Balearic Breakfast | Episode 183 | Visions of a new world...

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 183rd episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud and Twitch TV socials on July 9th 2024.

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About this episode. – Among the themes the Balearic Breakfast Familly loves the most, musically speaking, is the one of Change! We love it when Colleen offers us the opportunity to request songs dealing with change; there are so many possibilities and so many great songs to choose from! Lately, the winds of change have been blowing through Europe, with several Parliamentary elections happening in a close time frame.

With these changing times, Colleen asked us on Saturday, June 6th, 2024, to request songs reflecting the era we're all going through: "Even the pillar boxes are getting in on the action The cuppa is a quintessential British rite and this morning as we drink our tea some of us are celebrating the end of 14 years of Tory rule. What the future has in store for us - who knows - we can only hope but at least there is change And yesterday was a new moon and that signifies new beginnings.

So for this coming Tuesday’s Balearic Breakfast let’s spotlight songs about new beginnings and transformation. You always rise to the occasion when there is a musical theme and I look forward to your requests as always."

Following our exchanges on Colleen's request line, today's show was unique. We're going to see together how this episode translates the changing times! "This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud at https://shorturl.at/ESTT1  and the theme is change, new beginnings and transformation as thankfully here in the UK many of us are celebrating the end of 14 years of Tory rule. Change is coming and fingers crossed.

Today’s show spotlights some of our old favourites – songs that have been played on the show before but hey – Balearic Breakfast has been going for nearly 4 years now so there is a repeat license in play even if I seldom do it. In any case, it’s good to hear some of these songs sitting next to each other as they take on a different meaning. And of course, there are other tunes that have never been played as well. So for now, sit back and enjoy a hopefully transformative selection of songs."

Listen back to the 183rd episode of Balearic Breakfast:

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PLAYLIST

(2017) Phil France – Transition

(2008) Low Motion Disco – Things Are Gonna Get Easier

(1971) Nina Simone – New World Coming

(1971) Gil Scott-Heron – I Think I'll Call It Morning

(2022) Jasmine Myra – New Beginnings

(1975) Lonnie Liston Smith – Visions of a New World

(1992) Incognito – Change

(1975) Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes – Wake Up Everybody

(2020) Buju Banton – The World is Changing

(2006) Dennis Bovell – Pickin’ Up The Pieces

(1969) Chicago – Beginnings

(1995) Vanessa Daou – Autumn Perspective

(1987) Pet Shop Boys – A New Life

(1983) Imagination – Changes (Larry Levan Remix)

(1988) INXS – New Sensation (Nick's 12-inch Mix)

(1992) Love Tempo – Change for the Better

(Yvonne Turner Freestyle Mix)

(1999) Groove Collective – Everything is Changing

(2024) House of Spirits – Times are Changing

(2018) Underground Resistance – Transition

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THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE

(coming soon)

Change is in the air, Politically but, more importantly... Musically. When you listen back to this very episode, take the time to listen to the structure of the songs, to the effects used, to their inner freedom. It's all crystal clear, and this structural unity is one of the strongest we ever had on the show. Even Colleen's mixes and the order she chose for the songs denote a never-felt originality; the show taking much more time to enter is transcendental atmosphere, shall I say. And it all starts with the opening song, which is Phil France's "Transition"! Sound effects, electronic sounds melting into a beautiful string section, waving dynamics, impeccable mixing and mastering... A mesmerising track to start the show, indeed!

As Low Motion Disco's "Things Are Gonna Get Easier" starts, we clearly hear how well these two first songs go together! They're both very original, with a very close rhythm, and they have a close relationship sound-effect-wise! If you take the time to watch the waveform on SoundCloud, you'll also notice how they both gain Volume as time goes by! Clearly, there is an extension to higher grounds here, and despite Mixcloud's compressed audio spectrum, you can hear that rhythmic guitar's realism on the right! Colleen keeps the interesting flow intact by playing Nina Simone's "New World Coming", another song with an impeccable strange, unexpected evolving sonic and rhythmic structure! I love how Nina Simone's song "ends" Low Motion Disco's number... Being a DJ is not always about beatmatching, but also about making the song discuss to one another. Colleen really does that so perfectly, I never get tired of listening to her mixes when she lets her originality fly, it's always refreshing! Since we're flying high on the winds of change, there's no better moment than to play Gil Scott-Heron's "I Think I'll Call It Morning", one of the Wow moments of the show without a shadow of a doubt because we keep the freed musical structure the previous tracks all have but also I feel this track does a nice intellectual dialogue with Nina Simone's one. Yes, There's a nice conversation here, a leading conversation!

Manchester-based composer, bassist, and producer Phil France was a key collaborator in the Cinematic Orchestra. Transition is taken from his album The Swimmer, first released on 26.2 Records and then reissued on Guantanamo Records in 2013. Five years later, he released the album Circle and, since then, he's done some film scoring. Transition, sonically captures the feeling of new birth and change. – Speaking of his album, Phil explained: "I’ve always been fascinated by water but had never been confident in it so I took some time and taught myself how to swim properly. It was at this point that I started to think what my album could be about, and I wrote the title track, The Swimmer. I was thinking about big blocks of sound, minimal and electronically influenced, that I could develop and shift through each of the compositions. So the reality of swimming - the focusing on breathing, the repetitive physical motion and the sense of improved well-being - were qualities I tried to capture in the music."

The cover of the song 'Ooh Child' was made a hit in 1970 by the Five Stairsteps, known at the time as the first family of soul before passing that title on to the Jackson Five. Keni Burke of rising to the top fame was one of the siblings in the Five Stairsteps. So there's your trivia for the day. Things Are Gonna Get Easier is a cover version released on Eskimo Recordings back in 2008 by Swiss chill-out duo Low Motion Disco. And it was on their debut album, Keep It Low. – The band's name has a nice stoty to it: "...we have developed a way to dance while not moving. We do it standing at a bar, or sitting on a sofa, in a car, wherever. While doing this, we groove and shake like hell, it just doesn't show on the outside. This technique is the basis of all we do. We call it 'low motion disco.'"

New World Coming is a song that expressed hope when there was despair, when it was written by husband and wife songwriting duo, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (sadly, she passed away in june 2023), who originally penned it for Mama Cass of the Mamas and Papas. It was a hit for her in 1970. Nina Simone recorded it for her covers album, Here Comes the Sun, released in 1971.

Gil Scott Heron's "I think I'll call it Morning" is taken from his 1971 debut album, Pieces of a Man (more about his studio recordings here and a Biography there), with the wonderful Brian Jackson accompanying him on keys (Brian Jackson will be performing again at We Out Here this year). It's an optimistic song, one that asks us to be more self-aware. Why should we subscribe to the world's madness? Instead, let's take that piece of sunshine and paint it all over our skies. – “You can’t just start screaming at everybody. Everybody knows there are things wrong with this planet. But in order to make it through all the things that are going to happen to you in your life, you need to maintain humor. It’s the most important aspect of yourself.” – Gil Scott-Heron in an interview with Wax Poetics, Pieces of a Man, p. 76

Jasmine Myra's "New Beginnings" perfectly follows Scott-Heron's song. The rhythm is also very close yet less "direct". There's more groove on this side. In French, we'd say "c'est plus chaloupé" (it's more "choppy" if that makes any sense in English, laughs!). We still have these tiny rhythmic variations in how the instruments interact; what a beautiful sense of freedom Jasmine Myra's track has! Colleen perfectly respects that freedom by playing the very open-minded, "erected" Lonnie Liston Smith's "Visions of a New World"! This track is an ode to freedom and originality in all of their forms. Listen to the groovy part, how it starts building and see how the main theme slowly and indirectly reappears... Mesmerising...

From London-based saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Jasmine Meara on Matthew Halsall's forward-thinking Gondwana label. Jasmine released her second album, Rising (written and composed in the midst of personnal rather sad times), in May, a follow-up to her 2022 debut, Horizons (written and composed during lockdown). And it has firmly placed her as one of the rising stars of the UK jazz scene.

The title track to keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith's album and his working band, The Cosmic Echoes. 1975's Visions of a New World is a gorgeous album in the meditative soul jazz vein. Lonnie Liston Smith released a record on the Jazz Is Dead label co-founded by a tribe called Quest Ali Shaheed Muhammad.

Entering another section of the show, Colleen then plays the directly groovy number that Incognito's "Change" is, followed by our beloved Classic, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes' "Wake Up Everybody", both tracks sharing a close tonality/rhythm, it's all in the groove 😉. The next song, Buju Banton's "The World is Changing" keeps that rhythmic unity (although its sonic structure is different, of course). Yet, the main ingredient, "the reaching out" if I can put it that way, is still present! Of course, the track's sonic and rhythmic structure is very original! Surprisingly, Colleen ends the first hour of the show with Dennis Bovell's "Pickin’ Up The Pieces", a rather classical reggae number that suits the show for obvious musical reasons...

Change, a single from British soul-funk jazz band Incognito, from their third LP, 1992's Tribes, Vibes and Scribes. A great song from Bluey and Crew that still resonates today.

Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes with Wake Up Everybody, the title track to their 1975 album, featuring lead vocals by none other than the late Teddy Pendergrass (it was composed by John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor Carstarphen (!!)). And if you haven't seen the documentary about Pendergrass, if you don't know me, it is a must. It explores the rise of Pendergrass, who rose to fame in the 1970s and early 80s, until he had a life-changing accident, and then an incredible comeback against All Odds. – A new version has been recently recorded and issued with somewhat changed lyrics, listen to it here.

Dancehall artist Buju Banton, a Grammy award winner, was unable to attend the ceremony to collect his award as he had just been convicted of drug smuggling and spent several years in a US prison before returning to his homeland of Jamaica and embarking upon his long walk to freedom tour in 2018. Two years later, he released his first album since his Grammy winning 2010 LP. It's called Upside Down 2020 and was released during the pandemic to critical acclaim.

Picking Up the Pieces by British dub master Dennis Bovell originally came out on Bovell's album All Over the World, but it's also featured on the double vinyl retrospective compilation, The Dub Master. Bovell has more feathers to his cap than just dub, having produced punk group The Slits first LP, and he was a founding member of UK kingpin Matumbi, UK reggae kingpin band, I should say Matumbi. He's also the architect behind the uniquely British Jamaican genre of lovers rock as well. He has an incredible story.

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The second hour of the show starts with an upbeat number, nicely contrasting with the previous cool cat, Chicago's "Beginnings" (and a Happy Birthday to Carmen Estrada!), ending in a beautiful Balearic sonic bombamaganza, nicely followed by the strange kaleidoscope that is Vanessa Daou's Autumn Perspective perfectly blended into Pet Shop Boys's "A New Life", Colleen keeping this wonderful mini mix together with Larry Levan's "incredible Changes remix", ending it with the Rocky/Poppy bombamaganza number that is INXS' "New Sensation"!

I Mean... W O W ! ! ! Wow, because of the rhythmic unity of the last five tracks but also because the Happy Bouncing moment took longer to arrive than it usually does in the show! Changes indeed!!

Chicago's Beginnings from the Chicago Transit Authorities, eponymously titled debut album released in 1969. At first the single failed to chart, but then it became a hit like the album itself, which was a sleeper and didn't really make an impact until two years later when it reached the Billboard charts and then stayed on there for 171 weeks over three years. Chicago songwriter Robert Lamb said he was inspired to write Beginnings because of a Richie Havens performance.

Vanessa Daou, the American singer, songwriter, dancer and visual artist whose solo debut album Ziplist released 30 years ago, put the words of Erika Jong to music. Jong wrote the feminist female sexuality novel Fear of Flying in 1973. Zipless was produced by Vanessa's former husband, Peter Daou, who many of you know as a keyboard player, who often collaborate with Danny Tanaglia. And the couple had collaborated as The Daou. Vanessa Daou's Zipless is set to be reissued.

A New Life from the Pet Shop Boys, 1987 LP, Actually, which critiqued Martin Thatcher's government.

Imagination with Changes, some British soul reimagined by a New Yorker. The original version is a single from their second album, In the Heat of the Night, which features another one of my favorites, Just an Illusion. Changes was given the Paradise Garage treatment and was then featured on their incredible remix album, Nightdubbing, which kind of followed in the footsteps of albums like Black Uhuru's Dub Factor, which featured remixes of past songs.

The late Michael Hutchence and INXS with New Sensation, the hit single from the Australian band's sixth album Kick, was produced by Chris Thomas, a producer for the Beatles, Roxy Music, Pretenders, Sex Pistols and more. Kick was INXS' most commercially successful album, released a decade before Hutchence's tragic suicide.

Today's second mini mix starts on the slower side with the very Balearic and clubby number Love Tempo's "Change for the Better" (The Yvonne Turner Freestyle Mix), followed by Groove Collective's "Everything is Changing", Colleen ending this simple yet effective mini mix by perfectly mixing in House of Spirits' "Times are Changing"! Ending the show with the speedy Transition by Underground Resistance, it seems obvious that Colleen took a speed train for Change, allowing her to have Visions of a New World...

The 1992 single from Love Tempo, Change for the Better. Love Tempo was a duo of two friends of mine, Tommy Musto from Suburban Records who gave me my first production opportunity. He said he wanted to release my first record when I was working at Dance Tracks. And I actually sat beside him in the studio learning how to produce and produced my first song I ever wrote, actually, Ch'i, Mistaken, featuring Alison Crockett. The other part of this duo is another friend of mine, Yvonne Turner, another one of the originators of the house sound, who really never got her due at the time and is just now getting some recognition. I did an interview with her for the Love Injection fanzine. And also my friend Andy Beda wrote a great article about her for Pitchfork if you want to find out more.

Another great live collective, Groove Collective with Everything Is Changing (the original album version) came out on Naked Music's 12 inch, but also some remixes by Swag and Jay Dennis. Groove Collective released some great records, including their debut album, which had What You Got with the Louis Vega remix.

Out on Razor and Tape Reserve, Times Are Changing is a new one from Tom Noble, who is the owner of Superior Elevation Records in Brooklyn. He has a project called House of Spirits and has a new album coming out that collects the work of nearly 15 years of this modern retro soul that throws a nod to the Mizell brothers and Patrick Adams and bringing that into the future and recorded with all live instrumentation.

Straight from Detroit, The Underground Resistance are put into light in Roland's Miny-Documentary. The Collective, which website is down but which Facebook is active with more than 1000 active members, remains a key figure of the Techno scene (click here to discover more).