https://soundcloud.com/rupertcross
https://soundcloud.com/c_a_r
https://soundcloud.com/ransom-note-records
🛒 https://rupertcross.bandcamp.com/album/strapped-out
🔊 https://youtu.be/DjQHJu4AVyk

Ransom Note Records are psyched to welcome the mighty Rupert Cross back to the fold with a brand, spanking new record, in the form of Strapped Out EP. Featuring the inimitable vocal talents of R$N stalwart & interdisciplinary creator C.A.R., Cross and Raunet have supplied an assemblage of devastatingly raucous tracks that will have you bouncing off the walls, floors, ceilings and fellow club goers corporeal bodies.

Eponymous track Strapped Out is first out of the gate, immediately setting the scene. Mechanical polyrhythms intertwine, falling into an automatic groove of impulsive contortions. In juxtaposition, C.A.R. lends some humanity to proceedings with a vocal performance that seems cooly spontaneous, but a little investigation reveals Chloe’s trademark lyrical wisdom. Fair weather dancers beware!

Next up, Blue Line takes some of the same ingredients, but adds a pinch of Moroder (if he was a Goth) and a generous splash of Post-Punk riotousness. A rolling, Disco Chuggathon, its slight melancholy creates an addictive listening experience. Best enjoyed poured over a 3am dance floor in a sweaty, low ceilinged club.

Pepper provides some respite from the machine funk onslaught.. but only slightly. A lethal stab of bass lunges forth from the speakers and collides with the solar plexus. Once we regain our breathe, we realise that we’re immersed in an anxiety tank, with dissonant, staccato plinks and plonks darting back and forth between ours ears. The feeling of existential suffocation has never been so pleasantly welcome.

Dreamland, Dreamland’s warpy warpy intro prefaces a jolly excursion into a theme park for machines. Fun and levity are on offer in abundance, but all must conform to the mechanical overlords. Stepping outside of the strictly gridded lines is forbidden, as we bowl along the automaton highway, greedily imbibing everything on offer.

Lastly Miles Vandersteen remixes Strapped Out, somehow upping the J.G. Ballard vibes with distorted, metallic blasts & rote drum patterns. If the original was built with the purpose of obliterating the dance floor, then this extended version aims to take down the whole club and the surrounding buildings to boot. A weapon of truly epic proportions, this is a timely reminder that humanity should consider carefully what munitions we choose to develop. “Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds”.

Tracklist: 

Strapped Out feat. C.A.R.	
Blue Line feat. C.A.R.	
Pepper	
Dreamland, Dreamland	
Strapped Out feat. C.A.R. (Miles Vandersteen Remix)	
Strapped Out [Instrumental]	
Blue Line [Instrumental]	
Strapped Out (Miles Vandersteen Remix) [Instrumental]

PREMIERE: Rupert Cross - Strapped Out feat. C.A.R. [Ransom Note Records]

WhyPeopleWar Fundraiser for Ukraine: https://whypeopledance.bandcamp.com/

The Why people dance question was asked for the first time in Lithuania back in 2013 but it gained a worldwide echo in its 8 years of existence. Run by @pauliuskamblevicius with the help of @experimentsserial and a network of collaborators, the online electronic music platform and label keeps its heart open for new friends and treasure finds but its filter tight and deep underground. Tune into WPD channels on Soundcloud, YouTube and Bandcamp.

New tracks tagged #Rupert Cross