The Balearic Halloween (For the Love of Music Mix)

Artur and his fellow companion, The Lioncub, are walking the streets of an abandoned town... They're just about to witness a deadly and frightening vision...

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THE BALEARIC HALLOWEEN

(For the Love of Music Mix)

First publication: 27th October 2024

Updated version: 03rd November 2024

A Musical Story by The Lioncub

Duration: 2h20mins

Audio editor: Steinberg Wavelab 6 & 11

Monitoring: Solid State Logic SSL 2+ USB Audio Interface / Sonarworks Sound ID Reference / AKG K-702 / Advance acoustics Xi125 / JBL Decade L26 (upgraded)

Plugins: Waves C4 / PSP Xenon / PSP Vintage Warmer / PSP VU-Meter / Stereo Echo / Chrystal resampler / Steinberg Natural Verb

Audio effects: freesound.org

DR of the mix: 12

The general volume has been raised by 1db during the mastering process to ensure a pleasing listening experience while preserving the dynamics

This mix is dedicated to our Captain, Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy and to the Balearic Breakfast Family. – The tracklist mainly includes songs played during Balearic Breakfast and three others from my selection.

Story: The night is falling as Artur and his fellow companion, The Lioncub, are walking the streets of an abandoned town... They're just about to witness a deadly and frightening vision that will lead them into the Twilight Zone... Will they be able to save the One they Love so much?... Listen and you shall find out...

Throw your phone away, shut all the doors, turn off the lights.

Relax, hit play... and... close your eyes...

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THE PLAYLIST

Intro: The bad dream...

José Feliciano – California dreaming

DJ Shadow – Stem / Long Stem

Lady Blackbird – Slave to the rhythm

Poco – Ghost town

Dr John – I walk on guilded splinters

Lee Oskar – Haunted house

The Jacksons – This place Hotel

Men Tensel  – Sweeping in the sweet nectar, watch out

Quintus Project – Night Flight remix

Confidence Man – Out of the window (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Eight Wonder – I’m not scared

Frida – I Know There’s something going on (Lindstrom Remix)

 Peter Godwin – Emotional disguise

Living in Ghosts – Stay on top (Original Mix)

Anthony Teasdale – Tango de la Boca

Michael Jackson – Thriller

Ray Parker Jr. – Ghostbusters

Azari & III – Reckless with your love (Tensnake Remix)

Snowboy – Casa Forte

The Manhattan Transfer – Twilight zone

Outro: 3io – Les nuits

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SPOILER ALERT

THE BALEARIC HALLOWEEN

The Story behind (and of) the Mix...

I've been creating mixes using Wavelab since I was 18 years old (which brings us back to 2000/2001). I love choosing songs and creating musical stories where each song in the mix is selected because of the portion of the narrative it conveys. I always dreamed of creating a Halloween Tribute mix for our beloved show. I took the courage this year and finally decided to make it happen....

All it took was a paper, the Spotify Halloween playlist, a few movie audio excerpts, the two versions of my favourite audio editor and a Lioncub... Everything in this mix has been done to lose the listener: from the start, the ghostly apparition is announced and, musically, it perfectly introduces José Feliciano's California dreaming since the tonality of the ghostly effect is quite the same.

Also, on a rhythmical side, I took a malignant pleasure in playing around sometimes: listen closely to the intro, the ticking of the pendulum puts its rhythm in your mind just to be destroyed by Elm's street theme slower melody, the two still beautifully blending together. I reproduced that trick several times in the mix and always took great care to respect the flow (listen to what happens between Quintus Project's Night Flight remix and Confidence Man's Out of the window (Andrew Weatherall Remix). At other times, I mixed the tracks to perfection (the most striking example being Michael Jackson's Thriller and Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters).

Of course, while selecting the songs, I did my best to create an evolving flow, one with twists and turns with a Balearic ending, and I worked quite hard on each mix between the songs to propose something unique and unexpected each and every time...

Except for Poco's Ghost Town and Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters, all the songs were played during Balearic Breakfast. While the preparation of the main mix took me approximately three days, a whole week (6/10 hours of work per day including the nightly listening sessions...) has been dedicated to its finalisation (checking the volume of the tracks, crafting Colleen's Ghostly apparition and Emily's mix, asking myself if I should add more effects or more movies excerpts, checking that the introduction was perfect and doing what it was supposed to do (meaning serve as a level indicator for the rest of the mix))...

As always, I wasn't prepared to reach such a perfect mix in such a short time. Usually, such work requires months... But, when I cried while listening to it, I knew I reached the sweet spot... And I always have tearful eyes at a crucial moment in the mix...

I wanted to thank Rick and Ana for their support while I worked on the mix's main picture and give a big shout-out to Olivier (Man Tensel) who shared my technical reflections on the mix (you are an outstanding audio editor, and you know it)!

The Balearic Halloween is dedicated to our dear Captain, Colleen, and to all of you, fellow Balearicans...

I wish you a happy Halloween...

And remember, just be Balearic.