MEMORY-000_

What is this?

For 2020 I intend to write more about the records that I have collected since 1995, trying to capture the memories that are tied to many of them, and connect with both the people those memories might include, and those who like a ramble. I had thought about writing about my record collection for a few years now, and after connecting with @jaise_dnb_archive on IG because of his own work documenting his collection and his memories, the idea became even more realistic.

In early December 2019 about 20% of my vinyl collection took some damage, and that gave some urgency to the idea. Why did I have so many records, and what was so important about them? I’ll be posting about all kinds of other stuff from my life too, so there will be some breaks between the vinyl and covers. I’ll also be posting about some CDs and possibly cassette mixtapes that I still have. As I share these thoughts, feel free to comment if the records, music, or my anecdotes trigger something for you.

Writing about dnb was something I did a lot twenty years ago, writing for local zines (Inner Loop comes to mind), and occasionally for some regional ones as well (Rinse from Toronto, Tha Purrin’ Lion zine out of TX, This Is A Warning from PGH/OH). I’m not as involved as I once was, but like to keep active with the music in different ways. I’m not DJ’ing anymore (although I could, if the event ticked all my right boxes), putting most of that energy towards production. 2019 was a lot of major changes, and the production took a step back, so writing is that line to stay connected while everything else settles in to place.

P.S. You can see a catalog of my actual collection on discogs, user name is listed as R4NS0M. And where did the name R4NS0M come from? AIM, 1998, a 1337 version of my DJ name Ransom, which eventually became Harry Ransom. You can find more information about my music releases and DJ mixes here: https://linktr.ee/r4ns0m