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Balearic Breakfast | Episode 188 | Balearic Freedoms...

  • Writer: by The Lioncub
    by The Lioncub
  • Aug 13, 2024
  • 9 min read

Updated: Sep 2, 2024

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 188th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on August 13th 2024.

About this episode. – Following her incredible set at the Houghton Festival in the Stallions tent on August 9th – and a few days before heading to the 2024 edition of the WOH festival – our tireless Captain launched the request line on August 10th! This resulted in a very "freeing" and "uplifting" musical adventure, and we shall discover that in the listening session of this post!


"This week’s Balearic Breakfast is now archived on my Mixcloud at and features some festival magic, some surprising cover versions, classic live Aretha Franklin, some house diva action, some soul groovers and some new and unreleased tunage. If you are a regular listener, please consider subscribing to my Mixcloud channel (but you can still listen back for free even if you are unable to financially support).

Now packing records and hifi gear for We Out Here festival and I hope to see you on the wooden dance floor of our Love Dancin tent (its slightly bigger this year). I’m hosting the Cosmodelica take over on Saturday with my special guests @dj_greg_wilson @musclecars.nyc @evesdropcollective @melt_my_heartz @vandorta_ @kathmcdermott_dj @abigail_ward_dj

I’m also hosting a live Balearic Breakfast radio show for Worldwide FM on Friday from 11am to 1pm and I’ll also have Italian ambient maestro Gigi Masin performing live.

Next Tuesday I will still stream Balearic Breakfast (bleary-eyed) and I’ll also have Nathan Haines up with an exclusive mix and we will also chat about his new album Notes which came out last week (and it’s wonderful).


Listen back to the 188th episode of Balearic Breakfast:

PLAYLIST


(2005) Coil – Going Up

(1984) Thomas Dolby – I Scare Myself

(1985) UB40 – Don't Break My Heart

(2024 NOL) Tame Impala – Tomorrow's Dust (HiFi Sean Dub)

(1976) The Emotions – Flowers

(1982) Heatwave – Lettin' It Loose

(2022 NOL) Ronnie Foster – Easier Said than Done

(Ashley Beedle's Heavy Disco Edit)

(2024) Rich Lane – Shelves (Chug Norris Decade Remix)

(2022) Cantoma (ft. Quinn Lamont Luke) – Shelter

(1982) Trilark – Love Never Looked Better

(1989) Adeva – Musical Freedom (Free At Last)

(2024) Wipe the Needle – Skyscrapers

(2024) Nicola Conte – Into the Light of Love

(Joaquin's Spirit of the Dance Instrumental Version)

(1971) Aretha Franklin & Ray Charles – Spirit in the Dark

(Reprise) (Live at the Fillmore West)

(1969) David Bowie – Memory of a Free Festival


THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE

(coming soon)


This 187th episode of Balearic Breakfasts starts with a beautiful march – a conquering and modern sounding one! Coil's "Going Up" sets the tone of today's episode in a perfect way although it does not entirely reflect today's musical experience – as it positions itself on a somewhat more combative atmosphere, showcasing some "worried hopes"... This feeling is confirmed as Thomas Dolby's "I scare Myself" starts. Nonetheless, there is an affirmation here that can't be missed. And this affirmation will see its message carried until Tame Impala's "Tomorrow's Dust". These first tracks draw a "shamanic-like experience", and they made me think of Patti Smith's "The Peyote Dance", "Mummer Love" & "Peradam" studio albums. Of course, this strong feeling is enhanced by Colleen's perfect mix, this first part of the show winning the Wow Effect as far as I'm concerned...

Coil – Going Up. – Coil, an experimental group that was created in 1982 by Psychic TV's John Balance. He was joined by former bandmate and later partner Peter Sleazy Christofferson, who was also in Throbbing Gristle. Coil were part of the scene with Psychic TV, Chris N' Cozy, Nurse with Wound, and were also into the occult. "Going Up" is from The Art of Naples, COIL's last studio album released in 2005, the year after Balance's abrupt death from an accident and it samples Balance's voice from COIL's final performance at the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival in 2004. Christofferson remarked that COIL's performance of going up at the festival was the one and only time John thought of and sang those words, his own epitaph. – Find out more about "Going up" here.
Thomas Dolby – I Scare Myself. – From Thomas Dolby's second album, The Flat Earth, "I scare myself" is an unlikely cover of one of country musicians Dan Hick's tunes by the American synth-pop pioneer who had chart success with "She Blinded Me with Science", and then later founding a Silicon Valley software company that developed ringtones for Nokia. Thomas was also the music director for the TED Conferences.

UB40 – Don't Break My Heart. – Colleen got this record when she was working in a record shop called Strawberries as a teenager in 1985. When it came out in the U.S., it was a U.S.-only release called Little Baggerhythm, the one that came out in the U.K. It had 13, 14 tracks. The one in the U.S. just had six. It was a pared-down version of the much longer one here in the U.K., probably to reinforce the band's popularity after their hit cover, Red Red Wine. Don't Break My Heart was another hit in the U.K., and the B-side of their duet with Chrissie Hynde, "I Got You Babe".
Tame Impala – Tomorrow's Dust (HiFi Sean Dub). – Sneaky dub of "Tomorrow's Dust" by one of Colleen's favorite Australian bands, Tame Impala. – The original track is taken from Tame Impala's "The Slow Rush" studio album, on which Kevin Parker deals with time and how it impacts our everyday lives, again perfectly fitting today show's theme!

The Emotion's song "Flowers" marks the beginning of the second segment of this 187th episode, delivering a message that wholeheartedly embraces freedom, and this is exactly what today's show is all about! As explained earlier, this theme was present in the show's openning section but it is presented in this second part in a more positive way – pay attention: Colleen really lets the music speak here in long mixes, if that ain't freedom...!

The Emotions – Flowers. – From one of the so-called girl groups from the 1960s. The Emotions (ed. there is a great article about their story you can access here) started out as a Chicago-based gospel group, but then, like many, they found much more success in secular music, making a name for themselves in R&B and then disco. And their association with Earth, Wind & Fire's Maurice White was just a touch of gold. In fact, the Emotions did the backing vocals on Boogie Wonderland. And this is the title track from the Emotions' 1975 LP, which was produced by White and Charles Stepney. Maurice White co-wrote this song.

Heatwave – Lettin' It Loose. – International Disco Act Heatwave, the band featured British songwriter Rod Temperton, who went on to pen hits for Michael Jackson. Heatwave was started by an American serviceman who was Johnny Wilder, who stayed in Germany after his discharge. He was singing in clubs, and then he moved over to the UK, where he met Temperton. And in 1977, they debuted with Boogie Nights, and it became a huge hit.
Ronnie Foster – Easier Said than Done (Ashley Beedle's Heavy Disco Edit). – Another great Ashley Beadle heavy disco edit, this time of "Easier Said Than Done" by American Keys maestro Ronnie Foster, whose 70s albums became coveted here in the UK in the jazz funk scene. He also frequently worked with George Benson and played organ for Berta Flack, Stevie Wonder and Grover Washington Jr. and many, many more. – The original track can be found on Ronnie's 1978 "Love Satellite" studio album.
Rich Lane – Shelves (Chug Norris Decade Remix). – Stoke-on-Trent DJ and producer Rich Lane with Shelves, his 2014 single, but given a decade remix by Chug Norris is out on Lane's label Cottonbud, exclusively released on Bandcamp. His label's also released the latest single from our Balearic Breakfast buddies, Shunt Voltage (one of their tunes, is on the latest Balearic Breakfast compilation).
Cantoma (ft. Quinn Lamont Luke) –  Shelter. – Quinn Lamont Luke, (ed. formerly known as Bing Ji Ling) has a studio out there in Oaxaca and he sent over this song he did for Phil Meison's Cantoma Project, which came out in October 2022.
Trilark – Love Never Looked Better. – The 1982 single Love Never Look Better by funk soul band Trilark was produced by Crown Heights Affairs, Raymond Reed and William Anderson. They're so talented, both of whom were also in Empress. And that was Trilark's only single from their only album, which was eponymously titled. – The album's lineup is pretty impressive with Sam Figueroa on percussion (who worked with France Joli and Empress as well as Idris Muhammad) Jeff and Larry Smith (Kashif, Billy Ocean, Glenn Jones as well as Whodini and Run-DMC); on guitars: Mike Campbell, Clarence Brice, Ron Miller, and William ‘Buba’ Anderson on acoustic guitar; on Bass: Butch Porter (Empress), Teddy Williams, William Anderson and his brother Sandy (see Unlimited Touch); On keyboards: Fred McFarlane (who in 1984 co-produced Intrigue, Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King and Jocelyn Brown, among others); and finally, on drums: Ray ‘Johnny’ Reid and Sugar ‘Ray’ Rock from the Crown Heights Affair, William ‘Buba’ Anderson and Randy Hutchinson! Yet the album didn't chart!

Adeva – Musical Freedom (Free At Last). – A burst of positivity and hope from one of the original house divas, Adeva, here with musical freedom, Free At Last, which was penned by Carmen Brown. Adeva, real name Patricia Daniels, was born in North Carolina and in 1988 was signed to Cool Tempo and released her debut album the following year which was a smash on the dance floor. Colleen remember seeing her around that time at one of New York City's early house clubs, Tracks. Paradise Garage's David DePino had a night there. It must have been Tuesday nights in which she featured voguers.

Wipe the Needle – Skyscrapers. – By Lee Gomez under his Wipe the Needle moniker, a slice of jazzy house heaven out now on Dave Lee's Zed Records label.
Nicola Conte – Into the Light of Love (Joaquin's Spirit of the Dance Instrumental Version). – The Nicola Conte-Joaquin Clausell double pack on Far Out Recordings that just keeps on delivering, it keeps on giving. Colleen has played nearly all of the cuts on that double 12-inch workout wonder. – The original track can be found on Nicola Conte's 2023 "Umoja" (coming from Swahili, an ancient African language, and carrying the meaning of unity, harmony, and spiritual connection) studio album. The renowned Italian spiritual jazz master, DJ, producer, guitarist, and bandleader perfectly fits today's bill as his approach towards music is a "freeing one". In his own words: "Everything must be easy to consume, so there's no room for cultural knowledge, heritage, and consciousness. This reality limits the freedom of individuals. In times like these, artists should take the risk of expressing more controversial ideas and not just fitting into everything that is being said".

If freedom is present in the music, it is also living in Colleen's choices as she ends today's episode in an unexpected way, playing both Aretha Franklin & Ray Charles' "Spirit in the Dark" and David Bowie's "Memory of a Free Festival". Each song represent, in their own way, what Freedom (here both the musical and the spiritual one) really feels like!

Aretha Franklin & Ray Charles – Spirit in the Dark. – Recorded live at the Fillmore West in 1971 and released on record that year, Aretha was also playing Fender Rhodes and her band was King Curtis's band, the Kingpins, which featured luminaries like Bernard Purdy, Billy Preston and Cornell Dupree. An incredible rendition of her 1970 single (ed. which peaking at #3 R&B and #23 Hot 100, in Billboard magazine). – The song, which seems to draw from both political events and personal events choosing hope as an ultimate escape, is taken from Aretha's seventeenth studio album of the same name, issued on August 24th, 1970 and recorded over the course of 4 sessions at the Atlantic Studios in New York (26, 27 May, 3 Oct. 1969 & 10 march 1970) and has been covered in 1994 by BB. King and Diane Schuur.

David Bowie – Memory of a Free Festival. – A seven minute ode to the festival, an opus from David Bowie, released on his self-titled and second album in 1969 (ed. also known as "Space Oddity"). The song was written in homage to the free festival that was organized by the Beckenham Arts Lab in August 1969, an alternative arts center. – While the songs is ostensibly dedicated to the festival, another interpretation is worth keeping in mind here as explained by the songfacts website, perfectly feeting in today's show musical soul (pay attention to the structure of the song...) : "Oh, to capture just one drop of all the ecstasy that swept that afternoon; To paint that love upon a white balloon, and fly it from the topest top of all the tops," sings Bowie, but the song may have been a romanticized version of how he really felt that day. Just days before, Bowie had experienced the death of his father, and his mood, quite understandably, was reportedly anything but ecstatic during the festival. Listening to the song you can imagine the song following the timeline of his life up to that point: his voice at first is almost childlike, a quality enhanced by the fact that the only musical accompaniment is a child's organ. As the song nears the end, we hear a progression toward Bowie's trademark sound, the powerful vocals and near-chaotic yet carefully controlled arrangement, before taking a tired, somber turn at the finish, as if he's mourning something lost."

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