise shows in Japan to present-day Panorama Bar and Dekmantel. Vivian and co-host Thomas Venker speak to Terre about electronic music and queerness, softness as rebellion, memorable nightlife charac...

In anticipation of her new album, HUMANISE , on Mute Records, we talk to DJ & producer HAAi about how a young hairdresser from a small town Down Under landed in London, broke up with her psych rock band, fell in love with house and techno and ended up on the world's biggest stages. Topics include wild rave locations, drug trips, fat pants, dinosaur energies and doof sticks; how she selects records...

In part two of our interview with legendary house music producer Junior Sanchez, we talk about the late 1990s until the present day: forming the Wu-Tang of house with artists like Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx, Miami WMC and Ibiza hijinks, the "Planet Rock" tape, the electrohouse era, Junior's remix outlook, working with Madonna and the evolution of club culture over the last two decades, plus what...

East Coast house legend Junior Sanchez started mixing records at 11, by age 15 he was playing in the Shampoo Room at Limelight and starting to make his first productions with help from the fly titties guy. You might know Junior from his releases on Strictly Rhythm, Defected and Relief, his trio S-Men with Roger and DJ Sneak, the remixes he's produced for Madonna, The Faint and Fcukers or as the st...

Stacey Forrester, head of harm reduction at British Columbia's Bass Coast Festival and founder of Good Night Out Vancouver, joins us for a frank and fun chat about something we don't talk about enough in the rave scene: drugs and drug safety. We learn about harm reduction and community, how they use diamonds for drug testing, the best way to talk someone down, what chemicals to look out for, how W...

The literal translation of his Arabic name, Handsome Tiger is the moniker of Vancouver-based producer and DJ Hussein Elnamer. Hussein got his start in metal bands, found dubstep and is currently fusing the genres big low-end and 140 tempos with global club and bass rhythms in an effort to "decolozine the dancfloor." Hussein talks about growing up mixed-race in Canada – his father is from Libya and...

We're headed to Perth, Western Australia to catch up with Paul Harding aka El Hornet, one-third of drum 'n' bass group Pendulum, who have reached huge heights with their hard-driving neurofunk bangers that lay bare the group's background in heavy metal and hard rock. Paul is a hilarious storyteller and we talk about CB radio, surfing with sharks, trading beer for mixtapes, losing a dead person at...

We're headed to the woods of Western Canada to talk to Andrea Graham, a bass music DJ/producer known as The Librarian and the co-founder of British Columbia's music and arts festival Bass Coast, which she established with her friend Liz Thomson in the small coastal town of Squamish in 2009. Ahead of Bass Coast's 16th year this July, we talk running a festival, harm reduction, bass music, environme...

In the last 44 years, Moshe Kasher has been a flyering bear, a sober ecstasy dealer, a sign language interpreter, and a gate monitor at Burning Man. He is now a stand-up comedian living in Los Angeles, and he has a new book out called Subculture Vulture, about the six subcultures that have defined his life. Moshe joins on Rave to the Grave for a funny conversation about Bay Area raves of the '90s,...

Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin are DJs, founders of the parties Mister Saturday Night, Mister Sunday, and Planetarium and the Mister Saturday Night record label, as well as New York City nightclub Nowadays. In part two of our interview, we dive deep about opening and running Nowadays, the NYC underground scene at the moment, and how cultural and political shifts impact the underground. If you're i...

Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin have spent the last 20 years helping shape NYC nightlife but these days, they're best known as the owners of Nowadays in Ridgewood, Queens, which is, in many people's estimation, the best club in New York right now. Justin and Eamon are also DJs, run the record label, and are the hosts and residents of long-running parties Mister Saturday Night, Mister Sunday, and an...

Over the last 20+ years, Shawn Reynaldo has been a DJ, record label owner, radio station manager, journalist and the editor-in-chief of XLR8R magazine. He's a one-time staple of the San Francisco indie rock scene, a former promoter of tropical bass and UK funky parties, and also one of the pre-eminent critics writing about house and techno for Pitchfork, Spin, NPR and beyond. Velocity Press just r...

When 1980s electro and freestyle music from Miami, New York, and Los Angeles touched down in Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian cities, it ignited a wildfire in the minds of local DJs and soundsystem operators. Out of the hoods – in Brazil known as favelas – emerged the ass-shaking sounds of baile funk. You may have heard baile funk hits by Pablo Vittar, Diplo & MIA, and Karol G, but on this episo...

Multiple nights a week for the last four decades, Kevin Carpet has rolled himself up in a body-sized custom carpet and placed himself in bars, clubs, and the streets of NYC for folks to step on, bounce on, take pictures with or... whatever they want really. We talk to Kevin about stepping out at legendary '80s nightspots like Danceteria and the Peppermint Lounge, the ins and outs of his profession...

McKenzie Wark is an Australian born writer, critical theory professor, and trans-femme techno raver currently living in NYC. Her latest book,  Raving , thinks deeply about dancing, dissociation, drugs, bodies, and identity as McKenzie, recently transitioned, navigates the queer ravespaces of Bushwick, Brooklyn. On the line from Berlin, we talk about experimenting with language and writing, bodies...

Seana Gavin is a London-based visual artist who spent 10 years immersed in the free party culture in the UK and beyond, traveling to week-long parties in Czechoslovakian fields, French mountains, and Berlin squats with soundsystems like Spiral Tribe, Bedlam, Desert Storm, and Hekate. Her photos and diary entries of the adventures of these roving cyberpunks are collected in books like Spiral Baby a...

"Tear the Club Up." "Watch Out for the Big Girl." "Bring In the Katz." Shawn Caesar of pioneering Baltimore Club music label Unruly Records joins us to talk about some of Baltimore Club music's greatest bangers, and takes us back to genre's roots in the hip-house scene of the late '80s and early '90s. Learn about Bmore club's inspirations, how it's evolved over the years, and the life and times of...