Ransom Note

"An apartment building, floors, songs. In the stairwell, a meeting: sound artist, radio interference manipulator and musician-producer-arranger. The bass escapes from the cellar and vibrates along the corridors. A door opens, oscillations swirl, clash, and blur the tracks. A voice rises. Concrete architecture. Bodies armed for expression. In the distance, the echo of a rave party."

H.L.M (Haute Lévitation Mutée), the project of Guillaume Laidain & Andrew Claristidge, are next up on artist duo, agency and label Milk Me's release schedule. Titled 'Grenoble', the single is a homage in name to the Southwestern city where H.L.M. met and is coincidentally also the home of one of the release remixers, French electro luminary The Hacker. He's joined on remix duties by an equally strong French cast of Arnaud Rebotini and Pablo Bozzi, who together put their own spins on the moody, chugging EBM of the original, which is laced with hypnotic spoken word and haunting synth lines.

How long had it been since she felt the sun on her face; since she felt the sand between her toes and the fresh sea air clearing her sinuses? Too long than she cared to remember... She could literally taste the freedom on the tip of her tongue, the liberation slowly cascading over her - it was a feeling she never thought she'd have again, but now here she was, looking out to sea with a renewed sense of existence. Who knows what twists and turns lay ahead, what obstacles might be just around the corner... She really couldn't wait to find out.

Optimo Music's Digital Dancefloor series returns with its 49th instalment, this time welcoming Trule boss Al Wootton for a two-tracker that's certified to cause destruction on the dancefloor. Having featured Al's music under his Deadboy alias back in the day on their “Dark Was The Night” mix CD, Optimo now bring him on board for two chuggy, dubbed out disco tracks that both unfold over the course of nine minutes. Laid down live in takes and using hardware synths and external processing, he explores a host of different genres that he's always held dear from post-punk and psychedelia to proto house and dub.

These were the stories that he told himself, tall tales from long ago which had got lost in the spaces in between. It had been a while since he’d last let himself think about such history and nostalgia for it was buried deep in the recesses of his mind. His memory palace was a place visited once in a blue moon for the magic which lived behind those thick castle walls was sometimes best to be left alone.

Lying amidst the tall grass he watched as the clouds moved slowly by overhead, he’d allowed himself this one afternoon to daydream upon what might of been in another life. He opened the heavy gates and let his memories of a wilder, better time come rushing in.

He closed his eyes and nodded off…

Priori continues to develop and grow as a producer, moving toward deep, pensive textures and atmospheres on a new EP for Midgar Records. The Pareidolia EP is comprised of four tracks of intelligent Techno which teases and intrigues – this is a record which will sound good on dark nights and in smokey rooms.

For March's instalment of The Dispatch, Rosie Ama was joined by Johnny Xie and Global Warming Records boss Malcolm for two hours of good tunes, vibes and sound effects.

"Any moment can crash your emotional state of mind. You are looking for help. You can’t find it with-inside of you. A Diamond shines twice a day. The night can be day and vice versa.

"We love you, no doubt. Our friends love you too. Do you love yourself? A Zebra is not a unicorn but is still unique. Who are you to tell us We can’t do it?"

ava. label boss and Robert Johnson affiliate Damiano von Erckert is landing on the aforementioned club's in-house label, two years after his Space, Diversity, No Limits 12". This time he's sharing a full long player, Euphoric Spirits, which transports us straight onto the dance floor and, as its name suggests, it's full of eyes-closed euphoria. Taking cues from the roots of Chicago and Detroit he shares a batch of emotive house, rave and electro cuts that take you out of your head and into your body.

Her huge bay window felt like a porthole to the entire world. From here she could see everything; the towering skyscrapers that seemed to stretch beyond the clouds, the trees in shades of green, white and pink rustling in the soft afternoon breeze, and in the distance, the sea and the mountains promising an escape from the urban jungle. She watched the people go about their days - watched them argue and make up, greet and bid each other goodbye, stumble and fall, race and disappear - How funny that one window gave a view of so much life....

After a long and chaotic journey to completion, Invisible Inc have finally released Secret Circuit's double LP, Green Mirror, into the world. Almost two years in the making, the album sees the return of the project of LA native and audiovisual artist Edward Ruscha V following two EPs on the imprint in 2016 and 2018. Known for his music under several different bands, projects, guises and collaborations over the years, he's a dab hand at meandering in all kinds of directions, but on this release he focuses on balancing emotion and experimentalism, creating a collection of 21 pieces that bounce between the cosmic, the ambient, the otherworldly and the off-kilter. This is music for the open minded.

Gag Reflex's moniker is an apt embodiment of her musical output. It's propulsive; pushing you forward then pulling you back, dragging you under then spitting you out.

It's down to the intriguing spread of influences that fuel the US-born, Berlin-based producer and DJ's work. While there's nods to percussive noughties techno, classic rave and early UK dubstep in there, you'll hear echoes of her formative love of punk bands like Crass and The KLF bubbling underneath the surface too.

As a DJ she's made quite the name for herself in the US, holding residencies in Portland and San Francisco, as well as her former home of Seattle, where she ran transfeminist club night BLOOM: a space to inspire connection, catharsis and experimentation within the local scene and beyond.

The connections that she's made have led to releases on international labels like Scuffed Recordings, Violet's naivety sub-label and, most recently, on the former's newly minted sister label Angel with her Lush EP, which drops on 21st April.

In the lead up to the release she takes the controls of this week's Shine A Light On mix with a blend of murky, percussive and weighty sonics for the heads down and the hands up crew...

The water was a deep radiant blue, from time to time small bubbles would rise from the ocean floor up the surface where an occasional flicker or glimmer of light would illuminate the lagoon as the clouds came and went before the sun. Diving deeper and deeper into the abyss, it were as if he was exploring some sort of mythical aquarian dream - a planet nestled beneath what he knew existed and floated up on the surface.

There was no sound down here but very occasional he'd become aware of a change of pressure, a heavy weight and a light release as he moved slowly through the murky blue beyond.

All he could do was keep swimming...

Third Place are set to release a new EP from Later Version, a beautiful assortment of fluid tracks which draw influence from a sense of weightlessness and ambient textures. Later Version is made up of Oakland-based artists Dan Letson and Jerod S. Rivera.

Music is the vehicle for Nathan Dawidowicz to tell a story. But not just their story... they're inviting you to fashion your own narrative; to draw your own conclusion.

Nathan's personal tale has been a vibrant one. The son of a Polish-Lithuanian mother and Cameroonian father, they moved to Jerusalem at the age of six from their birthplace of Milan. Whilst growing up in a Jewish ultra-orthadox community, they dreamed of moving away to become a musician and fashion designer, which became a reality when they moved back to Italy and broke the constraints of the religious environment they'd been raised in. 

Fashion became their academic pursuit but music was ever-present, a sonic remedy that brought them life. It had been a constant, from their childhood years spent playing piano to the influence of their father who spent time as a DJ during the 80s and 90s in Milan. Soon enough sound became a way of exploring the art of story-telling and this journey took them to their now home of Berlin. 

Here they connected with Luspoderosa, a label based between Zurich and Berlin that isn't afraid to colour outside the lines. This platform would become the home for Nathan's debut solo album Sanctuary of Ideas - a deeply personal, psychedelic and cosmic dive into their memories, journey, reflections and heritage.

Off the back of the release we invited Nathan to open up their sonic world to us even more with a mix of hypnotic and atmospheric new wave, Italo, acid and deep rhythmic excursions. Don your pyjamas and your fluffy slippers and sink into it...

The lights flooded the room lighting up the sea of gleeful faces from the front to the back. The party had been going all day and all night, and the energy had never let up, even for a moment. Bodies swarmed the dance floor, moving in unison to the pulsing beats seeping out of the speakers in each corner. Time seemed to stand still inside here, there was nothing but them and the music, the outside world no longer mattered...

Following his debut outing on Jennifer Cardini’s Correspondent, Adonis family member Nyra returns to Canoe Records for the label's first EP in two years. Made up of two tracks, the release draws inspiration from the Sheffield-born producer's formative clubbing experiences in his home city and a love of the early Belgian rave sound. Self-described as “intergaleatic future sounds”, it's full of euphoria with ravey synths, energetic rhythms and soaring piano melodies that transport you back to the heydays of the 90s.