Balearic Breakfast | Episode 190 | Musical Fireworks!
- by The Lioncub
- Aug 27, 2024
- 10 min read
Updated: Sep 17, 2024
Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 190th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on August 27th 2024.
About this episode. – This episode of Balearic Breakfast is a Musical Celebration. After posting the request line on her socials on her birthday, the 24th of August, Colleen was ready to surrender to Music again with no less than 3 DJ sets (@easternelectrics @anotherlovestoryfest & @hangdaichinese)! With other birthdays celebrated on the 25th (A happy Birthday to Ana, Rick and all the Virgos in the Balearic House!), the request line was effectively very festive! And this happy feeling revealed itself in this show, as we shall see later!
As always, let's hang the mic to our dear Captain before indulging in the musical adventures of today's show: "This week’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud and features vintage soul, some new house jams and a Nottinghill Carnival Good Times classic along with your requests. And don’t forget, next week is Balearic Breakfast’s 4 year anniversary (yes BB is a Virgo, too ;). I’ll be hosting a marathon special of your requests and please think of a song that you discovered on the show. You can put in your request in the post comments of the request line when it is posted on my socials on Saturday (please do not DM me with your requests – need to keep them all in one place). Thanks for your continued support and for being part of the Balearic Breakfast family.
Also, please sign the Cosmic Slop / MAP charity petition on Action Network dot org. Cosmic Slop is a party in Leeds called Cosmic Slop that is a fundraiser for their MAP Charity which supports young people at risk of permanent exclusion from mainstream education by offering empowering music and arts qualifications. Cosmic Slop is under threat as developers are applying for permission to build over 300 flats right next does to Cosmic Slop’s home of 18 years, the grade 2 listed Hope Foundry. We all know what will happen next. @c0smicsl0p and the @mapcharity have some very reasonable requests and you can help by signing their petition. Until next week, please sit back and enjoy this week’s show"
Listen back to the 190th episode of Balearic Breakfast:
PLAYLIST
(1986) Jun Fukamachi – Morning Glow
(1966) Ennio Morricone – The Ecstasy of Gold
(1985) Roy Ayers – Virgo
(1980) Cast – Sweetness
(1973) Funkadelic – Cosmic Slop
(1983) Masayoshi Takanaka – Sail on Fire
(2024) My Friend Dario – Senza Estate
(2022) Arthur Ponder – If You Want My Love
(1978) LeRoy Hutson – Closer to the Source
(2001) Koop (ft Yukimi Nagano) – Summer Sun
(1999) A Guy Called Gerald – Emotions Electric (John Peel Session)
(2016) Bobby Womack – Trust Your Heart (Serge Gamesbourg Remix)
(2024) Felipe Quiroz – El Tiempo
(1992) The Neville Brothers – Fly Like an Eagle (MAW Slippin’ Dub)
(2024) House of Spirits – Please Take Me There
(NOL) Arno Mathieu – L’Amoragie
(2024) Nonna Fab – We Still Out Here
(NOL) Philippa & Jimpster (ft. MON) – All I Wanted
(2004) The Salsoul Orchestra (ft Loleatta Holloway) – Runaway (Danny Krivit Edit)
(1984) General Public – Tenderness
THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE
Each Balearic Breakfast episode brings its own flavour, its own pictures, its own sensitivity, its own message, and neither is a show similar to another one. It's like a constantly evolving sun or a brand new firework, always offering you new landscapes, beginnings, adventures, and promises. And you're never alone while you're there, closing your eyes, indulging in music's spirit, the beautiful boat being conducted by a captain like no other. Today's opening track perfectly represents this image (Jun Fukamachi's Morning Glow) – a record previously played during the show – which perfectly introduces new arrivals without expectations. Although this track has a slow rhythm, it is an invitation with the synth's high-pitched notes opening up a darker sky, an evening sky, maybe? All in all, it allows you to picture a beautiful Firework, and, strangely enough, all of the following tracks, and the way today's show is structured, take that direction, one tracing a path somewhere, unexpectedly but beautifully, with grace and determination (Ennio Morricone's The Ecstasy of Gold).
(1986) Jun Fukamachi – Morning Glow
By the late Japanese jazz fusion composer and synth pioneer Jun Fukamachi who worked with LA studio musicians like Steve Gadd and the Brecker Brothers, and also with the Japanese fusion band Prism. Morning Glow is from the album Nicole, 86 Spring and Summer Collection, released on the gloriously titled Swiss record label We Release Whatever the F We Want back in 2017.
(1966) Ennio Morricone – The Ecstasy of Gold
The late Italian conductor, trumpet and piano player Ennio Morricone was a versatile composer who had more than 400 scores for film and television and more than 100 classical works under his belt before his sad passing in 2020. Most of the films he scored were award-winning, including all of the films of spaghetti western filmmaker Sergio Leone.
And when I say determination, I mean it as we get right down to the groove from the thirf track on, which is quite unusual here at Balearic Breakfast (Roy Ayers' Virgo Vibes), can you see "the opening" while the xylophone plays its high pitched notes? There you go, you got the idea! You see, we're only on the third track, yet there is a musical and sonic unity! Do you understand why I don't take things lightly here on the blog? And it's just the beginning... Colleen chose to break the rhythm with the next song (Cast's Sweetness), and she'll do it again a few times in this first hour, thus putting on the forefront the dynamics of the songs, letting them breathe. There is a sense of urgency in the horn section in this song (the Balearic Family enjoyed it a lot on the chat!), and the "opening" feeling is very much present, too. Let your mind run wild... We're experiencing another exploding vision when the next song starts (Funkadelic's Cosmic Slop); thanks both to the drums and the vocals, there is a profusion there without a shadow of a doubt!
Keeping the rhythm steady, Colleen then plays another very open song (Masayoshi Takanaka's Sail on Fire), and you really should take the time to read the lyrics – the connection with today's theme is quite strong here. Then, the next musical piece (My Friend Dario's Senza Estate), takes us to another pictural element, keeping the fireworks very present in our mental journey, the whole vibe being enhanced by Colleen's delicate touch... I can't help but feel a nighty vision in today's show; it's a beautiful and warm night that surrounds us as the next gently exploding track takes us to the dancefloor (Arthur Ponder's If You Want My Love) – the Balearic Family really enjoyed that one on the chat, and just when we all thought we'd be swaying to the same rhythm for the next song, Colleen gently changed the pace for the following two numbers (LeRoy Hutson's Closer to the Source & Koop's Summer Sun), confirming my intellectual feeling about today's episode!
(1985) Roy Ayers – Virgo
The vibraphonist, producer, and composer Roy Ayers (ed. Everybody loves the sunshine) had a 1967 album called Virgo Vibes, but Virgo is taken from his 1985 LP, You Might Be Surprised, which he co-produced with James M. Toomey. – The album has been reissued in 2023.
(1980) Cast – Sweetness
The Italian disco group put out only one album, their 1980 self-titled LP, and this song is also featured on Munich Jazz and Soul Man Reiner Truby's Soul Gliding compilation, which was released on BBE in 2020.
(1973) Funkadelic – Cosmic Slop
The title track of George Clinton's Funkadelic's 1973 fith studio album Cosmic Slop (ed. who turned 50 in 2023).
(1983) Masayoshi Takanaka – Sail on Fire
Japanese guitarist, producer, and composer Masayoshi Takanaka, got his start as a high school student back in 1971 playing in bands, and has since become one of the leading guitarists on the Japanese rock and fusion scenes.
(2024) My Friend Dario – Senza Estate
DJ and producer from Catania, at the foot of Mount Etna in Sicily, released the album Cosmic Sailing on New Northern Soul back in 2020, and this year he has a new LP out on Hell Yeah Recordings called Senza Estate which translates to Without Summer. Dario says it's inspired by the dreamy Italian soundtrack composers Piero Piccioni and Umiliani. – In an interview, the composer shared: “For five years, I worked in a shop six days a week so despite living on a Mediterranean island I could never enjoy these things. Instead, I locked myself in the studio and jotted down the ideas, sensations, melodies and rhythms I had about another lost summer." The track was written in 2022 "just as we were coming out of lockdown. The feeling this track gives me, describes the melancholy but also the hope of a summer to be lived intensely. I played the percussion with a Moog DFAM, the melody theme with a Moog Mother 32, and the bass line with a Novation Bass Station. These are instruments I often use in my productions. The vocals are a special by Daren Obika, which I found in my library among many forgotten vocal tracks.”"
(2022) Arthur Ponder – If You Want My Love
Arthur Ponder's If you want my love is taken from the studio album The Prince of Georgia Soul, released a couple of years ago on the label Athens of the North, and it's a compilation retrospective of the Georgia singer who started in the 1960s when he replaced Otis Redding in the Southern group Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers. Arthur Ponder later released some 45 singles, both as a solo artist and with the group Sideshow, and Athens of the North has lovingly compiled his work.
(1978) LeRoy Hutson – Closer to the Source
Leroy Hutson, the American singer, keyboard player, songwriter, and producer, was Donny Hathaway's roommate, and he co-wrote the hit The Ghetto. Hudson also replaced Curtis Mayfield as the Impressions' lead singer until he launched his own solo career in the 70s recording for Mayfield's label Curtom, and that was from his sixth LP, the 1978 album of the same name, closer to the source (ed. reissued in 2018).
(2001) Koop (ft Yukimi Nagano) – Summer Sun
Swedish electronic jazz duo Koop with Summer Sun featuring the gorgeous vocals of Yukimi Nagano from their second album, Waltz for Coop, which also features tracks featuring singers Earl Zinger and Terry Collier. The album won them a Swedish Grammy Award.
The second hour of today's show will take us to the heart of the musical Firework Colleen prepared for us! Our dear Captain is offering us here mindboggling mixes starting with A Guy Called Gerald's Emotions Electric / Bobby Womack's Trust Your Heart (Serge Gamesbourg Remix / Felipe Quiroz' El Tiempo and ending it with The Neville Brothers' Fly Like an Eagle (MAW Slippin’ Dub) ! Listen to what happens here on the rhythmic and musical side... If that's not perfection, nothing will ever be...
(1999) A Guy Called Gerald – Emotions Electric (John Peel Session)
An early house classic from Gerald Simpson, otherwise known as A Guy Called Gerald. He released the groundbreaking Voodoo Ray in 1988, and then followed up with a Peel session recorded for John Peel on BBC Radio 1, and this one is from that recording. – Our dear Ana Sancho requested the John Peel Session version which blew the whole Family away (click here and here to find out more about these sessions. If you want to listen to almost all of them – a few are missing as explained here – head over to Dave Strickson blog!).
(2016) Bobby Womack – Trust Your Heart (Serge Gamesbourg Remix)
The inimitable voice of Bobby Womack, the song Trust Your Heart from Womack's 1978 LP, Pieces, and the song was co-written by Womack, Don Davis, and Leon Ware. The rework was made by a producer from Boston, Massachusetts, by the name of Serge Gamesbourg, who is also a hip-hop DJ by the name of Supreme One. But under Serge Gamebourg, he also did a compilation for BBE called Boston Goes Disco a few years ago.
(2024) Felipe Quiroz – El Tiempo
From a new Latin-flavored EP recorded between Brooklyn and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, now out on razor and tape, by Felipe Quiroz, a Colombian-born New York-raised producer and instrumentalist who also goes under the name Prince of Queens. Quiroz is also known for his releases on Names You Can Trust and his band Combo Chimbita.
(1992) The Neville Brothers – Fly Like an Eagle (MAW Slippin’ Dub)
The early sounds of masses at work. That's from 1992. It's their slip and dub of Fly Like an Eagle by the Neville Brothers, and the original is from the Neville Brothers 1992 LP, Family Groove. – Of course the song has been famously covered by Seal but it was originally the 1976 single from The Steve Miller Band album of the same name and was of course already featured during Balearic Breakfast.
Keeping the explosion spirit perfectly in shape, Colleen then does another great mix, including House of Spirits' Please Take Me There / Arno Mathieu's L’Amoragie beautifully mixed with Nonna Fab's We Still Out Here (leaving the Balearic Family speechless, winning hands down today's episode WOW Effect) and ending the set with Phillipa & Jimpster's All I Wanted, can you see the Fireworks now?
(2024) House of Spirits – Please Take Me There
The latest single from Tom Noble's House of Spirits project, a follow-up to the last Spirits 12-inch. This one is more of a Brit funk-inspired up-tempo heater called Please Take Me There, and it's out now on Razor and Tape.
(NOL) Arno Mathieu – L’Amoragie
French producer Arno Mathieu with L'Amoragie just sent Colleen a bunch of new releases. This one is not even out yet.
(2024) Nonna Fab – We Still Out Here
Nonna Fab is the co-founder of the Apricot Ballroom and the Sweet Apricots Party up in Sheffield. Colleen met him at We Out Here and played on the Sweet Apricots' lovely sound system in the artist area.
Colleen then ends the show with two classics, leaving us all with Stars in our Eyes; what a way to celebrate a few birthdays!
(2004) The Salsoul Orchestra (ft Loleatta Holloway) – Runaway (Danny Krivit Edit)
Salsoul Orchestra featuring Lolita Holloway with Runaway, Danny Krivets' special edit. – Back in the day, the album "Magic Journey" didn't sell well, maybe because of its musical inconsistency.
(1984) General Public – Tenderness
By General Public, who is Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger of the Beat, or the English Beat as they were known in the U.S., along with Dexi Midnight Runners, Mickey Billingham and Stoker, and the specials bassist Horace Panter and Clash guitarist Mick Jones. It was a ska supergroup, and this was their big hit (ed. taken from the 1984 "All the rage" studio album).
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