NTS Radio broadcast the 5th episode of Balearic Brunch on February 25th 2024.
About this show. – For those of you who follow me here, you all know by now, I suppose, how much I love Colleen's "Balearic Brunch" shows. I feel I need to share more details about the "whys"! First, these shows are shorter, and this smaller format allows Colleen to be more "focused", musically speaking, I feel the intellectual unity is stronger in these shows, the mental pictures appear quickly! Even though we would all love to have 2-hour episodes, I feel it wouldn't have the same musical impact. Also, did you notice that Colleen uses her voice differently during these shows? She's giving them another DNA by doing this, a pro is a pro, right? Lastly, Balearic Breakfast is never too far away as Colleen always mentions it during Balearic Brunch!
This episode very quickly allowed me to see someone diving into an ocean, of music of course, laughs!, but we're going to come back to this vision in the detailed playlist in a few moments. A great new episode of "Balearic Brunch" for sure!
Listen back to the 5th episode of Balearic Brunch:
PLAYLIST
Nine Voices – And so it goes
Alina Bzhezhinska & Tony Kofi – Anima
Yoshiko Sai – Aoi Galasudama
E. Lundquist – My Sun
Max Essa – Belgian Caravan
Split Enz – Message to My Girl (Pete Blaker by the Sea edit)
Esa – A muto (Kalson Cosmic Rework)
Feel Fly – Esperanto (Marcoradi Remix)
Fred Everything (feat. James Alexander Bright) – Breathe
Crown Heights Affair – Dreaming a Dream (2024 rework)
THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE
Being welcomed by the beautiful vocal-only ensemble "Nine Voices", one can only picture oceanic depths appearing before surprised eyes. With the incredibly profound Nine Voices – And so it goes [2024-Bandcamp], Colleen perfectly sets the tone of what will be, to me, the first deep-diving show of the "Balearic series" (by the way, "Nine Voices" is a three-vocalist ensemble composed of Emma Thorpe, Ben Smith & Huw Costin)! This willingness to take us on a diving trip is confirmed by the second track, Alina Bzhezhinska & Tony Kofi – Anima - Breathe [2024-Bandcamp]. The slow rhythm and almost meditative ambience (with the use of some light electronic reverb) help the listener to picture a diver swimming towards an unknown destination, somewhere deep down the abysses... Yoshiko Sai – Aoi Galasudama [1976-Discogs] is, to me, a turning point in the story as it allows us to picture the beauties of the ocean we swim in... What a track... For your information, the Japanese singer, composer and poet did the artwork of most of her albums. Soon after her fourth album was out in 1978, she retired from the music industry until 30 years later, in 2008, when she released another album, "Taklamakan". Words are not enough to say how much we were Wowed when we all heard this song, which will be featured on the compilation Nippon Psychedelic Soul 1970-1979! Though the next track's soul is slightly less "waterly balearic" (laughs!), E. Lundquist – My Sun [2024-Bandcamp] allows the listener to focus on the diver as he leaves the abysses, enjoying a more relaxed part of the ocean with Max Essa – Belgian Caravan [2024-Discogs]. The music played in the first part of this 4th episode of Balearic Brunch is so nicely put together that it greatly explains why we love Colleen so much: Music simply flows whenever she shares it!
The second part of the show starts with the also very oceanic Split Enz – Message to My Girl (Pete Blaker by the Sea edit) [1984-Discogs]. In several interviews, composer and Split's Enz frontman Neil Finn (now a member of Fleetwood Mac after Lindsey Buckingham left the band) shared how much every aspect of love had already been covered in songs and how much he didn't felt like saying "I love you" out loud in his songs, and peculiarly in this very one, thus meeting ways with another very Balearic (and sad) song composed by Jean-Jacques Goldman, "Sache Que Je"...
Our diver, happy with what he saw, came back to the surface, ready to have a good time with his friends, and he does that while dancing on Esa – A muto (Kalson Cosmic Rework) [2023-Bandcamp]! The original 1986 track has been featured during the 160th episode of Balearic Breakfast by our dear Kieran McCann.
The last three tracks of this Balearic Brunch episode take us on a trippier musical trip, starting with Feel Fly – Esperanto (Marcoradi Remix) [2022-Bandcamp] and beautifully encapsulating Fred Everything (feat. James Alexander Bright) – Breathe [2024] which makes me wanna come back to an important element of Colleen's DNA: when she mixes, she, as a human being mixing records, disappears behind the music... Ending the show with Crown Heights Affair – Dreaming a Dream [2024 rework], there is one thing we really need to do: listen to that diving musical trip once again!