Ransom Note

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.