Balearic Breakfast | Episode 221 | Positive uncertainties...
- by The Lioncub
- May 6
- 13 min read
Updated: Jun 6
Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 221st episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on May 6th 2025.
About this episode. – A few hours before hitting the stage at Queen's Park Spring Weekender '25, and a day before playing at 1BTN's 10 Birthday bash at Patterns, Colleen launched the request line for the 221st episode of Balearic Breakfast. And, as we shall see in the listening section of this post, today's selections showcased, both in the music and in the lyrics, and in a certain way, some positive uncertainties...
This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud. Today’s show is mainly your requests along with some new music from @younggunsilverfox @musclecars.nyc @alex__kassian @thevendettasuite , @the_mighty_zaf and a new @robot84music rework. This Saturday it’s the Balearic Breakfast Day Party at NT’s Loft in East London and I’m looking forward to playing with my buddy @joe_hot_chip . We’re going to do some back to backs along with solo sets and we’re going to debut our Cosmodelica Electric Eden remix of the Cure so that’s where you can hear it first!
Thank@you to @jaynewinstanley for the ace jacket ❤️
THE PLAYLIST
(2002) Andy Bey – Saidas e Banderias
(1978) Shirley Caesar – Message to the People
(2023) Elisapie – Taimangalimaaq
(1988) Tanita Tikaram – Twist in my Sobriety
(2023) Jaakko Eino Kalevi – Chaos Magic
(2020) Joel Sarakula – Sunshine Makes Me
(2025) Young Gun Silver Fox – Stevie & Sly
(2025) Thompson Twins / Robot 84 – Dub Inside
(2025) All Seeing I & Crooked Man – The Return of the Crooked Cat
(2001) Charles Webster – Forget the Past
(2025) Alex Kassian x Spooky Orange – Coloured Liquid (Part 1)
(2025) The Vendetta Suite – The Jam Answer
(1980) Linx – You're Lying
(TBR) Invisible Man’s Band – All Night Thing (Alien Disco Sugar Rework)
(2025) Disco Combine 2001– Disco Party (Dave Lee Psychedelic Funk Mix)
(2020) Joaquin Joe Claussell – With More Love (GTR Version)
(2025) Annie & The Caldwells – I Made It (a musclecars production)
(2025) The Mighty Zaf & Linkwood – Yokai
(2021) Sun Palace – Rude Movements (Moodymann Remix)
COLLEEN'S NEWS
Do not forget to subscribe to Colleen's website (https://www.colleencosmomurphy.com/) to get updates about her upcoming events! Here are some dates where Colleen will be spinning over the next few weeks:
THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE
Sometimes, an episode directly reflects what you're going through in your life. That's just how I felt when I listened to this 221st Balearic Breakfast's episode. From the openning track, Andy Bey's "Saidas e Banderias", to All Seeing I & Crooked Man's "The Return of the Crooked Cat", including songs like Tanita Tikaram's "Twist in my Sobriety" or even Charles Webster's "Forget the Past", A Loy of today's songs had that worried feeling, that unexpected evolution, and, in the end, that somehow "Positive Uncertainty". This strange equilibrium revelas itself, as I said in today's post introduction, in the music itself, but also in the lyrics.
If you take for instance Tanita Tikaram's "Twist in my Sobriety", the song really is about not understanding, and, as Tanita explained it in an interview, "when you're 18, you've got a very particular emotional relationship with the world, you feel very isolated, and everybody else is so distant and cold. And I think I was singing about not feeling anything or not being moved by things around". Of course, Shirley's Caesar's "Message to the People" directly spoke to my soul too, the lyrics being so evocative: "Do you find yourself in the deepest hole, that you can find, well? / Listen, your life is spinning around and your up seems to be down / You're in deeper than you've ever been / You're time is not yet, oh you'll regret it / If you're too late / Let me tell you, young man, you need to be saved / I've got a message for the people, will you please hear my message / If you can't find your way / You've got to hold on to something / I know of a friend, he'll reach out and pull you in, save your life"
Of course, as far as the music is concerned, we can also take for example The Vendetta Suite's "The Jam Answer" which has a worried feeling to it, just to show that the main intellectual theme of the show is nicely extended to the second hour too.
But, as often, there's a beautiful equilibrium which never lets enter darkness totally, each song, each track having its own light, its own dose of Hope (including the show, with its last 6 songs beings beautiful danceable moments, Colleen's mix between "Disco Party (Dave Lee Psychedelic Funk Mix)" and "With More Love (GTR Version)" being simply splendid, and the Ultimate WOW Moment of the show...).
COLLEEN'S PRESENTATION
Saidas e Banderias by the late American jazz singer and pianist Andy Bey, who recently transitioned to the next realm. Known as a musician-singer, the four-octave vocalist got his start in the 1950s, singing with Louis Jordan and with his sisters as a trio, extensively performing in Europe and releasing albums throughout the 60s. His emotive voice was a natural choice as a collaborator with Horace Silver, Gary Bartz, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Stanley Clark. And Bey released the solo album Experience and Judgment in 1974, which was more of a cult classic. And he didn't release another album until the early 90s and then was quite prolific for 25 years or so. We heard Saidas e Banderias from his 2001 LP Tuesday in Chinatown. And thank you to David Puzzi for that request.
Good morning, Balearicans. I'm Colleen Cosmo Murphy, hosting your weekly Balearic Breakfast until high noon on my MixCloud Live. And greetings to the family gathered in the chat group right now. Lovely to see you as always. I had a fun-filled May Day holiday weekend up in Glasgow on Saturday, playing with Horse Meat Disco for Melting Pot at Queen's Park. And then on Sunday, celebrating 1BTN's 10th birthday at Patterns in Brighton, which was a lot of fun. And thanks to all who joined us and to those who said hello. It's really great meeting listeners face to face. I really appreciate your support. And this Saturday, it's the Balearic Breakfast Day Party at N.T.'s Loft in East London. And I'm looking forward to playing with my buddy Joe Goddard of Hotship.
And we're going to do some back-to-backs and some solo sets. And we're also going to debut our Cosmodelica Electric Eden remix of The Cure. So that's where you can hear it first. So excited to hear that one out. Now, today's show is mainly your requests, along with some new music from Muscle Cars, Alex Kassian, Young Gun and Silver Fox, Crooked Man, The Veneta Suite, The Mighty Zoff, and a new Robot 84 rework. So let's get on to the music with some requests.
This is from our friend Bert in Brooklyn, who says this legendary gospel singer has a message for the Balearic Breakfast family. Shirley Caesar has had a 70-year career, starting when she was 12 years old, and she's won 11 Grammy Awards. So it's no wonder she's known as the first lady of gospel music. She sang with The Caravans in the 1950s and then went solo, releasing her debut album, I'll Go, in 1967. She's had a stellar singing career, and she's also a preacher, and she acted in a few films, including Why Do Fools Fall in Love? and Fighting Temptations. From Shirley Caesar's 1978 album From the Heart, this is Message to the People.
Pop folk singer-songwriter Tanita Tikaramam with her hit Twist in My Sobriety. And that's from her 1988 debut LP, Ancient Heart. And she released a bunch of albums in quick succession, including Everybody's Angel. And I got to interview her for that album for my syndicated radio shows back in the day. And I also got to see her perform at the Beacon Theatre at that time, and she was so good. She seems very self-possessed. She has the courage to kind of take intermittent breaks from the music business, so good for her. And then she comes back with more music. And I just checked her Instagram this morning, and tomorrow she's hosting a social event in Hackney, just down the road from me. And it looks like she's having painting and sandwiches. It looks really sweet. And she's also playing at the EFG Jazz Festival later this year. And thank you to Karl Banitov in Montreal for that request.
Ahead of that, Inuk singer-songwriter Elisapie with an Inuktitut version of Cyndi Lauper's classic Time After Time. And she grew up in the Inuit community of Saluit in Quebec, Canada, and she started releasing albums in 2009. And the song we heard is on her award-winning 2023 LP, an album of covers sung in Inuktitut, which is one of the principal Inuit languages. And she started singing at the age of 12, and she's also a broadcaster, documentary filmmaker, actress, and activist. Just an all-around interesting person and artist. And thank you to Tom Torres in Vienna for that request. And Bert on the chat just said Cyndi Lauper was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And that song, Time After Time, is just such a great song. It's been covered so many times, including by Miles Davis. He has a version on You're Under Arrest, that 1985 LP.
Now, this next one is pretty tripped out, and it was chosen by our tripped-out friend, Virginia Tsioti in Athens, Greece. It's by Finnish musician Jaako Eino Kalevi, and he's released loads of albums since 2007, both solo and collaborations. And this next one is from his 2023 LP, his wildest statement yet, a double album of elemental pop and Baroque electronics that plots a thrilling course through the Jakko universe, drawing on cosmic jazz, dub reggae, neon synth pop, tender ballads, and psych rock nirvana. Here is Kalevi with the album's title track, Chaos Magic.
You can thank Sarah Joseph for turning on to this latest nugget from Young Gun Silver Fox, the tune Stevie & Sly. And of course, we know who they're talking about, although I think it should be called Stevie, Sly and Steely. Anyways, it's the opening song from their latest album, Pleasure Young and Pleasure. And the Young Gun Silver Fox is Andy Platts and Shawn Lee, and they're touring in the UK right now. And then heading over to the States in June, and they're absolutely fantastic live, a really tight band. In fact, if you've seen Ashla Puthli last year, you would have seen Shawn Lee playing drums. He's also her musical arranger, such a talented lot.
Ahead of that, the UK-based Australian artist Joel Sarakula with Sunshine Makes Me from his 2020 album, Companionship. Sarakula is a songwriter who has traveled the world in search of his muse, experiencing everything from being a victim of Caribbean carjackings to performing in the remote fishing villages of Norway before finally establishing his career in the UK and Europe. He's released several albums of his breezy Californian-styled soulful pop, Nine to be exact, including his latest, Soft Focus, released last year and which I listened to this morning. It's fantastic. I'm now a fan. And thanks to Victor Olteanu in Romania for that request.
OK, this next one is for Luigi in Houston who asked for the Thompson Twins' Come Inside, the opening track to their 1991 LP Queer. And it was a big record as a white label in the clubs and should have signaled a comeback for the band. But when it was commercially released, it didn't do as well as expected. And in fact, the British release of the album was canceled. But Robot 84 didn't forget about this tune and put a little twist on it, which I hope Luigi is going to like.
Oh, loving this one. Sheffield's All Seeing I & Crooked Man with a tune called The Return of the Crooked Cat. And All Seeing I was Richard Barratt, Dean Honer and Jason Buckle. And they released one album, Pickled Eggs and Sherbet, in 1999. And Buckle went on to be a part time member of Fat Truckers and form Relax Music with Jarvis Cocker. And Crooked Man, of course, is Richard Barratt, a.k.a. DJ Parrot, and is the Sheffield based DJ and producer, who is one half of the duo Sweet Exorcist alongside Cabaret Voltaire founder Richard H. Kirk. I just love the Crooked Cat sound. His remix of Cymande is fantastic, too. And thanks to Matt Raistrick for that request.
I'm Colleen Cosmo Murphy on Balearic Breakfast. And this next one is from our friend Barry Bernitz in Washington, D.C., who says it's been a tough week in the USA. And I'd just like to add, I think it's been a tough 100 plus days. So he suggested this one with a very apt title. It's by British Deep House producer Charles Webster. And I just love his stuff. He's gone under many monikers, including Furry Freaks and presents, and has been releasing singles for nearly three decades. This is from his debut album Born on the 24th of July, released on Peacefrog in 2001. And it's called Forget the Past.
A new one from The Vendetta Suite, who is Belfast DJ producer Gary Irwin. He's released several singles and an album on Italian imprint Hell Yeah! And is back with this one, which is a great slice of Italo and Balearic. We're listening to The Jam Answer. And I really can't wait to play that at the Balearic Breakfast Day party on Saturday. And the flip is also good. The title is called Island Hill Microdots. So that should tell you all you really need to know.
Ahead of that, a new one from Alex Kassian after last year's standout E2, E4 rework. And he returns to test pressing records with the next installment in the series. This time turning his attention to Spooky's Orange Coloured Liquid, taken from their debut 1993 LP Gargantuan. Alongside acts like Underworld and Leftfield, UK duo Charlie May and Duncan Forbes helped reshape the early 90s progressive house sound under their spooky moniker. And now decades later, Cassian delivers two versions designed to serve Dancefloor and Sunset respectively. With the rolling breaks of Part One, and that's the one that we heard, beautifully complemented by the ambient swells of Part Two. And there's also a John Beltran Placid Angles remix.
Okay, let's slip into something a bit soulful. A special request from London House Music Works. The early 80s Brit funk group Linx, which featured David Grant, who went on to a solo career, and bassist Peter Martin, who joined 23 Skadoo. Linx were in the same scene as Freeze and Level 42. And a quick aside. I'm hosting the 40th anniversary celebration of Level 42's World Machine with members Mike Lindup and Phil Gold next week for Classic Album Sundays. It's sold out in minutes, but if you want to join us for future events, sign up at classicalbumsundays.com. As our next one is with Graham Massey of 808 State, and we're featuring Xcel. In fact, I interviewed him for that one the first time around when it came out in 1991. Anyways, back to Lynx. This is You're Lying from their debut album Intuition.
An old request from Tomohiro Yamada in Osaka, Japan. For Jo, or Joaquin Joe Claussell, With More Love, the GTR version of his lengthy 2009 song that came out on 7-inch in 2020.
Ahead of that, a great slice of psychedelic soul disco funk from the UK's Dave Lee. It's called Disco Combine 2001 with Disco Party, and it's out now on vinyl, so don't wait.
Ahead of that, All Night Long, the 1979 single by American disco funk act Invisible Man, given a rework by Alien Disco Sugar. And it's the title track of Invisible Man's debut 1980 LP. And the band was made up of the Burke Brothers, and Kenny Burke, of course, went on to an illustrious solo career. And that was requested by David Stoddard, who is going to be there at Pikes for my All Night Long debut on the 18th of May. And I'm doing three All Night Long sessions at Freddy's at Pikes. Also there on the 29th of June and the 28th of September.
Okay, Annie and the Caldwells is a family that plays a powerful disco soul from West Point, Mississippi, led by singer Annie Caldwell and her husband of the last 50 years, guitarist Willie Joel Caldwell. Now you can pre-order their forthcoming I Was Living in a World of Sin Part 1, and you can get the Muscle Cars mix. They turned out a great mix of I Made It, and I played it on Sunday night, and people loved it. So you have to head over to the Annie and the Calwells Bandcamp to pre-order. And you'll also get remixes by Nicky Siano and Justin Strauss. And those two DJ producers will join Annie and the Calwells at Public Records this Thursday. So you'll want to check them out, and they're over here in the UK in August. This is I Made It, a Muscle Cars production on Balearic Breakfast.
Absolutely loving this one by The mighty Zaf & Linkwood with YoKai. Requested by Rick Van Veen in the Netherlands. And the mighty Zaf is the man behind the record shop, Love Vinyl and Hackney. And Linkwood is the Edinburgh DJ producer Nick Moore. And that's out now on vinyl. And, of course, we had Annie and the Caldwells before that, I Made It, a Muscle Cars production.
Well, we nearly made it to the end of the show. I went a little bit longer because I have one more for you that I really wanted to play. This is Colleen Cosmo Murphy getting ready to sign off. Until next week, I will be streaming live again next Tuesday and playing some new stuff. I'm going to catch up on some old requests as well.
And don't forget Saturday is the Balearic Breakfast Day Party with my friend Joe Goddard over at NT's Loft. And we'll be debuting that special Cure remix as well. Okay, leaving you with an old favorite but a real twist, you know. It's Sun Palace, Rude Movements. Loft classic and, you know, one that I thought, hmm, it really shouldn't be a remix, but it was. And it was remixed with aplomb. I've played Francois K's mix so many times. I decided not to go for that one this time. But BBE did this whole package of remixes and along with Kenny Dope and also François. And I think Opoloppo, there's a great Moody Man mix. And I think it's really great because it's really faithful to the original but really adds some beautiful instrumentation. And I heard Hands On Family play it when we were playing together over at BBE. So I thought it was kind of apt. It was requested by Herbie King and Brighton. And thank you all for joining me. Thanks to all over on the MixCloud Live. It's always great to see you. It's a very lively conversation over there. Have a wonderful week and thanks for listening.
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