Ransom Note

About Ransom Note

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.

Publisher

Ransom Note

Category

music

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

17 Aug 2016

Latest episode

15 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

634 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   15 Oct 2026

   PREMIERE: Vanity Project - File Mangement Blues Pt 2 [Claptrap]

   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

2. 

   6 Oct 2026

   Adam Curtain: The Ransom Note Mix

   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/

3. 

   30 Sept 2026

   PREMIERE: James Allison & Tia Cousins – Messin’ With The Wrong Guy

   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/

Who has been a guest on Ransom Note

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Sarayu
• Margaux Gazur
• Dicky Trisco
• Luke Una
• DJ Sodeyama

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

9,560,360

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 83 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

96

Social presence

0

YouTube

93

Engagement

85

Contact Ransom Note

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.