Balearic Breakfast | Episode 196 | Talking 'bout this generation...
- by The Lioncub
- Oct 8, 2024
- 15 min read
Updated: Oct 12, 2024
Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 196th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on October 8th 2024.
About this show. – Following a few hectic weeks and a busy weekend too – not mentioning here the coming events she will host/ be featured in, laughs! – our dear Captain still managed to craft a surprisingly profound and uplifting episode, resonating both on a spiritual and a musical level (there is an evolving tension throughout the show...)! But we'll discover more about that in the listening section of this post, as usual!
"This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now archived on my Mixcloud at https://shorturl.at/5KqdF and if you head over please give me a follow Today’s show is a 2 hour journey of spacey art pop, british soul jazz funk, a tribute to the late Kris Kristofferson, your requests and new music from @feel_fly @aura_safari @sirs_official @eastcoastloveaffair @dardisku_records @exgeneration.official and my latest Cosmodelica remix of Joe Goddard out now on Domino Recording Company
If you are a regular Balearic Breakfast listener, please consider subscribing to my Mixcloud channel for £3 a month - less than a cup of coffee nowadays. Each show takes a full day each week to put together and your support is very much appreciated.
Until next week, kick back and enjoy. Thanks for listening!"
Listen back to the 196th episode of Balearic Breakfast:
PLAYLIST
(1983) Marianne Faithfull – Running for Our Lives
(1977) David Bowie – Moss Garden
(1984) Eurythmics – Julia
(2024) East Coast Love Affair ft For Mankind – The Morrigan Sings
(2024) Tony Esposito – Pagaia (Feel Fly Cosmical Remix)
(1985) Rah Band – Clouds Across the Moon
(2021) Clive from Accounts – It's Not That I Don't Care
(NOL) The Highwaymen – WayHighMan
(Bertolucci Jr Balearic Incarnation Mix)
(2008) Atlantic Ocean – Waterfall (2 Slow 2 Lounge Mix)
(2023) Roachford – This Generation (revisited)
(2024) Aura Safari – Wave Riding (SIRS Remix)
(2012) Miguel Migs ft. Meshell Ndegeocello – Tonight (Crazy P remix)
(2024) Joe Goddard – Follow You (Cosmodelica Remix)
(2024) Dar Disku ft Asha Puthli – Baar Baar
(2024) Ex Generation – Seratina
(1976) Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express – Happiness Is Just Around the Bend’ (Live)
(2020) Morttimer Snerd III – How Did U Know (Miggedy'’s Full Retouch)
THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE
In a recent interview with DJ Tina Edwards, Colleen shared her feelings towards album reviews; the exchange went like this:
[Tina]
(...) How do you sort of define good music? Is it a feeling?
[Colleen]
No, you can't. I can't describe great music in words. It goes beyond words for me. It really does. I used to even write record reviews in the 1980s, actually, for Rockpool and then also for Project X magazine. And I stopped. I stopped writing record reviews because I hated describing music in words. I said instead, I'd rather interview the artists and find out their stories. But I don't read record reviews. I used to read my own and stopped.
[Tina]
I guess that's a whole another experience.
[Colleen]
But I don't read them. I don't really pay attention to them. I don't really think they're that important for me. I mean, maybe for people who don't have access to music, they need to figure out what they should buy or listen to. But I think times have changed, too. We can all sample anything and make our own decisions.
So I just don't even read record reviews. I just have no time for them. And I just I have a really hard time describing music in words. It is so deep a feeling that words just there are no words.
[Tina]
There is that phrase, writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
[Colleen]
Yeah, that's a great one. Right. No, I haven't heard that. But that totally nails it for me.
[Tina]
Yeah, quite an abstract thing to put into words.
[Colleen]
Exactly.
(...)
Of course, the exchange triggered my mind as I write a lot about Music here, laughs! Then, while thinking about it, I remembered that a somewhat close discussion hapenned in the past, in another interview, between a journalist and the great French theatre actor Henri Rollan.
In this interview, the main question Henri Rollan had to answer was: "Does one have the right to speak out verses?" In a nutshell, his answer, which he underlined with real examples, was that, of course, you had the right to speak out verses, you had the right to read them out loud, but as long as you felt the music, the rhythm, the silences, the verse's Soul. I was so impressed by this interview that I did a whole mix around it, showing that when read Properly, verses could transform into music and merge into it (many poems have been and will be transformed into songs)...
You may ask yourself why I started today's post with this explanation. Well, as you know, I consider each Balearic Breakfast show as an album, an album which showcases not only Colleen's musical soul and her sensitivity but also an album that reflects the times we are living in, and I felt today's show perfectly encompassed all of these aspects, also underlying the work of love and passion I try to craft each and every week... Before diving into today's show, let's listen to Henri Rollan's interview (if you want to learn French, it's a nice one 😉)...
Today's show is a snapshot of the difficult times we're living. It's also a reminder of how much we can change what's happening, each at our level. Yes, we do live in troubled times indeed: there's a war happening in Gaza (the conflict with Israel has been going on for years now), and Israel now attacks other countries to defend itself against Hamas. Also, it has never rained so much in many countries worldwide: Asia, Europe, and the USA have recently seen dramatic climatic changes that have translated into violent meteorological events. Politically, tension is also present in several countries (the American Presidential election is happening...). Poverty is rising with people struggling to pay their taxes, and the cost of living seems to get higher and higher. Can this get any darker? We all hope it won't.
But, amidst this chaos, another reality keeps growing, and I didn't choose today's post title only because Roachford's song perfectly depicted our times (life is a never-ending circle, right?). I chose it also because it depicts the change that is happening, the one I feel, the one I see in the younger generation, and which has already been documented. Let's dive into today's episode to see what it's all about...
Starting the show with Running for Our Lives, Colleen sets the message clear: "But I think I'd like to get out of here, This place it frightens me". The song has a broad message but is also constricted in its hope. We need to do something, but will our actions meet our expectations? The first part of today's show, and some songs present in the second part, deals with the theme of change and choices that must be made and the impact they have. The troubled times reveal themselves in Colleen's selections. This is the case with Moss Garden, as we can feel a travelling tension, expecting the unknown, flying through it, and feeling the clouds while a force pushes us through. We're being driven by the times here. It's not a peaceful trip. We're not Free; we're being acted here. This uneasiness is also very present in Eurythmic's song, Julia. No promises here. Yet, the "forced flying effect" is still very present; we're lost, and that's a fact. We could think things will change with The Morrigan Sings, but the menacing tonalities and the audio effects found in this deep track do not leave us happy. We're still being driven; we're still not free. The musical unity Colleen proposes here is just on par with what she always crafted for this show. As she explained during the interview with Tina, she's all about creating a flow, and as I said in the beginning, this flow is both Musical and Intellectual. You can't implement change if you're unaware of what's not going right... and the voice at the song's end says it all... So, if you ask me, it seems evident that one can write reviews about Colleen's shows, laughs! Remember, all you need to do, even when listening to music, is Feel its Soul... You can never go wrong if you do that.
(1983) Marianne Faithfull – Running for Our Lives
By the English singer-songwriter, actress, and icon Marianne Faithfull from her 1983 LP, A Child's Adventure. And that album was produced by Compass Point All-Stars and Grace Jones Collaborators Barry Reynolds and Wally Bataru who all co-wrote that song together. It seems Marianne Faithfull was writing it more about the kind of difficult situation she was in at that time as she was in a real kind of state of drug psychosis at that time, both her and her husband. – Funnily enough, the album contains "She's Got a Problem", a poem written by Caroline Blackwood and put to music by Faithfull's then-husband Ben Brierley.
(1977) David Bowie – Moss Garden
Moss Garden was co-written by David Bowie and Brian Eno and is taken from the Starmound's 12th studio LP, Heroes, produced by Tony Visconti at Hansa Studios in Berlin. – The conceptual piece is based on a location in Kyoto, Japan and its composition took a strange turn. – Some reviews describing the track presents its duality made both of calm, serenity but also a lingering tension (strange and serene) put on the forefront by the use of airplane sounds.
We must remember that Heroes is part of David Bowie's Trilogy, known for its darker intellectual and musical approach (which will somehow see an extension in the 1981 movie soundtrack Christiane F., recorded between 1975 and 1979 with Bowie making an appearance in the original movie, recently beautifully adapted for television).
(1984) Eurythmics – Julia
From Eurythmics soundtrack to the film 1984, For the Love of Big Brother, which was based on George Orwell's dystopian novel. The score was put together by Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart entirely without the help of any other musicians or producers. – There is a wonderful post about the whole soundtrack you can read here. "Julia… was Winston’s love interest in the novel. This is amazing. It’s mostly vocal with Lennox’s heavily processed voice. Not only that, but she seems to be singing parts over top of herself. “Julia / When winter leaves and branches bare … My darling, will we still be there?” It’s awfully melancholy, with winteresque piano, a staccato synth part buzzing away in the background, and piano doing the same. Lennox’s voice is the main feature here, so distraught, so despairing; “Oh Julia / And the leaves turn from green to brown / And autumn shades come tumbling down / To leave a carpet on the ground / Where we have lain.” The synth tones comes shining across like rays of the morning sun. The processing is interesting. It’s all phases, as though her voice has been turned into a synth itself. There’s even horns in here adding a light plaintive touch midway through the song. It’s quite an unusual song and sound. No beat at all. All effects and ice, shimmering, shifting phases: “Will we / Will we / Will we still be there” – repeat for a long while until fade out. Pretty mournful sounding stuff. And still it goes on, with some cool Spanish style guitar playing a fanciful dance around the synths as the song fades…truly beautiful."
(2024) East Coast Love Affair ft For Mankind – The Morrigan Sings
East Coast Love Affair featuring For Mankind with The Morrigan Sings. And that's also along with Fellow Scott, the now Ibiza-based DJ for Mankind, or Russ Foreman. And that's from East Coast Love Affair's new album, Musica Para Todos, released last week on Athens of the North.
The Morrigan is the Celtic goddess of war, chaos, confusion, but also connected with fertility and childbirth.
The uneasy, driven feeling is also very present in the following tracks, but a new element seems to emerge: combativity.
While listening to Pagaia (Feel Fly Cosmical Remix), we feel that there's a duality here, forces battling against each other, and a unity starting to form and steadily growing. What a beautiful mix Colleen proposes here as the following number, Clouds Across the Moon, starts! A Wow Moment for sure! Colleen lets the Music Speak; no one comes close to her; her purity shines here!
Keeping the rhythmic unity perfectly aligned, Colleen then plays It's Not That I Don't Care, and we still feel a battle somewhere in here, forces observing themselves and entering into physical contact. But, as at the beginning of this second part, the fight seems to be an "open-minded" one, something stretched towards openness, just like when you speak your truth to someone, not imposing it but laying it there as an open door (by the way, this is a way of communicating that we should all master: not answering to an attack by attacking but by being open and welcoming without sacrificing the objective truth).
This feeling of certainty, of truth, is beautifully present in the next song, WayHighMan. Did you notice how the tension evolved? Lost, we were driven, then we fought to defend our truth, and now, as the first hour of the show ends, we're reaching eternity...
(2024) Tony Esposito – Pagaia (Feel Fly Cosmical Remix)
Daniele Tomasini's new track, a remix he did of Napoli singer, songwriter and drummer Tony Esposito. It's a remix of his 1982 single Pagaya and it came out last month on Archeo.
(1985) Rah Band – Clouds Across the Moon
The 1985 single of Richard Anthony Hewson's Rah Band. The English producer, arranger, conductor and multi-instrumentalist was the man behind the raw band. And he said that the song took place in the future where there was a 100-year-long war on Mars. – To learn more about this song, read this blog post. It is interesting to note that the song fits today's show theme because of its projection into the future 😉
(2021) Clive from Accounts – It's Not That I Don't Care
Music from the regional Tiddlywinks champion, stationary cupboard loiterer and all around beige sky thinker. The London-based DJ producer Clive McCounts also likes two things, pens and music, but mainly pens. At least that's how he describes himself using springs tape and old synths with fonts he admires. Clive creates a musical equivalent of warm photocopies. He also has an Alan EP with the face of Alan Partridge.
(NOL) The Highwaymen – WayHighMan (Bertolucci Jr Balearic Incarnation Mix)
A little tribute goes to the late Chris Christofferson, who passed away in the next realm just over a week ago. And what a cool, cool guy he was. Not only an outlaw country star, but also a master songwriter and actor who won a Golden Globe for his role in the 1976 film A Star is Born. He was also very political, a vocal opponent of the Gulf War and Iraq War and other American military interventions in Panama and Nicaragua. Even though he himself served in the military, he was in the army in the 1960s. His music lives on and I suggest you delve into his work. So many great songs. This track is a rework of Highwayman by the Highwaymen, the country supergroup of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Chris Christofferson. – The song was part of the 1985 "Highwayman" studio album of the supergroup; Jimmy Webb wrote it, and it's interesting to note how it inserts itself in today's theme as it deals both with reincarnation and, if you think of it, with the pioneering spirit (different pioneers over different generations, in different aspects, beautifully asking an interesting question: "does the generation theme makes sense?").
Are you ready to pursue your dreams? Are you ready to go all the way in? Because we're ready. We want to find balance, we don't want to have regrets, we Believe in our Destiny, we believe in our Future although we're afraid of it, we believe we can be online without losing our identity, we don't want Stars without Souls, we don't need Liars, we need artists we can respect, and we want to be a part of the sky, too. Politics let us down; we will work our reality out without them; we don't trust them anymore, and we don't trust the system anymore; we want to be free and do what we wanna do. We are the Cool Power. We're the New Generation... Add your own reality to these lines...
Yes, the first two tracks – Waterfall (2 Slow 2 Lounge Mix) and This Generation (revisited) – are a powerful affirmation, "a little future optimism for the current apocalypse"...
Speaking about "Cool Power," Colleen is going to give us what we need in the beautiful mini mix composed of Wave Riding (SIRS Remix) / Tonight (Crazy P remix) and Follow You (Cosmodelica Remix). Do you feel the difference here in the "flying effect?" Do you feel the cool strength, the joy, and the Freedom? Because I do! And Colleen is so good here; even silence is a Freaking Huge Groove in her hands as it totally surprises you and takes your mind away, Ha! The Balearic Family had a blast when Tonight was playing; we lost our freaking minds altogether, laughs! We also lost our minds when hearing Colleen's remix of Joe Goddard's Follow You. Without a shadow of a doubt, this was the second Wow Moment of today's show!
With Baar Baar / Seratina and Happiness Is Just Around the Bend’ (Live) – which beautifully slows down the pace – and ending the show with How Did U Know (Miggedy'’s Full Retouch), Colleen, once again, shows us that there is a message in the Music...
(2008) Atlantic Ocean – Waterfall (2 Slow 2 Lounge Mix)
Waterfall by Dutch duo Atlantic Ocean, a hit for them when it was released 30 years ago. But of course, the mix we heard wasn't trance at all.
(2023) Roachford – This Generation (revisited)
The 1994 single by English funk band Roacheford, formed by singer, songwriter, keyboard player Andrew Roacheford in 1987. Not long after they formed, they were opening up and touring with Terrence Trent Darby, signed to Columbia Records. – The inspiration behind "This Generation" was similar to that of the Black Lives Matter movement, Roachford stated in an interview, adding: "I just felt like some people at that time were old, stuck in their ways, and they were stunting the growth of society. Society needs to move forward. I don't know exactly, but there was something on the news that just triggered it and made me think about it. My journey, coming as a kid from Caribbean descent with my experiences, I just felt impassioned to write a song that was positive about the future."This version comes from Roachford's 2023 album, Then and Now.
(2024) Aura Safari – Wave Riding (SIRS Remix)
Wave Riding is taken from Italian DJ and production collective Aura Safari's second full-length album, Island Dreams issued on September 15th, 2023 on Hell Yeah Recordings, the SIRS Remix is part of the Island Dream Remixes exclusively issued on Bandcamp on August 23rd 2024.
(2012) Miguel Migs ft. Meshell Ndegeocello – Tonight (Crazy P remix)
Issued on the 2012 Tonight Remixes album, click here for Miguel's interview in 2021.
(2024) Joe Goddard – Follow You (Cosmodelica Remix)
A new Cosmodelica remix, that's Follow You by Joe Goddard from Hotship from his third studio album called Harmonics, which came out earlier this year. Double album, a lot of fun and he's released a series of remixes and it came out last week on Bandcamp. Other remixes by Ray Mang, East Coast Love Affair, Black Science Orchestra and again that's kind of my kind of like an 80s kind of poppy new wave remix of Follow You and a little vocoder action there. I thought that was kind of fun.
(2024) Dar Disku ft Asha Puthli – Baar Baar
London-based Bahraini duo Dar Disku have been making a name since 2018 with self-released edits of Middle Eastern recordings by other artists and now they're making their own tunes fusing the sounds of Southwest Asia and North Africa. There's Algerian Rai, Sudanese funk and Turkish psychedelia and they released their debut album last week on Soundway. Here they are joined by Indian singer and icon Asha Putli and they're calling this tune a Spaghetti Eastern. – For Baar Baar, a funky, shimmering track inspired by Vish’s beloved Bollywood that serves as the album’s centrepiece – they called on Bombay-born disco diva Asha Puthli. The Indian icon’s psychedelic blend of jazz, disco and sensuous pop, which drew on her training in opera and Indian song and dance, made her a star of the 1970s New York scene. Andy Warhol counted her as a muse and she was a headline act at the iconic club, Studio 54. She crossed over in myriad ways: her 1976 single Space Talk was sampled by hip-hop legends like Notorious B.I.G. For Maz and Vish, to be in the studio with her felt like a fever dream. “For half of the studio session, there was no recording done,” Vish says, laughing fondly. “We just wanted to hear her stories!” Puthli regaled them with tales – of meeting Andy Warhol, suing a hip-hop mogul and how “she refused to change her name to please a white music label” – that inspired Vish and Maz to continue down their own path.
(2024) Ex Generation – Seratina
The Melbourne jazz soul production team of Ziggy Zeitgeist and Lewis Moody honed their production skills for a decade and then started their own label Energy Exchange Records in 2022 and set about to expand their horizons with cross-cultural meetings with Neapolitan tastemaker Federico Galotti, who suggested they come to Naples to record a record with the musicians who are the driving force behind New Genia. The result is their album The Napoli Exchange which is out now on vinyl.
(1976) Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express – Happiness Is Just Around the Bend’ (Live)
That version of Happiness is Just Around the Bend which was actually penned by the musician you just heard, British keyboard player and Hammond organ maestro Brian Auger. He started out in the 60s. He did a session with the Yardbirds and then he formed 60s blues band Steam Packet which featured Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll, Vic Briggs and Rod Stewart and then in 1970 he formed the jazz fusion group Oblivion who were very prolific in the 1970s. They released a lot of albums and Auger wrote that song and the studio version is on their 1973 LP Closer to It but we just heard the live version from the Oblivion Express's second live album released three years later and of course that song was covered by Main Ingredient in 1974 (and has been featured in the 33rd episode, the original version being played in the 121st episode).
(2020) Morttimer Snerd III – How Did U Know (Miggedy'’s Full Retouch)
Amazing! Great read!