Balearic Breakfast | Episode 246 | That worrying Autumnal Wind...

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 246th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on November 11th 2025.

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ABOUT THIS EPISODE

To say the world is not turning round lately would be an euphemism. From AI changing billions of lives with people losing their jobs, to political unrest (with Donald Trump openly criticising New York City Mayor-elect Mamdani calling him a communist and questioning his impact on the city’s infrastructure plans), not forgetting wars taking place all around the world, it seems we're not getting peace anywhere soon. And this is heartbreaking. Today's show had a strong imagery attached to is very soul: there's a worrying wind blowing somewhere in the distance, and you can hear it in a lot of the songs played by Colleen...

The Family gathered on the chat as always and we all chatted somehow hapilly, thinking about doing an online "meet and greet" event which would allow the Balearic Breakfast Family to hang out during a live stream – possibly organised by our captain – or launching a mixcloud channel dedicated to mixes crafted by members of the family. Even if for the time being nothing has been officially decided yet, it is the frist time this year that I felt the Family coming together so strongly and it really warmed my heart. We also discussed some DJing topics, exchanging views about new ways of playing music, using tools like rekorbox or new DJ controllers.

In any case, this show has that worried yet hopeful soul, the one you can feel when the weather is changing in autumn, slowly making way to winter...

This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now archived on my Mixcloud and mainly features your requests, some snazzy reworks, and a couple of songs by artists of Native American descent.

November is Native American Heritage Month (established 35 years ago, surprisingly by President George Bush). As a child of the 1970’s I feel grossly inadequate when it comes to the history and plight of the tribal nations and it’s something I endeavour to work on. Here are some docs that are well worth watching: ‘Lakota Nation vs. United States’, ‘Sugarcane’, ‘Yintah’ and ‘Sitting Bull’. If you have ideas for other Balearic Breakfast songs in celebration of Native American Heritage Month (like Redbone or Elisapie Isaac), please DM me.

There was also a request for ‘For What It’s Worth’ which brought for a flood of tears when I played it this morning - it really seems to resonate with the times. Thank you Balearicans for your heartfelt song suggestions. The Request Line will go up on my socials this weekend and as always I look forward to discovering music with you. Thanks for being part of the family.

Listen back to the 246th episode of Balearic Breakfast:

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THE PLAYLIST

(TBR) Shreyas Murali – The Hidden Garden

(1994) Richie Havens – The Hawk

(1966) Buffalo Springfield – For What It's Worth

(1972) Joy Of Cooking – Beginning Tomorrow

(1978) Keith Barrow – You Know You Want to Be Loved

(1978) O.V. Wright – Let's Straighten It Out

(2025) Kudda & Friends – That It Is

(2025) Young Gun Silver Fox – Burning Daylight

(2017) Flo Morrissey & Matthew E. White – Grease

(TBR) Billie Eillish – Birds of a Feather (Kenneth Bager Edit)

(2025) Dimitri from Paris vx Charobaron – Chez La Baronne (Le Fouet Version)

(2025) Talking Heads – I Zimbra (Random House Project Disco Rework)

(TBR) John Grant – Black Belt (Ben Gomori's Blue Belt Edit)

(1995) Francois K – Hypnodelic

(1979) Bunny Mack – Let Me Love You

(1978) Nana Love – I'm in Love

(2010) Hosanna Littlebird – Can Love Again (Jovonn Next Moov Club Mix)

(2021) Saint Etienne – Cool Kids of Death (Underworld Remix)

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

(from Colleen's presentation)

I'm heading to Berlin again this Saturday playing in the Globus Room at Tresor. Once again, I played there about a year ago, I think it was November last year, possibly. And I had such a great time. I mean, Tresor is a legendary techno club. I'm doing more of the house room as you can imagine. And really looking forward to that.

Then on Friday, the 28th of November, I'm playing for La Discotèque at the Drumsheds in London. Still haven't been there. So that's going to be really interesting and looking forward to that. I love the La Disco Tech crew. They're lovely people.

And then on the 7th of December, it's our next London loft party. I was just buying some vinyl for it during the show. Invitations are going back out in a week or so. So if you want to join us, you can jump on the friendship train over at loftparty.org.

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ABOUT THE SONGS

(from Colleen's presentation)

Pianist, composer and songwriter Shreyas Murali with Hidden Garden, a track he released earlier this year and more recently he released a meditative piano album called Pure Devotion. His background is in jazz and classical and he focuses his own composition work on the musical palettes of composers like Debussy, Chopin and Elgar, and he also works with Tamil cinema composers C. Sathya and Indian singer Bombay Jayashri and thank you to Sue Forrest for that request.

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Good morning, Balearicans. I'm Colleen Cosmo Murphy hosting your weekly Balearic Breakfast until high noon here on my Mixcloud Live and greetings to all who are gathered over there this morning. Thank you as always for keeping me company. So today, oh actually I should say this month in the United States, November is Native American Heritage Month, which was established 35 years ago, surprisingly by President George Bush and as a child of the 1970s, I really feel grossly inadequate when it comes to the history and plight of the tribal nations and it's something I really want to work on, understanding more about America's original settlers.

You may have seen the documentary Lakota Nation versus United States. If not, I highly recommend it. It tells the story of the Lakota people who have reservations in South Dakota and it also documents the theft of the Black Hills and there's a few more docs I intend to check out this month, namely Sugarcane, Yinta and this year's two-part series Sitting Bull, which tells the story of the Lakota leader.

So on today's show, there are a couple of requests for Native American artists and if you can think of more, feel free to request or message me directly on my socials with some ideas.

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This next song is by Richie Havens, who was born in Brooklyn to a mother of Afro-Caribbean descent and whose grandfather was Blackfoot from the South Dakota Montana region. Haven's grandfather and great-uncle joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and they traveled around the United States and eventually settled on the Shinnecock Reservation on Long Island. 

As a young adult coming of age, Richie started hanging out in Greenwich Village and he later said "I saw the village as a place to escape to in order to express yourself. I had first gone there during the beatnik days of the 1950s to perform poetry. Then I drew portraits for two years and stayed up all night listening to folk music in the clubs. It took a while before I thought of picking up a guitar."

Well, once he picked up the guitar, there was no holding him back. Word of his solo performances spread like wildfire and he eventually signed with Bob Dylan's manager, the infamous Albert Grossman. And Haven's popularity was further cemented when he opened up Woodstock Festival. Throughout his career, he released 20 albums until his passing just over a decade ago. John Brown asked for some Richie Havens on today's show. And so here he is with The Hawk.

Buffalo Springfield For What It's Worth brought tears to my eyes. Thank you, Sean E. for requesting that. That's the Canadian American 60s band that featured both Neil Young and Stephen Stills. And the song kind of sings about the impact of war upon a generation.

And today is Veterans Day in the United States. So I want to remember not only those who protested against the Vietnam War, but also those who fought in a war that many of them fought in involuntarily, and that they knew they were never going to win. And the huge trauma they experienced both in battle and back at home. Also want to honor all the casualties on both sides. I mean, just absolutely horrific. No winners. And today America has a domestic battlefield with ice tearing apart families and lives, the National Guard having a huge, violent, you know, kind of aggressive presence on city streets where they shouldn't be. And as the song says, there's battle lines being drawn. So yeah, it's really, really just kind of an intense period right now.

And I just started watching a series called 1971, The Year That Music Changed Everything, which gives a historical socio-political context of the turmoil and the upheaval of the late 1960s, early 1970s in America. And it really resonates with what's happening today. So it's well worth watching. Of course, the music is absolutely fantastic.

The Californian 60s folk blues jazz band Joy of Cooking with Beginning Tomorrow, which was led by the women duo pianist Toni Brown and guitarist Terry Garthwaite, who later performed as a duo Tony and Terry. And they often had feminist themes in their lyrics. And we heard Beginning Tomorrow, which is about starting a new life after treading water and really trusting your own agency through rewriting your own script. And I know my friend Gina Lapsley is really feeling that right now. And thank you, Gina, for that request. May the force be with you.

You Know You Want to Be Loved by Keith Barrow, the late Chicago-born disco soul singer and songwriter of Turn Me Up fame. Love that 12". His mother was the civil rights activist Reverend Willie Beatrice Barrow, who was known as the High Priestess of Protest. And she was also Barack Obama's godmother. Back to Keith. He wrote for the band Blue Magic, had his debut solo LP produced by MFSB's Bobby Eli. But it was his second album, 1978's Physical Attraction, that brought him success with the song we heard, which became his signature tune. And thank you to Matt Jacobs for that request.

The Tennessee-born blues Southern soul singer O.V. Wright or Overton Virtus Wright. Just love that name. With the song Let's Straighten It Out as requested by Chris Morgan. And Wright started in church and gospel music, fronting The Harmony Echoes. And their first recording was That's How Strong My Love Is, which was later covered by Otis Redding and the Rolling Stones. And Wright was a well-known artist in the Deep South and has been sampled by Ghostface Killah and the Wu-Tang Clan, amongst many, many others.

Jazz pianist, composer, and self-professed beat jockey, K Kudda Music. Lovely. And that's a song That it is. And it's by his Kudda & Friends project. And it was released last month on Bandcamp. And K Kuda is Makini Morrison from St. Louis, Missouri. And he's a musical polymath. He calls his music Indie Soul. And I'm going to make a real effort to dig deeper into his work. And thank you to Kyle Andrews for that tip.

Well, whenever I'm feeling a bit down and need a little musical pick me up, one act I can always turn to is Young Gun Silver Fox, and their breezy Californian modern day yacht rock, steely down sound. It just puts a smile on my face. I kind of like picture myself in a convertible cruising down the Californian coastline, a long route one with the wind in my hair. So David Stoddard suggested we share a moment like that together. This is from their latest album, Pleasure. It's Sean Lee and Andy Platz of Young Gun, Silver Fox with Burning Daylight.

The English singer-songwriter and guitarist Flo Morrissey with American singer-songwriter and guitarist Matthew E. White, with a cover of the theme song to the 1978 musical and film Grease. And it has a real Ann Peebles, I Can't Stand the Rain vibe as well. And that's from their collaborative cover album, Gentlewoman, Ruby Man, which came out in 2017. And the original was written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and was performed by Frankie Valli from the 1978 film version of Grease, with which I was obsessed. I was 10 years old, saw it when it came out in the theater, had the double album, memorized it, wanted to be Rizzo, much to my parents' chagrin. Anyways, absolutely love that. And another thing about the original, it has Barry, not Barry White, Barry Gibb sings backing vocals along with the sweet inspirations. And it's Peter Frampton on the guitar. I guess I didn't read the liner notes when I was 10, but that was really, really interesting. And I just love that version by Flo Morrissey and Matthew E. White. And thank you to Pedro Rolim for that request.

Billie Eilish spurs up a feather, the Kenneth Bayer edit. Kenneth sent me that this summer, and I finally got a chance to play it. He's the head of Music for Dreams. And that song (Ed. Note: Birds of a Feather (Kenneth Bager Edit)) originally came out on Billie Eilish's album Hit Me Hard and Soft, and that came out last year. And she recently made headlines for all the right reasons while accepting an award for the 2025 Music Innovator at the WSJ Innovator Awards, the Wall Street Journal Innovator Awards. After she received her award, she said, if you're a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? And there were many billionaires in the audience, including the meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who withheld an ovation. But she was also applauded, and she finished her speech by saying, no hate, but give your money away, shorties. And she recently donated $11.5 million from profits from her last tour to support charities dedicated to food equity, climate justice, and combating the climate crisis. So she's just not talking the talk. She's also walking the walk. So well done, Billie. And in light of the recent news also that Elon Musk may be the world's first trillionaire, it's just absolutely disgusting. But Nina, some billionaires, there are some billionaires that do have a conscience. I was just reading about Swedish billionaire Johan Elias. He purchased 400,000 acres of the Amazon rainforest to save it from logging and deforestation and also founded the Cool Earth charity. So there are some billionaires who are doing some good work for humanity and for the climate, but more need to. It's just so unequal right now. Food, money, everything. It's just terrible. So well done on those who have the means to help and who are doing it.

Now, Parisian jazz-funk disco outfit Chateaubriand partnered with 21st century disco DJ-producer Dimitri from Paris on Chez Madame Labaronne. And at the time, the Idjut boys were called in to remix it, I guess it came out a couple of years ago, but only one of their takes were released at that time. But this year, Byte the Day released all the versions. As requested by Steve Wakley, this is the Idjut boys' Rufway version on Balearic Breakfast.

A great Random House Project Disco rework. Got that down now. One of the Talking Heads' finest dance floor moments, I Zimbra. And that's the second single from the Talking Heads' Fear of Music LP. And the lyrics are an adaptation of a poem by Dadaist Hugo Ball. It's also drummer Jerry Harrison's favorite Talking Heads song. It really set the tone for their next album, Remain in Light, which was heavily influenced by African rhythms.

John Grant with Black Belt, the Ben Gomori Blue Belt Edit. I don't know if Ben's a blue belt, but that's very cool. He's from the Balearic London crew. And Black Belt is a song from John Grant's incredible album, Pale Green Ghosts. And it's the former Czar's frontman's John Grant's second solo album, released in 2013, in which Rough Traits selected his album of the year. And I recently, not recently, but I hosted an evening with John Grant at the British Library for Classic Album Sundays. And he's the same age as me, we both grew up as misfits in America, have a lot of similar kind of musical alliances. And it's a really, really cool interview. He's just a fantastic guy that's up on the classic album Sundays website. And I'm sending that one out to my friends Kay McMahon, or Special Kay, who recently saw John Grant live and also my friend Andrew Peery, who brought me to my first ever John Grant concert. I'm wishing Andrew positivity and strength with his health challenges and sending him lots of love. And if you ever get a chance to see John Grant, do! He is a fantastic performer. He can make a big room seem like a little club. He just has so much charisma and gravitas.

Oh my Gosh, still sounding great 30 years on, 30 years ago this was released. Thank you to Danny Broderick for this request. It brings me back to Dance Tracks, Club 89, my radio show, this incredible EP by Francois K, the FK EP, one of his early releases on his own label, Wave Music, still sounds so fresh. And in fact, I've also recently played Edge of Time and I've also played Move as well. And I had Francois up on my show in the late 90s, and I think he was like 97, 98 on my Club 89 show. And he played all different kinds of music. And he later told me that doing that show with me was his inspiration for his Club Night Deep Space.

This next song is requested by Marcos Costumato. And it's a disco funk Afro Calypso classic that first came out in 1980. And it was a hit for the Sierra Leone musician Bunny Mack. And he publicly performed many instruments, including banjo, guitar, penny whistle, harmonica as a young child. But he had to hide it from his parents because they didn't have a proof of their little one becoming a musician. This is his most famous song for which he received a gold disc, Bunny Mack with Let Me Love You.

Nana Love, a London based singer of Ghanaian origin who released two albums in the late 1970s, Disco Documentary Full of Funk and then Hang On. And we heard the opening track from her debut, I'm in Love, which was also more recently given the remix treatment by none other than Kenny Dope for BBE. But we heard the original as requested by David Puzzi.

Hosanna Littlebird with the Jovonn next Moov club mix of Can Love Again. And Hosanna Little Bird is an artist and musician who is of Pueblo heritage, and also Ukrainian heritage. And Bert Francois requested her as November is Native American Heritage Month. And Little Bird refers to her style as ancient modernism. And her artwork often depicts indigenous stories and communities. I love that one. Thanks, Bert.

(...) I'm leaving you with this one. It's a remix of a song from Saint Etienne's third album, 1994's Tiger Bay. And it's the Underworld remix of Cool Kids of Death. So leaving you with this one. I'll be back next week. I think I'll have a request line going up this week, if all goes well. And I look forward to seeing you next Tuesday. Have a great week.