Ransom Note

A New Wave mix from jungle pioneer, hip-hop cult figure and dancefloor alchemist, Ayman Rostom aka @maghreban Doctor Zygote and Strange U. under his new alias Mystery Tiime... With latest album, 'Maudlin Tales of Grief and Love, ' he examines lo-fi dance, post-punk, and new wave. With all that hyperbole in mind we asked him to put together a New Wave mix, recorded with the same spirit of experimen...

This week’s Monday Is OK mixtape is an immersive experience into the world of YANA, the alias of Polish composer and multi-instrumentalist Joanna Bieńkowska. YANA’s latest album, Daydreamer, released on Ólafur Arnalds’s OPIA label, continues her journey into emotional landscapes shaped by lush string arrangements and atmospheric electronic textures. A graduate of the Academy of Music in Gdańsk, YA...

"Think Pachanga Boys’ Time…but with soul." The register chimed loudly. He glanced up at the queue of customers steadily gathering and took a deep breath. It was going to be a long hot day. The shop was small and crowded, outside in the street it was scorching, the block was on fire in the midst of the summer and everyone and everything was looking for relief. He would be their answer… He wasn’t su...

This is a mix of stuff that either makes me feel like I want It All Levels Out to make people feel, or music that made an impression on me years ago and inspired it. Hopefully it provides a soundtrack for thinking, maybe while walking the dog around in the rain. Lots of instrumental stuff, so it’s blank for your own message. Out last week on Bytes; It All Levels Out, is album no 10 from Minotaur S...

“It fits every situation. From sailing to baptism to weddings and name days. Not ideal to listen in the sewer.” Jaakko Eino Kalevi returned at the end of last year with new album, Chaos Magic (the Greek concept of “kháos”) – a double album of elemental pop and baroque electronics. It was a wild, immersive experience written and recorded largely in his new home of Athens. Navigating a kaleidoscope...

"The mix is all over the shop but a common theme is exploration, expansion, deepness." Respected New York-based DJ and co-founder of Singapore’s Darker Than Wax label, Marco Weibel has quietly built a loyal following through his wide-ranging sets, which seamlessly blend everything from spiritual jazz to house and UK garage. Known for his deep, genre-spanning selections, Marco’s approach emphasises...

It’s funny how something so wrong might feel so right. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, the deck stacked against you and the rules all askew. Yet these were the cards that he had been dealt, perhaps dealing was healing after all? As he wandered through the city streets, a wildcard in the night, he wondered what people back home might think of his predicament. They’d always doubted him anyway so...

"We made this mix foryou with some previously unpublished material. Cocaine Sex was originally recorded & included, Sub Aqua Overdrive Dub for Rhythm King Records(Mute Records dance subsidiary) in 87. Later reissued on Mute Records. Cocaine Sex has spawned many children over the years through various recordings & I've included some of the many including Dragonbass Soundsystem & Renegade Soundmachi...

Eluard’s LP track “Dirty Hall” receives a remix treatment from Slow Motion Label head Fabrizio Mammarella… https://www.theransomnote.com/music/premiere-eluard-comic-bad-fabrizio-mammarella-remix-slow-motion/ @mammarella @slow-motion-records

Rough digi-dub and bass-heavy pulsations. Love Song's Thomas Korf and Sebastian Kokus and the prolific Ulf Schütte aka Cloud Management bring forth a ray of sunlight through the February clouds. https://www.theransomnote.com/music/cloud-management-the-monday-is-ok-mixtape/

London-based artist, producer, Rinse FM host and all round polymath ELLES reimagines her Anthem, infusing it with a rave-ready UKG energy: https://www.theransomnote.com/music/premiere-elles-anthem-angel-of-rhythm-refix-pt-2/ @e_l_l_e_s

Dropping self-releases via his own bandcamp and Kulture Galerie following his contribution to the labels NFTS 999 compilation his musical interests took a sharp turn when he discovered artists like Gene on Earth, Sweely, Black Loops, and many others in the realm of the good electronic. His new EP ‘Witless Q&A’s via the Filippo MSM helmed Kulture Galerie this February with five original cuts. You ...

High-energy remix banger alert. Chloé Robinson & DJ ADHD take on Matisa on Correspondant. https://www.theransomnote.com/music/premieres/premiere-matisa-dj-adhd-chloe-robinson-remix-baby-correspondant/

The magnificent Bawrut returns to Ransom Note Records with an incredible new collection of interpretations of his music from the past couple of years, Remix Pack EP. Featuring a cast of the finest producers the underground currently has to offer, this four track whirlwind of club pounders exhibits everything that is great about electronic music in 2024. First up on remix duties is the magnificent...

Airhead retains a relatively low profile, to an extent this seems to be out of choice. Emerging in 2010 his sound was deep and introspective, paired alongside counterparts from the UK bass scene such as Pariah, James Blake, Joy O, Peverelist, Shackleton and others. Some of his music worked well in the newer school of clubs, for those keen to challenge preconceptions and conventional constraints of...

Low-slung Polygon Window-esque acid from Tramic on Kulture Galeri’s Metropolitan Soul Museum round 2: https://www.theransomnote.com/music/premiere-tramic-lanterns-kulture-galerie/ In a Tramic town, lanterns aglow, Kulture Galerie, where nonsense does flow. Dancing Tramic with lanterns in hand, In a whimsical world, oh, so grand. Pigs recite news, cows wear polka-dot, Lanterns paint rainbows, a pec...

Polito are a group of musicians who have just released a new album called ‘Collapse Phase’. The record is self described as “a meeting of improvised contemporary dance and live improvised techno music, working together to create entrancing performance experiences”. Drawing upon a broad array of influences the music has a number of multifaceted touch points – Dub, Techno, IDM, House and the spaces...

The machines had been turned off. It had been many years since anyone had ventured into the old warehouse, there was only some slim hope that it might still even work. Once upon a time this place had been a paradise, a kingdom and a place in which revellers came to let loose and be free. This was back in the old days, back when the dance was all innocent and little did we know about what might lur...

Luke Hess remains one of the most innovative, underground producers and DJ’s out there. Not one to seek the limelight or the fame, his focus remains in the present what it has in the past. He is committed to spotlighting and showcasing deep, thoughtful, pensive Techno and its ability to transcend space and time. Representing Detroit, he weaves moody ambient textures throughout shuffling percussion...

There was a strange feeling lingering in the air, an eerie sense of tension which hung thick and left a bitter taste in the mouth. Why would it be that there was so much stress? Where had this come from? Why now? What caused the pinch? He sighed as he wandered through the quiet city, it was dead, the people of the week had left town to return to their families leaving nothing but empty streets and...

He watched from the window, at the world passing by below. From the fourth floor he considered what his world might look like if he were to be one of them, busy and on the way to and fro. Perhaps they were going to work, some might meet friends, others were simply taking in the brisk air of an Autumn morning. Not him… Here in this room he simply looked on, a distant figure on the periphery of a wo...

"Think of it as a double-sided cassette with earlier & more recent, from established & emerging, at least seemingly like-minded colleagues & friends." The award-winning, East Berlin-born, Potsdam-based, polyinstrumental composer duo Brueder Selke aka Sebastian Selke on the cello and his piano-wielding younger brother, Daniel Selke, are not your average siblings fighting over the TV remote. An open...

Collaborating with a 16-voice choir Von Oswald delves into the interplay between the human voice and electronic synthesis. https://www.theransomnote.com/music/premiere-moritz-von-oswald-luminoso-tresor/ In the realm of Moritz Van Oswald’s delight, Luminoso at Tresor, a surreal flight, Twinkling stars in the techno night, Where beats and dreams take their curious height. Electronic wizard, with a h...

Next up on Paradise Palms Records, two remixes of Ukrainian artist ID_UA’s “Dyakui”. https://www.theransomnote.com/music/premiere-id_ua-dyakui-fausto-remix-paradise-palms/ ID_UA and Dyakui, in a wild parade, Fausto’s Remix, where dreams cascade, On Paradise Palms, the music’s crusade, A nonsensical groove, our senses persuade. Dancing through the night, in a cosmic trance, ID_UA’s beats make our b...

Synth-heavy, breakbeat banger from Kristy Harper on Ten Eight Seven: https://www.theransomnote.com/music/premiere-kristy-harper-u-silver-bear-recordings/ Kristy Harper – U Ten Eight Seven, In a land where llamas danced in heaven, With disco unicorns and leprechauns aplenty, Grooving to beats that made them feel so trendy. The music was magic, the rhythm so sweet, As they moved their hooves and tap...