Time had slipped through his fingers, he could barely recollect a moment of the last 12 hours. He’d fallen into another world and left reality behind him, his mind lost in the spaces in-between. Now he had to piece the fragments back together and find a way back to normality.

For the next instalment on Jason Peters’ Roam Recordings, Italian producers Giorgio Giri and Marco Lentano unite under their Mushrooms Project alias for a dose of hypnotic, downtempo cuts. True to their name, psychedelia is the dish of the day, with the duo serving up four tracks that match mind expanding electronics and analog instrumentation.

PREMIERE: Mushrooms Project - Dirty Dune [Roam Recordings]

Number nine of Funnuvojere’s catalogue is signed by label founder Massimiliano Pagliara, and comes as a collaboration with CockTail d’Amore resident Luigi Di Venere. Banana Moon is the name of their duo, an acronym born on a summer night walk in the south of Italy, hinting as well to the legendary 1970s Florentine Rock Club. Delphinium Blue is the title of this debut EP. A flower favoured by Derek Jarman, it evokes feelings of joy and warmth, urging us to open to new experiences. The Italo proto-house Tie Me Up sounds like a demand. An unorthodox arpeggio drives the slinky rhythm, crowded by luxurious vocals flared by cheeky claps.
Breaks, a funky bass and a joyous organ characterize the Chicago neoclassic Full Service, making us the wish for a crowded dance floor under the light of the moon.
On the flip the tittle track Delphinium Blue (Kabuki Mix) is a theatre of sounds inspired by Detroit techno, a genre much esteemed by Banana Moon. This track evokes a sweaty warehouse on fire with hedonistic pleasures. A proud nightingale discusses harmony with a 303 while exquisitely crafted drum patterns build up to a technologic Samba. Closing the EP Polyamory sings to interspecies love, leading us for a swim in the blue depths grasping the tail of a playful whale. While the track’s title dreams of unlimited summer love, this song confirms the duo’s unconditional passion for the Italo groove.

B1.Banana Moon - Delphinium Blue (Kabuki Mix)

Her brow furrowed as she narrowed her eyes and studied the lines on his face. He surveyed the creases around his eyes, the way his mouth turned at the corners and his eyes glazed over. The face that had stared back at her for the last 30 years. She’d always been able to read his expression but things had changed - he’d changed. From one day to the next his temperament was different; at times she felt as though she no longer recognised him, as though he were a stranger in her home. 

It’s been a little while since Timothy Clerkin took centre stage on his own Insult To Injury imprint, one of our very own RSN sub-labels. A certified collection of club tackle, the four acid-driven tracks on ‘Plasticity’ are a firm reminder that dance floors are very much back in action. Kicking off with the morphing acidic title track, the EP then brings a tribute to Alice In Chains - a reinterpretation of classic anthem ‘Would?’ alongside Buran, of which proceeds from the single will be donated to Mind UK - before the stripped back 808-laced ‘Mercurial’ lands and the rave-indebted hardcore of ‘Order 66’ rounds off proceedings.

Plasticity EP

PREMIERE: Timothy Clerkin - Mercurial [Insult To Injury]

Bright lights flickered and flashed as he watched wild colours dance amidst the chaos. His vision was hazy and distorted, his senses were not as they seemed and it were as if he'd wandered into some wild, spectacular fantasy in which people, objects and shapes all collided in a wonderful hubbub. The trip had begun earlier in the evening but was well underway now there was no turning back. As he lay on the grass he looked upwards towards the heavens and the stars in the great beyond. They seemed closer than ever now...

Dj F16 Falcon is set to release a new EP on Notte Brigante. A collection of mutant dancehall come downtempo excursions which showcase the versatility of the genre and a leftfield approach.

PREMIERE: DJ F16 Falcon - Trip à la Mode de Quand [Notte Brigante]

In the middle of the summer Yeho, an Israeli musician coming from Tel Aviv, was wandering around Italy and randomly he found himself in the “Quintino Basement”, lair of Ninja Exotic Machine.
This casual encounter gave birth to three new tracks where the
duo’s downtempo and tribal style merges with Yeho’s crisp and raw vocal together with intriguing percussions samples extracted from live recordings of the percussionist Andrea Greco.
The result is an Ep called “36 questions” out on Pho Bho Records on the 14th of October.

PREMIERE : Ninja Exotic Machine Feat Yeho - Disolve

Infuso Giallo - Ocular Soda 12"
BUY LINK: https://infusogiallo.bandcamp.com/album/ocular-soda
Release date: 30 september 2021
Label: Kame House (https://soundcloud.com/kame-house-852734962)
https://soundcloud.com/infusogiallo

Infuso Giallo aka Philipp Carbotta originally hails from rural Western Germany, first cut his teeth in the music scene of nearby Cologne and conducts a host of activities in Berlin for a couple of years now – co-running the label Kame House, designing graphics and producing and playing leftfield electronic music. His debut LP Ocular Soda presents an intersection of these activities – self-released, self-designed, and of course self-produced. Even before the first synth chords and reverse atmospheres of the two-part opener 'Every Waking Hour' tickle the ear, it is the eye that is drawn to the bright, cut-out style cover art – itself made up of two eyes on the front and what seem to be their rough shapes or discarded counterparts on the back.
To stay within that metaphor, Infuso Giallo's music is indeed of a reflective and calm nature, taking cues from Berlin School, library, and New Age musics from roughly the 1970s to the 1990s – steadily repeating and slowly evolving ostinatos, lush digital pads, quirky filtered toplines and electronic percussion that mostly eschews four-four monotony in favor of much more subtle syncopations. Balearic bomb 'The Big Rip' with its big drums and acid bass turns the energy level up a notch while retaining the somnambulistic, lingering quality that makes Ocular Soda such a coherent listening experience – music on the sheath of waking and dreaming, both worlds and their inherent logics freely bleeding into each other. There are moments of great expanse, such as in 'Mole Gaze' – I couldn't help but see myself hovering somewhere in mid-air while the music unfolds as if on a great deserted plane below me. Maybe this is what it sounds like once the mole leaves his tunnels and takes in the sound of the world overground. 'Hello World', indeed, in its multitude of information to eye and ear, in its gently overwhelming quality. The title track 'Ocular Soda' closes the proceedings with a whimsical nod to 1970s botany-centered library music, its brooding chord sequence and sweet lead lines gradually fading in the distance. A fitting ending to an impressive LP of highly evocative, at times somber and at times blissfully naive pieces that leave me yearning for more.

Ocular Soda

PREMIERE : Infuso Giallo - The Big Rip

German electro producer Martin Matiske has recently breathed new life into his Blackploid alias. The project’s revival continues to bear fruit with the Strange Stars EP, Matiske’s third Blackploid release of 2021 and second for Central Processing Unit after issuing March’s Cosmic Traveler EP through the Sheffield label.
Blackploid’s two CPU drops have more in common than just stargazing titles. Those who enjoyed Cosmic Traveler will find plenty to like again in these four tracks, with Matiske serving up another quartet of snappy machine-funk joints this time around. However, while there is certainly a throughline between Cosmic Traveler and Strange Stars, this EP also finds Blackploid pushing the envelope at points by taking risks with his synth tones which thrill and enliven the record.
In keeping with the cosmic theme of Blackploid’s recent output, Strange Stars kicks off with ‘Star Patrol’. While this opening cut is full of the same needle-gun basslines and dinky synths that characterised Cosmic Traveler, the drum programming eschews the broken beats favoured by many in the scene for a straight house/techno snap. It makes for a very groovy jam, one with Drexciya, Computer World-era Kraftwerk and a pinch of Space Dimension Controller in its mix.
Indeed, the only track on Strange Stars which skips along on a broken beat is second entry ‘The Signal’. ‘The Signal’ also features some of Blackploid’s most impressive electronics programming to date, announcing itself with a brilliantly unusual synth that sounds like an old video game unit which has just gained sentience. When this alien tone is combined with another precision-engineered bassline the track invokes the grizzly bangers of the L.I.E.S. label, though the keyboard stabs which enter periodically also hint to the funkier electro of, say, Egyptian Lover.
‘The Unseen’, the first B-side of Strange Stars, finds Blackploid bringing together many of the things which made the two previous tunes such standouts. A steady four-on-the-floor and a slightly haunted feel to the synth choices casts back to ‘Star Patrol’, but much like ‘The Signal’ this joint also features some rather weird tones which are a hair’s breadth away from machine malfunction. It’s a feeling which runs through to closing cut ‘Light Corridor’, a number where melodies and anti-melodies zip around an array of gurgling electronic cells.
Martin Matiske’s fine run of Blackploid EPs continues with the intergalactic electro stylings of Strange Stars.

Strange Stars

PREMIERE : Blackploid - The Signal

https://soundcloud.com/diogo-vasconcelos-1
https://soundcloud.com/discosparaiso
🛒 https://ravetuga.bandcamp.com/album/sempre-para-diante
🔊 https://youtu.be/vMEHLc85_eI

The 9th release on Lisbon's dance agitators Rave Tuga is on the way: an EP, available on tape and digital by local mainstay Diogo who's been loyally serving the dancefloors of Lisbon in the past few years via his sick DJing and productions. Recruits for the remixer role are other two legends of our scene: genius clubkid Stasya and spot-on dance composer Moreno Ácido

Acid and jacking flavours gladly meet again, with an added ray of local sunshine, on the opener 'Paz d'Alma'. The skillfully programmed 303 lines keep going throughout the album, on the A3 accompanied by a sick electro groove and emotional pads and some bleepy chill-packed vibes on the A4.

The B side switches gears into techno territory, with steady hi hats guiding the groove; relentlessness pervading on 'Brick & Mortar'. Stasya steps in to remix the title track with a dramatic take chock-full of hyperpop stabs, sentimental chipmunk vocals and re-constructed clubby beats, the Lisbon way. Moreno Ácido takes the scenic route with dubbed out harmonies and warm, blissed-out beats and bass.

All proceeds from this EP will go to HuBB - Humans Before Borders, a platform for action against inhumane and illegal treatment of migrants and refugees.

Tracklist:

A1 - DIOGO - Paz d'Alma
A2 - DIOGO - Novidades
A3 - DIOGO - Não Finjas, Sente
A4 - DIOGO - Cabeça (É Preciso Ter)
B1 - DIOGO - Sempre Para Diante
B2 - DIOGO - Brick & Mortar
B3 - DIOGO - Sempre Para Diante (Ecstasya Remix)
B4 - DIOGO - Brick & Mortar (Moreno Ácido Remix)

DIOGO - Sempre Para Diante

Brick & Mortar

PREMIERE: DIOGO - Brick & Mortar [Rave Tuga]

The first single from Il mondo è un cerchio nero, out December 19th.

la fine di una storia

HIERØGLYPHIC's first RIDDIM album.. The bass is heavy, the drums are punchy, the texture is scratchy and crunchy, the fx are glitchy and the bpm is high. Hope you enjoy! 

Follow me on IG ~> @ HIEROGLYPHIC.wav
Follow my collective ~> @ _SWIPERGANG

TURBO (free)

Middle Ages

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.

PREMIERE: Timothy Clerkin - Mercurial [Insult To Injury]

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