This collaboration was originally conceived nearly a decade ago, when Toby Tobias AKA Alphonse met Seraphina Simone at Glastonbury. The song was promptly cut in 2017, but until now was hidden away on Tobias’ hard drive. Dusted down, polished up and given a trio of fresh remixes, Ran$om Note are about to finally make the track public. 

My pick remains the original “Main” mix, whose weirdness sort of sits on a musical / genre border, recalling when late `80s industrial and acid house met. Picture Richard H. Kirk at Jive Turkey, or Richard Norris and Genesis P-Orridge at Shoom. Sonic subversives fascinated with rave’s potential revolutionary possibilities, hitting the studio, inspired by Chicago, but their end results a tad wide of the mark, and as a consequence far more idiosyncratic, more unique. 

Gothic droning, an ominous sound like tolling bells being sucked backward, merges with TB-303 gurgling, and the drums are more freestyle, more electro, more TR-808, than a straight forward, 909 jacking. Simone’s spoken delivery summons “the sprit” of pre-gentrification, `70s, downtown New York. A speedball of art and sleaze runs through its veins. The darker progeny of The Beat Club’s S&M classic, “Security”, the vibe is nocturnal, and narcotic. The perfect score for post-“Blade Runner”, post-“Neuromancer” plots, midnights spent “Burning Chrome”, or with Steve Moore’s vampiric “Panther Moderns” on the prowl. 

*Listening, I was also thinking of other early UK “house” stuff like Holy Ghost or Colm III. 

Alphonse & Seraphina Simone’s “Spirit Of The Night” can be ordered directly from Ran$om Note.