Balearic Breakfast | Episode 197 | That Magic in the Music...
- by The Lioncub
- Oct 15, 2024
- 14 min read
Updated: Aug 23
Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 197th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on October 15th 2024.
About this episode. – As she was preparing several Classic Album Sundays events (she interviewed Keith Killgo (pic 1), Suede (pic3) and Saint-Etienne (pic2)), Colleen decided to step back a bit and dedicate this new episode of Balearic Breakfast to requests she had not had the time to feature previously in the show, of course including some brand new music the Balearic Breakfast Family was happy as ever to discover for the first time! As we shall see in the listening experience part of this post, this episode has a very "Magical" musical soul, a relaxed one, allowing the listener to drift away in a sparkling sonic world...
"This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud for your listening back pleasure (and please give me a follow while you’re over there). On today’s show I catch up on requests and some new music, reissues and re-edits that have been sent my way including music by @seodophy @cinematic_orchestra @ishmaelensemble @djsupermarkt_tooslowtodisco @favouriterecs @isleofjurarecords @dd.mirage @privatejoyhq @patrice.rushen @naya.beat @strutrecords @richarddorfmeister @djrocca @irmarecordsit @universalcave @skyrager @heard_larry @coflothesoulshifter @gc_rulin_london @soulfuricmusic @djemmaculate
If you are a regular listener please consider subscribing for £3 a month and for those that already do subscribe, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Have a wonderful week and I hope to see some of you at Jazz Cafe this Friday when I’ll be spinning with Danny Krivit for the 25th anniversary of Strut Records. Thanks for listening!"
Listen back to the 197th episode of Balearic Breakfast:
THE PLAYLIST
(2024) Seodophy – Dark Nebula
(1989) Van Morrison – Coney Island
(2023) The Cinematic Orchestra (ft Fontella Bass) – All That You Give
(1973) Stevie Wonder – Visions
(2024) Ishmael Ensemble – Butterflies
(2024) Michael Franks – Chain Reaction
(DOCTORSOUL You Can't Fake It Re-Therapy)
(2024) D.D. Mirage (ft Private Joy) – Night Time
(1981) Byrne & Barnes – Love You Out of Your Mind
(1982) Patrice Rushen – Remind Me
(2024) Turbotito & Ragz (ft Manjeet Kondal) – Pyaar (Edit)
(2002) The Funky Lowlives – Inside (Richard Dorfmeister vs Uptight Dub)
(2024) DJ Rocca presents Triorox ft Gianluca Petrella – Mirrors
(2024) Universal Cave and The Street Road Band – (Till You're) Back in My Arms
(1979) Edgar Winter – Above and Beyond (Instrumental)
(NOL) Ron – Hai Capito O No? (I Can't Go For That) (Skyrager Edit)
(1989) Mr. Fingers – Stars
(NOL) Coflo – If It Goes (Deeper Mix)
(2024) Gratts, Moody Mae & Jaj – Nuit de Fièvre (Pellegrino Nottata Stellata Remix)
(1997) Gareth Cooke – Dynamik
(2024) Gabriel Rene (ft J Soul) – Spirit (Emmaculate Extended Mix)
THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE
Some sounds, some textures, a certain frequency response, and well-used audio effects can send you more messages than a word will ever do. In this regard, Colleen was right when she said she stopped writing or reading album reviews. Yet, it is such a thrill to try and catch something from the music you're listening to, because that's what makes the connection and, as a listener, you need to capture a tangible element so that song (or that album) will stay in your mind. Maybe that picture will be only yours, but perhaps you'll also be able to share it with other people and find you're somehow connected...
This is exactly what this Balearic Breakfast episode is all about. To me, it has that "magical" touch, a "melange" of strangeness, calm, airiness and expectation, a sense of wonder, like a dream within a dream... you can feel within the first minutes of today's show as Dark Nebula, Coney Island and All That You Give are playing and sending unexpected and wonderful pictures to your relaxed mind. We never had a show where "Magic" was so present, so directly, so it made me smile as I shared this fact on the chat and I just crumbled in awe when I saw the picture Colleen chose for today's episode. Once again, our planets aligned... And, as always, nothing was planned, I mean this is just perfection, and I am so happy to share it with you all, week after week, If only you knew how much you all mean to me... Balearic Breakfast is our Magical Musical Island... Speaking about magic, Colleen is our Magician today as Stevie Wonder's Visions enter the Balearic Scene... I can't stop smiling through my tear-stained eyes as I picture the joy I felt watching magicians doing their tricks before my wild opened child's eyes... Stevie Wonder's song has that power, undoubtedly... It's the third time the show has made me cry from happiness, I know it hapenned to you too... What a gift we all are to ourselves, aren't we?...
(2024) Seodophy – Dark Nebula
Lithuanian bassist and producer Seodophy with the haunting Dark Nebula, based in Vilnius, Seodophy studied in the UK for three years, and he will unveil his forthcoming Ablutio EP on XVI, or 16 records, in November. Its theme is alchemy, a four-part process featured in four tracks, and Dark Nebula is the opener and the first single.
(1989) Van Morrison – Coney Island
So many Irish people and people of the Irish diaspora like Colleen deeply connect with Van Morrison's music. Coney Island is taken from his 19th studio album, Avalon Sunset, which was recorded somewhat spontaneously in 1989, rehearsed over two days and recorded in two days, leading guitarist Artie McGlynn to comment: "we still don't know if it's an album or a demo for an album". But that's the mysterious and mystical way in which Van the Man often works, and it does work. This request is not in reference to the Brooklyn Amusement Park, but to an island in Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland. – It's interesting to keep in mind what Van Morrison said about his career in 1987, which was well present in this relaxed album "This is all an illusion, it's something that you're making up: you're making up that I'm a performer who's going to go out on stage and put this thing across, so it's a bit like acting. You're taking a hell of a lot for granted. And then the audience is taking a lot for granted as well, because they agree with that way of looking at me. But for me, all I wanted to do was start playing. It was like A-Level material, learning from all these records. It was all very ear-orientated stuff, it wasn't orientated along the lines of 'I'm a personality and I'm going to put myself across and wear these clothes.'"
Read More:How Van Morrison Got His Groove Back on 'Avalon Sunset'| https://ultimateclassicrock.com/van-morrison-avalon-sunset/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral
(2023) The Cinematic Orchestra (ft Fontella Bass) – All That You Give
The opening track to the Cinematic Orchestra's 2002 LP, Every Day, the song All That You Give, featuring American soul singer Fontella Bass, known for her work with Ike Turner and Bobby McClure and her own hit, Rescue Me. She was rediscovered by Jason Swinscoe and featured on two tracks on Cinematic Orchestra's second album.
(1973) Stevie Wonder – Visions
From Stevie Wonder's16th studio album, Inner Visions, which was released in 1973, hot on the heels of Talking Book and Music of My Mind, both released in the previous year, and marking the then new incarnation of Wonder, breaking away from his little Stevie past and taking off in full flight as one of the greatest songwriters and musicians of our generation. – As Craig Jenkins puts it, Inner Vision is "almost a lament, a song about the awareness of death, the evil of hate, the power of love, and a hope for a better future" and the glittering instruments add to the magical feeling and conveys directly the message of hope.
The Billboard analysis of the song is also interesting: "Visions” is as thoughtful and gentle as it is gloomy. Here Stevie sits back at his piano while guitarists pensively strum and he fantasizes about a place, “where hate’s a dream and love forever stands.” It’s not long before he realizes that the land of milk and honey only exists is his daydreams. This wouldn’t be the only time where Wonder visits another planet to find a little peace of heaven. Three years later he’d travel to “Saturn” on his heralded “Songs in the Key of Life” album."
Then, Colleen steps up the rhythm but without ever changing the intellectual connection she established with us from the beginning of the show, I love how she disappears behind the music she plays, she's the only one I know who has that ability, when I listen to her when she plays songs or even when she mixes, I don't Feel her, I Feel the Music, it's just unbelievable, and I know my soul is right if there were something else I would not be able to do what I do here... Let yourself fly as Butterflies take you away... Keeping the magic alive, and waving through rhythms, musical styles and mental representations, Colleen then plays the funky and magical Chain Reaction by Michael Franks. As I already explained, if you want to write about music, you must feel the inner groove of every song or album you're listening to. Being a critic should never be about your point of view, the listener does not care if you liked or not the music, that has no meaning whatsoever. You must write about what you feel, about what the music brings onto the table, even if it doesn't suit your musical taste. Being a critic means you serve the music, not your ego...
(2024) Ishmael Ensemble – Butterflies
Ishmael Ensemble is a Bristol collective led by saxophonist and producer Pete Cunningham, and that's from their latest album, Ritual, which came out last month and the vinyl sold out quickly on Bandcamp, but you can catch them live if you're in the UK as they're playing this week in Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester, and their hometown before heading over to the continent. – In a recent interview detailing the album track by track, Ishmael Ensemble shared: "Butterflies was written in Mexico whilst on an artist residency there, it’s one of the few tracks we made together “in the room”, I put the drums together super quickly, originally as a place-holder, but as the track developed they ended up just staying as they are – sometimes the first idea is the best one. It’s also one of my favourite Holly collabs (ed. Holly Wellington - Vocals, Piano, Synths), her development of melodies and piano voicings really shine on this one."
(2024) Michael Franks – Chain Reaction (DOCTORSOUL You Can't Fake It Re-Therapy)
California Quiet Storm singer-songwriter Michael Franks has been a Balearic Breakfast favorite. German label Too Slow to Disco have a new series of official reworks of the warmer music catalog, which is extensive, as Franks has 16 albums, released over 33 and a third years, weaving together jazz, pop, soft rock, and soul, and his songs have been covered by countless stars, including Natalie Cole, the Carpenters, and even Ringo Starr. This song was given the treatment by Parisian producer Dr. Soul.
The magical walk keeps on giving as Night Time starts, bringing a more direct Balearic Touch and somehow making me think about some of Sade's songs, nicely followed by Byrne & Barnes' Love You Out of Your Mind, these two songs perfectly showcasing the mindest you experience when you walk with your beloved one under a summer's sky with a light breeze running through your hair... Magic is in the lover's air, don't you think? The connection you feel in that moment with your loved one is perfectly present in the following song too, Remind Me.
(2024) D.D. Mirage (ft Private Joy) – Night Time
Lovers Rock from Sydney, Australia, the debut 7-inch from D.D. Mirage, featuring Private Joy, with a dub on the flip, from one of our favourite labels, Isle of Jura, run by Brit Kevin Griffiths, who is now based in Adelaide, and whom Colleen had the pleasure of meeting earlier this year.
(1981) Byrne & Barnes – Love You Out of Your Mind
Muscle Shoals guitarist and producer, Robert Byrne, who followed up his 1979 album, Blame It on the Night, by teaming up with multi-instrumentalist, Brendan Barnes, to record a very rare West Coast classic, featured on their album, An Eye for an Eye, and he later went on to produce artists such as The Pointer Sisters, Patty Austin, Earth, Wind & Fire, Phil Collins, just to name a few. The album was reissued by French label Favorite, and now this single's been reissued, Love You Out of Your Mind, with an unreleased song by Robert Byrne, on the flip.
(1982) Patrice Rushen – Remind Me
Patrice Rushen embarked on her career at the age of 17, when she won a jazz competition and got to play with her band at Monterey Jazz Festival, and then she got signed to the Prestige label 50 years ago. Since then, she's released loads of albums, has been nominated for Grammy Awards, and has had hits as a singer-songwriter, and is a much-in-demand jazz keyboard player, and she was also the music director for Janet Jackson. Much of her catalog has been lovingly reissued by Strut Records (to buy tickets for Colleen's session with Danny Krivit, click here). – Remind Me is taken from Rushen's 1982 "Straight from the heart" studio album which got very popular (Pitchfork ranked Straight From the Heart #194 on its list of the 200 Greatest Albums of the 1980s and at the time of its release it peaked inside the top 20 of the Billboard 200 chart at number 14) thanks to the inimitable "Forget Me Nots" (a song the label did not like in the beginning!). Remind Me has been sampled many times, most famously by Mary J. Blige.
Proposing a more incantatory track with Pyaar (Edit), Colleen keeps the mysterious part of today's show in the groove by playing (perfectly in rhythm it must be said) the groovy number that is Inside, do you see the magic in this track? According to you, why does this track fit today's show so well, eventually winning the Wow effect? I could give you the answer, but I'm here to expand the way you listen to music, so find the elements that make this track magic... 😉 Ending the first hour of the show with the slower, yet quite profound and wide-sounding number that is Mirrors, and not being afraid to take us out unexpectedly of a place we started to like a lot, Colleen confirms that she's all about proposing a flow that takes us to an unknown and surprising world...
(2024) Turbotito & Ragz (ft Manjeet Kondal) – Pyaar (Edit)
Turbotito and Rags featuring Manjeet Kondal with Pyaar (Punjabi for love), the edit coming out on Naya Beat Vol. 2, South Asian Dance and Electronic Music, 1988 to 1994. – It features the vocals of the late great bhangra vocalist Manjeet Kondal, the YouTube description of the track explains: "Naya Beat label heads Turbotito & Ragz deliver an original track ‘Pyaar’ (Punjabi for love). A blissed out 90s dub inspired chugger featuring the vocals of the late great bhangra vocalist Manjeet Kondal. This is the first single from Naya Beat’s forthcoming EP (which also features the legendary Mr. Scruff) paying tribute to a forgotten era of late 80s/early 90s UK bhangra influenced by house, dub and hip-hop. Naya Beat’s forthcoming ‘Bhangra House Xtc’ is a scorching bhangra acid house and dub release that celebrates vocalist Manjeet Kondal and producer Deepak Khazanchi and their classic 1986 album ‘Holle Holle’ which ushered in a new era of dance and electronic music in bhangra and South Asian music in the UK. Turbotito & Ragz deliver a dub tribute that works with Kondal’s vocals from an assortment of tracks from ‘Holle Holle".
(2002) The Funky Lowlives – Inside (Richard Dorfmeister vs Uptight Dub)
London duo The Funky Lowlives, Gary Danks and Jonathan Whitehouse, got together in 1998 and then released a few albums in the early noughties. In 2002 they released the single We Heard Inside.
(2024) DJ Rocca presents Triorox ft Gianluca Petrella – Mirrors
Trio-rox, a new project uniting three prominent Italian music figures, namely pianist Giovanni Guidi, bassist Joe Raymer, and electronic musician DJ Roka, a.k.a. Luka Roka Tagliati. Guidi, a jazz piano prodigy, has recorded for ECM and collaborated with Enrico Rava and Riccardo Villalobos, and American bass player Raymer, now based in Italy, has worked with jazz greats like Bob Mincer, and here they come together with Rocca on a record that's a mix of electronic, dance, jazz, and pop styles with underlying grooves and hints of electro, classical, and minimalism.
The second hour of today's show will make you forget you exist. Not content to propose tracks that take you to another dimension ((Till You're) Back in My Arms), Colleen chooses ones that, by the memories attached, bring you back to a place you wish you could have witnessed, like... The Loft (Above and Beyond (Instrumental)), of course mixing these two magical tracks in a beautiful perfection and keeping the magic feel alive by then playing the Italian version of a true Classic, Hai Capito O No (I Can't Go For That) (Skyrager Edit)!
(2024) Universal Cave and The Street Road Band – (Till You're) Back in My Arms
Philadelphia's Universal Cave and the Street Road Band covered Dan Strimer with Insured Sound's cult anthem (Till You're) Back in My Arms, which was originally released as a 45 in 1977. When Universal Cave featured (Till You're) Back in My Arms on Soft Rock for Hard Times Vol. 8 in 2023, they reached out to Dan Strimer (ed. Danny Strimer - website) to tell him how much they loved the record, and they made a friend as he helped them release a cover of the song 47 years after it first came out, and Dan is still making music to this day, with rumors of unreleased recordings making their way out in the near future.
(1979) Edgar Winter – Above and Beyond (Instrumental)
This song was a cult club favourite in New York and elsewhere. The Texan guitarist and singer-songwriter fronted his band, the Edgar Winter Group. Dan Hartman was actually a member, and he had huge hits with Frankenstein and Freeride, and of course, he is the brother of the late guitarist Johnny Winter. – The Edgar Winter Album (1979) was recorded at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios, where the artist collaborated with dance music pioneer Tom Moulton to create a lively mix of soulful R&B and disco, drawing inspiration from the city's musical influences. The band for this project consisted of Larry Washington on congas, Keith Benson on drums, James Williams on guitar, and Craig Snyder on guitar, all veterans of Philly and MFSB. Alongside energetic disco tracks like "It's Your Life to Live" and "Above and Beyond," Winter also included a rendition of his anti-war ballad "Dying to Live."
(NOL) Ron – Hai Capito O No? (I Can't Go For That) (Skyrager Edit)
Hai Capito O No?, (I Can't Go For That) by Ron, the Italian singer-songwriter Rosalino Cellamare, and that's the Danny McLewin, or Sky Rager, edit.
He sent a bunch of new edits over to me. Danny is one of the deepest diggers that I know, and it's always interesting to see what he unearths. Danny SkyRager has the compilation Traces of Illusion released last year.
Followed by the aerial and very Balearic If It Goes (Deeper Mix), the dazzling track Stars opens the last minutes of today's episode. Colleen then pays two faster numbers, still owning that Magic high in their spirit, starting by Nuit de Fièvre (Pellegrino Nottata Stellata Remix) and beautifully followed by the well-named Dynamik! Should you need to hear one last time how magical this episode has been, Colleen chose Gabriel Rene's Spirit (Emmaculate Extended Mix) to end today's show in a beautiful mini mix, something she hadn't done in a long time... By the way, do you know where we are now?...
(1989) Mr. Fingers – Stars
(NOL) Coflo – If It Goes (Deeper Mix)
Coflo, who is a dancer, a caporista, and a producer based in the East Bay area of San Francisco and California. And he's the founder of Catch the Ghost Records and a member of the Soul Shifters collective. He was raised by Hawaiian and Portuguese folk musicians, which I feel has given a real delicacy to his own music. He's been releasing some beautiful deep house tunes and remixes and recently sent me this one. The deeper mix of If It Goes, which I believe isn't out yet.
(2024) Gratts, Moody Mae & Jaj – Nuit de Fièvre (Pellegrino Nottata Stellata Remix)
Belgian producer and DJ Tristan Jong, otherwise known as Gratz has been releasing some deep and lovely records, including this one released last month on 7-Inch on his Be Strong Beat Free label. Here he is with Moody May Band with Reinhardt Van Bergen on violin and Parisien Jage on vocals. Nuit de Fièvre in a lovely remix from Pellegrino called That Notata Stellata Remix.
(1997) Gareth Cooke – Dynamik
Dynamik came out in 1997 and is by Gareth Cook, called Dynamic, and the flip side has a Don Carlos cut. But it was just reissued on vinyl by Natsukashi Records.
(2024) Gabriel Rene (ft J Soul) – Spirit (Emmaculate Extended Mix)
Gabriel, part of the Ohm Records family, a member of Solstice, also going under the alias Aquanote, released this tune back in 2009 in Sulfuric, but it's just been given a remix treatment by Emmaculate.
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