Friend of a Friend

TODA GOSTOS!N#$... PRA SARRAR NO TRAFICANTE - DJ RICK - DJ SATI MARCONEX, MC LOBINHO E MC MN

After 5 years of 'Fortnightly Freebies' columns collating our favourite free downloads, we decided to do things a bit differently for the 100th chapter. Introducing 'Big Material', a 19-track 'name your price' compilation that will donate 100% of profits made to Stonewall Housing, a London-based charity supporting some of the most marginalised and vulnerable in our society.

At a time when unfair austerity is increasing inequality and leaving so many behind, we hope to support a community that has given so much to the 'scene' and music we love. Digi-dub abstractions and drifting ambient to kaleidoscopic breaks and newly-coined genre, 'subtle donk', it's a pretty accurate microcosm of the If-Only curation as a whole.

Big Material pulls together music from some of If-Only's favourite artists, with tracks from @apsychicyes, @riveryarra, Material Things (@12th-isle), @priori-ties, @nicholaswilson1982 & @steviewhisper, @benoitb, @maxabysmal, @58daniel, @bogdan-drazic, @whyesss, @twitch, @warzouk, @thomasbakk, @eyemeasure, @rdjm0, @furiousfrank, Moonphase (AKA @cl_lit), @moonbowmusic and @aki-aki.

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Soft and calm, we, like light
fray into gentle chaos.
Big material unfurls
Then turns to collect, reform –
Like breaths, draw in
To new poise and structure;
Solid and slow.
Never still. Glacial.

Think back, before
A piece of things,
Moving alone, once a part –
But when is the fragment
not the whole?
When is the whole not the whole?
The salt which made the chalk
Which made the cliff
Which made the slate -

Hard to see,
Once a part and still, we are,
A piece of something else.

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All profits go to Stonewall Housing, a London-based charity working to ensure lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people live in safer homes, free from fear, where they can celebrate their identity and support each other to achieve their full potential.

Artwork by Parks Perdue.
Mastering by Ali Berger.
Poem by BSMN WNS.

Download

Ether - Detonator (Furious Frank's Placid Acid Edit)

BANDCAMP - https://craigieknowes.bandcamp.com/album/war-child-4

First full listen of 'Sun Fades Away' by The Burrell Connection. A rare and beautiful transmission from the Zen Palace. War Child 4 is available Monday 6th June 2020. All profit donated to War Child UK, a charity helping children in areas of conflict around the world.

Red Eye - https://tinyurl.com/CKNOW4-Red-Eye
Deejay - https://tinyurl.com/CKNOW4-Deejay
Decks - https://tinyurl.com/CKNOW4-Decks
Horizons - https://tinyurl.com/CKNOW4-Horizons
Technique - https://tinyurl.com/CKNOW4-Technique
Juno - https://tinyurl.com/CKNOW4-Juno

Buy @ Bandcamp

PREMIERE: The Burrell Connection - Sun Fades Away [CKNOW4]

Masked with a metal face, draped in copper. Moving like us, but different. Trying to work out the world for itself, but is this just a world that works for us? Different when experiencing emotions and connections, less free for those we created in a way we’ll never truly understand, no matter how advanced we become over time. Even though we're clanging around hopelessly, trying to find a grasp is something that we all can relate to.

Keplrr returns with his second release, Reconstructed Club, on Control Freak Recordings, the sister label of the infamous London party, Cabin Fever. Like his debut EP Translucent, his sophomore release showcases a similar aesthetic, taking inspiration from UK techno and flaunting his knack for meticulous sound design. Our pick titled ‘Bods Realm’ takes a deep drive through spaced-out effects and harsh Warp-esque synth stabs, skilfully complemented with weighty sub-bass.

Reconstructed Club

PREMIERE: Keplrr - Bods Realm [Control Freak Recordings]

As he lay in the tall grass he looked upwards towards the heavens with a glazed expression. The clouds moved slowly and the wind howled in his ears as he struggled for breath. There was a splutter, a cough and a gasp. For a minute he wasn't sure if he might ever catch the air again but his smart lung, the one which he had left was what kept him afloat, at least for a little while longer anyway. In the distance he could hear the sound of sirens as they raced towards him, he smiled and laughed beneath the sun. 

Sputnik One is set to release a new EP via First Second Label, an imprint upon which he has appeared previously. The new EP is perhaps his most accomplished work to date, an intriguing assortment of tracks with odd twinges here and there.

PREMIERE: Sputnik One - Smart Lung [First Second Label]

Listen on YT - https://youtu.be/9VRlC2PaE4w

2020's tense, tectonic unrest is a fitting foreground for Andrew Morrison's freshest slab of bruised and blasted Cyclist productions, Weather Underground. Like their ravaged revolutionary group namesake, these tracks exude a mood of strife, shadows, and smoke, simmering protest transmissions from the grim north. The songs smear shades of industrial hypnosis, basement dub, and soul lament within his signature saturated “tape throb” palette like tagged concrete stained by tear gas. Rhythms of release and resistance, bodies in motion on the edge of the storm, coiled to strike for futures too unthinkable to lose.

Follow Artist @the-cyclist
Follow Label @100percentsilk

Mastered by Matt Tammariello.
Design by Britt Brown.

Weather Underground

Premiere: The Cyclist - Weather Underground

Artist: Codex, WDDS
Title: A Window
Format: Digital
Label: Interpolate
Release Date: 18/9/20
Purchase: https://interpolaterecords.bandcamp.com/album/airport-a-window-remixes

INTRP002 sees experimental pop duo Codex recruit five impressive beatsmiths to rework their latest two-track release. 
Gallegos, JTS, Nick Kearney, Nymad & WDDS all chip in to offer Breakbeat, Electronica, House, and UKG cuts. Meticulously hand-picked, firmly euphoric, unapologetically dancefloor-ready. 
WDDS provides a luscious, breaks-heavy, dystopian 150bpm rework of A Window, boasting a pulsating bassline worthy of admiration. WDDS productions have received support from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Madam X, Jossy Mitsu, dBridge and Ben UFO, to name a few, on tracks released on his 'Hectare Discs' imprint

https://linktr.ee/codex_music
https://linktr.ee/wddsmusic
https://soundcloud.com/interpolaterecords

Codex Airport / A Window Remixes

YouTube

PREMIERE #1200 | Codex - A Window (WDDS Remix) [Interpolate] 2020

@phobhorecords
@matteocoffetti

Hypnotecho’O is Pho Bho’s second release made and arranged by Matteo Coffetti, the label’s co-founder along with Federico Spini.

The record’s distinctive feature is its original fusion between ethnic samples beaten by violent kicks and sharp snares from the rawest techno. What it generates it’s a unique rhythm-flow ideal for the dancefloor.

The collaboration with Filippo Zenna is the result of the two artist’s anxieties and fears over a past that is no longer here and a tomorrow that strives to come.

Pre order

*PREMIERE* Matteo Coffetti - Cosmic Roll

He awoke disorientated, his vision blurred in the early morning light. His face had been stuck to the lino floor in the kitchen, seems he hadn't made it up the stairs to bed then. The stench of cigarette smoke clung to the air and the fumes of undisclosed alcohol spillages travelled up his nostrils. Everybody had already made their escape before morning (and the inevitable regret) had begun to creep in, and as usual he'd been left to pick up the pieces.

Last month we shared the news of Brighton-based party starters Accidental Meetings taking their first steps into the label world, enlisting the help of friends and family with close ties to the party to contribute tracks to their mammoth compilation. After lockdown left the crew with no events in sight, they made a pledge to pull together the 21-track offering which journeys through the electronic sounds that will be at the core of the label in the future. From dancehall and electro to UK techno and breaks, the release features cuts from the likes of Chungo, Charles Green, Alexis, Caldera, ZaaZaa, Kincaid and DJ Tess, which we premiered last month.

AMF&F001

PREMIERE: 96 Back - Punch Drunk Esc [Accidental Meetings]

Preorder via Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/35Xs3Is 
One Eye Witness: https://bit.ly/3n3FqxR
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/Lawrence-Le-Doux-OYSTERBALLADS1/release/16159405

Made of recycled wax and cardboard.
Ltd to 150 copies. 

In parallel to its club-friendly endeavours, Kalahari Oyster Cult is proud to announce the launch of a new series called Oyster Ballads. As its name suggests, Oyster Ballads will focus on the quieter spectrum of electro-powered semantics, from meditative ambient ballads to escapist downtempo jams. 

Made of recycled vinyl and cardboard, each Oyster Ballads comes out folded in a unique artwork, depicting a singular form of a hybridised mineral named 'plastiglomerate' - literally, an amalgam of plastic waste gathered by the involved musician and fused together by Japanese eco-artist Sae Honda to form a singular piece of art that doesn't just question notions as waste and upcycling, but aims to more largely invite to reconsider the position of art as a vector for change.

Taking the helm of the series first number, Vlek affiliate and chief experimentalist Lawrence Le Doux punches in with a four-track delight of organic textures and laid-back tempi, taking us for a riveting journey across a zen garden of chimey harmonics and breezy synth oscillations. Blending in wistful Spanish guitar riffs, oblique drum programming and aqueous bass stabs, the slow-moving opener 'Petal' entices us in a realm of vaporous beauty before vegetal riddim 'Anther' has us zoning out into further uncluttered, sub-aquatic dubby domains.

Flip over and 'Stem' will shut your brain off the world's sad reality to a magic formula of sun-dazed organic house, painted lush with textured synth folds, altered vox sampling and jacuzzi-warm, neo-Caribbean flavours - sure to beam your mind up to some idyllic Pacific coast inlet, safe from the big cities' soul-eating daily hassle. Rounding off the package in the most endearing manner, 'Filament' pulls out the slick vibraphone vibes and ticks all the boxes of your go-to tropical house healer, perfect for these moments when the sun rises above the cerulean skyline and your holiday-numb booty requires a bit of stretchin'n'flexin as you sip on your coconut cocktail, feet firmly anchored in the white sand and the eyes sinking in the deep blue vastness.

Lawrence Le Doux - OYSTERBALLADS1 (Snippets)

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.