RA.1000 DJ Harvey & Andrew Weatherall

Andrew Weatherall's first official posthumous mix. The only b2b DJ Harvey ever agreed to. Six hours beamed in from 2012. This one's special. When mulling which direction to go in for RA's 1000th mix celebrations, many options came to mind. Some shadowy character 2-stepping around our collective consciousness? An impossible-level IDM icon? All tempting. But, ultimately, we are a DJ-forward publication and this is a DJ mix series. It felt truer to the history of the RA Podcast (now the RA Mix) to release vault material from a time when the world of niche records felt different, tighter, more discrete. The fourth-longest mix in the series' history is an unrepeatable masterclass, a coming together of one British icon who passed away in 2020, and another whose time on the road has scaled back considerably as of late. DJ Harvey agreed to exactly one b2b set in his life: this one, with Andrew Weatherall. The night took place at Trouw, an Amsterdam superclub already considered legendary before it shuttered in the opening hours of 2015, as part of an RA series anchored around rare combinations playing start-to-finish. Harvey was at the peak of an irresistible career second act, which dovetailed with a disco revival that dominated clubs for years. Weatherall, with infinite brownie points stockpiled from the '90s, remained everyone's favourite debonair psychonaut. What follows is a 385-minute marathon of arpeggiated chug and slow-cresting climaxes: a moment when the resting heart rate of dance floors plunged lower than any comparable point in the 21st century. If you've got time, a fun game is sussing out who plays what. Disco-dub covers of Echo & the Bunnymen? Smart money's on Weatherall. Exuberant EQ'ing of The Isley Brothers? Gotta be Harvey. As for the low 'n slow, lightly spangled house that ruled the early 2010s (think Maxxi Soundsystem, Disco Bloodbath, Rub & Tug, C.O.M.B.I. and Full Pupp), it's anyone's guess. 127 BPM practically feels like an F1 car. When we kicked off RA.1000, we outlined a few full-send goals: tick off long-awaited dream guests, honour architects who shaped the world around us and deliver recordings you truly can't hear anywhere else. DJing and the mythmaking around it has undergone quantum leaps since 2012, 2006, 1996 and 1989. For those of us who were kicking around in the former, there's a creeping melancholy that our prime is fast becoming a matter of historical record. The killing moon really did come too soon. Where will electronic music, DJ sets or any of this be in 2044? Hard to say. Best not to overthink that one. Instead, we want to say thanks to all contributors on the series so far. Now enjoy luxuriating in the company of two of the greatest to ever do it, together, for the first and last time.⁠ – Gabriel Szatan (Editor, RA) @andrew-weatherall Read the interview with DJ Harvey and Andrew Weatherall's family at https://ra.co/podcast/1016. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co