Colleen ’Cosmo’ Murphy broadcast the 155th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud and Twitch TV socials on November 21st 2023.
Introduction. – Did it ever happen to you that, for one reason or another, you weren't able to figure out what was happening in your life? Like, bits of information were missing? Does it happen you're discovering something about someone or a situation you weren't ready to see and that, somehow, you can't handle? Well, search no further; this post is made for you! We all experience these "weird" moments, sometimes fueled by a lack of communication, misunderstandings or simply by our own exhaustion (laughs!). In any case, if this happens to you, one of the things is to talk it over or, in a more strange way, keep in mind that maybe, I said maybe, you're not really living the reality you think you are living (read that again, laughs!). This thought was brought to me first by NIN when I listened to their song "Right Where It Belongs" but also by my own thoughts about the way I was perceiving things (of course, helped in these lost thoughts by the great Serge Gainsbourg, who said, answering a journalist asking why he dressed his houses' walls in black: "because they're white in psychiatric hospitals"...). So when something strange happens to you, take a deep breath and keep in mind that, very often, there are... two sides to the story!
Listen back to the 155th episode of Balearic Breakfast:
PLAYLIST
Andre 3000 – Ninety-Three Til Infinity and Beyonce
Strawberry Guy – Mrs Magic
Steve Hillage – Palm Trees Love Guitar
Mayssa Karaa – White Rabbit
Rodriguez – Climb Up on My Music
Serge Gainsbourg – Daisy Temple
Grace Jones – My Jamaican Guy (Dub)
Korallreven – Honey Mine (Lissv ik Remix)
Underworld – M.E.
The Orb – Earth (Gaia)
Blue Boy – Remember Me
YSE Saint Laur'Ant – Warm Wind Brewing
Kleeer – Tonight
Cantoma – Way to the Sun (Neche Espanola Mix)
Curtis Mayfield – Tell Me, Tell Me (How Ya Like to Be Loved)
Marshall Jefferson vs Noosa Heads – Mushrooms
(Salt City Orchestra Out There Mix)
Shapeshifters – Tell MeIts Not Over (Cosmodelica Remix)
Fleetwood Mac – Big Love (Piano Dub)
Odyssey – Hang Together (Pete Blaker Edit)
About this show. – Last Saturday, after a long walk in the forest, posting the request line a little bit later than usual (this is just to say that we're all in the starting blocks, laughs!), Colleen greeted us with this message, allowing us to make hallucinogenic requests...:
It’s mycelium madness in Epping Forest! Look with your eyes and not your hands. Feeling reset after a long Forest walk and ready to think about tunes for Tuesday. What would you like to hear on this week’s Balearic Breakfast?
For those of you new to@the party I host Balearic Breakfast as a stream with video and chat on my Mixcloud Live and Twitch TV from 10am to high noon on Tuesdays. Then the shows are archived on my Mixcloud where you can listen back via a Balearic Breakfast playlist.
If you are a regular listener please consider subscribing for £3 a month on my Mixcloud. But if you are unable to do so, no worries as you can still listen to the shows for free.
Looking forward to seeing some of you down at 17 Little Portland Street for a late one this evening. @alexfromtokyo is joining me in this intimate venue located in central london. Reservation link is in my linktree.
Enjoy your weekend!
And, Indeed, what was bound to happen... Happened! The stars aligned and Colleen gifted us with a tremendously nice, high in colours and visual effects all around, balearically Mushroomly show (laughs)! Find out more just now in the Detailed Playlist!
THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE
Starting the show with Andre 3000 – Ninety-Three Til Infinity and Beyonce [2023 - Bandcamp], Colleen immediately sets the tone of this almost psychedelic show. His new album "New Blue Sun" – spanning over 3 LPs, nothing less – has been praised by a lot of websites and magazines, including the French "Les Inrocks".
The four following tracks include Ariana's (Happy Birthday Lady!) request Strawberry Guy – Mrs Magic [2019 - Discogs], a relaxed and grand-sounding piece – the album it is taken from, "Taking my time", is getting a repress – about the struggles of trying to break free of one's inner turmoil and uncertainty (see how much your blogger is connected to these shows now...?). It is beautifully blended with Steve Hillage – Palm Trees Love Guitar [1978 - Discogs], which keeps the weirdness alive with these long-maintained notes coming from that very wave-sounding guitar – Produced and engineered by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, Green features science fiction themes and explores electronic music – easily sliding into Mayssa Karaa – White Rabbit [2013 - Discogs].
Originally recorded by Jefferson Airplane, whose singer and composer the great Grace Slick said, "In the 60s, the drugs were not ones like heroin and alcohol that you take to blot out a terrible life, but psychedelics: marijuana, LSD and shroomies. Psychedelic drugs showed you that there are alternative realities. You open up to things that are unusual and different, and, in realizing that there are alternative ways of looking at things, you become more accepting of things around you").
The last song, Rodriguez – Climb Up on My Music [1971 - Discogs] – take the time to scroll through this website; you'll learn a lot about this great artist – makes you realise the powerful side of our beloved show. Each one of the Balearic Breakfast Family members has its own interpretation of what "hallucinogenic music" can sound like, and still, great unity comes out of it! I just love that; in fact, we all can't get enough of that!
After this nice warmup, Colleen speeds up the strange effect trip, by playing tracks showcasing how much music can take you into another dimension. Starting with Serge Gainsbourg – Daisy Temple [1979 - Discogs], the artist – whose mansion can now be visited alongside a beautiful museum – showcases here his ability to make rhymes sing, creating a song without a real meaning about a girl liking quite anything that ends with the sound oo (laughs!). I chose Daisy Temple for its "musical dub style", not found to that extent on other songs from the album. We're then drawn into a strange musical world with an absolute classic, keeping the dub style absolutely alive: Grace Jones – My Jamaican Guy (Dub) [1983 - Discogs]. When listening to that song, I can hear a lot of similarities with another track by Serge Gainsbourg taken from his 1981 album "Mauvaises nouvelles des étoiles" (Bad News from the Stars), created after he finished working on his book, Evgeny Solokov. Keeping the Jamaican vibe, Colleens ends the trip with Korallreven – Honey Mine (Lissv ik Remix) [2010 - Discogs].
The next phase of the show takes us to a more "airy" side of what truly might be an "acid trip" (it is being said that the French singer Johnny Hallyday once tried hallucinogenic mushrooms while recording his 2011 album "Jamais seul"... Though we don't know if this is true, vocally, the results were trippy for sure!).
Starting with Underworld – M.E. [1994 - Discogs] – the album has been remastered in 2014 – our Musical Captain keeps the hallucinogenic pace by playing The Orb – Earth (Gaia) [1991 - Discogs] read a full review of the album here, dropping just after that the absolute classic that is Blue Boy – Remember Me [1997 - Discogs] – check the Mushroom Jazz compilations here, thus creating the first Wow effect of this 155th edition of Balearic Breakfast!! (Colleen's rhythmic capabilities just Shine at this very moment...). Oh, how we all love the musical unity she creates for us week after week; we just can't get enough of that! The chat was bouncing today, I can tell you that!
Keeping the rhythm, and the mental freedom that goes with it, Colleen takes us further down the creepy lost road where everything gets wilder and wilder (laughs!), YSE Saint Laur'Ant – Warm Wind Brewing [2012 - Discogs] dancing (and sampling Henri Mancini's "Lujon") in rhythm with Kleeer – Tonight [1979 - Discogs].
The next trippy trip speeds up things with Cantoma – Way to the Sun (Neche Espanola Mix) [2023 - Bandcamp] & Curtis Mayfield – Tell Me, Tell Me (How Ya Like to Be Loved) [1979 - Discogs]. But our Captain didn't want to slow down the rhythm at all! So she went straight ahead by crafting a Mushroom Mix for us, and what mix that one was (here you go, take a second Wow Effect, laughs!): Marshall Jefferson vs Noosa Heads – Mushrooms (Salt City Orchestra Out There Mix) [1996 - Discogs] / Shapeshifters – Tell MeIts Not Over (Cosmodelica Remix) [NYR] & Fleetwood Mac – Big Love (Piano Dub) [1987-Discogs] (another song dealing with uncertainties and lost minds, the video clip for the song making direct references to The Twilight Zone, with a window floating in space and being filled with then-innovative compositing and special effects)!
Colleen knows how to take you higher, doesn't she?! The way she mixes these three songs together is pure Mushroom Highness to me! We were all seeing mushrooms here, mushrooms there, mushrooms everywhere, laughs!, and Adam had so much fun with the visuals today! One of them saw the video stream split the turntable's image into a sort of sun or something; it was so nicely done, and oh, how trippy! But I didn't have a chance to take a picture of that one, because I was too concentrated on sharing on the chat how much I loved what I just saw, Laughs!
The show's last song, the absolutely wonderful Odyssey – Hang Together (Pete Blaker Edit) [2023 - NYR] really acted like a musical Coda on all of us, leaving us with lost minds in some parallel worlds where all we could see were Mushrooms.
Events. – Colleen will take part in these forthcoming events:
December 9th: Love Affair Presents: Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy;
On New Year's Eve: When pigs fly.
Click on the pictures to buy the tickets ;-)
