Ransom Note

Seoul duo Salamanda. Uman Therma (Sala) and Yetsuby (Manda) have turned their gaze to the most unassuming of subjects: a single basil plant on a windowsill

There once was a Basil who sat in the dusk, When the light had gone thin and the day shed its husk,
He gazed at the glass where the garden grew small, And pondered his fate in the last of the hall.

A wine of deep blue in a vessel unclear appeared on the sill as the midnight drew near,
The Basil regarded it, leaf pressed to pane, And thought several thoughts that he couldn’t explain.

Does he know? said the snail, who was still on the glass, That all things must come, as all things come to pass?
The Basil said nothing, but widened one arm, And accepted the evening with dignified calm.

In Seoul, two small people called Sala and Manda Composed from the windowsill, neither meander,
They caught the blue hour and the wondering mind, The fate that all well-tended basils will find.

Oh Basil, oh Basil, you left-of-centre thing, With your atoms and rituals and quiet suffering,
You lived your full day from the sun to the dark, And went out, like blue wine, without even a mark.


Music To Watch Seeds Grow By, returns for its eighth entry with Seoul duo Salamanda. Uman Therma (Sala) and Yetsuby (Manda) have turned their gaze to the most unassuming of subjects: a single basil plant on a windowsill, tracking its full day from morning light to whatever it is basil dreams about after dark.

We’re premiering the album’s closing track, ‘the blue wine’, a final mysterious reverie in which the basil seems to contemplate its own fate, somewhere between acceptance and wonder. It is the still point at the end of the day: the light gone, the snail departed, the photosynthesis done. What remains is something like thought, or the plant equivalent of it. Manda puts it well: does the basil know what it’s for? Would it resist, accept, or even feel something close to joy? ‘the blue wine’ doesn’t answer that. It just sits with the question, which is probably the right thing to do…

@8salamanda8

Simply Nothing is a dubbed-out analogue synth workout like only these two know how.  Carefully constructed percussion, with George Hume's bass sitting beneath a veil of spectral vocals courtesy of Sarah-May Brown.

On the EP there's a two other original tracks plus a remix from the excellent Hybrid Man does what Hybrid Man does best, pulling the hypnotic core of the original.

Simply Nothing is out now on Lunatic Music.

Giorgi Pipia is a Georgian DJ and selector originally from the western region of Georgia, now based in Tbilisi—one of Eastern Europe’s most influential underground electronic music hubs.

Deeply connected to the city’s evolving club culture, he is a resident at the community-driven club Left Bank and a regular radio host on Rinse FM France, where he showcases his wide-ranging musical taste and experimental approach to DJing.

Known for his curiosity and open-minded approach to sound, Giorgi Pipia builds sets that draw inspiration from multiple cultures and genres. His selections often move fluidly between techno, electro, breakbeat, and experimental electronic music, while incorporating rhythms and textures from diverse global scenes.

This cross-cultural approach has become a defining element of his style, allowing him to craft sets that feel both exploratory and cohesive.

We invited him to the series and the result is a long playing mix which demonstrates a deep understanding of flow.

With the current climate doing its best to grind things down, sometimes making music with your people is all you can do – and LA’s underground is responding in kind. Few collectives embody that spirit quite like the Elbow Grease and DISCOS XXX crew.

SSRI – the Sound & Spirit Research Institute, a studio brainchild born from the meeting of DJ Dex aka Nomadico of Underground Resistance, Kosmik of The Black Lodge, and Dave Aju repping Elbow Grease. Three heads, one singular vision.

“Omnicallora” came to life the way the best things do – organically, hardware in hand, passed around in round-robin fashion with the Suzuki Omnichord at the centre of it all. The legendary instrument’s Italo-leaning character bleeds through every bar, complete with robo-vocoder flexings, waxing lyrical about pre- and post-fader feedback, before Aju took it home to Point Winona to mix and shape it into its final form. The result is a West Coast tech stomp that wears its Italo influences with pride – undeniably fun, undeniably them.

The track lands as part of Point Winona Sound Library Vol 1, the 20-track joint venture between Elbow Grease and DISCOS XXX aka DX3, gathering some of LA’s finest under one roof at the Los Feliz hilltop palace itself.

Curated by the legend that is Tavish and Dave Aju, it’s a geographic statement – warehouse-wrecking and rooted-futurist in equal measure.

Point Winona Sound Library Vol 1 drops March 6. Pre-order over at Bandcamp.

Music that makes you feel deeply human…

There’s a version of events where Joshua Idehen is still behind a bar in the West End, coming home late, flicking through channels. But then came Dizzee Rascal on Channel U – that first-person rant, that stream of consciousness pouring into the void – and something locked into place. Nearly two decades later, the British-born Nigerian poet and spoken-word artist, now based in Stockholm, has signed to Heavenly Recordings and released one of the more quietly essential debut albums of 2026.


I Know You’re Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got To Try is out now. Made with his long-term creative partner Ludvig Parment (Saturday, Monday), it’s the full realisation of something that’s been building since the pair’s 2023 mixtape Learn to Swim — a record that holds you through it all: grief, euphoria, fatherhood, friendship, the liturgic pull of a club at the right moment. House beats, choral swells, Shabaka Hutchings on flute, a choir singing a melody Idehen himself composed. The kind of album that makes you want to wave your arms in the air and then call your mum.

The ride here wasn’t quiet. ‘Mum Does The Washing’ began life as a Twitter thread, set to Parment’s spacious beats, went viral, earned Idehen support from Jamz Supernova, Huw Stephens and Robbie Williams (yes, really), packed out Glastonbury and Green Man, and landed him a spot on Later… with Jools Holland. Sold-out Jazz Café dates followed. A headline European and UK tour runs through spring, culminating at KOKO in London on 23rd April.

To mark the album, Joshua and Ludvig have put together this mix of music to bring joy. Not one shade of it either. There’s unbridled joy (Peter, Björn & John, a Kanye recommendation from a different time), celebratory joy (“a today I don’t have to fight kind of joy,” as Ludvig puts it, via Primal Scream), defiant joy (Kendrick, for the days you will have to fight, but you’ll pull through). Soul II Soul shows up to preach and repeat. James Brown is just kind of everything. Caribou injects the dance floor with melancholy and joy at the same time, which is basically the whole project in a nutshell. And somewhere near the end, a Mesadorm song that made Joshua cry on first listen, second listen, third listen.

Music that makes you feel deeply human, as you’ve never felt before. Over to them.

https://www.theransomnote.com/music/mixes/joshua-idehens-music-to-make-joy-to-ransom-note-mix/