Balearic Breakfast | Episode 206 | Peaceful Grooves & Wishes...
- by The Lioncub
- Jan 7
- 17 min read
Updated: Mar 9
Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 206th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on January 07th 2025.
About this episode. – There's no better way to start a new year than listening to Balearic Breakfast with Colleen behind the decks and the Balearic Breakfast Family on the Mixcloud chat. When Colleen streamed the last episode on December 24th, 2024, we were all sad to hear that there would be no show on December, 31st! Even with the best of efforts, Colleen could not have streamed the show as she was playing that very night at Lafayette London alongside other great acts, such as Dimitri From Paris, Bill Brewster etc.
Sadened, we said to ourselves that the pleasure would be even greater on January 7th and we thus eagerly waited for the request line to open, which ultimately happened this Saturday when Colleen wrote on her socials "Good morning! On the brink of a new dawn - or at least we hope! What would you like to hear this Tuesday on Balearic Breakfast? Which song will set us up for the new year ahead? Please join in the live stream this Tuesday from 10am to 12 pm on my Mixcloud Live for the show and family chat. I look forward to your suggestions and enjoy your weekend"
Today's episode was a peaceful musical trip with a beautifully rhythmically evolving soul, always keeping an open and relaxed spirit! We were all so happy to be together again, sharing bits of happiness and sadness of our lives, supporting one another, and the chat was bouncing from hapîness indeed! We'll discover more of that in the listening experience part of this post but for now, let's give Colleen the final word:
"This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now archived on my Mixcloud at https://tinyurl.com/5nwxny8v (and please give me a follow while you’re over there). It was lovely to see so many members of the BB family from all corners of the globe on the chat group this morning and thank you for sharing your new year’s resolutions. This week’s show is mainly your requests for songs that will help us start the new year on the right foot. Once again, thank you for sharing your musical discoveries. And of course we close the show with a tribute to the DJ Alfredo as our friend Uncool jag said of the late Argentian DJ who made his name in Ibiza: “Without this beautiful human being none of us would be here today celebrating the beat that is balearic.” Word.
And please excuse my proud mum moment, but the latest edition of my daughter Ariana Dewhurst’s Pirate Material radio show on The Boatpod is up on Mixcloud:
I’ll be back streaming live on my Mixcloud next Tuesday and will get to more of your requests – as always there were so many great ones that I was unable to squeeze them all into one show. Here’s to another year of shared musical discoveries with the Balearic Breakfast community. Thanks for being part of it and thanks for listening."
THE PLAYLIST
(1959) Bill Evans – Peace Piece
(2009) Jonathan Jeremiah – Happiness (Morgan Geist’s Port Authority Remix)
(1985) Sheila Chandra – The Awakening
(2024) God Colony ft Roy – Loss is Not Infinite
(1978) Sonya Spence – Peace and Unity
(1980) Dennis Brown – Sitting and Watching
(1991) Ryuichi Sakamoto & David Sylvian – Heartbeat (Tainai Kaiki II)
(1984) Everything But the Girl – Each and Every One
(1973) Marlena Shaw – The Feeling’s Good
(1981) Marti Caine – The Way You Love Me
(1980) Rockie Robbins – You and Me
(1993) Paris – Assata’s Song (Remix)
(1983) June Millington – Don’t Be Careless with Your Love
(1976) Ananda Shankar – Cyrus
(2007) Uyama Hiroto – Windspeaks
(1980) MFSB – Mysteries of the World
(1992) Cajmere ft Dajae – Brighter Days (Masters at Work Remix / Kai Alcé Edit)
(2022) The Style Council – Promised Land (Juan Atkins Remix)
(1973) First Choice – Love and Happiness
(2022) Deniece Williams – Free (Dave Lee Rework)
(1981) Mike Post ft Larry Carlton – Theme from Hill Street Blues
THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE
Starting the show with Bill Evan's "Peace Piece", as always, Colleen perfectly set the tone for today's show, but, for me, this episode shines even more than some of her best ones because this feeling of Belonging There, in the calm moment, will linger on throughout the rest of the show. Also, Colleen will allow the Balearicans to share with her a few of their resolutions for the new year, something she didn't do for quite some time during the last episodes, and something I missed as it is another example of how greatly she's able to craft that intellectual unity with us, her listeners...
As you can see, today's show is all about enjoying the calm moment, both musically and Intellectually, the sense of unity is here immaculate and bringing the warmth we all need in these frozen times...
The peaceful musical moment will accompany us for quite a long time during this episode, with tracks like Happiness / The Awakening / Loss is Not Infinite. Even with the rhythm slightly stepping up with Sonya Spence's Peace and Unity perfectly followed by Dennis Brown's Sitting and Watching, the feeling is very relaxed because of the time Colleen took to let the music sink into our souls... Of Course, with Colleen behind the decks, there's never anything you can take for granted, and ending the second mix of today's episode with the great Heartbeat (Tainai Kaiki II), tends to show you how much crafting a vibe is always about the Intention...
Colleen ends the first hour of the show with a groovy/sexy little mix, letting the sunshine in our brains, it's all about those "Peaceful Grooves", ain't it? 😉 Listen to how Colleen gradually steps up the rhythm today, still keeping the open and free spirit alive and well, Assata's Song (along with Ananda Shankar's Cyrus) being a wonderful example of that and also perfectly fitting to today's post title! Today's show is such a musical wave!
The last 40 minutes of today's episode made us all lose our minds, both because of Colleen's selections and because of Colleen's mixing, winning undoubtedly the Wow Moment!
COLLEEN'S PRESENTATION
I
Peace Piece from the album "Everybody Digs Bill Evans". And that may actually be true. The late pianist, composer, and arranger is beloved due to his unique use of harmony and melody, block chords, chord voicing. He influenced so many musicians and many of his songs have become jazz standards, including the one we just heard, Peace Piece. In fact, you've probably heard the motif in the opening notes to Flamenco Sketch's Miles Davis's album Kind of Blue, the seminal jazz LP on which Bill Evans also performed. Miles certainly had an ear for the best collaborators.
And I really feel the sentiment of "Peace Piece", and it was a great way, I feel it's a great way to launch Balearic Breakfast in 2025. And thank you to Artur in Paris for that request. Good morning, I'm Colleen Cosmo Murphy hosting your weekly Balearic Breakfast on my MixCloud Live until high noon, and greetings to all of the fam over in the chat group. It's great to be together as we embark upon a new year and a new journey. I hope you had a restful and restorative holiday season. I certainly did.
Catching up with my nearest and dearest, taking some forest walks, baking an array of Italian goods and sweets, reading, listening to music, watching films, eating and drinking too much. I even had an uninterrupted eight-hour sleep last week, which is rather astonishing as that only happens a couple times a year. So my manifestation, what I want to manifest this year is to make an effort to not overschedule myself and to get more sleep as I've really overscheduled myself for most of my life. So I'm going to try to make a change this year in 2025. And if any of you in the chat group have a New Year's resolution you would like to share, please write it out and please post. Now today's show is all of your requests and most of them are songs that are pertinent to new beginnings.
And of course, I couldn't get to all of them. So many will spill over onto next week's show. And in fact, some of them are from last month anyways, as I felt they were more relevant to listen to in the new year, like this next one, which is a request from Dalfredo for London singer-songwriter Jonathan Jeremiah, who has five studio albums under his belt. And this is a remix of the title track of his debut 2009 LP, Jonathan Jeremiah with the Morgan Geist Port Authority remix of Happiness.
II
Well, I think that may be my new favorite song. Love that one. London Liverpool duo God Colony. They founded the label Crack Copies and that featured Liverpool writer Roy, who released his debut collection of short stories, Algorithm Party, which is a view of Liverpool through different characters' eyes. And Loss is Not Infinite, which is the song that we just heard. It's also a short story from that collection. And we just heard the production by God Colony and all digital sales of that song in 2024, or in 2024, maybe still 2025, I hope, go to Damien John Kelly House, which is a center in Liverpool for men recovering from addiction. I absolutely love that one. And thank you to Matt Raistrick for that request.
Ahead of that, former Monsoon frontwoman and celebrated solo artist Sheila Chandra with The Awakening from her 1985 LP Nada Brahma, Sound is God. And it's also found on the Naya Beat Vol. 1 compilation. And if you don't know Naya Beat, you should. It's a great label that's reissuing and releasing music from the South Asian subcontinent and diaspora. And this is the label that were behind all of the recent Asha Putli remixes. That was a request from Gareth Bratman, who wrote "Thanks, Colleen and everyone for all the great music I've discovered via this community in 2024. And this song, The Awakening by Sheila Chandra, seems appropriate for a New Year suggestion. And wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2025". Also, Ana Sancho in Barcelona resolves to "listen to more music in 2025". Very worthy, Ana, I'm with you.
And Terry Fincham, we send condolences to you. He lost a dear friend this past weekend, totally unexpected. And his resolution is "to not take anything for granted and to appreciate everything I've got". And that... those are definitely amazing words and something we should always, always remember, no matter how tough things may seem to be, try to look for the beauty in life. Name three things that happened good today. That's what we try to do before we go to sleep.
Okay, this next one is a request from our friend Kieran McCann up in Glasgow, who hosts the Coorie Doon parties. He requested this one. It's a great message. Peace and Unity by Sonya Spence on Balearic Breakfast.
III
Wow, thank you to Carl Banatov in Canada for that request. I just absolutely love that song. Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Silvian with Heartbeat, Tanai Kaiki 2 from Sakamoto's 1991 LP Heartbeat. And that was a very poignant request for me because I actually interviewed Sakamoto for that album that year when I was hosting and producing syndicated radio shows in the USA. And I had been a huge fan of Sakamoto since seeing him on Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, because I was a huge Bowie fan. And then I went down that hole and went through all of his solo work and down the rabbit hole of Yellow Magic Orchestra. Such a beautiful song. And David Silvian was formerly of the band Japan. And in fact, while David was working on the single, he met Ingrid Chavez, who is also on the album. And she's a singer and actress who had been a member of Prince's inner circle. And that same year, Silvian and Chavez married and moved to Minneapolis where they had some children. So a beautiful, beautiful song.
Ahead of that, the 1979 single from my favorite Jamaican singer, Dennis Brown, the song Sitting and Watching, as requested by Josh Halsell, who said he discovered the song on the show. And he says it brings him joy and happiness every time, but it also makes his loudspeakers dislike him. So I think I can understand that sentiment. Nice, heavy, heavy bass there.
We have a few more resolutions from the family on the chat group. Dancing James's resolution is "to keep clearing up while he cooks and to declutter the kitchen". My husband, Adam, you might want to take a few... No, just joking! I just got the finger! Ha ha ha ha!! And Poppy Shepard says her New Year's resolution. This is a really good one! As well as decluttering the kitchen, James. But this is another good one! Poppy Shepard's is "to pick up the phone and make phone calls, not WhatsApp messaging, actual speaking conversations. It's much more personal". And I have to say, as a Gen Xer, I do that quite a bit. And every time I suggest this to a Gen Zer or a millennial, they look like it's shock and it's like, no, pick up the phone, have a conversation. It's so much nicer.
Okay, now a lovely request from Paolo Corsalini for the English duo comprised of Tracy Thorne and Ben Watt, Everything But The Girl. And this is their second single, which came out a staggering 40 years ago. And the couple are still going strong today, having released their 11th album, Fuse, in 2023. And of course, Tracy Thorne has written four books. I absolutely love Bedsit, Disco Queen, how I grew up and tried to be a pop star. And next on my list is My rock and roll friend, which focuses on her relationship and friendship with Lindy Morrison of The Go-Betweens, and reflects upon the experiences of female musicians in the male-dominated music scene. And speaking for myself as a DJ for nearly four decades, I'm sure I'll find some shared experiences there.
In any case, let's get on with the music, Everything But The Girl with Each and Every One.
IV
Oh my goodness, I'm getting into a blue light mood, Bert. That's Minneapolis soul singer Rockie Robbins with his biggest hit, You and Me, the title track of his 1980 LP. And it was the singer's only big hit, and it reached the R&B Top 10. It was produced by Bobby Martin, who worked with Billy Paul on Me and Mrs. Jones. And thanks to our friend Bert Francois in Brooklyn for that blue light special request.
Ahead of that, the late English singer, writer, comedian, actress, and presenter Margie Kane with her 1981 single, The Way You Love Me. And that's a Balearic Breakfast favorite. And yes, I've played that one before. But Emily Pictures Paradise wooed me with her request, stating, "Thank you for a great Christmas Balearic Breakfast show. So wonderful and uplifting. I hope you play in the Northwest this year, Colleen. The Golden Lion in Todmorden is a wonderful intimate venue. Crazy P and Richard Senn did some great DJ sets there. And maybe we'll be lucky enough to have you play there one day." So let's try to manifest that, okay?
Ahead of that, we had The Feeling's Good as performed by the late American singer Marlena Shaw, who sadly passed away at the beginning of 2024. It's from her 1973 LP, From the Depths of My Soul. Shaw launched her career in the jazz clubs of New York City and Chicago. And it was there where she was discovered by Chess and Cadet Records, and her career really began to take off, especially with her version of the Ashford and Simpson penned California Soul. And thank you to Sue Forrest for that contribution.
Okay, we have a few more New Year's resolutions from the fam. Matt Raistrick says he "resolves to listen and to make time to listen to more albums". And that's probably what he tries to do every year, though. But just keep trying, Matt. Just keep trying.
Ahead of that, Terrence the DJ says his or her "New Year's resolution is to re-record a mixtape I had back in 1993. I've tracked most of the records down and need to record them as I lost that tape years ago." Well, good luck with that. And Dancing James, along with Trying to Clean Up the Kitchen Atom, he also says "he wants to take some dance classes". And I think that's a really great idea. I've always wanted to do that as well. I tried taking one dance class once. I lasted for one class because I'm left-handed. And every time I just kept getting the directions, you know, wrong. They'd go right, I'd go left, because that's my natural way to go. You know, just, you know, always contrary, what can I say? So I like that resolution.
Okay, let's move on with the music. This is a request from Luca Ospitone in Sardinia for the San Francisco socio-political rapper Paris. It's his 1992 single, Assata's Song, from the LP Sleeping with the Enemy. And Paris, aka Oscar Jerome Jackson, is also the founder of Gorilla Funk Recordings and Scarface Records. And he also mentored artists such as DJ Shadow and the Conscious Daughters. And here he is with Assata's Song.
V
Ananda Shankar with Cyrus, and that's from the LP Ananda Shankar and His Music, released on Mr. Bongo. And that's the Indian sitarist, composer, and musician, who was the nephew of Ravi Shankar. And Ananda's musical family was very, very prestigious, and his upbringing led to a deep respect and love of the wealth of music that emanated from his birthplace. And his travels to the West Coast of America in the late 1960s saw Shankar immerse in the full swing of psychedelic rock. So there's a lot of different covers on this album. Highly recommended, and I hope you like that one here on Balearic Breakfast.
Ahead of that, we had the Filipina-American guitarist, songwriter, producer, and educator, June Millington, with her 1983 single, Don't Be Careless With Your Love. Good advice for the year ahead from our friend Christina Da Souza. And Millington was the founder of the groups Svelt and Wild Honey, before becoming co-founder and lead guitarist of the early 1970s all-female rock band Fanny. Millington has been called a godmother of women's music, and she's also the co-founder and artistic director of the Institute for the Musical Arts in my native Massachusetts. And I look forward to investigating her more, because she sounds like a really incredible woman.
Ahead of that, we have Paris with Assata's song, the remix, as requested by Luca Ospitone.
Okay, this next one is a great request from our friend Ralph Odafred in New York. It's for Japanese saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Uyama Hiroto, and the song is Wind Speaks. It's from the compilation Hideout Productions' second collection, which is mainly a hip-hop compilation featuring mainly the late Japanese hip-hop artist Nujabes, with whom Hiroto and Uyama collaborated. And Uyama also has four solo albums, which I look forward to researching further. And thank you again to Ralph Odafred for this one, Wind Speaks.
VI
MFSB, or Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, with Mysteries of the World. Absolutely love that song. And gosh, what a lineup with MFSB. I guess they were kind of like the studio band for Sigma Sound Studios, and put together by Gamble & Huff for their Philly International to back a lot of the different artists they had performing on the label. But gosh, if you take a look and see who performed, it's incredible. You have Ronnie Baker, Tom Bell, Bobby Eli, John Davis, Norman Harris, Leon Huff. Good God. Vince Montana, Dexter Wenzel, Earl Young, you know, the drummer from The Tramps. So just an all-star lineup. And that was a request from Steve Wakley, who said he just absolutely loves that song, the title track to their 1980 LP. He said, it's been going around his head these past few days, and it's as exciting to his ears as when he first heard it. Always great to dance with its relentless bassline, floaty keys, layers of guitars and strings, and that spooky opening and gentle strings into the bass, a superb track.
Ahead of that, we had a great tune from Yama Hiroto, Wind Speaks, and that's a request from Ralph Odafred.
Okay, this next one is a request from our friend Barry Zerr, or Bear Nitz, in Washington, D.C. And I'm really excited as I'm heading to Washington, D.C. Well, I'm not excited for who's going to be in the office at that point in time, let me just say. But I'm very excited to actually be DJing there. It's the first time, I think it's the first time I'm DJing there ever. It's going to be on Valentine's Day, the 14th of February, and I'm playing for For Your Pleasure at 618 D.C. And I'm going to meet Barry for the first time. And he has this request here. First of all, I should say he has a resolution, is "to save as much money as possible to cover the cost of shipping all the amazing records I buy, thanks to all of the great selections Colleen and the Balearic Breakfast community shares". So yeah, maybe I can bring some records over for you, if I have room in my record bag. Also, I should say James Bilderguy has a really good one too. His resolution is "to try and see more live music. We have a lot of fantastic clubs here in Glasgow, but I'm ashamed to say I can probably count on one hand the amount of live events I've been to, and I need to do more exploring", and I share that sentiment.
But back to the clubs, this is a request from Barry Berenitz for a club classic, Cajmere, featuring Daje with Brighter Days, the Masters at Work remix, and it's the Kai Alsay edit on Balearic Breakfast.
VII
Deniece Williams with the song Free, the Dave Lee rework, as requested by Real Trini Food, which is Franka Phillips. She's a food writer in Trinidad and Tobago, and gosh, the food from Trinidad and Tobago is top-notch. And such a beautiful song. I played that as my last tune at Coorie Doon Party, Kieran McCann's party up in Glasgow, and somebody took a little video, and I posted it up, and that Reel got some traction, so that really encouraged Franca to request that song. She said she watched that Reel over and over and over again.
Ahead of that, we had a request from David Stoddard for First Choice, Love and Happiness, and that's from their debut LP, 1973's Armed and Extremely Dangerous, and they began singing in high school as the Debonettes, and then performed in clubs after school in Philadelphia, and then they were introduced to Norman Harris, who produced that song. Just absolutely love that one.
A great way to start the year. As was the song before, Paul Weller's Style Council's cover of the 1988 Joe Smooth classic, with a remix by Juan Atkins, and that was requested by Love Vigilantes, and Smooth got the idea for the original song, Promised Land, while he was on tour in Europe with Farley Jack Master Funk, and he saw how house music was doing here in Europe, and he wrote that song with inspiration from classic Motown songs, and he had a hit. He had a classic song, and he had a hit over here in the UK, at least.
And starting it off with Cajmere, featuring Daje, Brighter Days, the Masters at Work remix, and the Kai Alce edit.
All right, this is Colleen Cosmo Murphy signing off another week's show of Balearic Breakfast. I will be back next Tuesday, finishing up some more requests. There were so many great ones, I couldn't get to all of them, but I had to leave this song for last, in memory of the late DJ Alfredo, who passed in the next realm in December, just before Christmas. This is a song he was known for playing. The Argentinian-born DJ made his name in Ibiza, especially at his residency at Amnesia, where people from all over the world gathered, and he had to please so many different ears, and he did so with aplomb.
A really eclectic mix of music, everything from new wave to all different things, movie soundtracks and dance songs, all different things that he wove together into a great journey, a musical journey for his dancers, and this is one that he's really known for. It was requested by both Steve Clark and Uncle Jag. And Uncle Jag said, "without this beautiful human being, none of us would be here today, celebrating the beat that is Balearic". And I was very lucky and privileged to meet him, and play with him, actually, back to back at the Beat Hotel in 2021. And you can find that mix, I think it's on Worldwide FM, I had it on a Baleric Breakfast show. He was a lovely human being.
We had dinner before we played. It was the only time I got to meet him, and he was so humble, such a wonderful man. And it was just kind of interesting, all these different DJs that he inspired, you know, some went on to become global phenomenons. And he was just a, you know, lesser known, but we and the Balearic community celebrate him and his legacy, and we thank him. And this is just a beautiful way to remember him. You know the song.
And remember, if you're feeling down this week, just be Balearic.
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