|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LP
|
|
RSN 029LP
|
Ransom Note stalwart Bawrut presents a new sound in his debut album In the Middle, a striking eleven-track journey through sunset pop, electronic melancholia and delusive migrations taking place around the Mediterranean. The album features several guest vocalists, including the stadium-packing phenomenon LIBERATO hailing from Napoli, the Moroccan-born Paris-based DJ and singer Glitter٥٥, the catchy Italo pop artist Cosmo as well as Chico Blanco, a young singer and producer at the forefront of Spain's new generation of independent pop music artists. In the Middle is a reflection on recent years. A story about movement and migration around the Mediterranean but also the notion of a moving identity. It's about the luck of the drawer, finding yourself born in the middle of the "west", whilst others strive to get here with the hope of a better life. It's about being in the middle of music and cultures and the beautiful accidents that this movement has produced over the years. Above all, it's a celebration of the beauty of the movement to a better life, to create something new, with hope and optimism whatever the circumstances. It's a celebration of diversity and inclusivity. For fans of Skream, Catz N Dogs, KiNK, Axel Boman, Alfredo. Translucent blue vinyl.
Bawrut: "I was born in Gorizia, a city with a centuries-old, multi-ethnic identity literally split in two by a border (Italy and Slovenia) after the Second World War. Perhaps for this reason I have always felt closer and more aligned with the encounters between cultures and people, instead of the rigid idea of nationalism and the notion of a unique identity. Through my music I try to combine languages and sounds to make a record that celebrates the union, the meeting and crossing of experiences."
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
12"
|
|
RN 021EP
|
Madrid-based producer Bawrut returns with his fourth EP for Ransom Note Records. "Pronto Arpeggio" is a prog techno labyrinth of fake-outs, tempo switches, thwacking kickdrums, and huge synths. "Shooreee" is classic Bawrut with a psychedelic twist, like spiking your own Negroni with mescaline. "Atchu" carves its way through laser bleeps and dub FX, built around an unforgettable vocal sample that'll be lodged in your skull for months. KiNK chisels "Pronto Arpeggio" into a lean slab of high-velocity machine funk, while Ruf Dug teases out the gentler side of "Shooreee".
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
RN 023LP
|
Canadian-born, London-based producer, songwriter and vocalist Chloé Raunet, aka C.A.R., releases her third album, Crossing Prior Street, on Ransom Note Records. Full of bruised-but-ultimately-hopeful electronic art pop, the album tells Chloé's story of escaping a broken childhood in Vancouver, and finding her way to the lonely streets of East London, at the tender age of 16. "The one time in my life I lived alone, it was on a street called Prior. I was halfway through my teens and the place had lasting impact. This was a tiny, creaky flat, high in the eaves of an old wooden townhouse. Damp and cold, run down, sparsely furnished. Bare bulbs dangled from the ceiling, eyeing up the midnight visitors who'd come knowing at my fire escape. I'd let them in and lie limp as they crawled all over me. Thin mattress on the floor, welcoming whatever company I could get." An endorsement of the personal journey, Crossing Prior Street is the sound of Raunet reconciling different sides of herself emotionally, artistically, and sonically. The sparse production of minimal elements gives the album a direct punch. Booming drum machines, dissonant cold wave, skewed post punk, and esoteric pop juxtapose but join in strange and interesting ways. Chloé cites this clash as a defining characteristic of the album, which was equally catalyzed by her love of raw machine music and the catharsis of song. Like the sun breaking through clouds, shining onto a grey rainy day, the album glistens. Although proudly pop, there's nothing idealistic, fake, or saccharine here, as Raunet captures realistic glimpses of beauty found in everyday life, mixed amidst the gloom.
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
12"
|
|
RNPT 002EP
|
"The results are immediate and obscure all alternatives. The most miniscule motion portends a proliferation of susceptible affects dancing across an amaranthine fold. I am at that particular physical place within the anatomy of doubt where distance has little to do with the movement between two points. The distinctions between objects and their naming is merely the residue immediacy that courses like a doomed circuit all through and around me. A fractured Anima. An Apostate waning. The waves ever shortening. If I do return it will be through no force of my own."
|