There was a hustle in the arena as the people began to fill each seat with a purpose. It was a randy evening and there was an eager sense of expectation in the air. The curtains hung ominously across the large sprawling stage, it would appear to be far too grand for a man of little known professionalism and hype. However, he could dance. He could move with effortless precision and skill which would wow an audience ten times over, this was but small change to a dancer of the night who had earnt his stripes amidst much rougher circumstances. 

Nachtbraker is a producer who has moved from strength to strength across the last few years. His delicate attention to detail lends itself well to the superbly crafted club focussed music he has released previously. However, his new album sees him travel across a far wider spectrum than that of which we have seen previously.

QSLP01 - When You Find a Stranger in the Alps

PREMIERE: Nachtbraker - Randy [Quartet Series]

Brian 'Ben' Mackenzie

"Brian 'Ben' Mackenzie (AKA Aneuon Shadielf, King of the Sylphs) has been actively interested in ancient and modern spiritual practices since his early teens (he was fascinated with Norse and Egyptian mythology as a tot, and shop-lifted a pack of tarot cards in public school). He was initiated into Tantric Buddhism when he was eighteen, at which time he had already been practicing mantra meditation and hatha yoga for one year under the instruction of "qualified" teachers. He has been blessed with teachings from such notable Lamas as Sogyal Rinpoche, Namkai Norbu, and the Twelfth Tai Situ-pa, and has received Milarepa, Medicine Buddha, Guru Rinpoche and other empowerments. While currently having the view that "truth is a pathless land," Brian has found much of value in Eastern and Western techniques of insight and self-development which he is eager to share with anyone sincerely interested. He is particularly keen on breathing, mantra and ecstatic dance, and following the commandment 'Thou shalt fall in love AT LEAST three times a day.'

Besides Rebalancing Integrative Bodywork (which Brian has been certified to practice since 1993) and various forms of meditation, Brian has received formal instruction in the following healing arts: Therapeutic Touch (Level 1), Reiki (levels I and II), Jin Shin Do (Basic), and Process-Oriented Psychotherapy (ongoing, since 1995). Brian has been a peer health educator and community organizer for many years, and has presented on his work to international audiences in Canada and overseas. He has also travelled to numerous intentional communities and spiritual retreat centres in North America, Europe and the Southern Hemisphere. He is an alumni of Starwood Festivals 13-15.

He lives with his Anam Cara (life partner) Kenn 'Snail' Quayle (Queen of the Gnomes) in Gibsons, at the foot of Mount Elphinstone, on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada, where they enjoy having an authentic 'wishing well' and lots of lovely flora and fauna in their faerie sanctuary."

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.

On the way home, I found an old game store. Dusty shelves, flickering light, and a bag marked “Famicom and Super Famicom, 100 cartridges.” One 1,000-yen bill.

The bag rattled in my hands. At home, I spread it on the tatami. Faded cartridges, warm burnt-plastic scent, the bumps and cold metal of the connectors, rough paper labels, the faint air of after-school afternoons—they all returned to my fingertips.

 I tried each cartridge in the Famicom. Only five worked. Ninety-five stayed silent, screens pitch black. Unknown shapes, unknown labels. Online searches revealed nothing.

Of the universe’s matter and energy, we understand only five percent. The rest—dark matter and dark energy—remains unseen, yet its presence is certain.

The silent cartridges are the same. Touchable, heavy, yet unreachable. Frightening, if they shape our lives.

Yet if ever revealed, it would be like turning on a brand-new game for the first time—as a child, with wonder multiplied to the scale of the cosmos. Ninety-five cartridges alive at once, filling the screen with colors and sounds never seen before. The universe would shine brilliantly, in colors we have never known.