Colleen live on Gilles Peterson's 'Brownswood Basement' (June 06th 2024)

Gilles Peterson invited Colleen to his weekly 'Brownswood Basement' radio show on Worldwide FM on June 06th 2024.

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About this show. – Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy joined Gilles in the studio this week to discuss her latest release, Balearic Breakfast: Volume 3. Gilles is also joined by Kiiōtō (Lou Rhodes and Rohan Heath) for a stripped-back live session and for conversation with Rikki Stein and Mark Murphy.

Listen back to Brownswood Basement (6th June 2024):

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PLAYLIST

Curtis Mayfield – We Gotta Have Peace

SHOLTO – For The Love of Stripes

Melissa Aldana – Echoes Of The Inner Prophet

IZCO & P Wavey – Beauty Inside

Androo – Lyriso

Joe Armon-Jones feat. Nubya Garcia – Nubya's Side of Town

Holy Tongue feat. Dali De Saint Paul – Breicha

Bricknasty – Ina crueler

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble feat. Yasiin Bey – Space

Mås Ēxödus – Arrival (lofi version mastered)

Andromeda Turre feat. ELEW – Earth Waltz

Insane Who Sane Featuring DePeila – Keep Pushin' Aun (Original Neo​-​Tech Soul mix)

William S. Fischer – Patience Is Virtue

James Alexander Bright – Oh My

Yara Lapidus – B4 from The Man Who Sold The World

Metronomy feat. Faux Real & Miki – Contact High

TYSON – Jumpstart

James Clay – New Delhi

Rubel – Forró Violento

Bruno Berle – Tirolirole

Mike Welch – All My Life

Jimetta Rose & The Voices of Creation – Portals

Jacob Gurevitsch – Elevation In Minor (Cosmodelica Remix)

Zero 7 – On My Own (12" Version)

Pigeon – Infinity (Josh's Extended Disco Mix)

Scientist – The Voodoo Curse

Scientist – Dance of The Vampires

Scientist – Blood On His Lips

Fela Kuti – Question Jam Answer

Charles Aznavour – For Me Formidable

Rachid Taha, Brian Eno & Mick Jones – Rock el Casbah (live)

Fela Kuti – Fear Not For Man

Randy Crawford – You Might Need Somebody

Kiiōtō – Painkiller

Kiiōtō – Hem [live in session]

Kiiōtō – Here Comes The Flood [live in session]

Kiiōtō – Song For Bill [live in session]

A Guy Called Gerald & Lou Rhodes – Humanity

Kuna Maze – Broken Light

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THE INTERVIEW

colleen and gilles

[Gilles]

Yes, Colleen. Hi. Hello. It's lovely to see you.

[Colleen]

Great to see you. It's been a while.

[Gilles]

It's been a while.

[Colleen]

Oh, no, actually, I saw you at BBE at Muscle Cars. We were. Yeah, I did see you there. Just a few.

[Colleen]

Well, my daughter was tending bar.

[Gilles]

Was she?

[Colleen]

Yeah, she works.

[Gilles]

She works for Pete. It's become a spot, hasn't it?

[Colleen]

It has. It has. And I'll be doing a party over there with Hands On Fam.

[Gilles]

Will you?

[Colleen]

Yeah, I don't want to mention the date yet because I have to promote my breakfast release party first, but we'll be doing one. Yeah, I'm really excited about that.

[Gilles]

They've nailed the sound in there, haven't they?

[Colleen]

It sounds fantastic. They have all that great Klipsch heritage speakers, Cornwalls, which are some of my favorites, actually. Great, great frequency response on those. I don't want to get too crazy on the sound system here, but it does sound wonderful. And the thing actually, and it's a beautiful vibe. That's the thing that's so great.

[Gilles]

Yeah, I think Pete does. If there were medals being given out to people who sort of support the scene over the years, I think Pete gets it because, I mean, that label, BBE.

[Colleen]

When I worked at Dance Tracks, I'll be honest with you, actually, when I had mentioned to David and I think it was 1998, David had been suffering quite, you know, so much monetarily at the time. I suggested he do a compilation because I had just done a mixed CD for Nervous Records. I thought that's a way that he could maybe get some green energy. And he said he wanted to do it with me. I was surprised. And I thought I didn't have a label. I thought of two labels, one Nuphonic, of course, the other was BBE. I never got to Pete, though, because, you know, I had been working at Dance Tracks and BBE had such great compilations. BBE did the Stranger Games and things. They had great comps. And I just really admire what Pete has done over the years, over the decades, we should say.

[Gilles]

Well, that loft Nuphonic compilation, you know, you still it's iconic, whether it was on BBE, you know, they did a great job.

[Colleen]

Yeah, Nufonic did a great job. It was a good job.

[Gilles]

And it was an amazing collection. And it was, of course, your relationship with David Mancuso, who you're talking about. And there's been some talk in the press this week, right?

[Colleen]

Yeah, it's upsetting that it's come to this, that it's had to come out publicly. But, you know, there is a group that have kind of taken control of the loft party in New York, David's assets. And also, they've been controlling the narrative, actually, in the community since David's passing.

And there have been a lot of kind of untruths and misconstrued accounts and statements that have, you know, I think some have maybe influenced by personal motivations that aren't in alignment with David's vision and David's wishes. And tragically, that's kind of what's been out there. And many of us haven't had a voice, you know, which has been really difficult, as you can imagine.

And yeah, sadly, the family after so much behind the scenes trying to work things out or trying to communicate and just being rebuffed, and those opportunities not being taken by that other party. This is what the family has had to resort to.

[Gilles]

Okay, well, it's obviously super complicated. You've been an immense champion of the work of your mentor.

[Colleen]

Yeah.

[Gilles]

And over the years, and there is an exhibition happening in New York, right?

[Colleen]

There is Yeah,

[Gilles]

Which is celebrating his life. And yeah.

[Colleen]

But yeah, that that that, again, I'm gonna have no comments on that publicly at the moment. It's just, it's just very sad. You know, David had chosen three women along with another man to represent his legacy. And he wanted the parties to continue as you know, as they did. And, you know, one of those women was Elise Sifanushin, who was his best friend, his chosen health proxy. She's been sidelines throughout this. Donna Weiss, as well, who is his the face at the door for 40 years consistently with one of the people who never left David's side. Again, she hasn't been celebrated or taken into account. And then obviously myself as well, when David asked me to be chairwoman of the board.

So you have this kind of female majority. And David was always, always championed women's rights. And his vision of the loft was one of, you know, he championed civil rights, he championed gay liberation, he championed champion women's liberation, 55 years ago, even longer. And these things are all kind of coming to the fore now, he was way ahead of the time with his vision, and kind of protecting a very safe space with integrity. And it's been very challenging since he passed. I, on a personal level, have thought many times of just walking away, it got that bad.

But, you know, it's very difficult when you've made promises to somebody who's your mentor and one of your best friends. And when you see David's vision, not being executed properly, and not being executed with his core values, integrity, and safe space. And that's something that we have to protect.

It's something that's worth protecting. I mean, I feel for the family, because they're the ones that are kind of in the firing line on this. And, you know, sadly, they, you know, there is a legal dispute between them and these, this group. Luckily, Elise, Donna and myself are not involved in any legal dispute, because we don't know anything, and we didn't take anything. But of course, we support, well, we have to support the law, number one, but also they really tried to do the right thing for so long. And, you know, I've, you know, it's, it will all come out the truth, the truth will eventually set us free on this. But for now, well, that's all I really want to say.

[Gilles]

Thank you so much for saying that. And it's interesting, because I mean, we're talking about PBBE, having been such an important sort of important part of the structure and the infrastructure of the scene. So have you. And you know, you've come and you've celebrated and it's been consistent and it's forward thinking and it's in the spirit of David and, and that scene that you grew up around, which ends up with records like the New Balearic Breakfast. Now, funnily enough, my, my, my encounter with David, weirdly enough, I only ever played with him once, but I did. I don't know if you know this, but it's funny.

I remember this as you were talking just now, because I'm going to Portugal to play a gig this weekend. And the last time I think I was in Portugal was with David.

[Colleen]

Oh, my Gosh...

[Gilles]

It was that many years ago, it was at a festival. And I remember he was so specific about the sound. I remember he was there, he was there all day, basically, just getting it ready. You know, I remember he was just extra sort of, you know, I just turned up with my records.

[Colleen]

As he said, he said, good sound is a human right. Yeah.

[Gilles]

We got Colleen Cosmo Murphy here today. Good morning to you. Welcome.

[Gilles]

You just tuned in. Great track. Thank you so much for bringing in your album.

[Colleen]

Thank you. This is a remix I did for a Danish guitarist who plays Spanish guitar, Jacob Gurevich. Yeah. And it's called elevations in minor. And, you know, it's one of the, you know, you do a remix. And then I sometimes, I don't know, I just don't get sick of it. But I just don't always love it immediately.

[Gilles]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

And this is one I actually kept liking.

[Gilles]

Do you play your remixes out?

[Colleen]

Not all of them.

[Gilles]

Not all of them. I played the Secret Nightgang one.

[Colleen]

I think. Well, that was I really enjoyed that opportunity. Thank you. I mean, that was I did. I have played that one. I actually even had an acetate made so I could play it at the loft because we only have digital. We only have digital on that remix.

[Gilles]

Did we never put it on vinyl?

[Gilles]

No, no. Wow. That's something we have to do. We're just doing a new. Anyway, I'll talk to Emily about that. And so with regards and the other one that was really big for you was the Lady Blackbird, that was really big.

[Colleen]

I think it was the top five in the DJ history.

[Gilles]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

You know, poll at the end of the year. That was a great opportunity. And I loved working with Ross Allen on that. Usually I don't I just get on with my mix and I don't really discuss it with A&R. But with Ross, he had we talked throughout it and even before and we just had such a good time. I respect him so much as an A&R guy, also as a radio presenter and a great ear. But I think we got somewhere really, really great with that. And I'm really, really proud of that one. It sounds very different to a lot of other things. I think has a real bluesy vibe, but her voice. I mean, did you hear the new thing? The Slave to the Rhythm cover?

[Gilles]

I haven't heard that.

[Colleen]

Oh, that I put it on the Balearic Breakfast Show this week.

[Gilles]

Slave to the Rhythm?

 [Colleen]

Yeah. Trevor Horn did a whole album of covers and Lady Blackbird sings Slave to the Rhythm. That's interesting. Unreal.

[Gilles]

Well, we're bigging up Ross Allen and Ross listens to this show.

[Colleen]

Oh, hey, Ross.

[Gilles]

I can't believe you didn't you didn't tell me about that. But probably because it's not he's not putting that one out.

[Colleen]

Oh, yeah, exactly. That's probably why. Yeah, she has her a new EP out. We should say that about Lady Blackbird.

[Gilles]

Absolutely. And also when it comes to your remixes and stuff, this one you just played is that did it come out?

[Colleen]

It came out of Music for Dreams. Yeah, but it didn't come out on vinyl. So this Balearic Breakfast Volume 3 compilation, there's a lot of things on there that never came out on vinyl. It could be remixes of mine or things that I've played that we got from Bandcamp, you know, from labels and artists that don't have the cash flow to print, you know, to press vinyl.

We know there's not a huge return on that. And so, yeah, it's great to have the opportunity to be able to do that. And plus a few older things that are kind of harder to find on vinyl, especially that Primal Scream. Goodness. And that 07.

[Gilles]

We're going to play that in a moment. So we're talking about the labels a bit. I think Heavenly have done a great job as well, because this wasn't it's like, you know, they released they did the Mild Life album. They did that.

[Colleen]

Yeah, we just went to see them the other night. We went with the Heavenly crew with Jeff Barrett and Danny and Daisy and Georgia and Catherine. It was great.

[Gilles]

And all the kids work in different record shops.

[Colleen]

Yeah, just like my daughter.

[Gilles]

Yeah, no, it's great.

[Colleen]

My daughter did her internship at Heavenly. Yeah, the nepotism. Sorry.

[Gilles]

What did Heavenly mean to you as a label? Because it was...

[Colleen]

Saint Etienne was the first one. And when Fox Bass Alpha came out, I mean, I was living in New York and all of the a lot of the British music that was coming out at that time had a huge influence on me. Like first was Soul to Soul, then with Massive Attack, Blue Lines, Screamadelica was a massive album for me, as was Fox Bass Alpha. I need to do a classic album Sunday. So Saint Etienne, I've already been talking to Jeff about this.

[Gilles]

How many have you done, by the way?

[Colleen]

Hundreds. Hundreds. You know, I started in 2010.

[Gilles]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

And yeah, it was before the listening bar movement. It was before the Vinyl Renaissance.

[Gilles]

You know, when you focus on one record and you've done it and you talk to one of the members of the band or whoever it was within the group or the singer or whatever, and you do all the thing and you concentrate and you have the event. And like you had recently at the London British Museum with Jazzy B, you did Eddie Grant, didn't you?

[Colleen]

Yeah. So I've actually interviewed both for the British Library, Eddie Grant. And then I've also interviewed Jazzy many times, but also at the British Library, the one about Club Classics.

[Gilles]

Yeah, that was good. And so when you do that and you've sort of, do you do you ever go back to that? You know, it's almost like you can't listen to those records again. You're almost over. Which record do you listen to again from all the ones?

[Colleen]

Oh, you know, I end up listening to a lot of them because they're all rediscoveries for me. I go, oh, my gosh, I forgot how much I love this album. And also just the act of sitting down and listening to an album in its entirety is really good. Sometimes I do that as a break at the end of the day, as a transition moment from work into, you know, nighttime relaxing, either that or beating my husband at backgammon, you know, so.

[Gilles]

Or the two at the same time.

[Colleen]

Two at the same time, exactly. But it's a really great thing to do. I mean, I'm just looking right now, Gil Scott-Heron, Pieces of a Man. You sit down and you listen to, I'm just looking at your record collection, or Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt. These are great classic albums. And just sitting and listening and not doing anything else for 45 minutes is a great way to, like, lower your blood pressure, to get your head maybe out of these negative thought loops, which is something I've had to practice a lot over the last few years. And, you know, it's just and also to kind of recognize this as a whole statement by an artist. It's an entire artistic statement, whether or not it's a concept album. But it's great.

I get to rediscover so much music.

[Gilles]

So because, of course, my problem as well, with regards to what we do on a day to day being that we have to listen to music, new music, old music, the whole thing. So sometimes to find that moment to put on that classic record doesn't always come easily.

[Colleen]

No, it doesn't. Yeah. And because we're listening to music all day. I get that, you know, you have to have other hobbies as well. So but it is once you commit to it, and you'll get drawn in. Yeah, I promise you.

[Gilles]

I mean, so this is this great. And that 45 minutes before going to bed. Let's play this. Actually, this is a classic record as well. Not this particular one. This record might well be when we play it. But their first album, 07.

[Colleen]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Simple things. Simple things. I wanted to do a classic album Sundays with them about this too. I'm already working on that. It was a very important album, actually, for my husband and I to kind of soundtrack to our courtship. You know, these these albums have cultural influence, but they also become personal soundtracks as well. And that album was very and Sia being on that as well. I mean, she had just and then I got her solo album and went down that little kind of, you know, rabbit hole. But I'm really pleased 07 are playing with me. They're they're DJing. They're doing a DJ set for the record release party at NTS loft on the 15th of June. So very excited about that.

[Gilles]

Good memories of doing a gig actually with Sia at Cafe Mambo. It was when I was on radio one, we did live from Ibiza and we did a session with them. They played live. And I think that night I played at space or something with Carl Cox and I had my very difficult evening live on the road.

[Colleen]

Oh, no. It's like I can kind of imagine now.

[Gilles]

Yeah, you can exactly that and two sides of the musical whatever coming together in front of 3000 Italians on ecstasy. Tricky.

So, Colleen, tell me about what you're up to outside of doing Balearic Breakfast and what's happening with you on the radio at the moment. You were doing lots of stuff live on Twitch and stuff.

[Colleen]

Yeah, you know, I'm still doing Balearic Breakfast. It's the radio show without a radio station, basically. But it's actually kind of in a weird way. It's kind of also upholding David's principles of DIY. I just I continued streaming every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon on my MixCloud Live channel and it gets archived. And the response has been immense. You know, I mean, the thing is, Balearic Breakfast, it's a community. It's not just me now. And this is a request show.

Of course, I curate it. I bring my own music to the table. I host it. I kind of shepherd it. But it's every so many people involved. There's a blog that has nothing to do with me that goes out every single week from a guy named Artur in Paris who does that. I have nothing to do with that. He interviews people. It's amazing. It's amazing. I have guest mixes from some of the contributors. Of course, we do lots of interviews, too. So that that's continued.

I'm also still doing remixes. I have a remix of Bryony Jarman Pinto coming out in True Thoughts in July. It's just come. I think you will like it, actually. I'm going to send it to you. It's called Moving Forward. I love that song. Yes. I did a kind of a more 80s kind of down tempo groove mix.

[Gilles]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

And when they asked me to do it, they said we really love your secret night gang mix. So there you go. There you go.

[Gilles]

Yeah, that's good. She she she played here last week, actually. She was she was brilliant.

[Colleen]

Yeah, she's great. Yeah, very, very modest and and totally like just low key, beautiful, wonderful, soulful person. It was wonderful having you around here last week, Bryony.

[Gilles]

So actually, yeah, you were talking about about your your your your interviews. And of course, you did Eddie Grant.

[Colleen]

Yeah.

[Gilles]

And I saw I went to the exhibition that day the opening day and I saw him. I had met interviewed him actually Worldwide FM previously and I was introduced to him again. He had no clue who I was. And it was it was it was odd because it had been a few years ago. But anyway, how was he? Because he's a legend, right?

[Colleen]

I met him I think over 20 years ago. I think it was 2001 with I may have been Quentin from Strut. Actually, we went out to dinner. And I remember I started I talked to Eddie about I love your coach house rhythm stuff. And he's coach house rhythm section stuff. And he said he turned to his manager and said she knows more about my music than you do, that manager at the time. But I've always wanted to interview him and this opportunity presented itself. So he came over for dinner a couple nights before we did the event.

[Gilles]

Yeah. That's a good idea.

[Colleen]

And because we had had dinner before he had actually invited us to Barbados. We got on so well when I met him over 20 years ago. And he is I respect him so much in so many ways. Of course, there's the creative artists side. I mean, we've all heard the music. He doesn't sound like anyone else. He really forged a different sound that even hit the top 40 airwaves. But he's also as a person, an incredible, incredible person for many reasons. One, he's a real entrepreneur. He's a business entrepreneur. He has also had the business acumen to own his own music and to license some of his stuff to major labels. He even owns the equals music. He's also really spiritual. He kind of you know, the challenges that I've been going through. He was he said a lot of things that really resonated with me.

And he's a family man. He has a great family. And he works you know, his children work with him and they're wonderful. His daughter Pauline is fantastic. His daughter Diane came over for dinner and also came over to our London loft party afterwards. There. I just I really, really adore him and respect him.

[Gilles]

Amazing, amazing. And the talk was good. I bet.

[Colleen]

Oh my gosh. Yeah, it was it was it could have gone on for hours. He is a storyteller. And he has an incredible memory. He can remember everything. He'll say, I was walking across the garden holding a hot chocolate, like, literally detailed stories. And he does have an autobiography coming out, which would be well worth a read.

[Gilles]

But I think it's interesting in the kind of art of interviews, the fact that you spent some time with him before socially, and then because I feel that when I've heard him in the past, even when I interviewed him years and years ago, not prepared like you had, obviously, I felt that he was kind of when they've had such a long career, they tend to fall into those autopilot answers. And so suddenly, you're feeling like, yeah, they're delivering it well. But they've heard I've heard it before somewhere. So to get into the cracks is the idea. And that's what you managed to do.

[Colleen]

I did. And also the thing that was nice is he invited some of his old colleagues, we had members of the equals sitting in the front row.

[Gilles]

Wow.

 [Colleen]

So that just lent a whole kind of electricity, electricity into the air. And I just it was just phenomenal. It was such a career highlight for me. Did you enjoy the exhibition? I have to see it still because I couldn't see it that day. And I've been away I was in the States for a while. Taking care of my mom. But I am going to go see it on a weekday in the morning, not on a weekend. So yeah, I have an invitation. But I've heard my daughter went the next day. I've heard great things. Everyone that's seen it has really said a lot of great things about 500 years of black British music.

[Gilles]

Amazing. The British Museum, which is on now for a little while longer. Colleen, brilliant. What have you got in the summer and the gigs? We're looking forward to we out here of course.

[Colleen]

Yeah, we have the love dance and tent here, which we all love. And thank you again for that opportunity. It's such a party. It's the party tent there. Also doing Houghton, which thankfully is on a different weekend this year. Yeah, lots of other festivals. And what I'm doing for Wayne Hemingway, which is really interesting called First Light Low stuff.

[Gilles]

Oh, yeah.

[Colleen]

That's a good one. So I'll be doing the evening doing a down step. But then I'm playing on the sunrise, the most easterly point of the UK on the on June 23. So pretty close to the solstice. I'm playing in Ibiza this weekend. You know, I have a record release party.

[Gilles]

Where'd you play there?

[Colleen]

I'm playing a record release party at the Standard on Saturday. And I'm doing Glitterbox. Actually, I'm opening for Moose Tea Main Room.

[Gilles]

Hello.

[Colleen]

Yeah, so that should be fun. He's he's another lovely, positive guy. Oh, my gosh. He's a great spirit.

[Gilles]

Do you like going to Ibiza?

[Colleen]

I do.

[Gilles]

What happens when you come out when you when you know when you when you're picking up your bags and you see all the people coming through?

[Colleen]

Yeah, what's your energy level? I'm more into the nature side of the island. And that's just who I am as a person anyway. So on the Sunday, I'll be breaking out and going somewhere with a nice lunch that's far away from all the activity, you know. So yeah, that's brilliant.

[Gilles]

Colleen, thank you so much for coming in today. The album is out tomorrow.

[Colleen]

Tomorrow.

[Gilles] 

Great timing. Big up to Adam.

[Colleen]

Oh, thank you.

[Gilles]

Breakfast volume three.

[Colleen]

Big up to Jeff Barrett and the team at Heavenly too.

[Gilles]

You are a beacon of light and energy and the work you're doing is amazing. Keep the spirit and have a lovely summer.

[Colleen]

Thank you. You too.