Balearic Breakfast | Episode 253 | Meeting The Secret DJ & Family Gatherings (Pooky fm/ Bonsai HiFi)
- by The Lioncub
- 2 days ago
- 23 min read
Updated: 22 hours ago
Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 253rd episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on January 06th, 2025.
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Amidst a few streaming problems, and to start this new year on the right foot (or maybe the left, who knows?), Colleen broadcast Balearic Breakfast's 253rd episode almost in the middle of nowhere, saying, "Even on my end - it's not a strong wifi signal - I'm out in the middle of nowhere in Northern Lanzarote".
Keeping her interactions with the Balearic Breakfast to a minimum to allow for a stronger signal and a better streaming quality, Colleen still took part to the chat with the fam, directly participating in a new successful streaming party of our beloved show!
This episode is one of the most important and interesting we've ever had, due to the historical and musical aspects The Secret DJ (follow him on Facebook / Instagram) shares in the interview he did with Colleen. It's an absolute must-listen. There's a transcription of the interview below as well.
Lastly, and of course, both mixes were absolutely great, and won our hearts for obvious reasons shared here (follow Pooky & The Bonsai Hifi Sound System on Instagram). Enjoy!
This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud and features two guest mixes. First up is an interview with and a mix from The Secret DJ. He has written three books the reveal both hilarious stories and also dire accounts of mental and physical health issues delivered from the perspective of a touring DJ. He’s a natural raconteur with a quick wit and I’m sure you will love our interview about aspects of Ibiza’s history and his life as a foreign resident on the White Isle. You should check out his Facebook for his personal story with the late and lovely DJ Alfredo, as well.
The Secret DJ is also an intrepid journalist who has uncovered some of the more unsavoury aspects of our beloved dance music world - namely emotional, physical and sexual abuse of women. For that, I truly applaud him. Thank you Secret DJ. He’s also a great DJ and I think you’ll love his exclusive Balearic Breakfast mix.
Up next is my dear friend Pooky who hosts the Bonsai Hi Fi Sound System parties up in Liverpool. I had the pleasure of joining him a few years ago and he was also one of our DJs in our Love Dancin’ tent at the inaugural We Out Here. He’s also a top human. Thanks to both of these guys for filling in whilst I take a break.
NB: My intro and links were recorded in a very echo-y room so apologies for that. I’m on holiday and decided not to spend too much time being my usual Virgo self and perfecting everything. After all, my 2026 resolution is all about ‘letting go and moving on’.
Enjoy the show and I’ll be back next week with a Balearic Breakfast show featuring two more special guest mixes from J Kriv of Razor n Tape and a Balearic Breakfast Family mix from Gina Lapsley. Thanks for listening.
Listen back to the 252nd episode of Balearic Breakfast:
THE PLAYLIST
The Secret DJ Tracklist:
(1987) Man Parrish – Water Sports
(2018) Mildlife – Im Blau
(2019) Caroline Polachek – Hey Big Eyes
(NOL) Sum Such – Don't Go
(2017) Kid Francescoli and Julia Minkin – Moon (and it went like...)
(2024) Glass Beams – Mahal
(1991) Kwanzaa Posse – Wicked Funk
(2018) Charlotte Gainsbourg – Bombs Away
(2024) Bedford Falls Players – Beautiful Chaos
(1990) Blow Monkeys – La Passionara
(1990) The Fall – Bill is Dead
(2021) Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders – Movement 7
(2025) Young Gun Silver Fox – Curious
(2025) Doobie Brothers – Learn to Let Go
(2025) Everyone Says Hi – On the Same Side
Pooky of Bonsai Hi Fi Tracklist:
(2023) A Vision of Panorama & Sykes – Let Me (Poolboy Mix)
(2024) Steve Cobby & Third Attempt – Language of the Heart
(2014) Payfone – Subconscious Lamentation
(NOL) Andy Ash – Castles in the Sky
(2017) Session Victim – Over & Over
(2014) Onyricon – Sweet Dream (Balearic Militant Dub)
(2019) Space Echo – Distratto
(NOL) Heatwave – Star of the Story (Smoove's Multitrack Mix)
(NOL) Rudy Norman – Back to the Streets (Pookash Exclusive Mix)
(2017) Caserta – Ricky (Jeep Mix)
(NOL) D'Angelo – D'Angela (Jim Sharp Mix)
(1979) Randy Crawford – Endlessly
THE SECRET DJ'S INTERVIEW WITH COLLEEN
Good morning, Balearicans. I'm Colleen Cosmo Murphy, hosting your weekly Balearic Breakfast until 12 noon GMT on my MixCloud Live. And greetings to the family over there joining me right now. Thank you as always for your support.
Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you had a great holiday. I'm still taking a little bit of a break, and I am away. But in my place, I have two special guest mixes for you. And I also have an interview with the secret DJ, who resides in Ibiza. And he tells us a little bit about the history of Ibiza, and why it's been invaded by so many different groups of people.
And he's also provided a special guest mix. And up after him, we have my friend Pookie, a Balearic Breakfast family member who also hosts a regular party called Bonsai Hi-Fi, up in Liverpool. But first, it's over to the secret DJ.
Ed. Note: The Secret DJ Issued two books, which you can purchase here and there. He also gave a great interview to Test Pressing a few years ago. There's also a Mixcloud stream he did back then.
[Colleen]
Here in the studio with me is the secret DJ.
[TSDJ]
Hey, buddy, how you doing?
[Colleen]
I'm good. How are you doing?
[TSDJ]
Good, thanks. It was great to see you in Ibiza recently. At least, you know, it was great that you actually came. A lot of the Balearians actually never even been to Ibiza. So it was fantastic to host you there, and show you some of the sights. We had a good time, right?!
[Colleen]
This is the reason why I wanted to interview you for the show, because you know so much about the history of Ibiza.
[TSDJ]
Actually, I've lived in Ibiza for 40 years.
[Colleen]
Yes, exactly, exactly. So you've been there for, like, decades now. And, you know, I love what you're writing on Facebook when you're talking about your own experiences, and how you started to kind of get immersed into the culture, and the kind of faux pas that you would say, like, asking people for Ibiza, what do you do for a living?
[TSDJ]
Oh, yeah, very, yeah.
[Colleen]
So you've really kind of tried to understand the culture. You speak Spanish to the best of your ability, no matter what DJ Alfredo used to say about you. And...
[TSDJ]
Well, ironically, I sound like a reverse Manuel from Fawlty Towers, you know! I learned it from a book. I talk myself, so I do. I've never got a Spanish person to laugh with me, but they will laugh at me!
I mean, for instance, if you say that, like, we say, in Spanish, you say that you have 47 years. You don't say you're 47 years old, you say, I have 47 years. And I once introduced my dad, who at the time was 80. And I said, I thought I said, this is my 80-year-old dad. But what I actually said was, because papa and papa, potato and father, are almost exactly the same. And año and ano is anus and years. So I said, this is my potato, he's got 80 anuses. And I said, this is my potato, he's got 80 years! And I said, this is my potato, he's got 40 years. And I said, this is my potato, he's got 40 years!
Oh, so I used to live near the McDonald's roundabout, and I'd say to the taxi driver, rotundo, which actually means chubby. Rotunda is roundabout, and rotundo means chubby. So I'd get into the taxi and go, rotunda like chubby, and they'd be like "Dude, I know I've got a sit-down job, but you know, give me a break man"!
Laughs
[Colleen]
Well, what I loved, one thing you wrote about Ibiza, that I wanted to kind of start with, is that Ibiza is a place where people have always gone to escape. And it's really, it's a refuge, and it's not even, not only like Spain, but it's also not even like the other Balearic islands…
[TSDJ]
Dude, I woke up from a coma in Mallorca, and first of all, they've got completely different accent, you know. And and also their, their version of catalan is medellín, is not like ibizan, it's a different language. And they think that we're like satan, he was like "there's a dj in there he's from ibiza!" you know. And, they they kind of come, they would file in to have a look at you, you know like, you're like a monkey in a in a cage, you know because they think that the mayorkans are is where the government is, and that's who we pay our taxes to. And, and that's the center of the balearic government, so they hate Ibiza, and Ibiza hates Mallorca, so it's, and it's... It's hilarious really, so don't even get started with the main!
Laughs
[Colleen]
You know, I didn't realize there was that sense of isolation, but also a sense of always being invaded, if you could talk maybe, before the british invasion!
[TSDJ]
It's still being invaded, it's a constant, it's a constant invader, constant slow invasion, but it's been the most invaded piece of real estate possibly in, in the world because it's right in the middle of, you know, classicism. It's right in the middle of the the greeks, and the phoenicians, and the romans, and, and, and right in the middle, because obviously they would use, uh you know the peninsula and Gibraltar, which would then, they would go around to the Atlantic.
So you know there was all that other western bit of um... of the ancient empires, obviously the moors, and the barbary pirates, and you know... And right in the middle is this tiny little island that produces salt, and you can't do shit without salt, because salt preserves food before... before refrigeration was even a crazy sci-fi concept, so you couldn't travel, you couldn't trade, you couldn't go to war if you didn't have salt. And that's why the romans invented the word salary, it's because legionnaires used to get paid in salt because it was worth more than gold at one point you know.
So salt was everything, salt was the, the engine that drove empire. So to have a salt they also had salt flats in sicily and sardinia as well, and uh... It was, you know, the perfect place. So it's almost like a gas station, you know, the gas station of history. So ibiza would, because it was so tiny, there was never enough ibyshenkos to fight anyone, so they just get steam, and that's one of the reasons why they're so tiny, they were very small people because all the big people got killed. And also like the national dress, it makes every, makes young pretty girls look like old ladies from a distance from the telescope, because there was, they would look on a telescope and say 'oh look a lady", and then they would just go and take that lady unless she dressed like an old hag! So the sort of traditional costume of loads of petticoats, and sort of scars on your head was like an old lady cosplay.
And all the houses are painted white if they're facing inland, but they painted brown if the walls face the sea, as a form of camouflage. So the the era of the barbary pirates was particularly bad, you know, so that it's been invaded forever you know, since since the dawn of time because it had this precious resource. And of course, the spanish would invade.
Then eventually it was King Philip who took, uh... put ibiza back into the stone age, because Ibiza became quite wealthy until until the, um... the, it's always the christians man, the christians just turn up and just kick the shit out of everything!
So King Philip said, Mmh... Nice pile of salt you've got there Ibiza, I'm gonna have that, you know, but I... here look, and to this day there's a big mountain of salt which is a a sock, it's given to the islanders to say, do you know, what we're gonna take your entire economy and your history, and your future, but here's some salt! That pile of salt you can see, there's always a big pile, like a pyramid of salt you can literally just drive and fill your car up with salt. That's King Philip's gift to the people of Ibiza, we're going to take everything that you've got your riches, your your culture, your your, you know, your children's future, but you can have some salt!
Laughs
[Colleen]
Thank you thank you King Philip! Now is Ibiza founded by the Phoenicians, though do they name…
[TSDJ]
Well, I mean, they were one of the first civilizations, the purple people. Phoenicians had that that purple dye that ended up in the, you know, in the cloaks of kings. It was a very rare uh, in form of indigo wasn't it? And the purple people were, you know, a seagoing empire from north africa really, from Carthage, they became the Carthaginians eventually. The Carthaginians and the Romans kicked the shit out of each other for a hundred years, you know, maybe more. The punic wars are the wars between the root, the Romans, and the Carthaginians.
Funny enough there's not many books in english about this stuff, there's not many books of history about Ibiza, and about north africa that are in english because it's of little interest to english-speaking countries. But, um..., once you learn Spanish and start to read some of the many books in spanish about it, then it's... Then it's fascinating because it's a very rich part of the world. I mean, before they had compasses, I mean, The Vikings had a primitive form of navigation, using a sort of slightly translucent stone. But um... Most maps of the mediterranean used to be on the side, so um... Say for instance Gibraltar would be the northernmost point and when you look at, when you tilt the map of the mediterranean, until it's like a long a long um... uh if you like vertical line uh... It makes a lot more sense, you just kind of see it more, as more as a... As a world then, because it's, if you like, a very all the edges of the mediterranean, where all the great um... empires and cultures lived.
Because obviously trade and sea travel and, you know uh..., you know, fertile land, and and jewels, and salt, and all these things were essential to survive, and obviously fresh water was essential. And uh..., if you like, everything that we know is, is around the lip of the mediterranean as it were, and then bang in the middle of the Balearics and Sardinia, and, and Sicily, who all, who all, who were equally invaded you might say, but because they were larger land areas, they had, you know, they had perhaps enough population to fight back a little bit. But ibiza was just so tiny it would just get completely razed. Oh you would just take a couple of ships full of nutcases to take a bit, you know, and they would leave with everything as they still do to this day in in different ways.
I didn't... I didn't go there professionally until the mid 90s. And then I started to play at Space, and uh... I was... And then I became um... a resident for, for home, which was Darren Hughes's uh spinoff from Cream, and we started to do sundays every sunday at space. And that was when I started to do, you know, whole seasons, as it were, and then I... Actually to my, to my great shame, I didn't really get into Ibiza for a very long time, because I would arrive there, get absolutely hammered, everything was just like neon and vomit because it was either playa de bosa or san Antonio, and I used to think it was like you know like blackpool or margaret. It was just kind of gross, and touristy. And then, once, I missed... I completely, legitimately missed the flight. It was cheap to hire a car and get a hotel. So i ended up driving around ibiza for the first time with my buddy, and I was like... Am i a dickhead or what?! I had no idea this place was beautiful! I didn't have a clue! Because, you know, you'd arrive in the middle of the night, or in the morning, get on a coach, or, or if you're going to playa de bossa you wouldn't even see everybody, you'd go like, you know, it's a hop and a skip from the airport to bossa and just kind of, just do the dj gigs and then leave, and i'd be like how can it be hot at night?! What is wrong with this place?! You know why is it hot at night? Who can sleep? And i couldn't wait to get home!
I used to find it like a bit oppressive, and sort of cheesy, and touristy. And then i just accidentally, sort of, drove around. I was like... Whoaa! Am I an idiot or what?! This place is amazing! And that's when I fell for it when i kind of realized what a fool i'd been! And also what a trick it is, because it's 90% uninhabited and 99% awesome. It's just these tiny little twat paddocks where we keep all the dickheads where we just keep them in san antonio, where and that's what the locals do. It's very clever, they just bust them out! It's like you're going to a safari park, you know, careful kid, wind up windows, these monkeys bite, you know, you... You can go, drive around, go drive around san antonio like it's with safari park, and go look at the tigers, and monkeys, and bears... you know, but the rest of it's completely empty! And, and that was... That was a great, that, that's the great beef illusion. That's the trick, that the locals call is, that they they put us into these little, little um... machines for extracting money!
[Colleen]
But how about now that you've been there for a while, are you still regarded as an outsider, or do you think you have a little bit more…
[TSDJ]
When i was in london there'd always be somebody in london, I mean... I remember once being told by somebody um... In london, who was about 17 years old, that I'll never be a londoner. And I was like, I've just realized I've actually spent more time in london than you being you know being like nearly 60, you know!
And... But it doesn't matter because to them if you, you know, you know..., it's like the, the way the racism we're seeing at the moment. There's always somebody who's more local than you are. The thing is not... Is not to wear a false crown, so you know, it's like, I don't consider myself in a v chenco. I don't call myself an islander because that's basically wearing a t-shirt that says I'm a knobhead, you know. But it's, it's like, you know. But you've just got it, you've just got to be realistic about it. It's like you know. I'm a foreigner, I live there I've got an irish passport I'm a tax paying uh citizen, but I'm not a spanish citizen. I'm a... I'm what's called a full resident and it's a complex, it's a complex system. But I am those things. I don't have a quick... I think it's a bit of a lie to start saying yeah I'm from Ibiza or I'm gonna be, you see people who've got, you know, their, their social media handles is dave Ibiza...
[Colleen]
Well it's kind of hard for me to say because I have a show that says baleric breakfast!
[TSDJ]
Yeah but you're... You get it. You... You understand that balearicaring means anything goes...
[Colleen]
That's i'm using it as a anything goes, and it was also named during the pandemic when we all wanted to be outside of our homes, and it just seemed very enticing as well...
[TSDJ]
You get it, it's not difficult, you know you get it, it's not a difficult thing to get. You'd be amazed how few people get it, you know? Yeah? because there's nothing more scary to a straight white man than not giving him any rules... I need? Oh my god, I need rules... Give me rules!
[Colleen]
Well, speaking of no rules, let's talk about the mix you've done for us, because I didn't give you any rules, and it's really great to have a mix from you, thank you so much for doing it. Tell us a little bit about it...
[TSDJ]
I've been doing my mixcloud for so long, and, and I sometimes call things a balearic this and a balearic that, mocking me because the only reason it's called balearic it's because I did it in Ibiza.
It's got absolutely nothing, nothing to do with what the british think balearic is. And, and so that's the first time I've done, an I can't remember, I mean, I think I did an hour once in 1997, so I was very confused by only having an hour, and I did my best, and I'm still scratching my arse after 45 minutes because, you know, for me for me, uh... You know, djing is a bit like the new thing rock and jazz, you know. A jazz solo is, you know, you're still finding your feet when the rock guy's uh, you know, sweating and needs to lie down! So you know, with a rock solo you just burn you know straight away, and like a jazz... A jazz solo it's like you're exploring, you know, you're still sort of wandering around, looking at the supermarket shelves, you know, what, you know, while the rock, while the rock guy's already at home eating the tin beans, you know!
So it's it's one of those things where I had to get to the point really quickly in an hour, and I found it very confusing. I did my best; I put a few classics in there like um... Like the passionara. it's just funny enough um... That was made, that was basically just a flamenco guitarist they paid to come in with a sample, um you know, with the classic um batchy sample. But this is really um Marius de Vries who's now a huge hollywood soundtrack guy, you know, he did like la la land and he does like all these movies, and he comes to viva all the time, so it's a weird sort of, um uh... synchronicity going on there, and we often talk about what's balearic and what isn't.
He's greatly amused that the passionara is a balearic classic because he just... They did, they did it for a laugh in about an hour you know. I had no idea that this... that this was gonna happen and so yeah, so I sent it to you and I called it a cod balearic mix because um... I don't really understand or participate in the British Balearic thing, because it's like something that the british do, and no other country does it.
If you go to an italian in the beach and say hey do you want to go to a balearic night he's like what? Let's go to a balearic night, and he's like we're in Ibiza? I'm like no no no no you don't understand, it's like you know it's it's it's dj balearic Keith from Barnsley! And they just look at you like you're out, you're deranged! So it's like... So yeah, I don't really participate in that thing, but because I've been working from, and with and in ibiza for so long, I differentiate by balearic with, I spell proper balearic with a capital B and British balearic with a small b that's the way that I…
[Colleen]
Uh okay, I'll remember that distinction...
[TSDJ]
Or, sometimesn I do balearic with a small b in inverted commas you know, and it's and it's a sort of almost like... A sort of um... It's like a cosplay of balearic, is the british play thing. You know, like those guys who dress up as as roundheads and cavaliers at the weekend, and, and like fight each other with foam each other with shields and swords, yeah, or laughers you know... People who put spock ears on and go at each other with foam swords there's a some of these balearic guys with a small b a bit kind of like cosplaying djs you know. They sort of, they've got nice jobs, and they've got like a lovely record collection in the garage, you know it's sort of, you know, they're cosplaying the 90s. They had a great time in the 90s, and it's sort of um... They're imposing all these rules about you know what balearic is and what it isn't. And you know, exchanging chris records and stuff, and it's kind of... Meanwhile in Ibiza not barsley you know!
It's funny enough, I mean... I have what you might describe as alfredo's last mix, which is because when I looked after him when he was poorly in his last few years, last three years of his life, I was tech support, you know, get the phone calls, do sort his phone out, sort his laptop out, and he always, he's always thought he was gonna have this big comeback, which was really cool, you know, and sweet and and um... There's this mix and... And sort of when I look at it, and uh and it's basically any musicologist would call it afro beat, you know. It's very very north african, is the balearic sound, the real balearic sound, capital b. Uh... Not just culturally and historically, but I mean ibiza, ibeza, is the best, is that is a north african god, you know. That is its connection to north africa, I mean every every word in spanish with l on the front is pure arabian, you know. This is a very very north african culture, and in its roots and a lot of that original blare the original balearic djs all have this sort of afro beat kind of um... Strain running through everything that they do...
[Colleen]
And it's the italians too in the 1970s, I think they even used what was the word they used I think they did call it afro right?
[TSDJ]
Yeah. And it's very sort of world music kind of vibe. There's a lot of um... It's quite recognizably sort of a bit hippie, let's you know, let's, let's, let's not beat about the bush Alfredo was very much uh a totem for some of the hippie culture there, the hippies love Alfredo and and he's definitely saw himself in that milieu, you know. But it's pure afro, this, this, this kind of final mix, if you like, and it's got nothing at all to do with the British idea of what balearic is, nothing. It's quite dance, I mean, what you know. You'd go to alfredo dj when he was fit and well, and he'd be playing music to dance to, to, you know, and that dancing music was very afro in, in, in feel and, and in stance, and and historically it's just a big big strain the strata that runs through the whole thing, it's where it's north africa's a huge influence on everything to do with the food, you know, the moroccan kind of flavors, little sort of stone pots, it's lamb, olives, and it's very sort of north african. So it's a huge part of it, another thing that the british scene completely doesn't get no clue, you know, and this, this this, part of it's very overlooked, and I'd hate to say it's a little bit racist as well, you know, it's like, it's something that's dismissed in favor of the, you know, the great british white version of events you know...
[Colleen]
Well they've been fascinating to talk to and I just want to direct people. You wrote three chapters which are up on your facebook...
[TSDJ]
Well I wrote with Alfredo...
[Colleen]
Yeah is that coming out?
[TSDJ]
Yeah... I'm, I'm just... I'm not sure what to do about it. It doesn't feel right making money out of it, so I'm trying to think of a way of what to do about that. So i've got a book about the last three years I was alfredo's carer for want of a better word, and um... And he's been my friend since I, since I first came to ibiza, uh... you know, and a mentor if you like, you know I very much looked up to him and he very much looked down on me, (laughs) he thought I was, he thought I was equal parts annoying and hilarious, depending on what was going on, but um... Yeah, we we were buddies, and um... And then, when I found that, you know, as you tend to, you do tend to get cast aside when you get older, I ended up looking after him, yeah... So I wrote this book that was about, basically, a lifetime of friendship, really. I was going to call it Walking with Alfredo but of course that's a bit like walking with dinosaurs! (laughs) I knew that the british would mock that so I turned it to Dancing with Alfredo, and it's from the first moment I saw him at amnesia in the 80s to to pretty much when he died so... And those three years are a big part of it was sort of going to the old folk. So it's very slow, it's... I mean if my first book was like fair and loathing this is much more like um... you know, mortimer and whitehouse go fishing. It's like, it's it's two, two, two old grumpy old geezers kind of being grumpy old geezers, you know, like uh waldorf and stadler...
[Colleen]
I loved it, I read the three chapters, I guess. They're in you know, the three parts you put on facebook trying to talk a little bit try to squeeze some of the history in there as well...
[TSDJ]
Not trying not to make it too me me me, but you know, I couldn't help but be there, but you know, it's you know, it's a kind of, you know, a potted, a potted history built around the friendship...
[Colleen]
Around the friendship, yeah exactly...
Ed. Note: Colleen paid tribute to DJ Alfredo during Balearic Breakfast, you can access the page of this poignant episode here.
[TSDJ]
Positive as well you know...
[Colleen]
Yeah. I did and it's it's really, really beautiful. And I had I had the opportunity just to meet him one time, and I was very, very thankful. But it was great reading what you, you know the just, just to get to know him a bit more through your writing, and... uh.... before we go and we just go back to your mix, I also want to just send a personal thank you for all that you do in our community, um... Kind of risking your own sometimes reputation and your own mental health uh... for exposing some of the really nasty things that have been happening in dance music, from you know far-right extremism, to sexual assault on women, and to many other things, and I don't want to get into naming names, but I just want to thank you because what you do is...
[TSDJ]
I name I name the name so you don't have to!
[Colleen]
Exactly you name the name so I don't have to, thank you secret dj...
[TSDJ]
Yeah, I mean I've been getting... I get credible death threats and I have to have security sweeps and things like that, but then again you know I do write for Private Eye and we've had, you know, we do things like deal with the saudis who do chop up journalists and put them in bins, so you know, dj dickhead from rotherham is not a huge problem...
[Colleen]
Well I still thank you!
[TSDJ]
You know, and a lot of these guys and they get quite tough with me, and they send me all these threats and stuff, and I'm like guys, you know, I literally, literally the other day, had to talk to mi5 about, about a Private Eye story. You're not that tough you know...
[Colleen]
I just wanted to thank you, I just wanted to thank you, because, you know, this stuff does need to come out. Yeah, you're very rare in that regard. Most people, well actually, I know a lot of people that really applaud what you do, and I want you to know that. So thank you so much, and thank you for this wonderful mix and for your take on... You know uh... Ibiza... thank you so much...
[TSDJ]
No, thank you. Thanks also for doing your thing man. You, you're a... You're a bright voice in a very dark place sometimes... I love it!
THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE
Both mixes greatly present how to build a set, I dare to say it, cleverly. Often, I listen to mixes that keep the same BPM throughout their entire lenght. It's not I don't like these, they can work out well occasionally, but, you know, it's like audio compression, too much of it and it gets tiring. So, and as I've learned with Colleen, and of course also thanks to David, and from my own feelings as a chkd watching rock concerts, I mean, it's great when you have a journey-like musical experience when listening to a mix. And here, both the Secret DJ and Pooky really perfectly showcase what a powerhorse a mix can be when it allows the listener to breathe, to enter an unknown world, to travel through it and get out of it, slowly, having surprises all along the way...
One of the thing that stroke me is that both of the mixes we heard in this episode had that growing start, allowing you to enter the mix, then a solid middle musical part , a surprising Breaking point and then an outro, shorter or longer depending on the dj doing their thing.
Without being too long, and just to explain my point, the breaking point in The Secret DJ's set happens when he plays the incredible track Movement 7 by Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders. Pooky, on the other side, did also propose a Splendid Break by Cleverly, and Beautifuly slowing down the rhythm of the track he played, namely Jim Sharp's Mix of D'Angelo's D'Angela, allowing him to land perfectly on Randy Crawford's Endlessly! That's a perfect move!
By playing with Rhythm, both of our friends instilled a Soul to their set, creating a whole world of emotions... Really, if you want to bring your dancers on their knees, there's no other way round than to follow this way of building and conducting a set! Congratulations guys!!
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