Podcast
Ransom Note
Hosted by Ransom Note · EN
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.
52episodes
Episodes
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PREMIERE: Thomass Jackson - Jam (Carlo Sine Remix) [Natural Selections]
5d ago00:04:47Tap to summarizeNatural Selections label head strips out Jackson’s looseness and replaces it with gritty disco punk… There was a young Jackson called Thomass, Whose grooves were decidedly bonkers, He twisted his rhythms, And psychedelicisms, And built wonky house out of conkers. Carlo Sine said “I’ll take that Jam, And flip it as hard as I can,” He made it go gritty, A punk disco ditty, For sweaty rooms and also Milan. Natural Selections cried “Ten! We’ll never see grooves like these again!” So they pressed it on wax, Paid the Submarea tax, And Portobello Mafia rode out of its den. Thomass Jackson has been hovering around the Natural Selections orbit for a while now — guest mix here, remix there — but somehow never quite landed on the catalogue proper. That changes today. Portobello Mafia is his first official release on the imprint and it sounds exactly like you’d want it to: wonky, playful, slightly psychedelic house music that tilts just far enough off-axis to keep you guessing. Both originals do that thing where the groove feels wrong until it feels completely right. We’re premiering Carlo Sine’s remix of “Jam” today, which takes the EP somewhere else entirely. The label head strips out the looseness and replaces it with grit – punk disco built for the part of the night when the small talk stops and everyone just gets on with it. Portobello Mafia EP is out August 13. Stream below.
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PREMIERE: Pixel Grip - Moment With God (Perel Remix)
1w ago00:05:55Tap to summarizeChicago darkwave trio Pixel Grip have spent the past year watching Percepticide: The Death of Reality find its people. A self-released, emotionally uncompromising collision of EBM, techno, industrial pop and synthpop built around betrayal, trauma and reconstruction, it arrived as one of the most viscerally charged club records of 2025. Now they're ready to open a new chapter. Percepticide: Remixed lands on July 29, gathering a formidable cast - KAVARI, Perel, Curses, Black Asteroid, Matrixxman, Auragraph, Frazer Ray and more - to pull the album apart and rebuild it in their own image. Glasgow-based producer KAVARI leads the campaign with a harder, more fractured take on "Noise," purpose-built for late-night rooms. Today we get another look inside courtesy of Berlin-based DJ and producer Perel, who takes "Moment With God" somewhere slower and more seductive - letting the original's intensity breathe and pool rather than ignite. Where the source material burns, Perel smoulders. Pixel Grip will also be hitting Hinterland, Just Like Heaven and Bumbershoot this summer before embarking on a European arena tour supporting KoRn in the fall, taking in Berlin, Prague, Krakow and more. Percepticide: Remixed is out now. Stream "Moment With God (Perel Remix)" here
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Fundido: The Ransom Note Mix
1w ago01:02:48Tap to summarizeFounded in Brooklyn in 2016 by longtime friends Latane Hughes and Billy Scher, Fundido are quickly becoming one of New York's most exciting prospects. With releases on the likes of DFA Records and Life and Death they have emerged globally as ones to watch. However, those on the ground in NY will have been familiar for a while with the duo having become cult favourites with appearances at the likes of Good Room, Le Bain and Elsewhere. This mix carries a good vibration throughout. Positive House music with a distinct groove, not too serious and not too fast. A homage to the origins of the sound whilst forward thinking at the same time. We like Fundido - they're good fun.
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PREMIERE: Alphonse - Spirit of the Night (feat. Seraphina Simone) (Main Mix) [Ransom Note Records]
2w ago00:05:32Tap to summarizeWe’ve known Toby Tobias aka Alphonse for a very long time, longer than he’s been sitting on this creation with Seraphina Simone - 2017 if you’re wondering. The pair first crossed paths at Glastonbury and knocked out a set of lyrics over a single session. Life did what life does - lockdowns, a baby, other projects - and the track went through several incarnations before Toby zeroed in on what it actually was: a late-night acid house record built around the 303 line and Seraphina's unmistakable vocals. The Main Mix is where it started. Raw acid wave, heavy on vocals, the original 2017 idea more or less intact. The message is straightforward: Spirit of the Night. Alphonse has released on Klasse Wrecks, Hypercolour, Emotional Especial and Kalahari Oyster Cult. Seraphina Simone has solo EPs on her own terms (Milk Teeth, Wild), credits with TRILLS, Becky Hill and Robyn, and is currently doing her thing as vocalist and dancer in Self Esteem's live band. FOLLOW ALPHONSE/TOBY TOBIAS: https://linktr.ee/Tobytobias74 / __alphonse_____ / _toby_tobias_ https://tobytobias.bandcamp.com/ / tobytobias / tobytobiasmusic FOLLOW SERAPHINA SIMONE: https://linktr.ee/seraphinasimone https://www.seraphinasimone.com/ / seraphinasimone https://seraphinasimone.bandcamp.com/ / seraphinasimone / seraphinasimone / seraphinasimone FOLLOW R$N RECORDS: www.facebook.com/theransomnote www.instagram.com/thisisransomnote ransomnoterecords.bandcamp.com soundcloud.com/ransom-note-records
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Arrumar: The 'Shine A Light On' Mix
2w ago01:00:04Tap to summarizeHouse music is in a strange place these days. It's all a bit too fast, all a bit too euphoric, all a bit too wiggly, all a bit too rowdy. However, this mix landed in our inbox and we breathed a sigh of relief - this is what it's all about. Arrumar is a South African producer, the moniker of Mlunghisi Chauke. This past week marked the release of a new album on Polygonia's record label QEONE which features a collection of deeper, at times dubbed out tracks, which act as the perfect antidote to everything else going on out there. This mix follows a similar suit, progressive and wandering. This is one to get lost in and find new moments in as you listen again and again.
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Stacey Pullen: The Ransom Note Mix
3w ago01:00:28Tap to summarizeStacey Pullen has been a figurehead for House music for a long time now. He remains one of the very best and most discerning in the scene having contributed some of the most important records, mixes and albums out there. From Detroit, his origins go deep. Throughout his career, Pullen has earned international recognition for his innovative productions and captivating DJ performances. Unlike many artists who focus solely on one genre, he is celebrated for seamlessly mixing a wide variety of electronic styles into energetic, unpredictable sets. This mix comes to us off the back of a new record for Defected. You can catch that in there.
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PREMIERE: SDF - Policeman [Vitamins]
Jul 1700:07:34Tap to summarizeSDF returns after two years away with a low-slung stomper, mixed and retweaked by Toby Tobias… In a corner of Wales, where the sea meets the road, there’s a Policeman who’s bent over a rather small load. Adam, Oliver, Lucy, SDF by their name, caught him twice over on some CCTV frame. Toby Tobias came round with his knobs and his skill, Retweaked and resparkled, and steadied the till, while Crooked Man Barratt, all Parrot and jazz, sent the same crooked cop for a sun-kissed jazz razz. There’s a Single Edit too, for those short on time, and a Jazz Police calling somewhere down the line, the sickness at the top, so the old saying goes, runs all the way down to the Policeman’s toes. So spin either version, the club one or the dream. On VITS009, nothing’s quite what it seems. A tale of corruption, small-scale, none too grand, dedicated with love to the memory of a friend. We’re premiering SDF’s low slung stomper “Policeman,” reworked by London producer Toby Tobias (Alphonse). SDF’s first new material in two years, with Adam Parkinson (Dane Law), Oliver Marchant (RKB Vitesse) and Lucy Whalley telling a two-part small-town crime story about police corruption in North Wales, this time with Tobias on mix and extra production duties, The track stays on the darker road: machinery and mantras riding towards trouble suspended somewhere between a club track and a dubby dream. Crooked Man (aka All Seeing I and Sweet Exorcist) also on remix duties. The release is dedicated to the memory of JD Twitch. Out Friday, July 17, 2026. Buy here: https://vitamin-concept.bandcamp.com/album/policeman-crooked-man-remix
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1-800 GIRLS: The 'Line Out' Mix
Jul 302:00:36Tap to summarize1-800 GIRLS has quickly paved a way for a brand of new school House music which has been heavily adopted and loved by a new generation of dancers who have found solace in high energy moments and deep grooves. Over the years, as a producer, the consistency has always been there. Whether it's from early self releases through to fresher material which has found a home on the likes of Lost Palms, Shall Not Fade and All My Thoughts. As a DJ, the 1-800 GIRLS sound is fun and fluid - evolving through moments of euphoric energy which can then be tamed and paired back with deeper, emotive sounds which perhaps reflect his early inspirations when leaning into electronic music. Things have moved fast for the 1-800 GIRLS project. This mix was recorded at Phonox, straight from the booth at a recent night curated by 1TBSP.
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Decius Trax - The Ransom Note Mix
Jun 3001:49:39Tap to summarizeWe have your nightclub. We have your DJ box. We have thirty-six tracks, and most of them have no names because names are for records that want to be found. This is Decius Trax – the loose, sweaty, pressure-relief side of a band that otherwise runs on pure discipline. The album project blends Lias’s voice into something unique; this is the other thing, the vehicle, the late-night chop shop where old cassettes get squeezed through the Decius filter until they come out the other side as someone else’s record wearing a new coat. Live jams, minimal tinkering, heads banging on the assumption that yours will too. Most of what’s here you’ve never heard, because most of it was never meant to leave the DJ box. Untitled. Unreleased. Numbered like ransom demands instead of songs, because the numbering is the point – roman numerals climbing toward a second vinyl mini-album, a whole Pantone chart still to get through, no plan to stop until it tips into ridiculousness. Don’t remix it with AI. Don’t expect liner notes on the next one either. Just make them, play them. Track list and read the room – it’ll come with you eventually. It always does. FULL INTERVIEW HERE: https://www.theransomnote.com/music/mixes/decius-trax-the-ransom-note-mix/
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Zillas On Acid: The Ransom Note Mix
Jun 2601:00:13Tap to summarizePsychedelia is at the core of Zillas on Acid's musical manoeuvres. The Philadelphian duo, made up of Thomas Roland and James Weissinger, have been DJing together for almost two decades, and you can tell. There's an intuitiveness to their sets; one that comes from an extended period spent building and evolving together. Their strung out, trippy sound takes cues from post-punk and acid house approached through that psychedelic lens they've become known for. It's no surprise then that they've been closely affiliated with Making Time, the Philadelphia institution helmed by Dave P, that treads similar transcendental terrain. Over the years they've notched up releases for some of our favourite labels, including Optimo Music, Live at Robert Johnson, Les Disques de la Mort and Running Back, and now they're bringing this music to life with their live band, adding vocalist Ari Ratner and bassist Matt O’Hare into the mix. Their latest offering, Rolling The Marble Wheel, comes via our sister label Human Endeavour and is Zillas at their best (not even biased...). Following the release, we asked them to contribute to our Ransom Note mix series. Dive into the Zillas world, it's a trip...
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