Ransom Note

Portland-based ambient architect and far afield sound technician Graintable steps up for the next edition of Seeds Mix.

INTERVIEW: https://www.theransomnote.com/music/mixes/seeds-mix-3-the-first-signs-of-spring-with-graintable/

@graintable

Bárbara Boeing is a stupendously good digger. She’s been collecting records for many years and her far reaching sets offer but a mere glimpse into her musical sphere.

From funk to soul, downtempo to balearic, bossa nova to house and beyond. Nothing is off limits for the Brazilian DJ who was raised in Curitiba and since moved to Milan bringing with her a renowned reputation for eclectic sets.

This mix offers a brief taste of her skills as a DJ as she weaves effortlessly between chilled out tempos whilst demonstrating that ‘dance’ music need not be heavy, hard or dark but fun, joyous and uplifting. That’s before we even mention her work as a producer.

This one has us dreaming of sunnier climates and brighter days. They’re coming soon, believe us.

“Pure Blueberry and Armadillos”

Russ, aka Skeleten’s, dropped by for a mix recorded in the early morning hours in his Sydney studio, windows open to an “unusually quiet street below”. Best enjoyed, “when your driver puts this on for an hour-long journey back from a party outside the city just before the sun rises while wearing your friend’s clothes”.

It arrives as Skeleten has just released his second album, “Mentalized,” this month which explores how the world around us shapes our minds. “This whole record is the feeling of your brain being shaped by all the forces in the world.” From trip-hop to dreamlike vocal outings, the album blends industrial elements with deep house rhythms, all filtered through Russ’s lens.

The mix is a taste of that musical world, featuring tracks from City Reverb, Dregs, DJ Counselling, and Tryphème.

“Pure Blueberry and Armadillo on a good day.”

Get it on, let’s go…

INTERVIEW: https://www.theransomnote.com/music/mixes/skeleten-the-altered-currents-mix/

"I always like starting with something out of context..." 

He of WH Lung greatness and now a solo live artist & DJ delivers a belter of a mix.

Having grown up in Manchester's DIY band scene, Tom Sharkett came late to these things called dancing clubs and all that came with it, discovering electronic music through synthesizers while recording with his most excellent band W. H. Lung. His journey from guitar music to the dancefloor mirrors his present-day musical output; a collision of post-punk abrasiveness and the electronic that feels equally at home in sweaty basements and proper nightclubs.

Now based back in Todmorden, Tom has carved out his own niche releasing on Optimo Music and System Olympia's Okay Nature label... and it's a bloody brilliant niche!  His production approach remains coloured by those early days of bedroom experimentation with friends, citing the peerless Andrew Weatherall's fearlessly exploratory spirit as a key inspiration. It's interesting how he keeps coming around and around again, doesn't it? "His approach reminds me of the excited feeling I had trying to record things in my bedroom with my friends with anything we had at our disposal and just experimenting with the weird and wonderful results,"

When it comes to disc jockeying, Tom brings that same experimental energy. This mix was recorded in his panoramic valley-view studio in Todmorden, captures that ethos perfectly, opening with Spacemen 3 before wandering through territory that spans from Tirzah-esque experimentalism to classic New Beat.

Between touring with Julie Byrne, collaborating with Raf Rundell - more on that to come soon pop pickers - and working on a new solo record featuring multiple vocalists, Tom's not a 'sit still' kind of guy.

Just how we like it.

Get it on, let's go... read more below.

https://www.theransomnote.com/music/mixes/tom-sharkett-the-altered-currents-mix/

@tomsharkett @whlung

Weaving and winding it moved through the jungle with devilish pace.

Yet to the naked eye you might never know that it was slipping beneath the surface. On the ground and in the rivers the basilisk was king – a scaly creature with a pointed tongue. It’s venomous power was enough to floor even the heartiest of prey.

As the sun beat down upon this desolate place it remained anonymous, almost invisible.

For only a handful of people had ever seen the basilisk, some even believed it to be a myth. However, the reason so few had caught a glimpse of this magnificent beast was because once you had you weren’t likely to be left behind to tell the tale…

High energy material on Hardline. Bouncy and energetic sounds which will echo and cause damage in the club – Prizefight & Trustee are on to a winner.

It’s always good to know that music is in safe hands. From time to time the relentless pace of social media and its affect on dance music ‘trends’ can lead us to forgetting what it’s always been really about.

Anna Malysz is a key figure in the German underground, working in numerous capacities hosting dj workshops and as a member of various collectives and projects including the DRIVE series at the recently closed Institut fuer Zukunft, as part of the local club culture network “Livekomm Leipzig” and in the curation of ambient music as part of the Nachtdigital Festival programme.

A keen DJ, she has played at the likes of Paloma, Watergate, about:blank and Golden Pudel and is well versed in a broad array of styles and sounds.

This mix sits at nearly three hours long, demonstrating the far reaching taste Anna has built up. It’s a heady assortment of sounds which lends itself perfectly for the headphones and comes highly recommended.

His mind wandered from time to time. From this to that and back again.

His perceptions danced atop a fragile sense of perspective, he wondered if he might ever regain the right to reality. For every thought was a maze, a whirlwind in which to become lost in the fog of the morning.

Whether he could be trusted was another thing.

There wasn't much else for it but to try.

Slump Recordings continues to grow from strength to strength. Now a prominent force in a new wave of House music with progressive, deep rooted sensibilities. There's plenty of fun to be found on this one from SY but this slightly deeper cut was what caught our ear.

It were as if he’d been here before. Everything looked ever so familiar, the lake in the distance, the rolling hills which watched over it all, the dense greenery of the forest alongside.

He strolled through the long grass trying to recall how and when he might have been here. Had it been in a dream? Was this some sort of strange future memory or was nostalgia simply playing a cruel trick upon his psyche.

Regardless of it all, the beauty was stark. It was hard not to get caught up in the ethereal might of the landscape.

It were as if it was all one big daydream.

Cult Polish producer Two Ends goes deep on a new EP for Mythstery who are celebrating ten years in the game. This EP features a chilled out assortment of downtempo, balearic and deep house grooves perfect for early mornings.

Enea Pascal is the co founder of IVREATRONIC and has just released a new record called ‘BRUTTO?’. It’s a wicked release, compiled of downtempo explorations, trip hop, weird skits, mutations and beyond. It’s tripped out and freakish, playful and yet somehow makes sense as a body of work.

Released on IVREATRONIC, the label and party series first emerged from Ivrea in Italy in 2017 and has grown from strength to strength, helping to push forward the leftfield, underground of Italy’s electronic music scene.

Now to this mix…

Enea delivers a killer selection of sounds, woozy, wonky and punk esque in style. This is a mix for the heads. Think Mo Wax meets L.I.E.S meets early 2000’s Grime. A wild ride through a number of sounds makes this a wicked journey.

Hidden in the middle of the desert was a mysterious old barn, a place in which ancient rituals had once been held in a bid to bring down the sun from up above so that it might be extinguished. It was damn hot.

This place had been known as Umbra. It remained as it was, a mere shell of a building in which wild dances, wild songs and wild chants had beckoned and bellowed between the four walls.

Little did they know that the sun would never fall from the sky up above - let alone that it might never be extinguished.

If anything it might only get hotter and Umbra would be all that was left to burn.

La Pointe is a a trio formed by Geneva-based techno pioneers Crowdpleaser and Entlet alongside New York City’s Jonny Sender. Together they are set to release a new EP on Secret Teachings featuring remixes from Jonny Rock & Nathan Fake. Jonny's caught our ear - we all know when the rock is in the house.