Ransom Note

Not exactly centuries later, Craig Bratley returns with the second part of his mix set he prepared from his poop deck. Toughening his selection up with some prime bangers and acid house dancers, he introduces us to his creepy automaton ally and also shares some more thoughts on his fascination with the hairy chested 1980's cut-price sci-fi legend that is his style guru - Buck Rogers.

Here we have the second instalment of my quarterly, themed OddCasts for the resplendent Ransom Note magazine.

This time out @zoonvansnook has chosen to name it 'Space Oddities' as my tribute to the late genius David Bowie.

"As you will see, the track; artist, or release it comes from, is themed around the cosmos.

You can expect a mélange of musical styles from jazz; electronica; New York post punk; and prog, intertwined with Sci-fi film and Hitchhiker's Guide...samples; soundtracks; library music; and even Bowie vocals floating around in the mix. All of this is stitched together with NASA's electromagnetic space recordings, released to the public last year."

Rotciv's influences run deep, his label Mister Mistery is testament to this as it fuses the classic influences of house music alongside modern day electronic music sensibilities. He has been producing and djing for twenty years now and has released music from the likes of Massimiliano Pagliara, Discodromo and Marius Vareid. His latest release features on the Sprechen label where he steps up to remix a track originally produced by Chris Massey. This mix itself is energetic, driven and guiltily ravey. It makes for a highly danceable hour and is guaranteed to have your head nodding and feet tapping. Trust us.

After becoming reacquainted with Simon Peter through his recent blissful release on Claremont 56, and realising how those sounds helped us through the turgidity of December, we asked him to recreate that across a mix for us. January has only just left us, and bloody hell we need some sunny vibes to tease Spring towards us.

To inaccurately paraphrase his DJ biog, Craig Bratley is doggy, unusual and atmospheric. The man behind Magic Feet rekkids and eBay's profits on the rising trade from analogue to modular synths, he has been making us dance less awkwardly and chuckle more frequently for many years now. After a relaxing winter sojourn spent on his yacht (moored off the Gibraltan coast, near Skegness), he had his PA reach out to us with, faxing us two mixtapes. Here is the first, ripe and fruity like one of his finest vintage Blue Nun's.

Oslo-based graphic designer and musician Snasen is a solo-electronic artist who last year provided the soundtrack for the award winning documentary, Drone. Snasen also released his debut LP Forsvinningen in June 2015. Dark, layered electronica, it was a brittle yet beautiful listen. Today he provides The Ransom Note with an hour-long mix.

We love people getting in touch and giving us a kick to listen to their new sounds. No, honest we do. That's exactly what happened when this fella John emailed us and nudged us to listen to his own productions on Soundcloud. The lovely chiming, mallet driven and mystic electronica with titles such as Unicursal Hexagram, Higgs Boursin and Historic Market Town was definitely worth an aural exploration. So we asked him to do an exclusive mix of his own productions, and here it is.

@jonathankrisp

Philosophy and dance music aren't necessarily the most obvious of interlinking interests. We often use music to help us disconnect rather than to prompt existential self discovery. However, Simone Gatto is one artist who sees the value in the link between the two. His latest album, as he explains, is a musical take on nature, feelings and pleasure, a reflection on self preservation and well-ness. 'Detachment' is set for release on the 15th of February on Sheik 'N' Beik Records, a label which has maintained a low profile whilst releasing a steady stream of interesting records.

Ivan Smagghe is the seamlessly cool founder behind Les Disques de la Mort. For years he has been regarded as one of the leading figures in Electronic music and continues to push the boundaries between the weird, wonderful, obscure and danceable, alongside the likes of Andrew Weatherall, Optimo, Trevor Jackson and more. He slots firmly into chic French fashion culture and gritty, underground musical eclecticism at the same time. Over the past couple of years his label has released music from far and wide: pop obscurities from Israel, punk funk from Lithuania and experimental electronics from the likes of Mutado Pintado, Golden Bug and Margot. He delivers over an hour of energetic fun for Ransom Note.

@colonelgatito

Based in Cape Town Maxime Alexander has sprung onto our radar in a manner somewhat out of the blue. All of a sudden there was an LP: now several months later a rather explosive mix has landed in our inbox. The design and aesthetic of the 1991 label is outstanding and every detail is considered. It makes sense that this mix is articulate and clean cut, polished and precise it sees Maxime slam hard through House and Techno, past and present.

@maximealexander-1991

@1991-studio