Sasu Ripatti – the chap behind Vladislav Delay, Luomo and a score of other projects – offers up a compelling selection of lost cuts and first takes. 

As Self-Titled report, Ripatti’s Soundcloud page is currently hosting a 45-minute mix of unheard tracks, stems and sketches. It’s an intoxicating set, collecting beatless passages, roughneck syncopated techno and house for swimming heads. The mix is finished off with snippets of the forthcoming Vladislav Delay 12″, due on March 17 through the producer’s recently inaugurated Ripatti label. Scroll to the bottom to the page to stream the mix.

For those who like their dub techno with a supplementary grumble, Ripatti has also released a statement on his Facebook page, expressing his frustration with the nitty-gritty of working in association with a major label:

dear people,

even though this is a gear-interest site and not a music marketing machine i wanted to write a few words for those who are wondering what’s happening with the label and music. (admittedly i chose a gear-porn photo to get some attention to this post)

ok. i thought i’d sell enough vinyl to you guys out there to cover the costs, or at least most of it, without making any fuss about it, do promotion, the usual stuff not related to music at all.

well, that didn’t work out so well… i got some numbers from the distributor and based on that i had to change the set-up a little. so i sold the company to a major and got a fat advance and they promised to take care of everything.

funny. but anyway, i had to hire a promotion agency to get some attention to releases and maybe sell some copies, although we also decided to press less quantities of copies.

the press costs a lot of money because i still resist doing the digital thing so all the press copies are vinyl and have to be sent by post. nice. so even if i remotely recoup the pressing costs with record sales i now end up with a fat invoice from the PR company.

i’m not so happy about this but at least when i’m loosing plenty of money releasing my own music it’s pretty sure to be music i believe in. one could say things have turned upside down.

what bothers me most is that 03 was supposed to be out already by the end of last year, and i’m still having to wait for weeks and weeks for the press machine to do its thing. release date is March 17th. while i have 03&04 already pressed and 05&06 already cut…

and i thought i could just release bunch of music… just got to love the music business…”

For a more comprehensive survey of Ripatti’s work, check out FACT’s The Essential…Vladislav Delay primer. Lest we forget, a similar mix, Galcher Lustwerk’s 100% Galcher, was one of our absolute favourite releases of 2013.