Jackie Ransom – Final Exposure

Miami might be best known for cocaine, vice, Miami Bass and sunshine, but what you might NOT be aware of is that there is some seriously dark and experimental wave music coming out of Miami. Probably the best known, is Staccato Du Mal — he had several tracks on each of the Wierd LPs, as well as a handful of great independently released 7″s and CDRs under various aliases and collaborations (including a beautiful 7″ with vocals by Liz Wendelbo of Xeno & Oaklander) on his own label SDM.

Another member of this lesser known Miami underground is Miss Jackie Ransom. Like Staccato Du Mal, Jackie shares a certain punk aesthetic to her music — using exclusively analogue instruments, including cheap synthesizers, lofi drummachines and guitar, all played live: one-take recordings of every track, often improvising with vocals and synth riffs as the track is coming along, making for a raw and unique sound.

Final Exposure is from Jackie’s upcoming album Cell Death. Featuring 8* (the vocalist from Flesh Græy Display) credited for vocals, guitar and mistake — yes you read that correctly. A duet of haunting vocals between Jackie and 8*, with dark and poetic lyrics with maybe just a slight nod to Joy Division.

The video clip was also made by Ms. Ransom herself, a disturbing collage of old archive video footage of hypnotism, psychology and sight, edited into a horrifying film noir nightmare. Once again that punk DIY aesthetic and imagination shines through, saying fuck to the million dollar video clips we are assaulted with any time we switch on a TV.

I have a split 7″ on the way with Miss Ransom, featuring her track Killer Inside (which will also appear on Cell Death and the upcoming Doom & Glamour album on Zerohour) and my track Eternal, with vocals from Beta Evers. Two great songs if I may say so myself, and it also features some beautiful artwork by the ever-amazing Caitlin Shearer. It will be released shortly on Zerohour so stay tuned baby!

Ms. Ransom also plays in electronic improv rock project Mascara Scare with 8* and Jackie Soir — check them out.

Jackie Ransom – Final Exposure

Four Tet – Aying

Keiran Hebden better known as Four Tet has had all types of labels thrown at his music — from post rock to future jazz, electronica and er, “folktronica” — whatever the fuck that means. But whatever the media want to call it, it’s dope. Raw, grimy beats with elements of cosmic jazz, progressive rock, trip hop and breakbeat thrown into the mix. But let me tell you, the dude knows his way around a sampler, plus it’s fairly to say he would have some of the dustiest fingers around — his sample selection is wild and obscure.

This track Aying was released on delicious 12″ vinyl in 1998, but I didn’t hear it until about ten years later when a friend burnt me a copy of his first album, Dialogue (released in 1999, where this track also appears). Needless to say, I tracked a second hand copy of the 12″ down PRONTO cos, this track is completely wild. Distorted horns and flutes, dark strings and sitar samples and fat breaks including a little Bollywood break. Shit is dope!

There is another track on the record called Fume, which is completely devestating…think breakcore from a parallel universe where it is just really fast jazz or something (with bonus cuts and a few bars of an electro beat for good measure). Badass. The album and 12″ are both long deleted, so you’re going to have to find them yourself, but they are worth tracking down.

The dude has also remixed for a pretty impressive array of cats including Aphex Twin, Madvillain, Nathan Fake and Black Sabbath which I think deserves a little street cred.

Four Tet – Aying