Madrid's finest lines up five absolutely slammin' Chicago-house weapons that will land later this year!

PREMIERE : Jose Cabrera - Madrid No Para

Providing his debut for Ransom Note Records offshoot Insult To Injury, our fellow Amsterdammer and ECHOBOX radio DJ Oneven (a.k.a. Andrew Visser) offers up five pieces of electronic meatiness for our ravenous consumption. As a duel British/Dutch citizen, his electronic music heritage is strong and he draws on early IDM / Braindance methods to create a unique, trademark sound. With a huge passion for hardware, Oneven tries to keep the music as organic and honest as possible, mistakes and all.
Lead single (and synth master class) VM1S2RM springs out of the trap first, hurtling along at breakneck pace, peppered with curious bleeps, noises and percussion stabs, this IDM monster leaves little breathing room. Next up, M52t5, comes down a few gears and treats us to some laid back, electro tinged 808 beats and beautifully ethereal chords over the industrial, Kraftwerk-esque synth lines.
brrytmt takes us into another world completely, tugging at the heartstrings with its expressive, lofi chords, rolling over the top of some beautifully heavy, distorted beats. Tissue continues in that vein, more subdued machine sounds are juxtaposed to the frantic 707 rhythms and repeating vocal edit, conjuring up an eerily stunning scene.
Rounding off, we’re treated to more stirring, processed sounds with Dlaciebie. A sparse and precise piece of automaton music that invokes a certain sadness, proving once and for all that, machines do indeed have emotions...

Gebarentalen EP

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Oneven - Dlaciebie [ITI#19]

An eerie calm had settled on the beach. The sea was still under the jet-black sky, which was dotted with pinprick stars, like a billion tiny torches shining down from the heavens. The moon cast shadows on the sands and the tranquillity was enhanced by the gentle sound of the waves as they drifted up onto the shoreline and back again. In the distance you could just about make out the thrum of the soundsystem from the bar in the far corner of the beach. It could be playing any song you wanted and anyone you knew could be in there, waiting for you to arrive with a hug and a smile and whatever else you fancied…

It’s a double celebration for the Ransom Note and Bytes family today! As well as being the release day for the four-track Remix EP featuring reworkings of tracks from Water Groove, the stunning debut album from the multi-instrumentalist composer and visual artist Yoann Pisterman, it is also the 40th birthday of R$N friend Enrique “ELO” Leon, the Venezuelan/Colombian DJ also known as Leeon. He just so happens to have provided one of the remixes on the EP, so R$N is posting it to mark this special day.

ELO’s ethereal take on Marbling soothes the mind with a meditative aura of sonic crescendo. As the music evolves, it feels as though we are transcending through unknown dimensions, pervaded by introspection and bliss. This take on Marbling was inspired by a recurrent midnight sitting down at Playa Marmol in Río Claro, a nature reserve in Colombia.

PREMIERE: Yoann Pisterman - Yoann Pisterman - Marbling (ELO Marble Beach at Midnight Remix) [Bytes]

Artist: https://soundcloud.com/perfect-lovers, https://soundcloud.com/dj-victor-rodriguez, Tavish 
Track: Inside Me
Label: https://soundcloud.com/muymuycdmxFormat: Digital, VA
Release date: 23/02/22
YouTube: https://youtu.be/DjaYm56gYHc

The first official release by label founders Perfect Lovers and Victor Rodriguez : a house track made for the gay, sweaty, after hours that they often inhabit.
The first remix by the infamous Djs Pareja takes it a little harder and a little darker, while the Tavish remix takes it into a cosmic psyche out fitting for any late night trip.
Our first offering of 2022, we are keeping house music loud, queer, and deep in the underground.

PREMIERE | Perfect Lovers & Victor Rodriguez - Inside Me (Tavish Remix) [Muy Muy Limited] 2022

Among the students is a little girl who wears glasses. She set them down on a chair before the class started, the way I used to when I was her age and taking classes with Madame Dismailova. You don’t wear glasses when you dance. I remember that when I was with Madame Dismailova, I would practice not wearing my glasses during the day. The shapes of people and things lost their sharpness and everything was blurry. Even sounds became muffled. Without my glasses, the world lost its roughness and became as soft and downy as the big pillow I used to lean my cheek against before going to sleep.

Franz Kirmann returns to Bytes for his stunning sixth solo album, Forget Me Not, travelling inland to explore buried emotions of longing and loss. The music of Forget Me Not is drenched in blurry melancholy, with fragments of melodies and disembodied voices reaching out through dense, textured clouds of sound, perfectly demonstrated by 'Your Tenderness', the track premiering on R$N today.

A meditation on past mistakes, past love and the passing of time, the compositions on the LP are akin to paintings, layered and still, the slowed-down voices from the deconstructed songs echo through heavy reverberation, becoming distant and sepulchral, evocations of a distant past. The melodies, half erased, become almost subliminal.

Kirmann cites My Bloody Valentine as a major influence on his work, but also artists from the British experimental label Touch, such as Fennesz for his work on granular sound and similar melancholic-centric productions, or Philip Jeck for his use of old records to conjure otherworldly musical textures.

Extract from from Catherine Certitude by Patrick Modiano.

PREMIERE: Franz Kirmann - Your Tenderness [Bytes]

Frankfurt producer and co-founder of Precision Breakbeat Research imprint, Kabuki, brings us the final instalment of the collaboration-focused Beat Excursions series.

Invading his nostrils were the smells of spices, fish and bodies which, when experienced in tandem, made for a deadly concoction. This was especially true in his case where survival would depend on the sharpness of wit and perception. Swimming through swathes of people who clamoured clumsily on top of each other, he felt the air begin to prickle his face, signalling an opening which would either lead to safety, or more danger.

Following 5 editions, 24 tracks and 17 artist collaborations which range from Detroit-based Footwork connoisseur Sinistarr to Bronx native Anna Morgan, Kabuki's self-released Beat Excursions series has reached its final form. For its sixth and final manifestation, it's down to Exit Records boss dBridge, label affiliate Fixate, and Japanese dubstep and DnB stalwart ENA to offer their bass-heavy input.

Our pick sees Kabuki go solo. Inspired by a trip to Hong Kong where he visited the iconic location immortalised by Wong Kar-wai's 1994 movie, 'Chungking Mansions' is a playful half-timer. Opening the track are high-frequency synth plucks which glimmer on a liquid surface before melodic low-ends and a hard-hitting beat plunges things into mischief. This track is action-packed, with sharp edge sounds that glisten under neon lights.

Beat Excursions #6

PREMIERE: Kabuki - Chungking Mansions [Beat Excursions]

Guest mix for Leri Ahel's @mutant-disco Radio Show #389 aired on February 7, 2022.


Rob Mazurek & Emmett Kelly - Of Time Wasted (International Anthem, 2016)
16-17 - Bomba Bomba (Not on label, 1988)
Leo Kupper - Santur et Oscines (Tchahargah) (Sub Rosa, 2016)
Rojin Sharafi - It Made You Blind (Ventil, 2021)
Fetter - Karma (Osàre! Editions, 2021)
Spinal Machine - Do You Like It Here? (Nightshift Records, 1991)
Akira Rabelais - Seduced By The Silence (Samadhisound, 2010)
Bendik Giske - Void (Smalltown Supersound, 2021)
Andras E.G. Csefalvay - Song of Tom (LOM, 2011)
Id M Theft Able - Please Be a Dream (Pogus Productions, 2021)
Bob Ostertag - Say No More (RecRec Music, 1993)
kœnig - HANDROLLS (Feat. Elvin Brandhi) (Ventil, 2020)
Female Wizard - Magic Madness Sadness (MSHR Remix) (Anterograde, 2020)
Society Of Unknowns - Live @ The Invisible College (Addict Records, 2004) 
model home - looking for (Not on label, 2021)
Eduardo Falú e Ernesto Sábato - Poncho Celeste (Irco Video S.R.L, 1991)
Maja Odžaklijevska - Daljine (PGP RTB, 1982)

Edin for Leri Ahel's Mutant Disco Radio Show #389 (2022)

Martin Matiske's superb new six-track EP Circle Of Enlightenment on LDI Records is based around the concept of one-mindedness and togetherness and aims to describe the direct connection between human beings and the universe.

 

This German artist was fascinated with mixing records as early as his 10th birthday and had his first release on the legendary International Deejay Gigolo Records aged just 15. In the 20 years since he has released a selection of records on labels like Moustache Records and Bordello A Parigi. His timeless sound comes with a vintage touch and always fuses electro, Italo and techno in fresh new ways.

 

Circle Of Enlightenment is a brilliantly adventurous and storytelling new EP from the ever-excellent Martin Matiske.

Circle Of Enlightenment

PREMIERE : Martin Matiske - Breakout

Anchorite (Slowed Down Version)

Tsunami Waiting

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Ransom Note is an online music, arts and culture magazine. We provide a home for readers and writers with boundless enthusiasm, esoteric knowledge, fierce opinions and impeccable taste.

With our core team immersed in all aspects of dance music, we publish news, articles, and interviews covering the greatest in innovative, underground culture from across the globe. We offer regular, exclusive music and mixtapes from our favourite artists, and publish features shining a light on everything from the freshest new artists to the untold tales from rave history.

Alongside this we offer musings on film, books, life, and art, generating some context and controversy as an antidote to the reheated PR that clogs up the internet. Our office is fuelled by Tunnock’s Bars, cat memes, hangovers and a ridiculous, never ending love for our culture.

We're always interested in getting new writers on board – feel free to get in touch if you’ve got a story to tell.

With love until the grave.