Ed Ridgley

Ed Ridgley is a Baltimore house DJ and producer who works across deep, soulful and tech house. He has been curating and mixing music since the late '80s, drawing on electro, soul, funk, disco, hip-hop and new wave. Baltimore's varied music scene has given him a lot to draw on over the years, along with plenty of chances to collaborate with other artists. He is after a mood: an immersive vibe that takes people on a journey. He keeps the delivery spare on purpose, because in his view the music deserves the attention. His mixes, from live sets at Butter to guest spots on The Audio Infusion on 88.9 FM, are built the same way.

Ridgley came to Red Melon after the label's return. Somebody, released in 2024, is deep house at about 125 BPM, built on a chopped soulful vocal and a bouncy syncopated bass. Dano's remix answers with shuffling hats, dub-techno chord stabs and a warm rolling sub for late-night floors. From This Groove followed. It sets a spoken house manifesto over a bouncy synth bass, and on the other side Dano's Shelter Dub tightens the frame with claves, rubbery bass and dubby delay stabs for the late-night booth.

Both records pair Ridgley's original with a Dano version, so a Baltimore deep-house producer and a West Coast tech-house label owner end up on the same release.