Adam Curtain: The Ransom Note Mix

“Everyone was smiling, fog was oozing from the walls, and people were just loving life.” Amelia Holt moved to New York to work in fashion, saw the stress up close and decided she had dodged a bullet. Born in Rio Bravo on the Mexican side of the Texas border and raised on the other, she arrived twelve years ago with a marketing degree and ended up on the steps of Red Bull Studios and Gallery. The first person she met there was Justin Strauss, who put her on a guest list when she knew nobody in the city. One of the first records she bought was a Justin Strauss remix. The rest happened at Bossa Nova Civic Club. She went on weeknights to avoid the busy weekends, learned to DJ at its happy hours before she owned any equipment, and was in the corner of the dancefloor the night Bookworms dropped Whirlpool Productions’ “From: Disco to: Disco” at his Confused House party. That’s the night in the quote. These days she runs the Honey Trap party and label, hosts shows on The Lot Radio and Kiosk Radio, writes the newsletter In Your Dirty Ears and looks after 13 artists through her agency, HOUSE OF ILL FAME. She plays Nightmoves, Nowadays, Public Records and Good Room at home, and has played Berlin, Lisbon, Tbilisi, Mexico City and Melbourne away. She recently joined the programming team at Sustain-Release, which is where this mix comes from. Sustain-Release is held at a former children’s summer camp in the woods in upstate New York: “a bunch of adults taking over a summer camp and having a good time dancing to music.” Holt played the Bossa Lounge at 1 AM on 12 September, Year 12 of the festival. It’s the slow-burner stage, moody and lit by the colour theory crew, and she played it the way she plays the early part of a night at Nightmoves or Honey Trap: songs she loves, with enough in there to dance to if you’re up for it. She has since tested the recording at a friend’s brunch, where it went down well. Her own instruction is to listen while doing “all the wrong things”. Full Interview here:

Mun Sing contributes ‘Pareidolic Zero’ to VIGIL, a compilation and exhibition by 29 artists and practitioners, with all proceeds going to the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund. Mun Sing’s ‘Pareidolic Zero’ is one of 12 tracks on VIGIL, a compilation and visual exhibition made by 29 artists and practitioners. All proceeds go directly to The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund (GASCF), a charity providing medical care to children in Gaza and Lebanon and helping to relieve the medical sector there. The album is out on 19 November, and the exhibition runs at Raleigh Chapel until the 24th. The project grew from distress at witnessing endless images of children being killed, and the numbness that builds from seeing them. Cameras, face recognition, eyes, CCTV, drones, lenses, data profiles and surveillance all fed into the music and the artworks, and each track is paired with a physical artwork or visualiser. ‘Pareidolic Zero’ is paired with a visual by Elliott Eldar. Its title comes from pareidolia, the habit of seeing faces in random patterns. The name VIGIL draws on several associations: watching over someone at their bedside, staying in one place as a form of protest, and gathering in memorial. The launch at Raleigh Chapel is a ticketed event with live performances from Mirror Organs, Visio and Zeynep Ağcabay. Selected artworks will be on sale alongside a physical compilation CD and T-shirts, with proceeds going to GASCF. VIGIL is organised by Felix Luke, with collaboration and co-production from Alex McCullough. Lucas Dupuy - ‘HL2Piano’ Visio - ‘Eye Swarm’ Burning Pyre - ‘Deluge’ Mirror Organs - ‘slow change’ Floid & W92 - ‘Yaejo’ Mun Sing - ‘Pareidolic Zero’ Flaty - ‘Veil Remedy’ Charlie Benjamin - ‘Kumbhaka’ Zeynep Ağcabay - ‘Casus Beli’ Severin Black & Owen Pratt - ‘Lurid Bolete’ dmstfctn - ‘Demons’ Sam Purcell & Jacob Dywer - ‘Dust’

Istanbul-based digger and producer Grup Ses’s mix for Ransom Note is a trip through the cassette underworld of 1980s Turkey, when drum machines and synthesisers went from novelty to the centre of the arrangement. It opens with a sampled tape skit asking whether you’re stressed or tired, then prescribes the cassette as the cure, to be played anywhere from the hamam to a minibus. From there it moves through electronic pop, arabesque hybrids and Anatolian-tinged studio pieces, with a Turkish cover of Mory Kanté’s “Yé ké yé ké” along the way, before closing on two slow jams. The backdrop is the 1980 military coup. In its wake, the studio, rather than the band, became where Turkish pop was made, and the new machines spread fast. The records here are full of Junos, DX7s and Yamaha RX11s, but also stranger local tools like the Bojidar RB Alaturka Ritm-Box, a rhythm box built around traditional Turkish rhythms. Some producers used the gear to chase the international pop sound of the moment. Others pushed it towards arabesque or Anatolian pop, and plenty of these records never travelled beyond a small cassette or vinyl run. Many of them are gathered on DALGA – A Selection of 80s Pop Oddities from Turkey, compiled by Grup Ses for Zel Zele, the Istanbul and London-based label and NTS Radio show. Neriman and Füsun Önal show the glossy, global-pop side, while Mehmet Pekün and Zor Beyler fold electronics into arabesque. Tele Tempo, a studio project arranged by Özkan Turgay with drums by Koral Sarıtaş, takes the Anatolian route. Vedat Biçkin’s “Darbuka Bongo Kavgası” splits darbuka and bongos across the stereo field over a drum machine groove, and Grup Ses calls it the most inventive production on the record. Six of the tracks have never left their original cassettes until now. The mix sets a few of them beside lesser-known finds from the same years, so the compilation sits in a wider scene. The title is Turkish for “wave”, and the sleeve uses Antonio Cosentino’s painting “69 Volkswagen” (2003), which comes from the same everyday Istanbul imagery the compilation celebrates. For Grup Ses it also goes back to childhood. His earliest musical memory is MFÖ’s “Peki Peki Anladık”, which was constantly on at home when he was three or four. He has been digging and releasing records since 2007, with six albums of his own and archival work for Ironhand Records, Sucata Tapes and Zel Zele, including the label’s Café Türk and Bahtiyar Taş reissues. DALGA is vinyl-only and comes out on October 30, 2026 via Zel Zele Records. “Anca Gidersin” is already out as a digital single, and Bandcamp pre-orders include an instant download of Zor Beyler’s “Bir Mumdur”. Fulll interview here: https://www.theransomnote.com/music/mixes/grup-ses-the-ransom-note-mixtape/

There was an Old Drive in a Case, Who held ten long years in its space; It went blink with a hum, And said, “Now I’m numb!” Then the Screen wrote “Not Found” on its face. A Man at the Claptrap HQ Said, “I know what a Man ought to do: Make some Acid that bites, Proto House for the nights, And a Sad String to see it all through.” Said a Mancunian chap, Ruf Dug, “I shall give the A1 a good tug!” It came back, so they say, As a killer that day, Very tasty, and snug as a bug. So, children, whatever you do, Keep a second and third copy too; Back it up! Back it twice! (It is cheap, it is nice) Or you’ll sing the File Management Blues. Nearly six years after his last full EP on Claptrap, Vanity Project returns with ‘File Management Blues’, made after a backup drive meltdown wiped over ten years of studio files from Claptrap HQ. The EP has four original versions on a theme, plus a rework of the lead track from Manchester’s Ruf Dug. It runs from uptempo, club rollers with swirling pads and biting acid lines to downtempo dub chuggers, spanning acid, proto house, and balearic, with a melancholic digital string melody running through it all. The release notes sign off with a reminder: always back it up, kids. ‘File Management Blues (w/ Ruf Dug Remix)’ is out 6 November on Claptrap (CLPTRP008), on 12" vinyl. A1. ‘File Management Blues’ A2. ‘File Management Blues pt.2’ B1. ‘File Management Blues (Ruf Dug Remix)’ B2. ‘Everybody Talkin’ ‘Bout (File Management)’ B3. ‘File Management Dub’ Produced and written by Vanity Project. Remix produced by Ruf Dug. Design by Lorenz Klingebiel. Claptrap on Bandcamp: https://claptrap-clptrp.bandcamp.com/ Pre-order via Rubadub: https://rubadub.co.uk/products/file-management-blues-w-ruf-dug-remix

A selector with fifteen years of crate-digging under his belt, fiercely devoted to the underground and always hunting for the next evolution of UK club music. Adam Curtain is a serious selector, he always has been. As the brains behind Trouble Maker, Curtain has spent well over a decade pushing and pulling at the seams of UK club music. Whether he’s steering his own imprints, releasing tracks on Love International and Alien Communications, or putting a masterclass on genre-fluidity through its paces at Houghton, Glastonbury, Fabric and Closer in Kyiv, he treats electronic music as a sonic canvas. His sets are a masterclass in momentum, effortlessly sliding between tech house, breakbeat, electro, techno and house without breaking a sweat.  Tune in, read the interview below and let Mr. Curtain take you for a spin. https://www.theransomnote.com/music/mixes/adam-curtain-the-ransom-note-mix/

James Allison and Tia Cousins finally make good on years of talk, turning a Planes, Trains and Automobiles sample into a fuzzed-out, bass-heavy dancefloor rush. There once was a fellow who boarded a plane, And a fellow who boarded a train, And a fellow who honked down a wrong-numbered lane – And nobody knew which was which, it was plain. “I’m the Wrong Guy!” cried one, with a wobble of hips, While a guitar came loose at the seams of his lips, And a bassline rolled thundering up through his ribs, Till the whole rattling carriage dissolved into blips. They danced through the tollbooths, they jived through the fog, Half rock and half rhythm, half man and half dog, With a Cure-shaped shadow and a Fall-tinted frog Keeping time on the tarmac in 4/4 log. So – plane, train, or car, friend, it hardly matters who, When the bassline turns hazy and the guitars cut through – For deep in the static, both wrong guys and true Get messed with entirely, and dance the night through. Long-time friends James Allison and Tia Cousins finally get round to a collaboration years in the talking, built off a sample Tia spotted lurking in the theme song of Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Two studio sessions later, ‘Messin’ With The Wrong Guy’ strips out the “annoying” bits of the original and rebuilds it as a hazy, bass-driven track laced with fuzzed-out guitar – James continuing the rockier lane he opened with his ‘Make Dance Rock Again’ edits, Tia bringing the ear for a curveball that’s shaped her Noods Radio show from day one. Already road-tested at Convenanza 2026, where Rosie Ama dropped it late in her set and brought the house down. Free download: here: https://jamesallison-mdra.bandcamp.com/

clay. presents Surface 01, a VA compilation bringing together 15 artists, established and emerging, making what the label considers some of the most exciting electronic music right now - a testament to the countless forms of leftfield dance music coming out of the UK and beyond, and a small taste of what’s to come. “Ammonite – So” is the atmospheric conclusion to the 13-track record, brimming with emotive textures and crystalline vocals. Surface 01 is out 25th September via clay., mastered by Lurka (Dave N.A. handling “Pancake Parade” himself), with cover artwork by Selina Landis - a 3D print with pewter inlay, hand-finished and digitally edited.

Amélie Ravalec is a London-based Parisian film director, photographer and DJ, known for her documentaries on avant-garde and underground music and art, including Japanese Avant-Garde Pioneers (2025), Art & Mind (2019), Industrial Soundtrack for the Urban Decay (2015) and Paris/Berlin: 20 Years of Underground Techno (2012). The first episode of her series Solstice, Sumarsólstöður, won 25 awards and 15 nominations in 2025. She is also the author and designer of Japan Art Revolution: The Japanese Avant-Garde from Angura to Provoke, published by Thames & Hudson in 2025. She began her career in electronic music, co-founding record label and events platform Fondation Sonore in 2011, and has since released DJ mixes for The Quietus, The Brvtalist, XLR8R and others. Her latest DJ set, A Realm of Impossible Intensity, moves through cinematic soundscapes and heavy electronics, from ritual chanting to martial industrial, dark ambient textures and modern classical strings, weaving soundtrack extracts from her own films alongside tracks by Nick Cave, David Lynch, ANOHNI, Hildur Guðnadóttir and Kangding Ray.

“I loved the naivety of it, and it’s about trying to bottle that feeling.” Toby Tobias has never really stopped. Since 1992, when he first got his hands on a sampler, some amen breaks and a stack of horror film samples, he’s operated under a run of aliases and studios, but Alphonse was always the one closest to the bone – a direct line back to hearing it all for the first time on Kiss FM and in the raves, before he knew what any of it was called. He’s put records out on Klasse Wrecks, Hypercolour, Emotional Especial and Kalahari Oyster Cult, run a label of his own in Voice Notes, and built a career propping up the counter in Croydon before anyone was paying him to be there. WhatsApp Image 2026-09-11 at 12.00.20 His latest, ‘Spirit of the Night’ with Seraphina Simone, is the kind of record that took its time. Written in a single session at Glastonbury in 2017, it sat through lockdown, a new baby and a handful of other projects before it finally clicked as a late-night acid house record, built around a snaking 303 line and Seraphina’s vocal, and spun out into four mixes pulling in four different directions. It’s out now on our our very own Ransom Note Recs. We locked him in for a mix and a chat. Check it out below. https://www.theransomnote.com/music/premieres/alphonse-see-me-in-3d-ransom-note-mix/

Berlin-based DJ and producer Anna Kost has carved out a distinctive space between techno, bass music and experimental electronics. She has released material on the likes of Soma, Faux Poly, ÆX and more having established herself as a DJ in the German capital appearing at the likes of Tresor and RSO. As a producer, she draws upon an array of influences, tending to focus on deeper, emotionally lead material which dances atop club based sounds and sensibilities. This mix is made up entirely of her own unreleased material and demonstrates an unrivalled potential as she plots her next steps.