Balearic Breakfast allows many music aficionados to meet every Tuesday to enjoy Colleen's selections. This time around, I had a lovely chinwag with Marc Stanford! 1) Hi Marc! Thank you so much for joining us on the blog! It's a pleasure! Let's start this 'Proust Musical Questionnaire'! What was the first album you listened to that got you hooked up on music? Bonjour Artur, It’s an honour to be here and thank you for asking me. Music of all different genres was always being played at home. The original motion picture soundtrack of the film “Oliver!” could have been the first album I listened to aged 5. It figured so much in my musical upbringing that when my mum asked me if I wanted to audition as Oliver for a local production, I jumped at the chance. I didn’t get the part of Oliver, they decided I would make a great Artful Dodger. 😂 There was a huge influence from Julie and Terry my older siblings. Julie playing Motown mostly and I remember she loved Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On. While Terry always had a much more eclectic taste which led to me being exposed to the following albums which I remember vividly: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown ( discogs ) An Evening With Wild Man Fischer ( discogs ) Moondog ( discogs ) Ummagumma ( discogs ) In Search Of Space ( discogs ) Tarkus ( discogs ) 2) The best live show you've been to? How do you define best? 🤣 I couldn’t begin to rate all the concerts I’ve been to, it would seem unfair as they all have special memories. Which ones stand out the most and why? Can I answer that self-posed question instead?😊 Blue Öyster Cult - my first big live show. Stevie Wonder - Second-row seats Rush - because Neil Peart was my drumming hero Prince - because, well, it’s Prince James Taylor Quartet - when James Taylor looked directly at me singing at the top of my voice during “Tore My Heart Out”. Yes, it was a good look. 🎤 🎶😄 Ancient Infinity Orchestra - because Colleen introduced them to me and I did some promo photography for them when they played in Brick Lane last year. 3) How do you listen to music? Are you an audiophile? I suppose I have purchased separates in the past. Dunlop Systemdek, Nakamichi Tape Deck, Cambridge Audio amplifier etc. I’m unsure if my current set up qualifies? I have 2 SL1210s, a CMX 3000 dual CD player and a DJM 600 outputting from the monitor circuit into a pair of active speakers. Space doesn’t allow for much more 😂 All of my digital content is saved to two external hard drives for redundancy and I listen to that through Sony MDR-1000X headphones or Shure SE535 wired in-ear phones. 4) What kinds of music don't you like, like at all? I will give anything a listen, once at least. I suppose I don’t really like current popular music very much. I believe that’s down to my ears detesting the amount of autotune being used with that awful metallic filter making most vocals sound the same. As an example, I looked at the top 100 singles on a couple of sites and gave the first 20 a listen. Stopped to listen to the whole of Eminem - Houdini, because Abracadabra. The rest lasted less than 20 seconds before skipping! 5) From the Balearic Realm, which record would you recommend? Afterlife's "Simplicity Two Thousand" was the soundtrack to my honeymoon in the Maldives and still holds a very special place in my mind and heart even though I am now divorced. I love the way the sound on that album sums up doing nothing on a tropical island and then gets super funky when the remixes come in. 6) Do you listen back to previous Balearic Breakfast episodes? Do you have any favourites? Since dumping Spotify, Balearic Breakfast is my, go to, new music algorithm. I always have at least 10 shows downloaded on my phone to play whenever and wherever I want. My favourite is probably the November 7th 2023 show . Colleen introduced us all to Ancient Infinity Orchestra which blew me away. 7) What does this sentence evoke to you: 'And remember, just be Balearic"? Positivity toward life and empathy toward each other. 8) How did you discover Colleen? Did you see her performing live or maybe at a CAS event? I couldn’t honestly say exactly when it was. I believe I happened upon the show via Facebook “you might like” because I follow François K it was only recently, really. One of the happiest accidents I’ve had to be honest! And, while I think of it, I recall I was scrolling through my Mixcloud feed and remembered that I used to listen to Worldwide FM and I believe I either heard a mix by Colleen or looked at a track listing of one of her shows followed her for a while and became a subscriber so I could have the most amazing collection of songs I have both heard and never heard before permanently 😊 9) A fun/happy moment you experienced while listening to Balearic Breakfast? The November 7th show mentioned above was special because at the time I listened to that show, I was in a very chic apartment on Avenue de la Bourdonnais in Paris, very near the Eiffel Tower, as you know, drinking wine and looking at the photographs I’d taken around the surrounding streets thinking how lucky am I to be here, listening to this right now. That and the fact Colleen played my request for Mink & Shoes by Psychemagik 😁 10) Why do you think Colleen is unique? Colleen’s pure dedication to sonic fidelity in everything she does makes her unique. That and her warmth and approachability. When we met in person for the first time, it was like meeting up with a long time friend. 🥰 The please refrain from dancing picture was taken after I had been reprimanded for dancing while listening to Alexander O’Neal in Boisdale in London. The B&W photo is of my son Max and me at the Night Tales Loft for the release party of Balearic Breakfast 3. The last one was taken by my friend and professional photographer Britt Willoughby while I was taking photos of her for her website.

After hearing Michele's "Carousel of Tears" during Balearic Breakfast, I had to meet the colourful composer and ask him a few questions... 1) Dear Michele, Thank you so much for joining us! The listeners were blown away by your track, 'Carousel of Tears' which openned the 215th episode of Balearic Breakfast. How do you chose the titles of the songs? Choosing song titles is one of the most exciting and stimulating aspects of this work. I try to imagine an image that can be described in just two words. For me, this track felt like a final farewell, a sweet end of the world that evokes nostalgia for the future. 2) Of course, the listener can't help but feel the undisclosed and unconscious influence of artists like, for instance, Steve Reich (City Life is somewhat close to some of your tracks, structurally speaking if that make sense). Still, your sonic palette is much more fluid, it has more depth and is "wetter" if that make sense, although retaining a very tense rhythmical aspect on the other side on almost every track... How do you approach music in general? Throughout my life, I’ve listened to millions of tracks. When I was around 28, I was on the verge of getting sick from music because I ended up never leaving the house just to make sure I wouldn’t miss a single new record. I had a sort of musical bulimia—it wasn’t normal.This obsession, on one hand, severely penalized me in finding a job that could sustain me because that passion never brought me anything financially, apart from a huge waste of time. But on the other hand, it shaped me into a kind of encyclopedia of sound. I have little long-term memory, so I don’t remember album names or titles, but those countless listens have layered themselves into my subconscious and inevitably resurface when I create. I love exploring new paths; I get bored easily, even when listening to other people’s records, and I’m extremely strict with myself about this. Being unplaceable is both my greatest curse and my biggest strength. 3) When listening to a few tracks from your album, it is clear that it is a very organic and vivd sounding musical journey which totally envelopes the listener. Is it something you wanted to achieve? How did you end up deciding on the sound you wanted for this new album? Who did you work with during the mixing/mastering process? Yes, that was exactly what I wanted to achieve. I wanted the listener to feel like they were on a sonic train where each carriage had a different interior design, yet they remained on the same journey.In terms of sound, I entrusted Marco and his team of engineers. For me, songwriting always comes first—at least, that was the case for this album. If one day I were to make a purely sound-based record, then I would have to work live with an engineer because I don’t have the technical skills to bring to life exactly what I have in my mind. You know, I have so many ideas—some I can't bring to life due to time constraints, since I have to work to make a living, and others because of technical limitations. 4) Why did you entitled this album "Pop Archetypes"? Do you believe it could be considered a concept album? I wanted something short, ironic, provocative, and that simply sounded good. The term "concept album" is always a bit risky because it can easily slip into excessive length and boredom. Plus, it can sound pretentious—setting an ambitious initial framework that often turns out to be forced.I had a concept and a meaning in mind, but it emerged naturally while I was writing the tracks, not before. One thing I was sure of, though, was my desire for change. I didn’t want my first LP to sound like a sum of my previous EPs—I wouldn’t have forgiven myself for that. That was the toughest challenge, and I think I managed it quite well. Every element of this album has been refined and carefully thought out to be exactly as it is, including the track lengths. For the first time, I even had an excess of material—something unthinkable for me—precisely because I wanted the final result to be as cohesive and unified as possible, despite the variety of styles present. 5) As a DJ, does it happen that your own sets triggers your compositors' soul? I haven't played a DJ set in five years, and I won’t hide that I miss it a bit. DJing was liberating for me because I would get swept up in the flow of music, and that catharsis helped me break free from the loop of everyday life. You see, I started making music out of sheer curiosity—I wanted to see what would come out of it. I was eager to find out if that all-encompassing approach I embraced during my sets could also translate into my productions. I didn’t start making music to release records; I did it primarily as a challenge to myself. And I have to say, it helped me bring out things I couldn’t express in words. 6) Will you tour with this album? Musically speaking, what's ahead for you in 2025? Touring? Of course, I’d love to it, but in the musical landscape, I simply don’t exist. 2025 might bring a small surprise, we’ll see. Something that closes the circle before moving on to a new chapter. For me, this imaginary is already dead. The future is always a possibility—whether dramatic or euphoric, but always a possibility.

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 217th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on March 25th 2025. About this episode. – Before embarking on her 2025 Spring Japan Tour, Colleen took the time to prepare this second episode for us, invinting Saucy Lady to discuss her brand new album and letting Darren Morgan craft a beautiful mix. While the Family was talking on the chat, I was surprised to hear how much the two mixes we heard were complementary, presenting Pulsating ethereal vibrations! But I will let you have a closer listen to them and I'm sure you'll have the same visuals I did! Of course, we could not help but think about Colleen's friend, the great Andy Williams, as she shared these thoughts on the chat with us: "It was very strange as in the next segment Saucy Lady and I talked about Andy Yamwho? who is on her new album. Hours later he passed away. Tragic." The Balearic Breakfast Family enjoyed Darren's mix too, our friend MachoGrande 70 saying "This is a glorious mix" and dancing_james sharing with us "On this sunny day solar gain is huge in my house and I have to confess I am now danving around with my top off. I blame Dr Bangers. If you now have a terrible mental image you too can blame Darren 🤣" All in all, this was a very nice episode, and being able to exchange a few words with Colleen while she's on tour is always a real pleasure! On March 26th, Colleen shared these few words with us: "Yesterday’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud (and please give me a follow while you’re over there :). As I’m in Japan this week’s show features two guests. First up is Japanese-American DJ, singer, keyboardist and producer Saucy Lady who delivers an uptempo soulful mix. We also have a chat about her new album ‘Love Fest’, out now on her own label Dippin’ Records. We did the interview earlier this month and had a chat about the special guests on her new record which includes Andy ‘Yam Who?’ Williams who duetted with her on a cover of Bobby Caldwell’s ‘What You Won’t Do For Love’. Hours later Andy sadly transitioned to the next realm. It’s so sad to hear us talking about Andy in the present tense and even suggesting they may collaborate again. Both Saucy Lady and I will be DJ-ing at a special benefit for Andy’s family in May and we will share details once it is announced. The other mix is a very Balearic mix from my good friend Darren Morgan of Love Machine and also part of The London Loft family. Its a beautiful mix and I’m sure you will love it. I’ll be taking next Tuesday off as I will be returning from Japan the day before and I’m sure I’ll be broken with jetlag so I need a week off. But Balearic Breakfast will resume on Tuesday, the 8th April hosted live from my record room. In the meantime you can catch up with past shows on the Balearic Breakfast playlist on my Mixcloud. Thanks for listening." Colleen on her socials, 25/03/2025: "I’m halfway through my Japanese tour so its time for the obligatory photo dump ;). Its been very emotional being back in my h(ohm) away from h(ohm). First stop was Nagoya where @club_mago pulled out all the stops and brought in Klipschorns and Klipsch Belles for the party and we had an amazing time. I took a little walk around the city in which I lived in 1989 when I was a radio DJ for JOGZ run by the Chubu Broadcasting Company (swipe to the last photo of me dancing in the radio studio - some things never change). My 21-year-old self would have never thought I would be returning 36 years later as a club DJ - I hope I made her proud ;). Back in Tokyo I reconnected with old friends @norihisamaekawa and @kenhidaka both of whom I have known since my first Japanese tour in 1997. And I also joined friends @markdeclivelowe and @nickdwyernz who is working on a fascinating film series about Japanese jazz kissa culture so it was fitting we went to his favourite spot Jazz Haus Posy. Then it was off to Obihiro in Hokkaido and we had so much fun at @boars_obihiro . @naoe_fire performed an amazing fire dance and the next morning the BOARS posse greeted me at my hotel (after no sleep) and sent me off on the train to Sapporo where they joined me for two more nights. Coming back to Sapporo and Precious Hall is like coming h(ohm). This is the first place I DJ-ed outside the USA and its one of my favourite places in the world. Satoru-san and his staff are like family - we have 28 years of history. And it was lovely playing with @kanikanita Saturday night and with @kuniyuki_takahashi_music and Yano for last night’s listening party - we went deep :). I also got play a few of the new Japanese jazz records I picked up earlier that day. Arigatou to @morihirorecords for coming up from Tokyo! Today is a day off so I took a long walk around Sapporo and Odori Koen and did a bit of shopping at my favourite spot (Tokyu) Hands. Next up is @bar_inc_osaka on Thursday, @woal_music_life in Takasaki on Friday and @dj_bar_bridge_shinjuku Tokyo on Saturday. Maybe by that time I’ll be over my jet lag. Thank you to all who have made my trip so uplifting. Arigatou gozaimasu. 🙏" Listen back to the 217th episode of Balearic Breakfast: THE PLAYLIST Saucy Lady's Mix (NOL) Crown Heights Affair – I See The Light (Young Pulse retouch) (2025) CON FUNK SHUN – Got 2 Be Enuff (JKriv Edit 2025) (2025) Da Lukas (feat. Di Martino & Saucy Lady) – In Motion (2025) Saucy Lady – Falling In Love (2024) Bellaire x Aaron K. Gray – Never Stop Dancing (Kelly G. Extended Shelter Dub) (2024) Audiowhores – She's Gone Dance On (Club Mix) (2025) Jay Vegas – Don't Want It (2024) DiscoGram – I Wanna Dance (2009) Modaji – Outboard Jeopardy (2024) Saucy Lady, Yuki, Omar, Young Pulse – I Can't Shake This Feeling (Young Pulse 'Baby Powder' Remix) (2011) Shuya Okino (ft. N'Dea Davenport) – Look Ahead (2025) Saucy Lady (ft. Derrick McKenzie) – Silver Haze Darren Morgan's Love Machine Mix (2020) Hirini Melbourne – Waiata Ki Te Ra (1979) Henri Texier – Hocoka (1980) Yello – Blue Green (1982) The G!st – Love At First Sight (2024) Harri Pierson – The Most Balearic Record In The World (NOL) Andi Hanley – Flight (1983) Judi Tzuke – Shoot From The Heart (2025) Alix Brown & Louis Fontaine – Tormento (2024) Laurent Bardainne & Tigre D'eau Douce – Meilleur (2025) Wham! – Blue (80s Extended Unreleased Vocal Mix) (1988) Kriss – Hey Mister Mister (1989) Malcolm McLaren And The Bootzilla Orchestra – Call A Wave (DFC Dance Mix) (1982) Alice – A Cosa Pensano SAUCY LADY'S INTERVIEW WITH COLLEEN [Colleen] Greetings, Balearicans! In the studio with me right now is the singer, songwriter, and DJ, Saucy Lady. She has a new album out, her fourth album, actually, and it's called Love Fest, and it's on her own record label, Dippin' Records. Hi, Saucy, how you doing? [Saucy Lady] Hey, hey, how you been? [Colleen] Good, you good. You and I played together at your really cool night at Vera's in Boston, gosh, nearly a year ago now. [Saucy Lady] Yeah, that's a monthly slam-funk party that we have. It's been going on for a couple years. That venue is relatively new, but it was a different venue a few years before that, and I had been there for, in total, in that area, that spot, for about seven, eight years or so. So that party's sort of been going on for a while now, so yeah. [Colleen] I see you have a lot of guests, and thank you for the invitation. That was a lot of fun, a lot of fun. I just wanted to talk a little bit about your musical upbringing, because you have a really interesting story. If you could tell our listeners kind of what life was like growing up, because you were surrounded by music. [Saucy Lady] Yeah, I was born in Japan. I'm half Japanese, half American. My father's American. My mother's Japanese. And so I'm mixed heritage, and I was visiting the U.S. quite a bit every summer. I'd go to the Cape Cod in the East Coast. And so growing up, I listened to a lot of jazz and classical, because that was what was playing through the speakers. My father was a big audiophile and collected a ton of records. He used to sell a lot of rare jazz records as well. And so I listened to a lot of that, even since I was in my mother's womb. I was listening to some free jazz and wild stuff. And then I got into hip hop as an adolescence. And then I came to the U.S. for college and grad school. And during college, I was working as a radio DJ for my school radio, college radio, which was great back in the 90s. [Colleen] Yes, and in the 80s when I did it. [Saucy Lady] We got a lot of records and CDs. And so I got to listen to a lot of variety of music. And I was an urban music director at the time. I also even interned at Jive Records in New York City one summer. The late 90s, before they went, before iTunes took over and changed the whole industry. But before that, I got to really get a sense of the industry at that point. But another point I forgot to make is growing up, I learned to play piano, play classical piano. I studied classical voice for many years. From like five, I studied piano and then classical voice. I started around 12. And so I did a lot of like operatic arias, you know, training. And in college, I was a music major. So I continued to study. And then after I graduated, I took some private lessons with some jazz vocalist teachers. And so I studied jazz vocals after graduation. So some of that still kind of stays with me when I sing. I do a little bit of that sort of ad lib scatting here and there. It just comes out. So... [Colleen] You have a wonderful voice. And it's so interesting to hear that you did operatic kind of singing because that is difficult. [Saucy Lady] Yeah, that's what I trained to do for many, many years. These days, I don't. But I was in choruses, multiple choruses in the Boston area. And I sang at Fenway Park, Symphony Hall, and Carnegie Hall, and like those big venues. Those very exciting times. But then I wanted to be a solo artist. [Colleen] Right. I mean, how did that come about? Because you started DJing in Boston around 2009, I believe. [Saucy Lady] Yeah. Actually, this is March. So it will be 16 years ago this month in the Boston area. And just a couple of years before that, I had started recording my first album. So... [Colleen] ... diversify. [Saucy Lady] Yeah, yeah. I think that came out 2011. [Colleen] Right. Now, at this point, you're creating a persona, Saucy Lady. And I love this persona. I mean, she looks fabulous all the time, first of all. I mean, you have to check out Saucy Lady's website. The photos are outstanding. You look great. And the thing I also love is that you really play with fashion and you play with music. And I find there's some humor in this, too. Can you tell us a little bit about who Saucy Lady is? [Saucy Lady] I think Saucy Lady is someone that everyone has a little bit of. It's someone who has a little bit of attitude, who knows what she wants and is sexy, is open to being sexual and can go a little bit wild. My best friend in college, we used to be roommates together. She had told me, I'm very saucy. And I didn't know what she meant, really. So I was like, what do you mean? And so she described what it was. So I thought, wow, that's kind of a cool name to use for like, you know, usernames and things like that. I started using my Saucy Lady as sort of like an email and things like that. So when I came up with a DJ name, I was like, oh, that's perfect. We'll call it Saucy Lady. But then that, yes, became its own persona. And, you know, I was like, I need more headgear and outfits to perform. I don't perform lately, but when I was performing, I was very, very careful about how I presented myself visually. I think it's important to look your part when you are on stage performing, not necessarily DJing all the time, but I'm talking more actual singing and performing on stage that way. [Colleen] Absolutely. Do you think also maybe this is one side that many of us have, you have an extroverted side and then you have the more introverted kind of private side that you protect a little bit? [Saucy Lady] Yeah, I think so. I guess, you know, when you're recording an album and you're trying to reflect on things, you know, you do need time alone. So I didn't have a lot of alone time growing up. Also, I was an only child, so I'm kind of used to that. But that helps you become creative. And so that's maybe my introverted side, maybe. But, you know, I love to party. I love big socials and Butterfly. I love hanging out and seeing people. But I do get tired after a night out, right? The next day, I need downtime. So I guess it's sort of that, you know, you have both sides of the spectrum. [Colleen] Yeah, have the balance. Now, you started DJing in Boston 16 years ago and you were collecting your own records. You said you grew up around a great big record collection, but you obviously have made your own record collection. How did this kind of all come about? And what's the dance scene like in Boston? [Saucy Lady] So to answer your first question, you know, when my father was playing a lot of records in front of me, I wasn't allowed to touch records. So I was really like not allowed near the turntable. So I knew how valuable they were. But as I got older, he bought records for me. And I think the very first record I got was Kumo D. I go to work. I was 12 weeks single. And I played that so many times. So that was my first record. But anyway, and then I started to buy my own records later in life, like after college and so forth. Yeah. [Colleen] Because some of your sets are all vinyl sets, that's why I'm asking. Because there's a lot of DJs that don't play any vinyl at all. And you are also a vinyl DJ. Some of your parties are only vinyl. [Saucy Lady] Yeah. And I love the way it sounds. And it just there's something to it that's different from digital. And sometimes digital DJing is great. It's wonderful in so many ways. But I also get bored in some situations. So there's something exciting about playing records and having sort of that risk of, you know, things not working as you expect. Yes, living on the edge. Yeah. But this party that I have, the monthly party, it does show that Boston folks do dance. There are break dancers. There's also a house community. It's not a big one anymore, but it still exists. And also Gen Z, newer generation of people are coming out open-minded, also being somewhat familiar with some of the music from even the 70s. So it's pretty surprising. So yeah, Boston, there is a scene. It's not a big scene. And in the Boogie area, like that music, it's not very known. But we're changing that. [Colleen] So yeah. Before we get back to the music, I wanted to ask you about your record label, Dippin' Records. Now, you've released four albums yourself. Some have been on other labels as well. You've also done singles for Big Love, Razor and Tape, I believe Midnight Riot as well. You've done loads of work. What made you start Dippin' Records? It was a couple of years ago. And you've been releasing other people's music too, not just your own. [Saucy Lady] Yeah, I got kind of tired of waiting for people to release my music and also sort of like, hey, do you like this music? What do you think? And even though I believe in my heart, it's great and it should be heard by the public. Sometimes it's not the taste of the person listening to it or the label. It's just not the right fit. And so I wanted to make sure that I can still put out things when I know it's great. And that's why I just had to be somewhat independent there. And I still want to release some music if it fits other labels too. But I also wanted to give opportunities to other artists that I thought were great, but were not getting the exposure or the opportunity to put music on vinyl. So that's why I wanted to start that. [Colleen] Which other artists are you working with who are on your label at the moment? [Saucy Lady] Well, we have so far an artist from Boston area named Lee Wilson. He's been releasing a million songs and doing collaborations, but I realized he didn't have a lot of vinyl releases. And I thought it was important for the DJ community who actually play records to be able to play his music too. So and it's also something that I liked, so I wanted to play out. Yeah, he's another artist. And also Fabio Santana, and he's based in Brazil. And he has another album that he is working on right now. And it's sort of final touches. So we're talking about releasing maybe a single from there first. And so yeah, and then Yuki and I both have other projects that we're working on with other people as well in a band. So that's something that's in the works that we're looking into releasing in the future. [Colleen] And Yuki is Yuki Hirokane Saka, who is your musical partner. And you do a lot of, you co-produce all your albums with him as well, I believe. [Saucy Lady] Yes, yeah. I just realized I didn't introduce Yuki. But yeah, he is my partner in crime. And he does a lot of the production with me. And the four albums that we worked on together, we worked on pretty much all most songs we've heavily collaborated together on. [Colleen] Well, let me get back to the music. And when we come back, we'll talk about your new album, Love Fest, on your label, Dippin Records. This is Saucy Lady on Balearic Breakfast. And you've been listening to DJ Saucy Lady on Balearic Breakfast. She's been listening to her mix, and I have her here with me. And I wanted to talk about your new album, which is your fourth album. And it's called Love Fest, and it's out on your label, Dippin Records. The first thing I wanted to ask about it is some of your albums have had themes, like Supernova has a theme of space. Love Fest does exactly what it says on the tin. It's songs about love. Could you tell me, first of all, why you like to do thematic albums, and then why you chose this particular topic? [Saucy Lady] I think it's important to be sort of cohesive with an album. And it's different from a single. I had recorded some of these songs already and released them digitally, a couple of them. But I thought it made sense to put them all together because they were all, again, about love. And I have about half of the album is about covers, and the other half are original tunes. And yeah, it was great recording. I mean, a couple of them are pretty, yeah, brand new, haven't been released. [Colleen] One single I've already played on the show is your cover of Surface's Fallin' In Love. And this is a song I always like, but it's a mid-tempo groover, you know, it's just kind of bopping along. And you brought it to like house tempo, and it really works. Could you tell me how that all came about? Is this a song you used to DJ out as well? [Saucy Lady] I did, but I didn't play it very often because, again, it's mid-tempo. So I definitely thought it needed a little boost in that tempo. But it was a suggestion made by a friend of ours, friend of Yuki and I, who is a big, he loves to dig for records, and he's Japanese, and he's a big fan of Saucy Lady. He buys all of my records. And he's like, you should definitely do this song. And I was like, oh, it's kind of a bit known, and I don't always like to do something too obvious. But then I realized the vocals are very close to my range, and I thought the sound is very similar to Saucy's sound. So I thought, well, it's actually not a bad idea. People are familiar, so they're going to recognize it right away. And so by bringing it up in tempo, we wanted to make that the first song in the album, since with the groove being at the top, you know, it'll help with the audio being loud enough and good for the club. So that's why we have it very first track. [Colleen] I love how you're thinking about vinyl pressing correctly. That is so great. Because, you know, sometimes you have, like, the song that you want to play out is like the inside cut. And of course, you know, the audio, the sound just gets squashed as you get closer in it. So that's really great, more expansive. You also cover Bobby Caldwell's What You Won't Do for Love. And you also cover it with a friend of mine, who I also have worked with in the studio and someone I've known for a long time, Yam Hu, who was first in a band called Fuzz Against Junk when I first moved to the UK on Euphonic. And then he started doing his own productions. And he and I have collaborated. He's worked on a few remixes with me. He's a great guy. But I have to say, all the years I've known him, I didn't know he sang. He never even sang in the studio when we were working together. So how did you get him to do that? [Saucy Lady] Yeah, I didn't know either. So he actually suggested me to record that song for his label originally. And so Yuki and I, actually, it's funny, Yuki had his own album in the past where we recorded the same song, but it was like really just vocals and piano. It was a very stripped down version, which I really liked. But since we already recorded it, we're like, oh, we don't want to record it again. But then I thought, well, you know, Andy's saying he's going to put some vocals on it. And I thought, well, this might be interesting. So yeah, I was like, let's just do it. And then we recorded it and he sent his vocals and we kind of layered it with mine. And he's not singing like the verse or anything. It's not a prominent part. [Colleen] It's like he's underpinning you like an octave lower. [Saucy Lady] Yeah, but I always love hearing men, male and female vocals together. There's something great about that. And so it added a really nice tone, so I loved it. [Colleen] I agree. I love duets, especially, you know, the two different types of voices. And it's a kind of a lost thing. I mean, I think about all these kind of great collaborations like Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack, or there's so many great ones. And I think it's something that needs to be brought back because the textures sound really good together. [Saucy Lady] Yeah, I've done a few in the past, and I did Saturday Love, and It Seems to Hang On, Ashford and Simpson. Also Tell Me, you know, SOS Band. These are covers we did with different male vocalists. And I love all of them. And there's something so magical about it. There's like a chemistry. And it's just obviously men do not have the sound that I can, you know, output. So there's something special about that. And so I love doing duets. It's hard to find a great duet to cover, though. There aren't so many. So it's always a challenge to find the right one. I've done a few, but maybe we'll do something in the future. Maybe with Andy or Yambui. [Colleen] Yeah, that'd be cool. You also have a couple drummers as guests on the album. You have Jay Mumford and also Derek Mackenzie, who is a drummer for Jamiroquai. How did that all come about? Because usually you don't get drummers as collabs. You'll get like the featured keyboard player. You'll have like a soloist on, you know, a trumpet or something or a duet. [Saucy Lady] Yeah, I think drummers, I mean, drums are really the most important ingredient initially for any track. So they mean a lot. And so with Jay, I've known him for many years. We've also collaborated on a few songs before. And we've always talked about, you know, wanting to do another track together. He loves everything that, you know, you and I work on. And so we finally got a track that would, you know, be very fitting for him and the tempo. And so, yeah, we got him to record and that went well. He loved it. And Derek, Derek McKenzie is someone that, you know, Yuki and I both really admire. And he has such an incredible disco, you know, rhythm and that no one else can really copy. So we were very honored that he was down to record. And he was so nice about it, everything. And it was incredible. [Colleen] Oh, great. Well, you have two other covers on the album that we didn't talk about. Chic Sao Paulo and M2M's Love Lock. But I kind of want to move on to the originals as well, because you have three originals. What If, Break the Ice and Silver Haze. Silver Haze is a beautiful ballad, by the way. I love that one. Can you just tell us a little bit about that song? [Saucy Lady] Yeah, I just was inspired to record something that had some of the elements that some of the newer R&B vocalists do these days. Like, for example, I love Devin Morrison. I discovered him through just listening to Spotify, actually. And I just love his sort of 80s sort of sound that he adds to the synths and his vocals. And then I learned about other vocalists similar to that style. And I realized I need to record something like that, where the voice is very airy, a slower tempo, some elements of the 80s keyboard synths. And so we did that. And then we, of course, needed the right drums. So we got Derek for that. It was great. I loved it. [Colleen] Yeah, that's great. Well, what's going on now in the future for Saucy Lady? You have some like DJ gigs coming up, I assume. And what's coming up on Dippin Records? And what are the plans for the album? [Saucy Lady] So right now, there are a couple of songs in Japanese that I had recently recorded. It's pretty much at the final mix stage. So we want to release that through, I think, through Dippin. So that'll be the next, probably the next release. And, oh, we also have the cover of I Can't Shake That Feeling by Click. And we covered that with Omar. And so that was released digitally last year. But we have a vinyl version coming out this month, I think actually in a week. [Colleen] So that's great. That's a great song. I love what you did together. [Saucy Lady] Yeah, so that'll be on a 12-inch, 45 RPM. So the sound should be pumping. Yeah, and also we're in the middle of recording a jazz funk album. So that's like a whole sort of new venture. And I love boogie and all that disco, but I want to move away a little bit from that and sort of be a little more experimental, a little more spacey, you know, a little bit of that Bonnie Liston Smith vibe with a touch of, you know, Blackbird and, you know, vocals like that, a touch of Roy Ayers. So, you know, the stuff we all love. [Colleen] Yeah, that sounds great. And then you'll get to sing a different way. [Saucy Lady] Yeah, it'll be different. It would probably not have verses and stuff. It'll just be more. Yeah, well, we'll see what happens. I don't want to spoil too much until it happens. We're in the middle of recording it, yeah. [Colleen] Exactly. Well, for those of you that want to find out more about Saucy Lady, definitely check out her website, but also go to her Bandcamp, because that's where you can order vinyl and download her music digitally as well. Good luck with the album. It's fantastic. I'm really happy for you. You've been just working really hard. [Saucy Lady] Thank you, Colleen. Thank you for having me and knowing so much about the album already and doing a little research. Thank you. [Colleen] I listen to all of it. And, you know, I do my research. I do the due diligence, as do you. And hopefully I'll see you in Boston sometime soon. Yes, very soon, hopefully. All right, well, take care. [Saucy Lady] Cheers.

I met Gez Dewar, member of the Random House Project, who crafted a beautiful tribute to the Late musical legend Roy Ayers. Let's dive into his musical world! 1) Hi Gez! Thank you so much for being here with us! I must say your remix of Roy Ayers’ “Everybody” took us all by storm. We really love the work you did on that one! First thing first, can you present yourself and talk about your musical journey ? Thanks Artur, glad you all dug the remix, it was a sad loss of a great musical legend, I was lucky enough to work with Roy Ayers and his band many years ago at a Soul Weekender where he played on my keyboards during an interview, such a humble and generous soul. I began my musical journey in bands in Birmingham then moved to London in the late 80's to go to Art College where I first got into clubbing and the music scene. I started working at MTV when it launched in 1987 and the following year the Acid House Summer of Love started and I got swept up in those clubs like the Wag, Spectrum, Bagleys, The Cross, Turmills and also Ibiza's clubs like Pacha where I was exposed to Dj's like Alfredo and Pipi. I started making records in 1990 with Doi-oing and got signed to Sean Mckluskey's Brainiak Records, we made a track called "Good Feeling" which sampled etta james and got us noticed , from there we were the first band to get signed to Ministry of Sound's Open label with the likes of Mr Monday , Green Velvet and Paperclip People. We then formed many other groups like Heliotropic, Tenth Planet, The Experiment, Thee Earls with Justin Robertson and Finally formed Random House Project with Mr Monday and made tracks with Robert Owens which was our first record for Darren Emerson's Underwater Imprint. I continue to work under that name on my own imprint Transmitter Recordings and mainly focus on Reworks and Edits these days as I seem to enjoy the process of reimagining classic tracks in new ways. 2) One of the first thing I noticed while listening to your remix is its delicacy, its precision, and of course its imagery which perfectly fit the 215th episode of BB! How did you end up creating such a kaleidoscopic track from that funky number and why did you choose that song, what did you want to achieve with it? Thanks glad you enjoyed the rework! I'm colourblind so maybe to compensate for this I have a very colourful musical palette and enjoy the process of creating detailed musical pictures and landscapes with my work. In a way I see the reworks as a new frame around the Artist much like the Pop Art work of Warhol and Lichtenstein; how they created those pictures of Celebrities. I grew up listening to producers like Trevor Horn, Steven Lillywhite, Peter Walsh, Flood, Ian Tregoning and Zuess B Held who created these incredible soundscapes that went far beyond just the reproduction and recording of musicians and songs and created new sonic landscapes that I felt were artistic statements in themselves.  I chose that track in particular because I loved the very simple answer and call Vibe part and the "Everybody" vocal, the track seems so inclusive to me and fits my ethos, I took a sample of an interview with Roy about his philosophy of life and how he would like to be remembered and that fitted perfectly with the sentiment of the track. I wanted to mark his death with a Portrait and that seemed the best way I could say Thanks. 3) Generally speaking, when remixing, do you have pictures that come meeting you and helping you during the mixing process or do you already have a clear idea you simply execute? When I approach an Artists work I'm generally looking for a new way to present the song which hasn't been tried before, this is the challenge. I always like to keep the vocal fairly intact and generally at the same tempo, but everything else is up for changing. I will often write in a completely different key and use chords and parts that are from completely different genres and I try not to limit or box myself into a particular or style genre from the start. I'm looking to surprise myself first and foremost by presenting the song in a totally new way if possible. The end result being the familiar presented in a way not heard before, which I think folks really Dig. 4) Was there a tougher part while working on “Everybody” (be it in the mixing or in the mastering process)?  Different songs require different approaches, not only in the palette of sounds you choose to put around them but also the structure of the track; Everybody was and interesting journey because it's primarily a Jazz track without the usual tropes of verse, chorus and lyrics or very little, so you have to create a structure which is sympathetic to the original parts you start off with, primarily Roy Ayers Vibes. Being Jazz there's a lot of crazy chord shapes and progressions in there and for me the challenge was to create a blend of Disco & Jazz that supported the Vibes but gave it that disco flavour, so many different progressions where ditched along the way to find the best fit. Tracks like jazz and funk are often less structured than Pop and rely more on the players constantly changing their patterns throughout, so injecting a more structured dynamic into the original, while retaining the overall feel of the original was the challenge.  This one is another killer, listen to how Gez has been able to slightly change the tonality of the track, especially in the verses. A True Masterpiece... BANDCAMP Page here 5) Are you already working on new tracks? What’s ahead for 2025 in your musical world? I never stop writing, it's a constant learning process. I've been lucky enough to have been asked to remix a couple of tracks for the Music for Dreams label which will be out soon and continue to explore new possibilities of reworks. I would love to be able to present my work live in the next year and create something to bring my work to a wider audience, like most artists I suppose. Thank you so much Gez for this! Thanks so much for taking an interest in my work and thanks for listening! Big Love

DJ, Presenter & Music Writer Maria Hanlon, interviews Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy on the London based Voices Radio Breakfast show. About Maria Hanlon. – London-based DJ, presenter, and music writer Maria Hanlon hosts The Voices Breakfast Show on Voices Radio every Friday from 9-11am . Working as a producer for BBC Introducing in London since moving back there in 2021, she has been actively performing ever since, her signature sound blending Soulful House, Deep House, and Garage. Despite only starting her DJing career about two years ago, Maria has quickly made a name for herself in the industry and has performed at notable events such as Secret Garden Party, Queens Yard Summer Party, and Cross The Tracks. In addition to her DJing work, Maria also contributes as a freelance writer for UD, an organization focused on music industry education and development (her article about structuring a radio show is a Must Read). You can find more about her on her Instagram . Her shows are uploaded both on her Soundcloud page and on her Mixcloud page . Listen back to Colleen's interview with Maria Hanlon: COLLEEN'S INTERVIEW WITH MARIA [Maria] Okay, so welcome back to The Voices Breakfast Show. This one here is Maytez and Pinty called Loosen Your Bones and my special guest is loving this one actually. I love it.   [Colleen] It's fantastic, really jazzy. I love the vocals on there. Fantastic. Thanks for turning me on to it.   [Maria] Of course. We were just sort of speaking about playing stuff in the morning for our breakfast shows and not taking it super heavy but still vibing. So this is like hitting the spot.   [Colleen] It really hits the sweet spot.   [Maria] Definitely. It's the one. So I want to start by there's a lot that I want to get through in this next sort of 45 minutes or so. But let's start at the very beginning. So could you talk me through your earliest memories of radio and music?   [Colleen] Sure. Yeah, I started. I think my first memory was my first real deep musical memory was when I was about six years old. And I was in my Uncle John's of a bedroom. He was a teenager. He was only 10 years older than me. And everybody was out and like the ultraviolet Blu-ray lights were on lighting up the Easy Rider poster. This is the early 70s. And there was a transistor radio. And I turned it on. I'm sitting there in this really moody atmosphere by myself in this really cool teenagers room. And all of a sudden the opening notes to David Essex rock on comes on like this baseline. And this is at a time when I really thought there were still little people in the radio. I didn't know how it all worked. And that was such a transformative moment for me. I always call it my first psychedelic drug experience without drugs because I was only six but it was like such a seminal moment. I think the radio the power of the radio you have to understand in the 1970s. This is how we discovered music. There's no streaming. There's music isn't accessible at your fingertips at all times. The only way to discover music is through other people and their record collections or mixtapes or the radio. That was it.   [Maria] Yeah.   [Colleen] And so it was hugely important and luckily I grew up outside of Boston and Boston had some great radio because a lot of the radio in the US was pretty dire. So being a big college town they had a lot of more variety and went a little bit deeper on many levels not just you know college rock but also like funk and things like that as well. So I was really really lucky. And that's kind of the way I kind of discovered you know music and I also became really obsessed. I got my own transistor radio like the following year and you know I go to sleep with it on and it's just I would I knew all the radio stations and all the top 40. I knew all the classic rock. I just became really obsessed at a very early age.   [Maria] Yeah. That's amazing. And because you had your first show at 14. Right.   [Colleen] Yeah.   [Maria] It's really a show.   [Colleen] Yeah.   [Maria] And it was called Punk, Funk and Junk.   [Colleen] That was a different one. I had four shows in the high school. So high school is four years. Freshman, sophomore, junior and senior. So each year I did a different show Punk, Funk and Junk I think was my junior year. So the first year I did I don't think you even had a radio a name but I was playing more 60s rock which is a big passion of mine. Then the following year I was doing a show with a guy named Andy and we were playing more punk and new wave and hardcore. Then the third year was Punk, Funk and Junk and that was with my friend Mary Caruso and she named herself Remix and I was Cosmo. We also played electro and hip hop.   [Maria] Is that where Cosmo came from?   [Colleen] That's where Cosmo came from because it was and I was a band called Nucleus and they had this big song called Jam on It at the time and their DJ's name was Cosmo with a Z. And yeah, we thought we were really cool. We made these sweatshirts that said Punk, Funk and Junk with our names on the back and rocks around our high school like no one really got it, you know, but yeah, it was a lot of fun. And then my last year I did a morning show. I was working at a record shop called Strawberries Records and Tapes. Again, I was obsessed with 60s psychedelia and there was an old band, pop band named Strawberry Alarm Clock. So I did a radio show called The Strawberry Alarm Clock and that was very, very eclectic. That was my most eclectic show. It just was like everything that I was into. It could even be Sade, into Black Flag, into New Order, into Run DMC. I mean, it was just all over the place.   [Maria] So would you say your taste has always been very eclectic?   [Colleen] Always, yeah. I mean, I just have, I just love music and I can find great music. I love country. I mean, there's great country music. You know, people laugh like, oh, you wouldn't play country? Yeah, I would play country. Yeah, I, you know, I have actually, I've played Willie Nelson on the show. He does a great version of Heart of the Come. But yeah, so it's, I do, I just love all kinds of music. I've always had an open ear.  [Maria] Yeah, because I think in your bio it said, you quoted, there's only good and bad music. That's what I think.   [Colleen] Yeah, I agree. That's your opinion anyways. Yeah, it's all taste. You know what I mean? There's no objective. It's all subjective.   [Maria] Yeah, agreed.   [Colleen] And you know, there's music there for everybody.   [Maria] 100%. And then let's fast forward to 1986. So that's when you relocated to New York, right?   [Colleen] Yes, yeah.   [Maria] To study sound and radio at NYU Film School. And whilst there, I love this, you became the first female program director at WNYU, one of the most significant college radio stations in the country at that time. So what was it like there at that time?   [Colleen] Oh my gosh, I mean, I might even get teary eyed thinking about it. Basically, I was just up at that same building two weeks ago, because I had, the head of the department was a woman named Lynn McVeigh. And I hadn't seen her in 35, 36 years.  And I just saw her for the first time, went back up to that floor where I practically lived. WNYU, especially the time that I went and we were reminiscing about this, it was its heyday. College radio in the 1980s was so hugely important for breaking massive bounds from Depeche Mode to REM to U2. And we were really on a mission at the time I was there, we were breaking bounds like Nirvana and you know, all sorts of bounds like that. And being in New York City, of course, all these bounds would come through. So they'd come up to our radio station for interviews, or sometimes live sets. So we were hugely, you know, privileged in the sense of our location. And we also had a really a transmitter in the Bronx. So our signal went all over the tri-state area. So it wasn't just so many colleges just broadcast to the campus. Our listenership was people just like all over, all over. And it was such a family atmosphere, like we would just hang out together all the time. We're all different types of people. You know, from like the my friend Marlene, who was like, you know, shorter than me. And she did the Hardcore Punk show and her name was Spermicide. To my friend Hugh, who was another one of my mentors, who's this tall guy with long red hair from Oklahoma who loved country. I mean, we just had all different kinds of people. We all got along. We were on this mission. We were this family. We would like sleep overnight at the radio station. It was like really an incredible atmosphere. And I am so lucky and privileged to have been part of it at that time. Because it's since changed. It's in a basement somewhere. It's not a community anymore. It doesn't have the same kind of recognition. I think also terrestrial radio was very different than online radio. You know, people could discover you in ways just like sitting in their car, you know, using the tuner and like, oh, what's below here? 88 to 92, those frequencies on the FM dial were for non-commercial radio. That's what the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission designated those frequencies for. So you'd find all the interesting stuff down there. And people, you know, later told me when I was doing house shows in the 90s, that's the first time they heard house music. So it's not like I think online radio, you kind of look for it.   [Maria] Yes.   [Colleen] Whereas if you're in your car, just flipping through the dials, you know, you can just come upon something that you never even knew existed.   [Maria] Yeah, for sure. Something more intriguing or different. Yeah. Talking about sort of cars and radio. I always tell the story of my dad who was in the car on his way to work. He was in the car park and Nights Over Egypt by the Jones Girls came out for the first time. And when you hear it for the first time in the car and the radio, you don't know when you're going to hear that again. Right. So he hid under his car because his boss was walking through the car park and he had to hear every second of it! So he hid in the car and his boss walked past and he got in a lot of trouble for being late, but he was like, it was worth it because I just had to hear the whole track.   [Colleen] You had to hear the whole track. I mean, it's so true. I remember, actually, I did that not so long ago, maybe five or six years ago. I was listening to a community radio station in the car on the FM dial and this long, unreleased Eddie Grant song came on that he did with The Equals and I had to pull over and listen to the whole thing. You know, yeah, it's magical.   [Maria] It's something really special about that. Yeah. So Colleen, I've asked you to bring a few tracks today just to sort of pepper in between the interview. So what have you got that you want to play first?   [Colleen] I've been doing a lot of remixes and sadly, I can't play you any of the new stuff. I've actually worked on my third remix so far this year. But this next one is one I did last year for a really cool artist named Bryony Jarman Pinto for a very cool label named True Thoughts, which I really like. And I really like it because it's a down-tempo kind of soul groover. Hum. But I've been working on a lot of different remixes this year and I'm just even working on one right now. And there's a lot coming out this year, but I can't I can't play into it yet. Actually, in one of the bands, I can't even mention who it is yet. So I thought I'd start.   [Maria] You'll have to send it to us after. Yeah, that sounds good.   [Colleen] This is my Cosmodelica remix of Moving Forward.   [Maria] Amazing. Great.   [Maria] Welcome back to The Voices Breakfast Show with the one and only Colleen Cosmo Murphy joins me. Thank you so much for sharing that tune. That was gorgeous.   [Colleen] Oh, thank you. Thank you.   [Maria] And we've got some of your longtime listeners locked in, actually. I see. We've got Prit Pal, John John, Poppy.   [Colleen] Yeah, hello.   [Maria] It's lovely to see everyone locked in on the chat. So thanks for joining us, guys. So we've got about half an hour left. And I was saying off mic that you are the dream guest to interview because there's just so much to talk about. Well, that's what happens when you're old. I don't know if it's... I don't think it's old. I think it's just had an incredible career so far.   [Colleen] Thank you. Yeah. Well, you know, it's been a long one. That's for sure. I realized last year was my... Gosh, I started on the radio in 82, started working in record shops in 84. So it's been over 40 years. Wow. Which is kind of crazy.   [Maria] Yeah.   [Colleen] You know, when I think about it, I didn't do any big anniversary things. I always forget what my anniversaries are.   [Maria] So it's always ongoing stuff.   [Colleen] It's just ongoing. But yeah, always. There's nothing like the present, right?   [Maria] We need like a list of all your stations at some point. I bet that is such a long list of all the shows and stations.   [Colleen] Yeah, absolutely. I've almost always had a show.   [Maria] That would be incredible. So look, we have to talk about the loft party. Yes. So we spoke a bit about New York. So while still on the topic of that, how did you first sort of get to know David who put on the parties at first?   [Colleen] You know, I was... I've never been one who kind of bum rushes the DJ booth. I'm terrible at conventions and things like that. I don't go and I just kind of cold call on people. So I had a radio show at the time, believe it or not. And I wanted to have him as a guest. So I asked a mutual friend. I mean, I was going and hanging out, but I would kind of sit around and I wouldn't really intrude. I could tell he was an enigmatic private person. I think we had shared a couple taxis after the after the party because I live near the bus station where he would go to to go to Woodstock after the party. But he said, I want to go out with her and have some drinks. And so we went out for some drinks, the two of us. And we just connected. We really clicked for a lot of different reasons. On my side, it seemed quite obvious why it would click, but I wasn't sure why it did on his. And I did ask him about this because he came up to my radio show and then really soon after. And it's nothing I had ever considered because being a woman, especially at that time, you didn't have that sense of entitlement that, oh, he's going to ask me to play. It would never even have occurred in my head that that would be even a remote possibility. And he said, you know, why don't you come play some records with me? And I was like, what? You know, I couldn't believe it. And so I did. And I played just, you know, then we became more friendly and just started hanging out with him more, going over to his place during the week, playing some new records. He kind of, I think, also looked to me to bring in a lot of new music because I had a good ear, you know, and I knew some of the newer tunes that would really work. I felt on the floor of being a dancer first, you know. And yeah, we just got tighter and tighter. And then when I said I was, you know, I had thought of an idea for him. I mean, he was really suffering. I think people don't realize how bad it was for him in the 90s. He was betrayed a lot. And, you know, he's a very trusting man. He was a very trusting man and, you know, quite open. And the whole loft ideal is quite open. And there have been people that have taken advantage of it for their own purposes. And he was very protective over it. And but he got taken advantage of a few times like everybody does, but quite badly. And in the 90s, it was difficult. So I think there was me and another guy named Goshi who really, really helped him. We were kind of like young blood, really, that we're just trying to help him kind of get through. And that's when I came up with the idea for the compilations. We did those compilations, which were really groundbreaking at the time. I mean, now you might look at those and say, oh, I know that song. I know that song. But at the time in the late 1990s, it wasn't as popular and well known. And people didn't know David's story. And what better way to do it than through music? So that was really a big thing. And then we started parties over here. And he and I played in different parties around the around Europe and even in Russia, believe it or not, you know, smoking pot out of the hotel room. And we also saw Condoleezza Rice, you know, march through our hotel. It was crazy. We had such a crazy time. And we had just we just worked a lot together. It just became closer and closer until. Yeah, amazing.   [Maria] And for those that are listening and don't know, David Mancuso was an incredible. He calls himself a selector, right, rather than a DJ. And he put on these amazing loft parties in New York. But how did they actually start? Because I was listening to another interview of yours. And he was saying that they started in his home, right?   [Colleen] They were always in his home. Up until the last the first the last party I played at New York before I moved here was in 1999. And it was Valentine's Day. It was the day before I moved here as my going away. And that was the first time he rented a space.   [Maria] OK.   [Colleen] But in the 90s, there were three different places in the East Village. Gentrification was happening. It was really hard, you know, when he started his parties, you know, you know, New York, you know, even Ford said, you know, that he wasn't going to help, you know, President Ford said he wasn't going to help New York. It was a really difficult place to live in. It wasn't like it was in the mid 80s when stockbrokers and people started moving in and they wanted to bring the suburbs to New York City. It was difficult, but the rents were cheap. And so it was a very different kind of terrain, a different landscape. So you could have parties in your loft until whatever time. So he had started doing parties actually in the 60s, just having friends over. He was really into audio. He loves music. He just put some records on. People would start dancing. But then he formalized it on Valentine's Day 1970 with a party called Love Saves the Day. Still private. He wanted to know who was coming into his home. It wasn't like a sign up membership where you paid like the Paradise Garage. That was always a bone of contention with him. Any paid membership was a real bone of contention. But you would have a contribution. You'd make a contribution. It was based on the rent parties in Harlem because, you know, all these people, these African-Americans had moved from the South to the North and they weren't really allowed or really welcome at a lot of the white establishments. So they did their own thing and they would do their own thing in their own homes. And they'd have bands and DJs in their own homes. And you would pay, you know, for I hate to say a fee, but that's what it is, I guess. A contribution, as David would call it, you know, to attend and to help out the people. And that's kind of what he based it on. And it ended up becoming hugely popular. And it ended up influencing so many other clubs from the very commercial clubs uptown like Studio 54 actually was also influenced by The Loft to a degree. Even though it had a very different principle to other parties and clubs like the Paradise Garage.   [Maria] I love that. That's so iconic. And you two had such a deep musical connection. You touched on a little bit there. But why do you think there was such synergy between you?   [Colleen] I think there's a few things. I think David was very in touch with his feminine side. He was a gay man who really promoted women. He did so at a time when it wasn't as fashionable. You know, I would say women's rights has never been hugely fashionable. And he lived it and supported it right from the start in so many different ways. Whether he would invite single mothers to come along and bring their children to he is the one who would ask women to play. Now, I was a third woman he asked to play. There was a woman, Freddie Taylor, in the 70s. It was my friend, Elise Tifanyshyn, in the 80s and me in the 90s. And even when he chose his board, he chose three women and only one guy. So I think the women thing is massive, was massive for David. And he even said when he asked me to chair his board, he said, one of the reasons is you're a woman. He was very clear about that. So I think that was one of the connections. He was really in touch with his feminine side. He used to call us Yin and Yang, me and him. And I asked him, why did he try? I was younger than 25 when I started playing records with him. I'm like, how did he even trust me? The equipment, the cartridge cost $2,000 30 years ago. Yeah. And he said, it just starts with a vibe long before one hits the turntable. I think also we had a shared sense of what music meant and sound. I had already studied sound, obviously. And then also a kind of basis in music. I think we shared some of the same favorite albums, Astral Weeks. As I said to you, I was really a 60s music aficionado. And that's his background as well. So I think also there was a certain openness of spirit and also a spiritual connection, which is something that sounds corny talking about it, but it was there. I had already lived in Japan, studied Zen Buddhism, and done all sorts of work on myself before I even met David. And he had gone through the same thing in the late 1960s. So you meet your tribe.   [Maria] Yeah, for sure. It sounds like you two had the most wonderful friendship.   [Colleen] We did.   [Maria] And a little quote here that he said about you, she's one of the only people I would trust both with the music and with the equipment to fill in for me.   [Colleen] Yeah, I know. I mean, it's quite something, especially because I was so young.   [Maria] But he saw it right then. And obviously he was right.   [Colleen] That's what he said. I was surprised. So yeah, he called me his daughter, which is beautiful.   [Maria] And then still sort of sticking to New York, I know that you presented one of New York's most important house music shows, Club 89. And as someone that loves my kind of soulful house stuff, I'd love to know more about kind of the format of the show and the types of guests you had on.   [Colleen] Yeah, it was a lot of fun. So basically on WNYU, we had two anchor shows that went five days a week. One was called the New Afternoon Show, which was four to 730 evening drive. And that was more of the alternative show. And that's the show I hosted in the 1980s. Then the station asked me back and I had gotten into all this dance music. That's when I used the name Cosmo again, because I thought I would confuse my listeners. Like she was the one that did the 60s psychedelic show and the alternative show. What's she doing now? I did a show called Soul School that was playing all these, this music I was hearing at the loft and other clubs like The Shelter, House Nation, Afterlife, went out to a lot of different clubs. And then they asked me to do the Club 89 on Tuesday nights, which was again, five nights a week, 1030 to one. And this one you could mix. We only had turntables. There was no CD players. And we had, you know, you have brought in a DJ mixer. And I kind of learned to mix as well on the radio, which was kind of crazy because you're using a radio board, which is completely different to a mixing board. There's a buffer and a delay between the cue and the program. And especially your monitors might be, you might have the air signal, which has another delay. So it's really difficult. Plus I was mixing disco, which is not like to the beat. It's live bands. So I can't even believe I did that because I listened back to a couple of some of them like, Jesus, that was a terrible mix. Oh my God. And what was I doing? But there were some good ones too. And I was really proud of them. But then Club 89 was great because, you know, I played lots of new music. I was really the only DJ in New York to really be playing imports as well because I worked at a record shop. So it wasn't just the kind of soulful house tunes from New Jersey and New York. I was playing French stuff, the stuff from the UK, a lot of Idja boys, phase action, the new phonics stuff. I was playing Japanese stuff as well. So it's kind of playing a lot of different imports. And I had a lot of guests. I had Little Lewis. I had Rome Anthony. I had Francois K, Joe Clausell, Danny Krivett. David, of course, came up to my other show, Soul School. I had Joy Cardwell, Sable Jeffries, Kenny Bobian. So many legends, yeah. Global Communications. Yeah, a lot of legends. And, you know, it was interesting because I didn't know Louis Vega, even though he came into the radio show. I mean, he came into dance tracks where I worked. I didn't know him well, and I'm not one of those people that goes up and introduces myself. Hi, hi. You know, I'm not like that. A bit shyer, believe it or not. And I thought from my last show when I announced I was leaving, this one person I really want to get up, and that's Louis Vega. He's massive, you know, massive legend. And this is 1999. He jumped at the chance. He brought up his own sound system. Wow. Three turntables. They did an installation. He thanked me. And we've been friends ever since. And I couldn't believe it. I honestly could not believe it. I didn't realize how important the show was until I announced my departure. And I got all these letters. And I have even from listeners who still follow me today. We saw that earlier. It's incredible. And it just really meant something to a lot of people. That's how they had discovered house music or whatever. And I always had a connection with my listeners. We would do shout outs, you know, and I'd have someone doing the phones and we'd shout out to everyone listening who called in. And I don't know. It was a really magical time. And I'm just so thankful that I was able to be part of that and to have those shows. They were just so incredible.   [Maria] That's amazing to hear. I love that. I got the chance to chat to Louis out here last year. And yeah, he is just so nice. Just his sets as well that we out here were incredible with elements of life. And then in Love Dancing, which we'll touch on. Yeah, that's a whole nother thing. We'll play a song and then we'll talk about that because I'd love to know more. But which song would you like to play next, Colleen?   [Colleen] Well, as we were talking about David, I thought we would play a song that David turned me on to. And that is a loft classic. And it's something that's really beautiful. And it's something I really agree with the sentiment. It's brass construction. Music makes you feel like dancing. [Maria] So we are vibing out in the studio to this one. It's sounding so good. And we're loving the female energy in the room.   [Colleen] Absolutely. Five of us.   [Maria] Go on, girls. Go on, girls. Loving it. Starting the weekend the right way. So, Colleen, next I wanted to chat about Love Dancing and also we out here. So Love Dancing is always such a highlight of we out here. And last year was no different. I mean, that 10, just next level. So I want to know, how did you and Giles first meet? And how did that come about?   [Colleen] I think Giles, I can't remember how we first met. I mean, I used to go to Bar Roomba when I moved over. And I think the first time we properly hung out, we did a classic album Sundays together on Sun Ra. And after that, when he started Worldwide FM, he got in touch, said, I want you to be one of the DJs here. And believe it or not, at that time, I was considering to stop DJing for various reasons. I found that after having a child 20 years ago, it was very difficult and not having a child. Well, of course it is. But, you know, wonderful. But yeah, I mean, you know, I wasn't getting booked. A lot of people had forgotten about me and stuff. So I had started Classic Album Sundays. And I dove into that. And I really just, that's all I wanted to do. And so when he asked me to join the station, I said, I just want to do Classic Album Sundays. I don't really want to do anything else. I don't know if I want to DJ anymore. He kind of made me. I finally started doing it, kicking and screaming. And then he booked me for Worldwide Festival down the south of France. And I played with him. And it was great. We just had a great time. So when he started we out here, he said, you know, I'd love you to bring your sound system and to host a tent. And so we did. And it's just become, as you said, you know, thankfully a highlight of the festival. We have great, you know, we have Trojan sound system. The Thursday. Mr. Scruff programs the Friday. Saturday is the Cosmodelica takeover. And Sunday is Dingwalls. And our sound system is just, you know, we have Danley sound on the speakers. We have a lot of audio partners like Audio Technica, Master Sounds, Core, DCS, and Loud and Clear. And they all kind of help us put together this amazing system that we are, you know, we're going to looking to tour it as well now. But it's not just the sound system is part of it. But it's also the people that we have playing. They bring all different kinds of people to the tent. And there's all different ages, genders, backgrounds. And it's a really unifying experience. And it's just, it's like the hangout at the festival, you know, backstage in our tent. That's where everyone hangs out. Even the people who are DJing at other places come and hang out in our tent. And it's just a really, really great vibe. And I'm just, I'm really proud of it. Hugely proud of it. People really love the energy in there. And the sound, I think because the sound is so great, that that affects people more than they really think. I mean, when you are just listening to things like distortion, it's not good for you. I mean, some music has distortion in it. But I'm just saying when you're listening to a distorted sound system, it's going to affect your whole demeanor. And people don't even realize it. But when it's really great sound, they can listen for hours. So yeah, and there's a wooden dance floor. Yes. So people can properly dance, you know? I mean, try to dance on grass or sand. It's terrible. It's really difficult. So yeah, people go for it. So we get some of the old school dancers and the newer dancers.   [Maria] And there was amazing improvised dance this side of Louie's set.   [Colleen] Oh my gosh.   [Maria] Honestly, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't move. I was like, I'm staying here all day. I just sat there like, I need to go.   [Colleen] It was incredible. Absolutely incredible. I love having those dancers there with us.   [Maria] People just really do. Like you said, they let loose. Like everyone around me wasn't just like two-stepping and trying to act cool. They were fully going for it, sweating, like just loving it. It was just electric energy in there.   [Colleen] It was nice. And this year as well, I felt there was more of a queer energy on my night. It was really great. These two guys kind of got up. One was in a veil and his pants and just dancing. It was just really fun. I really liked that they felt safe enough to kind of jump up on the speaker stacks. I'm not encouraging everybody to do that. They were very good in terms of, it was just really great to see that.   [Maria] Yeah, 100%. And I saw Muscle Car sat in there.   [Colleen] Yes, because I had wanted them. I asked for them to come right after the year before because I've been following their stuff and they're great guys. You know, they're friends now. Yeah. And I think it's really important to help the younger generations. I had that help. I mean, especially as a woman at a time when it really wasn't that popular for women to be doing this. I had a lot of people looking out for me to help me. Not just David, but Francois K, Joe Clossel got me a dance tracks. People got me on the radio. There's always people that help you. And if I'm in a position to help others, then I'm going to do that. And so that's another thing I really like about it. I try to book younger people, but also people like my age and also all genders and just really try to make sure that, you know, people are getting support. You know.   [Maria] I love that. That's amazing. And then I wanted to talk about, we've got about 10 minutes, but we need to talk about Balearic Breakfast.   [Colleen] Oh, yes. Yeah.   [Maria] Of course. Of course. So that began on Worldwide FM during the first lockdown, right?   [Colleen] 2020.   [Maria] And that was when you filled in for Giles Peterson. And then he loved it so much that he asked you to take over the slot, which is incredible.   [Colleen] It really is incredible. It started as a show with a terrible name called Summer's Vacation. You know, because he was going away for the summer. And, you know, I wasn't going anywhere. I know some people are flying off to places. I never got on a plane for like a year and a half. I never went anywhere. And many of us weren't. And so we were having a summer's vacation. And I also did it as a request show because during the pandemic, I felt like people needed community and musical conversation. And it was also more fun for me to do request shows because, you know, I was doing so many shows. It kind of made me rediscover my music collection. Plus it also turned me on to new artists. I mean, I loved that. I loved how there was like a family and a community that was evolving with this. That was really hugely important to me. And, you know, I had a captive audience, obviously it was a pandemic. And I was broadcasting from my front room, which I still do from the record room, which I think kind of gives a more natural feeling. You know, whether it's my emotional state at the time or how relaxed I am, it's very different just broadcasting from your house, like just going downstairs and, you know, broadcasting. But yeah, it really, I think it just, you know, it's a show that doesn't really have one musical style. I think that's another reason why it appeals to people. There's a lot of different things on there. It could go from spiritual jazz to even techno sometimes. I mean, it's kind of gone the gamut, you know. But I think there's a musical flow and it's just such a joy. It's really such a joy to host. And this year, the fourth Balearic Breakfast compilation is coming out as well. So it's been really great. And we're doing parties and I'm doing some parties at NT's loft.   [Maria] I mean, I love it there, yeah.   [Colleen] Yeah.   [Maria] That's so cool. Yeah, you can tell that you definitely love doing it. Yeah, you can tell it's so joyful. And I think a word that a lot of people have used with the show is kind of healing, especially in lockdown. It got a lot of people through. Why do you think that people resonated so much with that and still listen to it today?   [Colleen] I think live radio is really important. There's a lot of radio shows where people just like give a mix or whatever and they don't really communicate. And I'm a communicator first. I started on the radio before I started as a DJ. So it's all about communication and making people feel part of something. And I think the fact that it was live in real time was one of those aspects that really made it connect with people. They knew. And then I think even now when I stream live on Mixcloud, the family gathers. It's like all these people from all over the world, Asia, South America, I mean, all over. It's incredible. All different time zones. So I think it's the fact that they feel part of something and there's that live connection. And I think also if you put your passion into something and it's real and authentic, the right people pick up on that.   [Maria] Definitely. And we've seen that today. I think something so nice about all your shows and everything you do, even like guesting on my show today, you've got such like the same listeners are tuned in today, supporting them all in the chat. We just had the next show come in and she's a big fan. And it's so special. It seems like what you do really does resonate with so many people. And you can see it in the chat, the way they come to your parties, the way that, yeah, are we out here? You really like, you mean a lot to people and your passion for music is incredible. So, yeah.   [Colleen] Well, they mean a lot to me because without them, I wouldn't be able to do this. I mean, having to be able to, you know, support myself in music nearly in my entire life, actually my entire life, that's a privilege. And I don't take it lightly. I've worked, I've worked hard for it. And I've put up with a lot more than people will ever know. But at the end of the day, it's still a privilege. I mean, the fact that I have this life, that I can play music for a living and talk about music for a living, you know, I never forget how lucky I am. And it's the truth. You know, there's a lot of suffering out there and I'm really, really, really lucky.   [Maria] Yeah, that's amazing. We've got only a few minutes left and I do want to play one last track, Colleen. But before we do that, could we also hear when your next party is? Because it's in March, it's coming up. So tell us in detail.   [Colleen] Yeah, our next London Loft party's on the 9th of March. And we do have a mailing list. If anyone wants to come along or join, you just email thelondonloft at loftparty.org . And we're doing four parties a year. The next one will be June, then September, then December again. So we have that going on, which is really great. And yeah, so other things happening, you know, I have the next compilations coming out this summer, a bunch of remixes. I just remixed Saint Etienne. And that's coming out on my compilation as well. And then I just remixed, I just wish I could say if I can, one of my favorite bands from the age of 14 on. Oh, wow, okay. And I got a call from the head of this band to ask me to remix one of their songs. And I am like, just, I literally cried in the studio. I mean, I don't even, I can't wait to announce it. But, and then right now I'm remixing a band called The Street People from the 70s, a great New Jersey soul act. And then I'm remixing another band called Santino Surfers from Music for Dreams. There's been a lot of studio work this year, which has been great. You know, I love it. I love it.   [Maria] Well, thank you so much, Colleen, for coming on the show. It's been such a pleasure to have you. And thank you for everything you do. I know at Voices, we've got so many fans of yours. So this was a super special show to have you on. And yeah, tell us what you're going to end on today.   [Colleen] I'm going to end with this song, Glory Ann Taylor, Love is a Hurtin' Thing. It's a beautiful old soul song. And it's coming out on the next Balearic Breakfast compilation. And it's just a beautiful groover for a morning show. Perfect. Let's do it. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 213th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on February 25th 2025. About this show. – With a somehow disconnected soul, unexpected yet rooted in its own free and somehow worried spirit, this 213th episode of Balearic Breakfast is another great example of Colleen's ability to share the spur of Life's moments... For various reasons, this show was deep, on many levels, and musicaly of course, too... But we'll dig a bit deeer about that in the listening section of this post... This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now archived on my Mixcloud (and please give me a follow while you’re over there). On this week’s show we pay tribute to two greats: Gwen McCrae and Roberta Flack, both of whom have passed to the next realm. Thank you for your song suggestions and for celebrating their life through music. I love seeing that ‘Sounds’ sticker on the Gwen McCrae record – purchased at the St Marks shop decades ago. Old record shop stickers give a sense of time and place and bring back to many memories. And on the memories front, I also pay tribute to a late friend of mine and colleague from my WNYU days, Philip Smart. The Jamaican born producer/engineer and radio DJ hosted the Get Smart! Show on WNYU and for many years I was on after him with my Soul School show on Friday nights. It was great going up to the studio and seeing Stone Love Sound System or Bobby Konders hanging out. Those were the days indeed. Today’s show also features your requests and music from#gwenmccrae #robertaflack #themonkees #wnyu #yachtrock @favoriterec @ubiquityrecords @timecapsulesounds @farout_recordings @joeclaussellsplaygroundd @djsaucylady @doctorsoul1 #yellowmagicorchestra @mimistgkobayashi @bbemusic @masters_at_work_official @claremont56 @furebymusic @folkfunkandtrippytroubadour @kennylattimore Thans for listening! PLAYLIST (1989) Sheila Chandra – One (1993) Better Daze – Golden Brown (1968) The Monkees – The Porpoise Song (NOL) Philip Smart – Drifter Dub Part 4 (1974) Gwen McCrae – 90% of Me is You (1978) Jonathon Hansen – What It Meant to Me (1982) Kenny Loggins – Heart to Heart (1978) Izumi ‘Mimi’ Kobayashi – Angel Sky (2024) Fureby, Moscoco & Faber – Halcyon (1993) Yellow Magic Orchestra – Pocketful of Rainbows (Heavy Rainbow Mix) (1971) Roberta Flack – Go Up Moses (1969) Roberta Flack – Compared to What (1980) Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway – Back Together Again (1979) Gwen McCrae – All This Love That I'm Givin' (1975) Hank Crawford – Madison (Spirit, The Power) (NOL) The Jones Girls – Nights Over Egypt (DoctorSoul Giza Dancefloor Re-Therapy) (2025) Saucy Lady – Falling in Love (1998) Kenny Lattimore – Days Like This (Lattimaw Soul House Mixx) (2025) Far Out Monster Disco Orchestra – Black Sun (Joe Claussell’s Classic Mix) (1982) Gwen McCrae – Keep the Fire Burnin' THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE Presentation. – Disconnected from reality, you're shifting from one place to another, but you don't know where you are, you don't know what time it is, you don't know what you should do, what you have to do, nothing make sense, you wish you would not have to be here, now, you wish you were elsewhere, yet the pain reminds you that you're stuck in this inexistent now you know nothing about, and the sickness doesn't stop. Disconnected, you're just a ghost passing there, to another somewhere, another tangible somewhere, one day, in a few years, it's a detachment, an active phase, a hideous phase of losing someone you loved with all your soul, and nothing can bring that person back, everything is Beyond, Beyond your grif, Beyond your sorrow, Beyond today, Beyond Tomorrow... Disconnected, you're Beyond, already... But you don't know it, Yet... To Rick (and to everyone grieving over a loved one) Today's episode is all about that feeling of being absent from yourself. This happens in a moment where you face loss, but also in a moment where, tired, you don't have the strength to pull yourself out of the maze surrounding you. Still, you try to keep moving on, because, after all, there's nothing else you can really do. A Vast Majority of the songs selected by Colleen in this 213th episode of Balearic Breakfast have that disconnection at the very Core of their musical existence, and this feeling is of course reinforced by Colleen's immaculate mix, one of the finest she ever did. We can take for example the way Colleen mixes Better Daze's Golden Brown with The Monkees' The Porpoise Song, nicely followed by Philip Smart's dubby Drifter Dub Part 4, leading the way to Gwen McCrae's trippy 90% of Me is You, perfectly ending this Beyond moment with Jonathon Hansen's What It Meant to Me... Colleen pushes this feeling in the second mini mix of the show's first hour, reaching rhythmic perfection with the way Izumi ‘Mimi’ Kobayashi's Angel Sky follows Kenny Loggins' Heart to Heart, not speaking of Fureby, Moscoco & Faber's Halcyon nor of, for instance, Go Mosses ! One last thing that struck me, when thinking about it, is that Colleen ends the show positively with Gwen McCrae's Keep the Fire Burnin'. Now, don't you find that this ending perfectly reflects today's post title? Going beyond pain and keeping the Fire Burning in one loving and intellectual unity... Is it me or is there a beautiful circle right there?... The Wow Moment. – For the disconnected feeling, the drunken wavy spirit leaving you lost in a place you can't disguise, for the cohesive, delicate mix, and the musical flow that truly reinforces your drunken feeling, I must say today's show's first hour wins The Wow Moment! If you want to get high, do it and listen to this show, you'll meet your new self walking somewhere, there... Beyond... This first part is so Mean... One of the meanest Colleen ever did, like really! I also must add that I love how, starting the second hour, Colleen takes a direct turn, leaving the lost, drunky and blurred-out feeling towards a more concrete and happier musical place yet keeping that estranged feeling intact... Once again, her musical choices from our requests is astoundingly precise! PS: Thank you so much Ana for your help in correcting this post! Fluffy hugs from the Lioncub!! COLLEEN'S PRESENTATION Sheila Chandra with One from Paul Hillary's Folk, Funk and Trippie Troubadour's volume 3 compilation on BBE. And that was requested by our friend Rick Van Veen in the Netherlands who very recently lost his mother. He said the show Balearic Breakfast was a huge support in difficult times for him, and it still is. He said, my mother's lung disease and taking care of her, which became more and more intensive, made life difficult, and he had little time for himself and to relax. And he said, but Balearic Breakfast and the community, and he said Ana and Artur have become good friends, help enormously. Everything is still very unreal. Her death in the past few years have gone through my mind as he wrote to me. I've planned to keep listening to music a lot but that does not always work. Recently, I heard the song One by Sheila Chandra for the first time, and somehow the song suits me perfectly at this moment and is constantly on repeat. I like to believe we are all one and if we are all one we will never be separated... I'm so sorry for your loss Rick, and thank you for sharing those beautiful words with us. Good morning Balearicans, I'm Colleen Cosmo Murphy hosting your weekly Balearic Breakfast live from my record room until high noon, and greetings to all over on my Mixcloud Live and thank you for joining me as always. Well, it's been a while since we've had a request show, and I won't be able to get to most of them again this week, so those songs will stretch over to upcoming weeks as always. We recently lost two major artists: Gwen McCrae and yesterday Roberta Flack, and we will pay our tributes to them and their music later in the show, and I'll also pay tribute to one of my former WNYU compatriots, the late reggae dancehall dub DJ producer and engineer Phillip Smart. But first, let's get in some of your requests, and this next one is from David Puzzi for a song by Better Days the duo of Andrew Jervis and Paul Scriver who released one album on Ubiquiti in 1996 called One Street Over and a year later they did an album of remixes from that album. The album melds together all different genres folk, funk, Bill Laswell style dub and more. David asked for the opening song to the album Here Are Better Days with Golden Brown. What It's Meant to Me by Jonathan Hanson, self-produced and self-released in 1978 by Jonathan, and it's a perfect recipe of the AOR soulful style lovingly reissued by Favorite Recordings. And they spoke with Jonathan and he said What it's meant to me was a song I wrote about the breakup of a band as with a lot of my songs I always write them to be more about more than one thing, primarily relationships and you can find that on Favorite Records Bandcamp. Ahead of that 90% of Me is You by the Queen of Rare Groove the recently departed Gwen McRae and that song is from her debut self-titled album released in 1974. The Florida-born singer, where she performed in clubs as a teen and then in 1963, she met and married a sailor by the name of George McRae who went on to have a massive hit with Rock Your Baby which was released the same year as Gwen's debut. And George also does backing vocals on the album. Prior to that, in the 1960s, they recorded together as a duo, and they signed the label TK Records which in the next decade was the leading southern disco label, and Gwen had success as a solo artist on TK subsidiary Cat Records with a cover of Bobby Bland's Lead Me On, and then Ed Townsend's For Your Love, and then she had a big hit with her own song Rockin' chair. The song we heard 90% of Me is You is much beloved on the Rare Groove scene, it was also featured on that great BBE compilation Strange Games and Things, and thank you to Bert Francois in Brooklyn for that request, and we'll have more Gwen McRae later in the show. Okay, the one before that is an old friend of mine Philip Smart we heard Drifter Dub Part 4, and Rob that primitive sound put this on my radar. Today is the 11th anniversary of Philip Smart's passing, and Philip Smart was on WNYU when I was on in the 1980s and 1990s, in fact I think he had the longest-running show it went from like 1979, I think to about 2004. And when I did the soul school show it was so much fun, because I was on right after him, and I come up to the studio and there would be like Bobby Condors hanging out, or a Stone Love sound system fresh from Jamaica, and I got to hang out with these guys, and they were just really cool because I was really into dancehall and reggae and dub at that time. In fact, I used to spin it you know and I was spinning house parties back in the late 80s, and early 90s, and I was a regular over at Sticky Mike's which was a great dancehall night. Well Philip, I mean, he was such a great guy. I used to write for a fanzine called Dub Catcher and I obviously interviewed Philip. He was a total legend and he also took me record shopping at the VIP records distribution, I think it was in Queens. Anyways, Smart's steadfast championing of local reggae acts and could be heard on his popular Friday night show Get Smart, and that was on WNYU 89.1 FM. And he says a Stan Evans Smith who used to to work with him I think he was a digital, I think he used to call himself, I can't remember his name, it wasn't Bobby digital but he used the word digital in his name. He said Philip Smart changed the radio landscape by using New York as a marketplace for New York-based artists. He helped establish dancehall reggae in New York so artists could have careers competitive with their Jamaica-based counterparts, and he was also a really fun personality, very strategic with his on-air approach. And he compelled other New York reggae jocks to allocate slots on their Jamaica-centric playlists for New York area artists, you know Philip had his own studio. He was an engineer and producer himself, and he had very very deep roots on reggae's earliest days with connections to Kingston's finest talents, and Get Smart was also a preeminent vehicle for Jamaica-based artists and producers seeking international exposure for their releases. And he also shared the tracks he played, and his vast musical knowledge with other radio hosts he broke records like Shabba Ranks he wrote I think he broke also Dawn Penn No No No No as well so he was just such a great great person and thank you to Rob That Primitive Sound for honoring him on today's show. Ahead of that we had The Monkeys with The Porpoise Song which is written by Carole King and Jerry Goffin, if you can believe it. And it was performed as a theme song of the monkeys 1968 film Head definitely a trip and we're seeing if you love 60s psychedelia and experimental filmmaking like I do. And the song mainly features Mickey Dolenz on vocals and thanks to Tim of Puerto Montt City Orchestra for that request. Okay, now did anyone see the Yacht Rock documentary now out on Sky Arts? Well, I did and I've been listening to Yacht Rock playlists ever since all weekend, and Questlove has one that's 51 hours. Anyways when our friend Victor Olteanu in Romania requested this song I just had to play it, and it doesn't need a lot of elaboration as it's a pretty well-known song by one of the best from the genre, and it also has Michael McDonald on backing vocal. Here is Kenny Loggins with Heart to Heart. The Heavy rainbow remix of Yellow Magic Orchestra's Pocketful of Rainbows from YMO's eighth and final studio album Techno Dawn, released in 1993 when all three members Tsuruchi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi had concurrent strong solo careers. And in fact both Sakamoto and Hosono were folding in world music sounds in their solo albums around this time, and it can be heard on this final YMO release, and thank you to Virginia Tsioti in Athens for putting that one on our radar. Ahead of that, we had Furby, Moskoko and Faber with Halcyon from the Claremont edition series, and that series has been going on since 2020 on Paul Mudd Murphy's Claremont 56 label. It was requested by our friend Tom Torres in Vienna, and the song we heard was Halcyon and that's Danish producer Furby, a close friend of fellow Danes Mike Salta and Peter Visti joining forces with Guy Moskoko and Brian Faber for a gorgeously kaleidoscopic balearic groove for rich and fluttering flute solos simmering disco strings and sun bright electronics. Ahead of that we had Angel Sky by Izumi Mimi Kobayashi who is one of Japan's leading jazz funk pianists, and she wrote and recorded cult albums with fusion legends at home and abroad, obsessed with new electronic instruments. She penned some of the country's most well-known TV themes. She also pioneered the use of drum machines in anime soundtracks. A star in Japan, Kobayashi moved to Europe to record global hits with Depeche Mode and Swing Out Sister. She toured the world with the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra, and she also made beats with my friend Tony Mwachukwu from Attica Blues. She's now based in London and she fronts Tokyo Rhythm Band, and Time Capsule Records have lovingly curated an album with some of her most significant tunes called Choice Cuts 1978 to 1983 and you can find out more on their Bandcamp. Well, we lost another great just yesterday, the American singer-songwriter and pianist Roberta Flack. As a great balladeer, she significantly contributed to the quiet storm radio sound which had a smooth romantic and jazzy sound, in which I've always been a sucker for. She was born in North Carolina and grew up in a large musical family and she used to go to the Baptist Church down the street where she would hear Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke singing. She started playing piano at 9 and got a full scholarship to Howard University at the age of 15, and she eventually changed from piano to voice, she became a teacher herself, and whilst performing in clubs in Washington DC, she was discovered by pianist singer Les McCann. He arranged an audition with Atlantic Records and the rest is history. As a great interpretive singer, her early albums mainly featured covers or songs written by others, and she had number-one hits, but this is one of my personal favourites of hers, and it's one she co-wrote and it's incredibly funky. This is Roberta Flack from her third album Quiet Fire here she is with Go Up Moses. Roberta Flack with Back Together Again a song she originally did with Donny Hathaway for the second album they did together. And Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway did two albums one in 1972, and the second in 1980 right after Hathaway's passing, in fact he fatally fell from his 15th-floor window after having dinner with Flack. The two were great great friends and professional colleagues, they did so many great songs together including the smash 1972 hit Where is the Love and 1978's The Closer I Get to You and Flack was a great collaborator she also had hits of Peebo Bryson and Maxie Priest, and she was celebrated with the Grammy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. She also won several Grammys as well. Ahead of that we had Roberta Flack once again with Compared to What. It's an overtly political song that highlights women's rights and the concerns of the second wave feminist movement, and also an anti-war sentiment, and that's from her debut album First Take which I believe was probably named because she probably performed everything in one take. She recorded the entire album in 10 hours and she won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, not the only time she's done that and right from the starting point Flack had hits. Her debut featured The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face. In fact that was written by folky Ewan McCall for Peggy Seeger, and Roberta's voice also had that kind of folk like quality a pure tonality found in artists like Judy Collins, but Flack also had that elegant soul stylings of you know singers like Dionne Warwick, and you can really hear that on her number one hit Killing Me Softly with this song. And we started it all off with Roberta Flack's Go Up Moses such a funky tune, and that's from her LP Quiet Fire and Bert Francois is over on the chat group and he said: "Her passing really touched me. My uncle who recently passed was her professor at Howard University and he told me she invited him to hear her perform at a nightclub, and he really enjoyed her performance, and after the show he encouraged her to pursue her singing career". So there you go and also, Roberta Flack also encouraged Luther Vandross to do the same thing, and that just reminds me I watched the Luther Vandross documentary finally Luther: Never Too Much, shed tears, it's absolutely amazing. I mean he did things I didn't even know about like he was on Sesame Street when I was a kid. I can't even believe it's incredible and there's also a documentary about Roberta Flack which Bert told us about I believe it's a PBS documentary as well. Okay, back to another recently departed American soul great, Gwen McCrae and this next song was requested by Thanos Quatronis, and I'm also sending this one out to David Stoddard and for some of you it may evoke memories of Cassius's French touch classic Feeling For You which sampled it very heavily. It remains a killer record in its own right though, and this time has also been recently reissued. Originally released in 1979, it sees McCrae at her powerful best delivering a potent message to an errant lover over a killer low-slung disco-funk groove, and I should also say DJs and dancers here in the UK really supported McCrae who had hits on the northern soul scene, and she also performed over here and in Europe quite a lot. She recorded for the UK's Rhythm King Records in the late 80s and then recorded an album for British label Homegrown Records in 1996 here is Gwen McCrae with All This Love That I'm Given. I love love love the original version of Nights Over Egypt by the Jones Girls, but I have to say for a long time I refused to play it, because I heard it so much when I was DJing in the 1990s, we had this like lounge scene you know in downtown Lower East Side in the East Village where me and my friends would DJ, and I would always hear this song, so I just wouldn't play it. But I have to say I absolutely love it. Dexter Wansel of course there, and this is a really great rework by Dr. Soul called the Dr. Soul Giza Dance Floor Re-Therapy, and that was requested by Sue Forrest. I think it's fantastic. Ahead of that we had an album that's often in my record bag. Hank Crawford's 16th studio album, I Hear a Symphony, released back in 1975 and I usually play sugar-free but Anthony Nabbit asked for Madison Spirit the Power, and that was certainly a very funky offering from the late Memphis Tennessee born saxophonist, pianist, arranger and songwriter. And Crawford goes way back appearing on a B.B. King record back in 1952, and he was also the music director for Ray Charles before he embarked upon his own solo career. Okay this is Colleen Cosmo Murphy with you on Balearic Breakfast for another half an hour. I'm still cutting out songs trying to fit in all these great requests and tributes just want to let you know about a few gigs that I'm doing. I'll be DJing over at LA Disco Tech at the Albert Hall in Manchester on the 8th of March, and then the following day it's our London Loft Party. So if you would like to join us here in London on a Sunday for seven hours of dancing and music and fun and food, and if you aren't on our mailing list, please email the London Loft at loftparty.org and we'll get back to you. I'll be at Southport Weekender on the 15th of March, and then I'm heading over to Japan for the second half of March where I'll be playing in Sapporo Nagoya Osaka Guma and Tokyo. So really looking forward to that. And while I'm gone I'm going to have to do a few interviews and mixes, and I'm hoping to get Saucy Lady up. She has a new album called Love Fest on her own label Dippin Records, and is co-produced with her husband Yuki who's a fabulous producer. And she's a real disco sensation, a Japanese woman actually, a Japanese mother, American dad, an American jazz loving dad, and she mainly grew up in Japan but then she moved to Massachusetts where I'm from and stayed there for university, and ended up settling there. And she has done four albums since 2011, and it's really incredible, her new album is again a standout blend of French boogie electro soul, taking fellow producers and performers Derek McKenzie Yam who and Jay Mumford in tow, and it's a slick 40 minutes, so we will have to get her on the show next month. Matt Raystrick requested her up-tempo cover of Surface's Falling In Love, and here it is on Balearic Breakfast. Oh my god, absolutely smoking stuff from Joe Claussell. And I want to send this one out to you Tomohiro Yamada, because you asked for a different Joe Clausel record which I did download. I was going to play it, and then I went through my promos and found this. I just had to play it, it's going to be a special one-off limited edition 12-inch release for Record Store Day 2025, so you definitely want to queue up for this one. It's the Far-Out Monster Disco Orchestra with a Heidi Vogel on vocals, they're beautiful beautiful song, and it's called Black Sun, and that's Joe Clausel's classic mix. And the far-out monster disco orchestra have been going for over a decade, and they've hosted esteemed members like as a miss Jose Roberto Bertrami and Alex Malheros, and it's an enlisted and an illustrious roster of remixes over the years including John Morales, Theo Parrish, Al Kent, DJ Spinner, and I just love that one from Joe. And gosh that is just absolutely smoking. Ahead of that we had American soul singer Kenny Lattimore with his 1998 single remix by Masters at work called the Lattimaw soul house remix, and requested by Ana Sancho in Barcelona. And that was a little bit of Virgo musical synchronicity as I've had that record pulled aside for weeks now getting ready for a play. And I just also found out that Lattimore was also married to another great singer Shante Moore for a while, and he is still releasing records and the latest is 2021's here to stay. Well this is Colleen Cosmo Murphy, and you know I'm here to stay with the show but not on today's show, we only have one more song. I just want to say I just found out that sadly Donald Fagen has just passed away, and we will definitely pay tribute to him on next week's show. Seems like there's a lot of tributes, I guess must be must be my age it's just kind of part of human, the human condition part of life, I'm afraid. And, but yes very very sad news. Again he is featured on the Yacht Rock documentary which is which is excellent you must see it, it's both you know, it also has a lot of fun, but it's also quite serious too and Christopher Cross is quite a fellow. Oh my gosh you know he, he was tripping when he wrote Ride Like The Wind, I always knew why I liked that song but now I know why. Anyways, um yeah, really good documentary, and next week we will pay tribute to Donald Fagen, but we have one more tribute left, and again this is the last one for Gwen McRae. This one's going out to Chris Lee Steve Wakley and Alex Elliott now. After TK Records collapsed, Gwen McRae moved to New Jersey and she signed with Atlantic Records, and she had a hit with Funky Sensation, and then she later had a minor hit with this next song, so I just love this song. I think it's a beautiful way to end the show and yes, rest in paradise both Roberta Flack and Gwen McRae, also of course Donald Fagen as well. This is Gwen McRae with Keep The Fire Burning and have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next Tuesday.

In the latest episode of the KWYS show, Brian Lowery talks with Colleen about her career and how she shares Music on the dancefloor. About this interview. – Colleen met Professor of Organizational Behavior and social psychologist by training Brian Lowery (he received his doctorate from UCLA in 2001 with a minor in statistical methods) for a great interview, which stands out from the other ones she did in the past as she dvelves into What music brings to her and How she shares it on the dancefloor. We also learn here that our dear Captain is working on a Memoir 😊 LIstening to this nice and relatively short interview, you'll discover how, with her 35-year Career, Colleen works her way through her sets and the philosophy which allows her to take the dancers onto a real musical journey where music is able to transmit pure feelings. The interview is transcribed below and you can listen to it here: Music, Movement, and Meaning: Hanging Out with DJ Cosmo - Know What You See with Brian Lowery PS: Coming back from the USA, where she played the Horse Meat Disco Party, Colleen shared this on her socials on Sunday, 16th February: " Heading back to London after a wonderful trip to the USA and after a night of very little sleep after playing Horse Meat Disco at Knockdown Centre last night. I just love playing there not only because I love Luke, Severino, James and Jim but also because of the on-point staff and the amazing crowd - they are just so much fun and I absolutely adore playing there. And the night before I also had a blast playing in Washington DC for the first time at For Your Pleasure - a fabulous party hosted by Martin and Chelle and a great, eclectic mix of dancers. I have only been to DC less than a handful of times (half of which were for marches) and it was definitely a bit strange to be in the same vicinity as you-know-who but I managed to have a spectacular time. One of the highlights of my trip was reconnecting with a dear old friend from high school, Michele. We went to so many shows together - slam dancing at Black Flag, dancing on stage at The Smiths, witnessing a riot at New Order and staying up all night in a parking lot to snag tickets for the Purple Rain tour. Now she is a curator at The National Museum of African American History and Culture and I got to see her for the first time in over 3 decades. It is so life-affirming to reconnect with old friends and to be able to pick up just where you left off. I also caught up with my old WNYU friend Jocelyn Gonzales. She and I have worked together on podcasts and she is one of the best in her field. She and host Brian Lowery, PhD recently invited me up to their program ‘Know What You See’ for ‘Music, Movement, and Meaning with DJ Cosmo’ (link in comments) and I finally had the chance to listen. Somehow I seemed to make some sense (LOL!). And through Jocelyn I also reconnected with my first woman mentor - Lynne McVeigh. She was the Radio Advisor for WNYU and the Head of the Sound Department when I was in university in the 80’s and she had my back. She even got me a broadcasting scholarship which was very much needed at the time." Music, Movement, and Meaning: Hanging Out with DJ Cosmo Part I [Brian] I'm Brian Lowry, professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Welcome to Know What You See. In this season of the podcast, I'm diving into a big question. What's the point? In conversations with people who have committed themselves to a range of pursuits, we'll learn answers to that question that might surprise and inspire us all. Music has always been one of my biggest passions. Certain songs and albums are like mile markers in my life, and I'm sure the same is probably true for you. For me, Funkadelic, One Nation Under Groove, is my earliest music memory. And growing up in Chicago, arguably the birthplace of house music, with iconic spots like The Warehouse, I spent many hours tuned into WBMX. With Friday Night Jams, we are now into the mix with Frankie Knuckles.   [Brian] The station that played and still plays house music today. And in college, house music lived alongside rap as the soundtrack of my life. The DJs I listened to on the radio and at house parties, they weren't just playing music. They were curators of an experience. They knew more, obsessed more, and introduced me to sounds I didn't know I needed. But back then, I didn't think much about the experience of being behind the turntables.   What does it mean to bring people together through music like that? That's where DJ Colleen Cosmo Murphy comes in. She's been called the audio connoisseur you want in charge of your party. Colleen has been decades mastering the art of sharing music. She's a broadcaster, a club DJ, a festival performer, and the creator of Classic Album Sundays, a global listening series for music lovers and audiophiles. With thousands of records in her personal collection, and a deep knowledge of vinyl and sound systems, Colleen has built her career and life around sharing music.   [Brian] Colleen, first of all, can I start with the name, the story behind your name? Sure, yeah. I hosted radio shows on my 10 Watt High School radio station from 1982 to 1986. [Colleen] And I did a show called Punk, Funk and Junk. And that included early hip hop and electro and also punk. And there was a band named Nucleus and their DJ's name was Cosmo. And that's how I got the name Cosmo and I started to use it. And my friend, who was the other DJ, she called herself Remix. And we made these sweatshirts and have our names on the back and walk around our high school like we were really cool.   And that's how I got the name Cosmo. So when I started DJing in the 1990s, people knew my name is Colleen Murphy. But then I started to get into dance music. And I was really changing the format of what I was playing. And I thought it'd be too confusing for people to hear Colleen Murphy not playing 60s psychedelic music or post punk, but now playing dance classics, disco, house. So I just took the name Cosmo back, having no idea it was going to be part of my career. [Brian]   So what about music attracted you to it? I mean, that's kind of a funny question, because I think if you're a normal human being, you love music, but not many people do it as their career. So how did that happen for you? [Colleen] Well, it's interesting you ask this, because this is something I'm trying to research in a memoir, trying to figure out what it is that drew me to music, because I grew up in a small New England town. None of my family had any connections with people in the music business. And nobody was as obsessed as I was. But I think it came initially from the radio. The radio in Boston was really quite good. And when I was growing up in the 1970s, I was given a transistor radio for my seventh Christmas when I was seven years old. And I remember running upstairs and turning it on and hearing Fly Robin Fly by Silver Convention. And I was really hooked. I listened to the radio all the time. And I think there were a few reasons. One, I just naturally gravitate towards music. I can sing on pitch. I started playing piano when I was five years old. It's something that's always been able to get under my skin and really move me in a very deep way. And that's just my personality. And I can't explain why that is. But the experience of having these great radio stations around me and exposing me to all different kinds of music, we had so many college radio stations, we had black radio stations, we had gray AOR radio stations like WBCN, some of the most progressive in the country, and a really varied radio format. I was very lucky to be raised where I was in the 1970s. I had access to all different kinds of music. And I think that's really one of the things that made me gravitate towards a career in it. Because I started doing radio when I was 14 years old.   Then I started collecting records when I was 15. And my first job was in a record shop when I was 16. [Brian] What was your first record? [Colleen] Well, the first record that was given to me was by my very cool aunt, who was only eight years older than me. And I think I was about eight years old when she gave it to me. It was Elton John's Greatest Hits. [Brian] You said you started on radio at 14. How did that happen? [Colleen] I had another cousin who was doing a radio show on our high school radio station. And then she and her friend Eric invited me up because they knew I loved music. And so I went along to their radio show, brought some records with me. And I remember they turned the microphone on. And I literally ran out of the room and across the library. And it took me a while to start talking. So you ran out, they turned on the microphone. [Brian] Did you come back? [Colleen] I did come back, but I don't think I really spoke. I think I stayed away from the microphone. I was a bit intimidated by that. I wanted to sort of be a silent DJ. And even when I have one radio show on cassette, and I don't talk that much in high school. It was really when I went to NYU and started working on WNYU and had a lot of people who actually trained me where I became more comfortable. It took some time. And so how did you end up going from radio to live events? [Brian] How did that happen? And when did that happen? [Colleen] At WNYU, we did host some live events as well. And we also had connections with different venues throughout the city. So the first time I really started DJing in public was in the 1980s for CBGB's record canteen, their record shop, because they had a bunch of WNYU DJs there. And we would host different WNYU nights. I remember playing on the roof of Mars in the late 1980s. Which was a really cool club in New York. I started going out to a lot of clubs in about 1991, in the early days of house in New York City. And I went to one party in particular that really changed my life. And that party was called The Loft. And it was hosted by a man named David Mancuso, who became a very good friend of mine afterwards. And a friend of mine brought me to this party. And I didn't know anything about it. It was on East Third Street between Avenues B and C. There's no sign out outside the door. You just walk through these doors. And there was somebody there collecting money to get in. And when I went through the next set of doors, it was this beautiful big space that had these huge clip-shorn loudspeakers dotted around the dance floor. And it looked like somebody's home because it was somebody's home, even though it was a converted former theater. And there was a very enigmatic, mysterious man behind the turntables playing music that I hadn't really heard before. And the music sounded incredible. It was on a beautiful sound system. And it just gave so much more emotion and nuance to the music. I had never heard a playback system like that before. I just fell in love. And I started going back week after week. And I had to seek out what records he was playing. I was asked to come back to WNYU around that time, because I had already graduated. And I came back and I said, but I want to do a different kind of show. I want to do a show that plays dance music as opposed to the other stuff I've been known for. And I started a show called Soul School. And from there, people started tuning in. I started to build a really great community. And from there is when I started to be asked to play out in different places. [Brian] So what's the difference between radio and live events for you? [Colleen] Well, radio, you have a connection with your audience, but you can't see them. A lot of the times, you're not necessarily responding to what they're doing at that moment in time, because your radio shows can be pre-programmed. You know what you're going to play, usually, not all the time, but usually. Whereas on a dance floor, you are responding to the moment, to everything that is happening, whether it's the mood of the room, the temperature, the acoustics, where you are, who is there, how they're feeling at that point in time, what the sound system is like, what's sounding good on that sound system, what's not sounding good on that sound system. There's so many different outside elements to process. And if you are what I call a proper DJ, you aren't going and rocking up with a playlist and just playing a set one to 20 or whatever. That to me isn't a DJ set. A DJ set, you are actually interacting in real-time with the people on the dance floor and everything going on around you. [Brian] So I grew up in Chicago in the 80s. As you know, there was a big house scene. [Colleen] Yeah, the warehouse. Yeah. [Brian] The best DJs are taking the crowd on like a journey. That was my experience of it, right? There's a kind of a ebb and flow, like you move up, there's like a crescendo, and then there's a moment of kind of bringing it back down and just kind of the DJ is making sense of where the crowd is and kind of moving them in different directions. And the best experiences I've had, it was almost meditative or trance-like when it was like, you're just in there dancing, there's very little light, everybody is kind of moving. It's just a very communal, almost ritualistic kind of experience. And I'm curious, as a DJ, what that feels like? Like when you're the person managing that experience? [Colleen] Well, it's interesting. I started on the dance floor, like many DJs do. So that is something that you're trying to tap into when you're actually on the other side of the turntables. It's like a call and response. That's the way I would describe it.   It's a lot of responsibility. You have this sense of experience that obviously comes into play. And knowing how to move people or when they're getting, when it's time to bring it back down, and when it's time to bring it back up, and when it's time to play that peak song. And as you said, I also do play in an arc. I played for seven hours on Sunday. And the first two hours, I mean, I start with ambient, built it up, built up the tempo, built up the tempo, get everybody kind of moving and then bring them down and up and down and up and down and up and then bring them down for kind of a re-entry into the world. It works best when you don't think about it too much and you use your intuition. The experience comes into play when you're observing the room and you're seeing what's going on and you're starting to feel what they're needing at that time. And it's a silent conversation. I mean, there might be whoops and cheers and whatever, but it feels like you're helming a ship. You're responding to all the outside elements as well. And you have your crew with you or the sound system and all the other things that are really important to make this experience really crystallize and to really move people. But the best times when I know it's all working is when I'm not even really thinking. And it almost, without trying to sound silly, it's almost like channeling. So the experience comes through when you know your music, you've played for dance floors as I have for 35 years, that all comes into play. But it's almost, I guess, like being a concert pianist. You practice and you practice and you practice, but when the moment actually comes, it should be somewhat effortless. You should not be overthinking it. And it really becomes quite an instinctual process. So you're really opening yourself up to what is coming back at you. [Brian] What does that bring up for you? How does it feel for you? [Colleen] And it feels very cathartic. I mean, music is a way that I've been able to connect with my own feelings. It can bring up incredible joy and also incredible sadness. In fact, on Sunday, when I was doing my seven-hour set, some of it was in tribute to a friend who recently passed away. And a lot of friends that were in attendance were a friend of this person as well. Of course, I would play songs that we shared together and I'd be crying. It just comes out. Music tends to allow me to not retreat from my own feelings, but confront and process them. So it's quite emotional going through this. There's moments of euphoria. There's moments of oneness. And at the end, it just feels cathartic. Like I've been on a whole journey with a whole group of people. We've gone from A to B and share this incredible experience together. I feel a sense of solidarity with the dance floor. I feel that music and movement brings us together. It makes us feel part of something that's bigger than us. And I also wonder if that really taps into some kind of primordial need to connect with others through movement that may even predate language. I'm not an anthropological biologist, but I wouldn't be surprised if Homo sapiens were communicating through movement first before language and finding ways to connect through movement. I also just feel that while it allows me to process feelings, it also allows me to tap into something that's bigger than myself. It could be that sense of unity, that sense of oneness, that sense of communal euphoria when you actually drop your own personality and you drop your own ego and you're able to kind of be part of something bigger. [Brian] Yeah, I really like that. It makes me think about the kind of tension between being you, like the individual, and being a part of something larger, like losing yourself in something larger. And I guess I wonder how much of you is retained when you're doing this. I'm curious how you think about that tension between you, the individual, and being part of and losing yourself in the larger experience in the group. [Colleen] I guess being the individual is all in the preparation and the experience and everything I bring to the table. So, for instance, before I do a seven-hour set, I'm putting together records for over two days, really understanding what I'm bringing with me. I know that music inside and out, especially then there's some newer songs, of course. So that's the part of being an individual. But that's the part I want to let go of once the party's in play. I don't want to be thinking about me as an individual. And really, it all becomes about being part of this kind of process and becoming part of the whole spirit of the dance floor. And I've done all that work, but in the moment, I just want to be in the moment. I just want to be in the moment of the music and the dance. [Brian] I'm with Colleen that music and the collective vibration of all those bodies on the dance floor is a way of drawing me into something bigger, something more mysterious. When I'm lost in the sound, it's not just about me anymore. It's about the connection, the release, and the sense of being a part of something greater. We feel that kinship with other listeners. Isn't music a universal way of reaching out for something transcendent or even divine? We'll get into that next on Know What You See. Part II [Brian] We're back with DJ Khalil Cosmo Murphy. This is a random question. Have you ever been to the church of Coltrane? [Colleen] I'd like to go. That's in San Francisco, isn't it? Yeah, I need to go. I haven't been to California in like 25 years. So I'm hoping to go back at some point soon. But no, I haven't. And I'd like to go to his home in Long Island, because that's where he wrote A Love Supreme. So I just want to go and be there, you know, just feel it. [Brian] I wonder how you connect a religious experience or spiritual experience in music, because Coltrane was very explicit in making that connection. I just wonder if you think about that as a point of connection, religion or it doesn't have to be organized religion, but a religious spiritual experience in music. How do you think about those two things? [Colleen] Well, I do. I had a double major at NYU. One was film, radio and sound, and the other one was comparative religions. And so it's something that really, really does interest me. And every religion has music and dance associated with it. It allows us to free ourselves from our own brain, our own personality, our own ego, our own individuality, and to connect with a greater spirit and something that is bigger than ourselves. And that allows us to transcend our everyday lives. And it's how people thought they could communicate with the gods. And I still think you can, whether it's gods or the universal being or whatever you want to call it. I do feel that music is the way that I've been able to tap into spirituality. [Brian] I think of music maybe as kind of a proto storytelling, right? So it's a way to create a communal understanding, right? And we think once you have literature and language, you can write those stories down, or you can tell oral stories, you can tell your histories, but there's something maybe about music that connects us all in a story that maybe strips away the individual and lets us see the reality of our communal existence, or it lets us experience maybe the reality of our communal existence. And I mean, I hear that in the way you're describing like music, maybe. [Colleen] Yeah, also dancing too. I don't think we've spoken specifically about dancing, but really dancing and sinking into your own body and into movement. It allows yourself to free yourself from your brain. And it allows you to let go of the embarrassment of movement or your body and lets you let go of pride. You become vulnerable and you give yourself over to something bigger. And it can also unite you with everybody else around you on a dance floor. There's a certain sense of solidarity. There's a unity of feeling. There's a unity of movement. And I felt that a lot with house music when house music first started. I think because house music is kind of easy to dance to, you know, this four to the floor, it's easier to say than dancing to salsa or Brazilian music where there's so many different intricate rhythms. House music, anybody can dance to it. And I think it let down a lot of people's guards and united them in that way where they just felt they could let loose and just be themselves and be part of something bigger. Also, dancing releases endorphins as well. So it enhances your mood. And that can be whether you're watching other people on a dance floor or it's you yourself dancing. It's incredible, like how good you feel dancing. And I remember during the pandemic, and I'm a DJ, you know, people don't necessarily think of me as a dancer. They see me behind the turntables. And what I missed more than DJing out was dancing. I missed the communal sense of dancing with other people on the dance floor way more than I miss playing records in front of people. [Brian] And you were nervous about going back to DJing in front of people. Why the nervousness? [Colleen] I was so nervous. I felt so vulnerable. I wasn't sure if I could still do it. I didn't know how people would respond. And I think a lot of DJs are actually a lot shyer than people think. There's some people that gravitate towards DJing because they want to be a performer. They want to be the focal point or the old rock and roll reasons, drugs and partners and, you know, whatever, sex, drugs and rock and roll. That could be one motivation for people to become DJs. But for a lot of us, it's because we're actually more introverted. We'd be the ones going to a party and everyone's talking and socializing and we'd be looking through the record collection and maybe popping a record on. I'm not very good at huge crowds and being the focal point of attention, although I've learned to do so because of what I do. But it's not that I'm very talkative in that way either. I tend to express myself best through music rather than words. And when you're DJing, you're kind of in this isolated area that sort of protects you as well. And you're able to communicate through music rather than through your own words. Going back after the pandemic, it was just really nerve wracking. Your insecurities rise up and you don't know how people respond and you get stage fright. Whereas in my own record room, it was a lot different. I couldn't see everybody. [Brian] So people can't see your record room. I'm curious to estimate, how many records do you think you have? [Colleen] About 10,000. [Brian] And by the way, I'm surprised it hasn't collapsed your home. [Colleen] I know. [Brian] It's quite heavy. [Colleen] We're on a ground floor. I have had friends that had to move records from their second, third floors because the floors started to sag. [Brian] All right, so here's a hard question. You ready? [Colleen] Yeah. [Brian] You're on a desert island. You only get one album. Which album is it? [Colleen] Ooooooh. I can't answer that. But it changes all the time. [Brian] Today. [Colleen] Today. Okay. I know what I'd pick today. John Coltrane, A Love Supreme. And I think for me, I'd have to pick music that taps into some kind of spirituality if I'm going to be listening to it over and over again. Plus he did so much in terms of technique and exploring the lexicon of music and the language of music. And so that type of music is something I can listen to over and over and over again because I can always hear something new. I don't think I could... There's so many great albums. I could say Songs in the Key of Life, of course. And it's a double album. So that'd be more fun than bringing a single album on a desert island because it's longer and there's more variety. But I think sometimes instrumental music can free your mind even more because there isn't a lyric to dictate what the narrative is. [Brian] In 2010, Colleen figured out a way to combine the communal energy of her club events with the more personal experience of listening to a favorite record. At her Classic Album Sunday events, crowds gather at a live venue to listen to a full album all the way through on a very sophisticated sound system. At these listening sessions, the story behind the making of the music is as important as the song sequence itself. [Colleen] I felt Classic Album Sundays really hearkened back more to my teenage years. Like in the 1980s, when I would get a new album, I'd go home and invite friends over and we would listen to it. And what I noticed in the 21st century, at least the early part of the 21st century, is that our listening habits had changed. And people were listening to music in very isolated situations, usually on their own, you know, personal stereos, on headphones. And that's all great. I still do that too. But it seemed we had lost the art of listening to music together in terms of pre-recorded music. I'm not talking about in a club or a live venue, but just listening to an album together. I also felt people had stopped listening to albums, that they were listening to this single there and not sitting down with a whole body of work and listening to it in the way in which the artist intended, from like A to Z, every single chapter of the book as opposed to a single chapter. People really come out transformed after they've been to a Classic Album Sunday session, especially people that have been there for the first time, that don't know what to expect. And some people thought they wouldn't like it because they had to turn their phones off and they couldn't talk throughout the album and they just had to sit there and they weren't sure what to do with themselves. Because we're not used to turning ourselves off. We're not used to turning our devices off. So it took them maybe a song or two to let down their guard. But once they did, they felt transformed. Some people cry, some people laugh at certain parts of songs they hadn't heard before. But they all came out probably with lower blood pressure levels, number one, more relaxed, just less frantic, less pulled in every different direction. [Brian] You know, I remember I read the liner notes to Gil Scott Heron's album, I'll Take Care of You. And in those liner notes, he's very explicit like this, the album was designed for you to sit down, turn off everything and just listen to it from beginning to end. And then listen to it again. And he's just almost adamant that is the way the music was designed and what it was designed for. And he talked about it as respecting the intention of the artist. Like the work I've put into this experience for you deserves attention and you will get the most out of it. You leave something on the table if you don't experience it in this way. [Colleen] I agree. I agree. And also in the order that they put it together. And, you know, it'd be like me picking up a book and say, I'm just going to read chapter three. [Brian] And then maybe chapter eight, maybe chapter eight two. [Colleen] I'll go back to two. And then maybe I won't even listen to chapter... When I said people sometimes laugh, I mean, Gil Scott Heron is a perfect example because he had such a turn of phrase. It was so freaking funny. When you're really just sitting there listening, you know, a lyric, he'll say something and you just start laughing out loud. And it just brings people together. In a sense, Classic Album Sundays probably brought a lot of different aspects of my career together. We have had a few people dance at Classic Album Sundays, I have to say. I did one with Sister Sledge and I was dancing with two of the sisters in the back while the album was playing and then everyone got up and started dancing. So it does happen every now and then. [Brian] Yeah, well, I really appreciate it. I really appreciate the time and it's fun to talk to you. I hope I get a chance to see you DJ live. [Colleen] Yes, I hope we get to meet. If I'm ever out on the West Coast, I'll let you know. Yeah. [Brian] Music isn't just sound or the words of a song. It's connection, it's emotion and energy. For DJ Cosmo, it's about creating moments where people let go and come together, whether through epic DJ sets or kicking back to enjoy a classic album. Sharing music can heal, inspire and unite. In a world that feels more divided than ever, isn't that what we all need? Know What You See is produced by PRX in collaboration with the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Our production team is Jocelyn Gonzalez, Emi Chan, Jonathan Cabral and Emmanuel Desarme from PRX Productions. For more about me or the show, go to knowwhatyousee.com , created and masterminded by Will Danger Robinson. Follow me on socials at knowwhatyouseepod or drop me a line on my website, brianlowryphd.com . Follow the show on your favorite podcast app and if you like what you hear, leave us a positive review. It really helps to get the word out. Thanks for listening.

I interviewed Martin Palm, a member of the Balearic Breakfast Family, who works with adult SIB autistic patients in Estonia, about Music's healing powers. Hi Martin! Thanks for joining us here on the Balearic Breakfast blog! Can you present to us your professional work history and the patients you work with? Hi Artur, thanks for having me! I live in Estonia and have been working in the field of mental health for some time. In 2023, I started working with adult SIB autistics. This specialized care service is new and unique in Estonia and is considered the most challenging in this field. SIB autism refers to a form of autism that involves extremely self-injurious behavior. Our team works with adults diagnosed with this form of autism, who also have pervasive developmental and speech disorders. This means we work with individuals who are, in a sense, trapped in their own bodies and minds—unable to speak or express themselves, and, due to their developmental disorder, unable to do many things that most people take for granted, such as reading, writing, or clearly communicating their needs. Since our clients have speech impairments, we cannot rely heavily on words and spoken language in our work. Instead of speech, we use pictogram symbol cards to guide and support them in their daily activities. You may have read the interview I did with our friend, Douglas noble in which he shared how his work helped elederly people, and also people with diseases like dementia.Were the listenning sessions part of the initial program or did you introduce them? How did it all start? The right and suitable music can have an incredibly powerful healing effect on a person. Music can set a positive mood for the entire day, and a person in a positive mood is much more likely to achieve better results in any aspect of life—be it work, studies, or treatment. That is why I believe that the use of music and music therapy in medicine is still highly underestimated and underutilized. I firmly believe that treating any severe illness could be much more effective if it incorporated music tailored to the individual—music that lifts their mood and helps dispel negative thoughts. Why, for example, shouldn’t hospitals have music therapists to create a personalized and supportive musical atmosphere for patients? In my opinion, this would have both a direct and indirect impact on producing better treatment outcomes. In my work, the clients’ day is structured, and it includes a time we call sensory time, which means the client engages in their favorite pastime—one that is also developmental according to their unique traits and abilities. People with autism can have sensory perceptions that develop in very different ways. One person might be less sensitive to temperature or smell but have an extremely heightened sense of hearing. Another might have weak hearing but an exceptionally sharp sense of vision. I often work with a 29-year-old client who has an extremely sensitive sense of hearing (Initially, we started these music sessions with two clients, but one preferred listening to calming nature sounds (tropical rain, bird calls, rustling trees, flowing water) instead of music.) For that client, who has heightened auditory perception, I began playing different types of music during sensory time to understand his preferences. As a person with an extraordinarily developed sense of hearing, he perceives every sound with remarkable precision—every nuance and vibration is distinguishable to him. When listening to music, he can pick up all the hidden layers, details, and undertones that subtly weave into the rhythm and melody. If he enjoyed a particular piece, he would close his eyes, immerse himself deeply in the sounds, sway to the rhythm, and sometimes vocalize his excitement—especially when the melody took an unexpected turn or included sounds he had never encountered before. In short, music took him on a journey. You briefly explained the type of music you select in the playlist you use during these sessions, saying you mainly chose instrumental music (Zimmer, Oldfield, but also Enya or Coldplay). Does the Tonality of the music come into play too or is it just about the frequencies and the purity (simplicity) of the music played (as you said your patients liked high and pure sounds)? How do you select the songs? We started the first sessions with Estonian lullabies, which worked extremely well and put the client into a meditative state where he was happy to stay. In the following months, we moved towards new compositions and styles. By that time, I had realized that instrumental music was easier for him to follow, as songs with lyrics—whose meaning he didn’t understand and which were therefore harder for him to process— were not as effective as instrumental pieces. However, tracks featuring chanting, wailing, or moaning, where the vocals functioned more like an instrument, worked exceptionally well. It became also clear that he enjoyed high notes and a pure, clean sound. During this phase, we listened to a lot of Mike Oldfield (Ommadawn, Tubular Bells), Air (Moon Safari), Deep Forest, and Hans Zimmer. One of his absolute favorites turned out to be Clocks by Coldplay. I started experimenting with different styles to see what worked and what didn’t—ranging from classical music (Chopin, Vivaldi) to modern electronic genres. Vocal house, for instance, left him indifferent, but deep house in the style of Larry Heard and Ron Trent resonated with him a lot. The same happened with drum and bass—tracks with overly intense rhythms were more disturbing than enjoyable, but Peshay mixes, with their slightly softer and gentler beats, were very much to his liking. Reggae also suited him very well due to its rhythmic structure and repetitive patterns. He also responded extremely well to tracks by Galaxy II Galaxy, Los Hermanos, and Rolando. Did you actually made your patients listen to a full Balearic Breakfast episode or to just snipets of the show (I presume the listenning sessions don't last too long)? Did you notice any reactions to Colleen's voice (as it is both friendly, calm and in a way soothing)? How do the patients react to Balearic Breakfast? Yes, Actually. At one point, in the listening process with the patient, I dedicated an entire session to listening to Manuel Göttsching’s E2-E4 album in full, and it worked absolutely perfectly. I realized that the ideal music for these sessions might be something in the Balearic style—dreamy, meditative, filled with layers, nuances, and vibrations. I initially considered moving on to José Padilla’s compilations, but then I remembered the existence of Colleen and her Balearic Breakfast. In December, we listened to a fresh episode of Balearic Breakfast, and it worked instantly. After that, I abandoned my own playlists, opened the Balearic Breakfast archive, and we started listening to the episodes from the very beginning. We try to listen to a full episode or at least as much as the session time limit (1 to 1.5 hours) allows us. It is interesting that you asked about Colleen's voice, as I thought about its effect during one of our listening sessions. Yes, there is an extremely positive and soothing effect in it, and although my client does not understand English, he does not disengage or show signs of disinterest, as the soothing sound of Colleen's voice works as a pleasant bridge between different tracks. The reception of BB has been excellent, as Colleen's music selection largely matches what suits this client. Perhaps he doesn’t fully engage with some tracks that have a lot of vocals, but most of the songs are exactly his cup of tea. Usually, the selection is really eclectic, and every song feels like a gateway to a new world for him, so he remains very attentive and focused. However, some songs work better than others. Here are some examples that he really liked: The Durutti Column's Otis with Vini Reilly's meditative guitar riffs is a really good example. Despite the intensive vocals, Quincy Jones's and Donna Summer's State of Independence with all its chanting and high-tone details worked really well (I actually think that Chrissie Hynde's 15-minute-long version of that track would work extremely well too). What also works really well for him is music with an oriental influence, like Jhalib – Mysteries of the East, where the rhythm with a different structure and the combination of flute and sitar was extremely captivating for him. Marcel – On The Beach worked really well, and so did Sueno Latino – Sueno Latino. And so on... What do you like the most about our beloved show? I love the show's eclecticism and Colleen's boundless knowledge and passion for music. The fact that Colleen is able to find so many different styles within those two hours, yet everything is extremely balanced and works in harmonious unity. I think José Padilla once said that Balearic can be any music that elevates you. And the music selection in the Balearic Breakfast show is a living proof of that.

I met Pritpal Ajimal (Swayoftheverses) for a very nice little interview. I've been deeply touched by both his graphical and musical skills. Let's chat! I thought I’d be happy with a couple of people tuning in, at least that would have been a nice start and then I could develop and become really professional by, you know, 10 episodes or something. But it’s almost been a crash course for me because I’ve had to do really well in just two episodes and the amount of attention that it’s received has been absolutely amazing and not just from friends and family, from colleagues and people in the music industry too. To get comments from people like Mr Scruff, Charlie Dark and Coco Maria is just like, wow, this is really mad. Pritpal Ajimal, Fad Magazine interview, 29/03/2022 The first Balearic Breakfast Show of 2023 started with a beautiful mix by Pritpal Ajimal (also known in our Family as swayoftheverses - click here to see his page on beehivv ). Digital Artist (designer) and Radio Show Host, Pritpal is well-known in the South Asian Arts sector. Apart from creating promotional materials, he has also been involved in photography assignments and has been working with Manasamitra since the inception of the company, designing the website, branding, and promotional materials. Listen to Pritpal's mix here during the first 2023 Balearic Breakfast show : Also, if you want to discover Pritpal's creative talent, head over to Fadmagazin's website as he talks with Radio Presenter, DJ & Writer, Maria Hanlon about his exhibition Lines #1 , which took place at Above the clouds. His mixes are available here . 1) Dear Pritpal , thank you so much for being here with us on the Balearic Breakfast Blog! 2023 was a beautiful musical year for the Balearicans, starting with your guest mix during the year's first show! Can you tell us a little bit more about your childhood? What did you listen to when growing up? My parents always had music on, either traditional sikh hymns, north Indian Film Music or Radio 1 or Radio 2, so I had a very broad range of music to listen to. At the age of 13 I got the opportunity to learn Raga Based Music when Dharambir Singh came to teach at the Leeds College of Music.   2) You have quite an incredible professional life! You are an independent and Professional Graphic Designer. Can you tell us more about it? I completed a degree in Software Development and was working as a programmer; but always felt the urge to do something creative, I had the chance to do a leaflet for south asian arts organisation and did an illustration for the amazing tabla player Pandit Sharda Sahai - head of the Benares style of tabla - as a part of the commission. My journery into graphic design started from that one job.   3) I saw some of your stunning graphic realisations, which I shared back then on the blog. How do you approach that part of your creative Journey? I needed a creative outlet that wasn't anything to do with client work, so I decided to explore the journey of creativity, of learning, that act of repetition, using introspection and understanding of each step, that then allows implementation in the next iteration; taking you from simple first steps into an understanding and mastery of much more complex skills. For the medium I decided to depict a graphical representation of concepts, phrases and movements within different ragas, using a limited palette of colours within Adobe Illustrator.   4) We also know that you're a DJ (a member of the Melomaniacs; you played at the last and previous We Out Here festival in the "Love Dancin' tent" alongside Colleen and other great DJs we know and profoundly love). How did that part of your journey start, and do you approach a DJ set the same way when working on a graphic design? I think like most people I've always made mixtapes, but with digital music files it became infinitely easier to curate a mixtape and burn it onto a CD, but I had never really thought to become a DJ. Charlie Dark was djing at a space outside the O2 Arena in North Greenwich and it was an opportunity to meet him in real life after listening to him and many other DJs on WorldwideFM throughout lockdown. Whilst I was speaking to someone else, my wife told him 'I should be on the radio', and he asked me if I'd like to try out with a station - RunDemRadio - he had set up and was running every weekend. The seed was planted there and then. I was very fortunate to meet many, many people along this journey who have helped me realise this dream of first presenting a radio show, to eventually DJing at the We Out Here festival. Having the opportunity to ask questions and observe other amazing djs craft a set together has been like going to DJ school!   5) A strange but very Balearic question for you: when creating, do you feel like "losing your mind", meaning being disconnected for a moment from the world around you? Do you feel like ideas are pouring out of your soul, or do you have a more rational way of working things out? I always use a combination of an outline of a plan, with intuition, to have a basic understanding of what I'd like to achieve and then leave the rest to the universe to guide me.   6) Lastly, what does Colleen's sentence "And remember, just be Balearic" evoke to you? To have the ability to appreciate the beauty and magic of nature, from which everything we do originates.

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 211th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on February 11th 2025. About this episode. – Today's episode was a nice moment for the Familly. We gathered on the chat as usual, enjoyed almost all of Colleen's 2hours' hard work (sadly the stream stopped before the end), we talked about Music, about the We Out Here Festival, about The London Loft (tickets availiable here) and, as Colleen streamed from New-York she shared a nice memory with us, saying: "Yesterday I visited the woman who was the head of Radio and Sound when I was in university, and went up to the floor where the WNYU radio station was (not there anymore) and it was emotional". Should you want to read S/A/M's Interview, click here. For Greg's Interview, it's just here (and don't forget to read the nice interview he did with me, it's there). For your information, Colleen will be playing live on : February, 14th (For your pleasure presents Colleen Cosmo Murphy, tickets here); February 15th (New-York City, Horse Meat Disco, tickets here); March 6th (Listening room session / celebrating The Loft, tickets here); March 8th at La Discothèque (tickets here) ; March, 9th 2025 at the London Loft (tickets here). "Greetings from New York and thanks to all who joined on the Balearic Breakfast live stream this morning. Did I catch you with this photo? It’s the only one Greg Wilson and I have together (also with Daddy Ad of Trojan Sound and Jerry Dammers, co-founder of the Specials taken at our Love Dancin’ tent this past summer). As I’m away, this week’s Balearic Breakfast features two interviews and mixes. The first is from the Glaswegian-raised Ibiza-based DJ/producer @samantha_s_a_m who has a new compilation out called Suenos de Ibiza Vol. 1 on @msolrecords she also has a lovely Balearic mix for us, too. The second interview and mix is from legendary @dj_greg_wilson who has just published James Hamilton’s Disco Pages on his @superweirdsubstance platform. He tells us all about Hamilton’s role in the development of disco in the UK and Greg has given us a classic disco mix, too. Listen back to the 211th episode of Balearic Breakfast: Next week’s Balearic Breakfast will feature our annual Loft Anniversary Special so there will not be a request line this week, but I will be back in London in my record room streaming live. I hope you can join me and for now enjoy today’s show with music from @superweirdsubstance @msolrecords @realblackbyrds @georgesolaribiza @lonnielistonsmith @dennisbovell @robin_12tree @alkent @arnauobiols @_a_thin_man_ @pepllado @tonarunur @lorenzomorresi_ @margasolofficial @lemongrassmusic @circlesofsound @djchriscoco" PLAYLIST S/A/M Mix (2025) Marchio Bossa (ft Ryuichi Zee Su) – Nuvole (2024) George Solar, BJ Smith, Chris Coco – Holy Sun (2019) Circles Of Sound – Still Believing (2020) Misses Misty – Mellow Mellow Ride On (2025) Shervin Bollorian, Sakari Heikka, Kipper Eldridge, Simon Mills – Enjoy The Silence (All I Ever Wanted) (Simon Mills remix) (2024) Marga Sol – Sail Away (2014) 12Tree – Make A Little Reason (2022) Stella – Détends-toi (2024) Lorenzo Morresi feat. Tony Scorpioni – Neon (2025) Tonarunur – Give Me Your Word (NOL) Dennis Bovell – Heaven (Kazu edit) (NOL) Ludovic Navarro vs Diana Ross – Upside Down Dub (S/A/M mash up) (2003) Pep Llado – Gooli (2023) Al Kent – Happiness & Peace (2003) DJ Friction – Could Heaven Ever Be Like This (Duplex Inc remix) (2024) Anrau Obiols – Pagan Mambo (NOL) A Thin Man – Face Final (2025) Lonnie Liston Smith – Expansions (Leo Zero edit) Greg Wilson James Hamilton Disco Pages Mix (2019) Earth, Wind & Fire – In the Stone (Reflex Revision) Sharon Redd – Can You Handle It (Late Nite Tuff Guy Rework) Blackbyrds – Walking In Rhythm (Peza Rework) (2018) Chaka Khan – I Know You, I Live You (Late Nite Tuff Guy Rework) Donald Byrd – Love Has Come Around (Deep & Disco Edit) Jean Carn – Was That All It Was (Fanfrandisco Edit) (2013) Players Association – Turn the Music Up (Derek Kaye Rework) (2022) Stephanie Mills – Put Your Body In It (Mikeandtess Edit) Oneness Of Juju – Every Way But Loose (Dr Packer Rework) (1979) Brass Construction – Shakit (V's Edit) Crown Heights Affair – Dreaming a Dream (ID Edit/Cryptic Re-touch) S/A/M'S INTERVIEW WITH COLLEEN [Colleen] Good morning, Balearicans. This morning, we have two special mixes and interviews. The first one is with Sam, who is a regular DJ at Pykes and also Café Del Mar in Ibiza, and she'll be talking about her new album, Sueños de Ibiza, a beautiful chill-out compilation. After that, we have DJ Greg Wilson, who's going to tell us all about James Hamilton and his Disco Pages, and a book that he's just released on his own platform, Super Weird Substance. But first, here is S/A/M. Greetings, Balearicans. I'm here in the studio with Samantha Bagg, or known as Sam, who is a DJ, producer, and radio host in Ibiza, as well as a forthcoming compilation coming out on EmSoul called Sueños de Ibiza Vol. 1. Hi, Samantha! [S/A/M] Hi, Colleen. What pleasure it is to be with you here today in Balearic Breakfast. Thanks for inviting me. [Colleen] Oh, a pleasure. A pleasure. And where are you right now? [S/A/M] So actually, although I live in Ibiza, I'm in Maldives for a two-month placement doing music programming and playing sunsets for a resort called Avani. So yeah, I was invited over to provide their sunset and after-dark and poolside sets for the festive period. [Colleen] That sounds amazing. Take me there now! Well, that's great. Now, you're originally from Scotland, as we can hear. I love the accent, as you know. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got your start in music, because you have some great stories to share. [S/A/M] Well, I did music at college years and years and years ago. And it was a course that kind of specialized in performance, production, and event management. And I actually was a piano player, keyboard player, used to play in bands. And I did three years there. And when I graduated, a lot of my course, all my peers were going off to become session players. I actually thought, oh, I'm not good enough. So I had a real interest in the curation, production side of things. And so I actually had a mentor who was Stephen Pastel from an indie band called The Pastels. [Colleen] And I've met him before because he works at Mono Records. [S/A/M] Excellent record shop. We actually did a festival outside that record shop. So Stephen told me, gave me the heads up on a festival called Triptych that was happening in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen, and said the guys really need help on it. And I ended up working on that for three years. And we covered every aspect of underground music right across the scene. And we had people like Grace Jones, Cinematic Orchestra, Madlib, Terry Callier, and like so many different artists from really eclectic. And it really got me into the sort of festival production side of things. And I also spent my college grant on a set of decks. [Colleen] Good for you. [S/A/M] Yeah. So I got to know a lot of the promoters from working on this festival. And then I started getting offering gigs. And then from that, you know, that's going back 20 years. I, you know, got into DJing that way. And, you know, I was playing every weekend. And then moved to London and carried on. And I used to program a space called Supercute in Brixton Village Market. And then, yeah, and then I guess I moved to Ibiza seven years ago. And now, you know, play at places like Happy Del Mar, Pikes, where I've been a resident DJ for five years and across the sort of circuit there through the season. [Colleen] Before we leave Glasgow, you had a really cute story to share about my dear late friend David Mancuso, because he played in Glasgow, gosh, it was maybe 20 years ago? [S/A/M] Yes, that's right Colleen. And oh, he's such a lovely person. And so we had the pleasure of having David play with us a special, I think it was a five or seven-hour set at the Riverside Club, which you probably know. [Colleen] I played there. Yeah, I played there. [S/A/M] Yeah, it was amazing. Do you remember the carpet? [Colleen] I loved it. It's a Caley Hall. It was wonderfull. [S/A/M] It was wonderful. Yes, it is. It's amazing. And so David, because I've been in touch with him, organizing flights and like being his point of contact right up until he came, I went to his soundcheck with him and buddied him all day. And I just remember like walking round and round the room so we could check all the levels and just talking music and having just the most incredible experience, me, the sound engineer, and David basically all afternoon. And then we had all this expensive Linn equipment, because obviously David was so passionate about the sound levels, as you know, and as you know, Coleen. So we were running really, really heavy, hard core Linn equipment off this domestic power supply in Riverside. And halfway through the gig, everything just stopped. The lights went off, the music went off. Everyone was like, ooh. And me and the sound engineer literally ran. This was back in the day before like, you know, mobile phones were the way they were. So he just like ripped out this like little hand torch out of his pocket, gave it, thrust it into my hand and told me to point it at the plug and suck it in the wall. So he quickly took his screwdriver out and fiddled about and put a new fuse in. Plugged it back in, everything came on again. [Colleen] Oh my gosh. [S/A/M] Everyone just teared and David went back on, back in the room. It was amazing. [Colleen] Was that Iain Mackie? [S/A/M] I think it was actually, yeah, I think so. [Colleen] He's one of my dear friends, because we met through David. He's the sound engineer for our London loft parties as well. That's a great story. And thank you for sharing that. What is it that brought you to Ibiza? [S/A/M] So I was coming out in summers and I had a nice contact with Malanga. And it was actually through the Ibiza Vinyl Club. And Malanga had just opened at that point. It's a really cool little venue. They invited me to come and play. So when I came out and I played there, I really enjoyed it. And that was a good few years before I moved there. But not that long ago, because I actually was going to places like Garden Festival in summer and before that, which is in Croatia. And because I worked in the industry, quite often my summers were not going to Ibiza. So when I went there to DJ, I realized this amazing scene. So I was spending more time there in summer. And it just got to the point where I realized that living in winter in London was not really that as well as much fun as I could potentially be having and better on my bank balance and living in Ibiza. [Colleen] This is the Glaswegian speaking people! [S/A/M] Well, yeah, actually, and I was living in London for eight years. But yeah, I mean, it was cold. I'm half Sri Lankan. And so, you know, I think I've got that in my blood. [Colleen] Got you. I'm with you. I'm feeling that way more as I get older that I need more weather in the winter. And then you started just tell me a little bit about how you kind of sank into the music scene there. So you have some really funny stories if you want to share a couple with just, you know, little anecdotes of how you found island life, especially in the sphere of music. [S/A/M] Ibiza is amazing in the sense that it's such a creative community that's really interconnected. And it's a small island, so it's very easy to meet people. And because I was doing radio as well, I was connecting with different people. And I used to go to pikes loads and and also like hostilitory. So I'd meet different, different people. And I had the pleasure of, you know, like spending time with people like Phil Cooper and George Solaar, all of these people who, you know, go to the gigs. But before that, I was going to pikes. And I think it was during the pandemic, actually, that I got offered to start playing there. And anyway, it's just so bizarre how you end up, you don't quite know what's going to happen next in Ibiza. I was at, I think it was a, yeah, it was a party that George Evelyn's Nightmares in Wax had put on. And that's not how it was already DJing, this was actually last summer. And I found myself at the buffet. And everybody was bringing a dish. So I took my special Spanish fish stew, which has, you know, got a nice dose of olives in it. And I was, I was, I was kind of like, chatting away to a couple of people. And then I noticed Todd Terry was standing in front of me. And he was going in for my fish stew. So I had to tell him that, you know, I made that fish stew. And he was like, Oh, great. Okay, then he started telling me about this like, bar cafe that he was planning on opening up in the States. And so we chatted a little bit. And then I said, when we get in later, and he came back, he was like, Sam, your fish stew was lovely. But can I suggest less of the olives next time, please? And then I was like, Oh, okay, then I'll take it on board. And then I think everybody thought the same thing. Because I did notice at the end, there was like this stew that was basically just like olives stew. And I remember Saeedo arrived and he turned around and he was like, Sam, I really enjoyed your olives stew. I was like, I think Todd Terry ate all the fish. [Colleen] And so what kind of stuff do you play over at Pikes? How would you describe your sound? [S/A/M] A huge mix, I feel like, because I've, my music mantra has always been music exploration with no restrictions. So certainly balearic sounds, but also, you know, my sound goes, you know, as balearic music does, it goes beyond and touches all genres and all forms. And for me, I feel it's very much about time of day, the people around you, the, you know, the different energies that you feel as to how that is reflected in the music. So if I'm playing a poolside set, yeah, definitely chilled out, down-tempo vibes, but really beautiful, sunshiny music. And if I'm playing in the bathtub, which is Freddie Mercury's old bathtub, from midnight to 4am, that's a totally different kettle of red. So, you know, it really varies across the board. And that's one thing that I'm really feel very blessed about is that I've had the opportunity to explore my sound, which has always been eclectic. [Colleen] And let's get back to Sam Baggs' eclectic mix here on Balearic Breakfast. [Colleen] And we're back here in the studio with Sam. And thank you again for joining us and for this beautiful mix. Now you have a new compilation out called Sueños de Ibiza Vol. 1, it's out on MSoul Records. And you also have a night at the Standard called that. Could you tell us a little bit about how this whole thing came about? [S/A/M] Thanks, Colleen. So, I have a radio show and music stream that I've had for three years now, it's called Sueños de Ibiza. And what happened last year was I sort of extended, decided it'd be a nice idea to sort of extend the program a little bit into a live thing. And occasionally, I started inviting guests on the show, where I would interview them, and they would share a mix. And then I started thinking it'd be really nice to kind of bring that to life a little bit more. So, I found a venue, which is the Standard Hotel, where Willie Graff does the programming. And I thought to do something really nice on their roof, that's very intimate. And, you know, has that Balearic vibe, and something that's, you know, almost acoustic, not acoustic, but, you know, electronic, but very stripped back. And so, the event itself is sort of sprung from that. So, I invited Lorenzo Maresi, who's a multi-instrumentalist from Italy, to come and do like a live set. And then I've worked with Robin Twelkey, who's actually Cantoma's producer, who also previously went under the name Slide. And it's funny, because 20 years ago, I was buying his breakbeat records. So, I invited him to come and play on the roof. And so, that was lovely. And both of those artists, I actually invited them to join me at Pikes. And it was really funny, because Lorenzo and I both ended up doing the midday to 4pm set at the poolside, which was Deadhill, Balearic, and then the midnight to 4am same night in Freddie's bathtub. So, four hours set, 12 hours apart, music totally different, but really eclectic. And we really buzzed off each other. So, it's been really nice. And I'm going to extend the program this year. So, I'm working on a bit of a schedule for that. So, I invited Marga Saul, who is the owner of M Saul Records. And she's actually, she owns five labels. But like you calling her, she does a million things. And I connected with Marga when she came to play at Café Del Mar, where I've had the pleasure of playing for the last three years. And we really sparked a connection. And I invited her on my radio show to share a mix. I had a lovely chat with her. She's such an inspiring person. And then she really kindly asked me, invited me to curate a compilation from the back catalogue of M Saul Records. So, that was a really beautiful thing, opportunity to kind of delve into the back catalogue and listen to all the vaults and go through everything. And I wanted the compilation to sort of feel like Ibiza and to be inspired by maybe I found some artists that were connected specifically to Ibiza. So, people like Ken Fan, Ibiza Child, she's an excellent, Jackie Crowe, she's an excellent Ibiza-based producer. And then from the Balearic Islands, we have Michael E, who's based in Mallorca. And so, I wanted the compilation to kind of feel almost like that kind of sunshine trip through the day into the night, the chill-out, down-tempo, the sunset, and that kind of feeling that Ibiza brings, that the sun brings. So, that's where the idea for the compilation came from. And that's what the story of the music tells. [Colleen] Well, it certainly does feel like that. We were just away in Lanzarabia, and I put it on, and it definitely has island vibes. And it's great that you're supporting local artists as well, or artists from the Balearic Islands. And I noticed that you also, you play keys on one of Ken Fan. Ken Fan is one of the residents of the Café Del Mar as well. And he has a new album coming out on Music for Dreams. And you contributed some keys to that as well? [S/A/M] I did. So, Ken is actually the music director. And so, he's my boss. So, he has ran the show there for like 11 years, and programs the sunset and beyond. And he plays in there like five days a week. So, he is sunset. But yeah, I had Ken invited. A great thing about Ibiza, as I said, is like everybody connects with each other. So, I think Ken's latest album that he's just produced, he works with a lot of local musicians. And I had the pleasure of playing some keys, just a little bit. But it was a really nice opportunity to do. And I didn't expect it, but it's on there. So, that's quite nice. [Colleen] Lovely. But you also have your own record out as well on Buckley's Upgrade Records. Can you tell us about that? [S/A/M] Yes. So, really excited. This is something that I produced myself a few years ago, basically by myself. And I worked with a vocal sample that I found, and I've done everything else. So, it's been sort of sitting with me for quite a while. And I just decided to send it out to people like just about a year ago. And Buckley got hold of it and said he loved it. He got in touch with me and said, I really would love to put this out on my label. And so, he launched Upgrade last year. So, this is release number two for him of the label. And it's a vinyl-only label. It's amazing artwork. And yeah, he said he'd like to sign me for the second release. So, that literally just came out last week. Very excited. It's been getting really good reviews and good feedback. And it's more danceable for me, maybe going back a little bit to my breakbeat roots. But it's kind of hip house breaks. So, yeah, it's good fun. Dance floor vibe. [Colleen] Fantastic ! Do you think there'll be more productions for you in the future? [S/A/M] I've got so many ideas and I've got a load of stuff that I've been working on for a while. Because over the years, I mean, I'm a classically trained pianist and also played in bands, you know, played with Cubase and everything. Although, you know, obviously my peers and so many producers, they're all like, you know, do it day in, day out. Because I've focused on the DJing for so many years. I feel like I took a bit of a backseat. So, I want to do more. So, I've got my little Akai keyboard here. I've got a studio at home with like full-length digital piano. I've got all my software. So, yeah, I'm getting creative and making more music. [Colleen] Great. Well, this is wonderful. Now, if people want to hear you this summer, will you be at Pykes and Café Del Mar? Anywhere else they can come hear you? [S/A/M] Yeah. So, hopefully I will be back at Café Del Mar. I'll definitely be at Pykes. I also play at Flash, which is at Pykes, which is once a month. I play at Pykes every week. I've got various other locations like Bambuja, Nobu Hotel. I sometimes play at places like Camaras. I play at The Standard. So, look out for the 20th Diabesta events as well. I play at The Standard. But yeah, all over the island, basically. [Colleen] Lovely. Well, this compilation is great, and when you sent it to me, I reached right out to you and said we want to feature this on the show because I think our listeners will absolutely love it, as I know they're loving your mix right now. Good luck with it, Sam, and thank you so much for joining us on Balearic Breakfast. And I hope to see you on the island. I may be coming this summer. So, hopefully I'll see you then. Take care. [S/A/M] Thanks. Thanks so much, Colleen. It's been a pleasure. Thank you very much, and I'll see you next time in Ibiza. [Colleen] Thank you, Sam. That was lovely. And now, we're over to Greg Wilson. GREG WILSON'S INTERVIEW WITH COLLEEN [Colleen] Well, Belaricans, I have a treat for you today. We have Greg Wilson with us. And Greg Wilson is a legendary British DJ, producer, a dear friend, a great guy, and a journalist, and a great music writer. And he's just published a book on his super weird substance platform that compiles the Wrecker Mirror columns from James Hamilton. It's called James Hamilton's Disco Pages. How are you doing, Greg? [Greg] I'm great, Colleen. Great to be here with you. Yeah, the book covers the period 1975 to 1982, so it's like the peak disco period, you know, the dawn of disco into the demise of disco, in a sense. [Colleen] And who was James Hamilton, though? [Greg] All right. James Hamilton was a writer for Wrecker Mirror. It was one of the main British magazines. He started in 1975 writing his column, James Hamilton's Disco Pages, which also was called Discos, and would write that right through until the early 90s when Wrecker Mirror was absorbed by Music Week, which was a trade publication. And the charts, which James had kind of started off, continued as the official Music Week dance charts, so they still exist today. So going back to that point in time, that disco was, like, obviously in its infancy, and there was seen as a need for a column to... You know, there'd grow in numbers of DJs in the UK at the time and everything to cater for that, and so James would, like, put out new feelers to all sorts of DJs and bring in, like, chart returns and compile the charts. His reviews, he had, you know, an absolutely unique style of reviewing, which people, obviously, who read those magazines will remember him for. And he became the hub of disco DJs in the UK at that point in time, and right through to the whole thing onwards. He was the main instigator of mixing in this country. He could see what was going on in the US. He'd been over to the New York Disco Forum on a few occasions. He'd been to Paradise Garage. He'd seen people like Larry LeVan and other mixing DJs out there. And he saw that as the future, but at a time when, you know, there was little heart for it here. DJs used the microphone. They were seen, the personality was seen as all-important. You know, there was a flow to what was going on and everything, but there was an interjection of, that was this track and this is that, you know. It was almost, like, kind of radio-like in a sense. Things were changing in New York, but we weren't aware of what was happening until James started writing about it and bits of information came in from other sources as well. But James was mainly pushing this idea of what he called New York-style mixing. And at the end of 1978, he wrote a kind of seminal piece in his column called To BPM or Not to BPM. He resolved that what he was going to do was he was going to count the BPMs for all the records in the chart and every subsequent review. So he just, everything all of a sudden was BPMed. He also started doing it for record companies, BPM their new releases and stuff like that. And so he was absolutely on this crusade. And it didn't happen overnight, like these things. You know, it took a long time before mixing took off. [Colleen] You were the first person to mix, to demonstrate DJ mixing on the television, weren't you? [Greg] That's right. But that wasn't until as late as 1983. So it was a long kind of gestation period before this started to make sense to more than a small minority of DJs. And another big thing, Colleen, was that we didn't have the equipment in the 70s. We didn't have very speed turntables. So the concept of mixing, of holding two records in sync together for anything more than a couple of beats, we just didn't have that. Now, as the 80s came into play, this is when very speed turntables started coming. Broggy, the famous DJ from the Funk Mafia, he went over to one of the seminars in 1979, and James had said, you've got to go to Paradise Garage. At the time, Broggy had the sound system, and he was into fixed speed decks. He didn't see the value of mixing at the time. So this is like in early 79. Now, what happened is that he went, he saw what was going on, and he completely flipped. You know, he saw the light. He came back. He bought the first pair of SL-1200s to be imported into this country, and put them into his sound system. And by the end of the year, he'd basically gone completely for mixing. So then you had another major champion there. You had somebody like Ian Levine, who'd been at the Blackpool Mecca playing Northern Soul, but would turn up in 1979 at Heaven, the major gay venue that had opened. And he was the DJ there. He had taken a mixing direction. He was aware of what was going on in New York and trips there. We had a DJ that came from the US, from New York, a guy called Greg James. And he came to a club called The Embassy in 1978, and it fancied itself as a bit of a studio for the UK, get Puss Boys and stuff like that. It's where You Make Me Feel Mighty Real by Sylvester, the video was filmed. He was seen at the time as the first proper mixing DJ coming from America. He had Studio 54 connections and stuff. And so he was there, and then he went to a club in Leeds called The Warehouse and opened that, which was like a club designed on New York-style disco. So these were all the kind of evolutionary steps towards it, in a sense, what was taking place. But James was a driving force, because every week this Record Mirror column was read by pretty much every DJ in the country. If you're serious, you have to read it. His reviews, the latest imports, he was talking about the charts that were in there. And so, and the news, he was giving bits of snippets of news of what was going on all over the place. People were connecting as a result of this. And it was an absolutely... I mean, he was the single most important figure in the UK dance music industry, in a similar way to what Pete Tong would be later. Because of the reach of his column of the magazine, it was so wide. It was similar to the way that when Pete Tong went to Radio 1, the reach of his listenership was so wide, and that kind of took things to a different level. So that's really where James started in terms of disco, although, if you go right back, he was a DJ who started off in the early 60s. And he worked at an infamous club called Esmeralda's Barn, which was in Knightsbridge near Harrods and owned by the Kray Twins. There's a lot of murky history with that place as well. You know, he was like in his early 20s and playing rhythm and blues there. He ended up going over to New York with a company called Cell Tab, which was Beatles spelled backwards. It's the people that took the merchandising for the Beatles. And again, you know, it's a notorious story because they took the last high-end share of the profit, whereas it should have been the other way around, and it's something that haunted Brian Epstein until his death. But anyway, James went out there to work for a music division that never really took off. But while he was there, you know, he was going to the Apollo every night. He was seeing all the main R&B stars. He got to personally know people like Sam Cooke and James Brown. The first ever kind of interview with Diana Ross in 1964, I think it was in Record Mirror, and it was James that instigated that. I mean, he didn't work for Record Mirror until later. He started in 1969 doing reviews and also US reviews, and he did that through until 75. There was a gap of about eight, nine months, and then he started the disco thing. But just rewinding back to when he was in New York, I mean, he DJed out on one of the islands. But when he came back, he became the DJ at The Scene, which was the major mod club in London. It was just after Guy Stevens, the famous DJ who launched that, had left, and he took it to the end. I think he finished in 1966. He acquired a name, Dr. Soul, around this time. That was his DJ name. And he also compiled an album for Sue Records in 67, I think, called Dr. Soul. So he was very much R&B involved at that point, you know, very much playing. He said that he played Northern Soul, but on his first time around, you know. But then he kind of went into, he continued as a mobile DJ. He got his mobile system together. It was one of the early mobile systems in the UK. But his background was quite, you know, quite a posh background. You know, he was like almost connected to the gentry, in a sense, you know. And he spoke very far back, and he was very unusual for this disco aficionado. But when he started the mobile, he was doing all these grand balls in these mansions. And so that was his kind of stock in trade. And it wasn't until later, until the kind of late 70s, that he came back to the clubs. And he was then, again, playing latest black music at a club called Gulliver's in May for a number of years. And he speaks about that, you know, a lot in the book too. So yeah, I mean, the book is a collection of James's columns, edited by Mike Atkinson, who was James's stepson. Mike basically was somebody who'd been reading Record Mirror and James's column for years. In the early 90s, his father died, and his stepmother, she got in touch with him sometime later and said, oh, do you know somebody called James Hamilton? And he was like, yes. And she was basically like, well, I'm with him now. Do you want to speak to him? And Mike was like, so Mike, you know, knew James only lived a few more years. He died of cancer in 1996. But, you know, Mike had those few years where he spent a lot of time with James and obviously was so interested in the whole thing. And, you know, Mike's the mind of information. He just knows a lot of this stuff down to minutiae because he's researched it. He's, you know, transcribed the whole thing, put it all together, done such an amazing job. And, you know, the big thing was that I'd spoken to Mike, you know, on email a long time ago, going back into probably, you know, 2006, 2007, which was around the time I wrote a piece about the history of mixing in the UK. And I needed to go to the British Library to research because James' columns, you know, the record mirrors were there. And I kind of go back and see what was happening. I did that. And I wrote this piece and, you know, both Mike and I obviously felt pretty strongly that somebody who was once so influential, you know, so major to our culture here was now completely forgotten. And in this more contemporary era, younger DJs would certainly have more knowledge about what was happening at Studio 54, Paradise Garage, The Loft, you know, than they would what was happening in the UK at the time. You know, there's been a disconnect there and the history has been told, but really it's very much been told from a US side. And so this is the UK side of it. I mean, John Savage and other people since have kind of brought up the similarity between this book and the Vincelletti book. It's a brilliant book. And both of them are covering a similar time span. I mean, Vince does 73 to 78, James does 75 to 82, but there's like a three year crossover. And it's fascinating seeing that although the source of the music was the same, that we over here in the UK were into black American music, you know, predominantly, and that's what we were drawing from, just as in New York, you know, the rest of the, you know, well, the main kind of discos in terms of the States, they were drawing from black American music. The differences in what tracks that we were choosing, I mean, there was a massive crossover, of course, there's all these big tracks that are the same in both cultures, but then there were tracks that were used from the US side that never meant a job here and vice versa. One of the things that you might find interesting from the book is that the whole, you know, Death of Disco, Comiskey Park, that whole kind of thing, it's not even mentioned. [Colleen] Wow. [Greg] It doesn't register at all. [Colleen] That's really incredible. It just kept going here. [Greg] Exactly. It's not part of our experience. I mean, there's no mention of The Loft or David Mancuso in there, no mention of The Gallery or Nicky Siano. The first kind of New York awakening really is, you know, obviously Studio 54, we know about that, so there was a kind of interest at Paradise Garage and Larry Levan, and that's really the connect here, whereby we have two separate lineages, like the UK lineages we were just talking goes back to the early 60s and the mods and importing in Rhythm & Blue tracks from America. So the import channels were open here and people were very involved, you know, with regards to the intake of black music, you know, and never knew anything about what was happening in clubs and things in the States. It was all our own experience and the way that we received it. Whereas at the same time, you have the New York side and what became the Disco era and the idea of mixing records together with continuous music and all that was evolving at the same time. And as I say, the crossover doesn't really start until the latter half of the 70s, you know, but once those two things connect, and I think that's why we have rave culture and it could only have happened in this country is because we have this specific lineage and then we took from what was happening in the US and we didn't kind of just completely follow it, but it always had our own cause. You can see within the book this collision beginning to happen, this coming together of ideas. I mean, again, with the book, what's interesting is the early charts are very pop-based because the DJs that were initially sent their returns belonged to what we call DJ associations and they were generally mobile DJs and by being a part of the association, they got discounts on equipment and news and now they've got a few new records here and there from the companies and things like that. They were seen as the more commercial end of what was going on in terms of the black music clubs and everything. Maybe people were more interested in magazines like Blues and Soul, later Black Echoes and stuff, and black music. And so, but what James managed to do was, I mean, in those early charts, you'd be surprised at some of the tracks that were listed in, that even got to number one, very pop-based tracks alongside the kind of dance tracks, but he was able to bring in the more specialist type DJs into the fold and I think by, after the first couple of years, it started to take shape as like a chart that was more geared towards, you know, like music was made for the dance floor, so to speak, you know, as opposed to music you could dance to. And eventually he separated pop completely from it. He did a separate, well he did a separate pop dance type chart and then he got rid of it altogether and the chart then, you know, was much more kind of geared to what was being played by DJs that were focused on, you know, more of a dance thing rather than the general Tiffany's, Romeo and Juliet's Friday night crowd, you know. [Colleen] Well, this is fascinating. I mean, it's so great. You've been documenting, well, you've been documenting DJ culture on your blog, both, you know, not just UK DJs either. You've done stuff on David and Larry and all these other DJs and it's, I love the way you write. I love the way you research as well and your enthusiasm. And I think people would love to find out more. And if they want to read this book, can they order it on the Super Weird Substance Bank? [Greg] Yeah, either the bandcamp or come to the website. You know, this link's there and you can pick up the book from there. Yeah, so that's pretty straightforward. [Colleen] Okay, well you've done a mix for us in which you're playing some of these songs that James Hamilton was writing about. So why don't we get back to the music and when we come back, we'll discuss what you're doing in 2025. I'm sure you have a lot going on as well. [Colleen] And now we're back with Greg Wilson, and we've been listening to his mix that is centered around James Hamilton's Disco Pages. It's a book that Greg has just published on his super weird substance platform, and it compiles the Record Mirror columns from the DJ and writer from 1975 to 1982. Now, Greg, you are an amazing legendary DJ in your own right, and you are still going strong, which is amazing. You played with me in my Love Dance in 10th on my Casa Delica takeover. [Greg] I still do, yeah. [Colleen] Oh, that was so great. You literally, I'm trying to remember, you made me cry with the last song, and I can't even remember what it was now, but it was such a nice... [Greg] Would it have been Spread Love by Al Hudson and the Self-Honors? [Colleen] Maybe it was, that's right, because I ended my set with Love to the World. [Greg] Yeah. [Colleen] There you go. [Greg] There was definitely a lot of love in Love Dancing, that's for sure. [Colleen] Oh, my gosh. It was great. And people just adored your set. They adored it, you know. [Greg] Oh, nice one. It was a real highlight of the year, you know. I mean, I love the festival. We're out here and everything, and it's great, that particular area. People can lose themselves in there, you know, because it's just a great place, and what you've done with the system. [Colleen] Oh, thank you. Thank you. It's a great system, that's for sure. So what's going on in 2025 in Greg Wilson's world? [Greg] Well, you know, I mean, I'm just like, it hasn't been a great start, because I've had that virus, which wasn't great, but I'm just now... I did my first gig the other night, which is where the mix is from. It's Walthamstow Trades Hall. We did a book launch and everything, and I recorded that on the night. So I hope you enjoy that. Obviously, the music is within the kind of time frame of that 75 to 82, although I do use re-edits. So, I mean, yeah, I mean, it's a special year, really, because it's going to mark 50 years since I used to DJ. [Colleen] Wow. [Greg] Amazing. [Colleen] What was your first gig? [Greg] Well, I mean, my first club gig was on the 6th of December, 1975, and it was at a local nightclub called Chelsea Reach, which for people in the area where I live in, that place was a rites of passage. [Colleen] And this is in Liverpool? [Greg] Well, it was in New Brighton, which is on the opposite side of the Mersey to Liverpool. It's where the ferry goes, the ferry across the Mersey goes. And so, yeah, but I did, I had the mobile before that, that summer, and I just need to look up and find out what precisely was my first mobile booking, because that would be my first kind of professional booking, in a sense. But my first club booking was December, I remember that date, December 6th of 1975, and, yeah, that came on the back of, I had a mobile, as I say, for a short time, and we did a wedding upstairs, and they had functions rooms upstairs, and the manager came scurrying up and said, our DJ hasn't turned up, and I was working with another lad, we had a partnership on the mobile with him. He said, well, one of you come down, and I was like straight down there. And the formidable thing about then is, they used to buy their own records as well. So you'd buy your record, the club would buy their records. Often the DJ would go into a shop and buy two copies of a record, because he'd be buying one for the club and keeping one for himself, you know. So it was a different time, so I was able to go down there and play, and I got offered the job off the back of that, and so at 15 I was, my club career had started, and before I'd finished school, I was like working six, seven nights a week sometimes. [Colleen] How old were you? [Greg] 15, well, I was 15 when I started, so I was 16 a few months later. So yeah, I finished school at 16, and continued into being a professional DJ, which back then, you know, when I started my first night, I got £6 for that night, honestly. But that was good going, because most kids of your age then, if they had, say, an apprenticeship, and they'd have to do that for a few years after you left school, they'd get like about £15 a week, or if they went on to further education, they wouldn't get any money. So if I did like, you know, four gigs, five gigs a week, you know, that was £30, that was decent money for a young lad at the time, you know, and so yeah, I mean, I managed to kind of up it as we went on, and you know, get more professional and get decent fees, and then eventually, you know, I moved out of the area, and I ended up at Wigan Pier in the early 80s, and Legend in Manchester, and that was a whole different phase, but you know, those early days were really great, you know, just starting off with your local clubs, and you know, people you know, and everything. And the idea, the residency, I've been talking with a few people about this lately, because we don't have it now, really, but you work with the same crowd, week in, week out, over a long period of time. And you cultivated something, you built something, it was reciprocal. Nowadays, we don't have a similar situation, really, anywhere. There might be a few little outposts where there's a resident kind of thing, but generally, it's guests, and each guest each week does something different. And so if you said to a young person now, oh, the idea of going to see the same DJ week in every week, they'd think that was crazy. Well, no, I want to see all sorts of things, but really, what built those scenes, and what made them stay was, you know, people kind of believing in the music, people working with the audience, evolving it, then more people picking up on that, and that's where it all came from. It didn't happen ever overnight, it always took a long period of time. All the venues, everything, we look at all the great clubs, there's a resident DJ there. [Colleen] Absolutely, I mean, there was a sense of trust between them and the dancers, there's a sense of community within the venue as well, and, you know, that's the thing. Like, for instance, I remember a story that Larry Levan played Pat Benatar Love is Battlefield when it came out, and he played it the first time at the night, and everyone left the floor. Then he played it the second time, people left the floor again. Then he played it towards the end of the night, everyone came on saying, and they left with that earworm. Now, you couldn't do that if you didn't have a residency, because you wouldn't have the same level of trust. People wouldn't hang around, they'd go, oh, it's just some top 40 DJ, I'm off. They don't have the patience. But you're building up this rapport, this sense of trust, and even if they don't really know where you're going the first time around, they start to get the idea. And also, on the other side, as a DJ, I mean, all of my residencies back in New York, it was 10 to 4, you know, a few times a week. And you become a better DJ from that. It doesn't matter where you're playing. I didn't play places that were too commercial, but they certainly weren't all the loft, let's put it that way. It was sometimes a well-heeled audience. But you really learned your trade, and you learned not just the skills of the actual technical skills, but also how to read a floor. I'm not saying one thing's better than the other, but we kind of had to come through these ranks where we had to do this work and get this experience. There weren't a lot of superstar DJs when I had started out. I mean, there were some, but there weren't a huge number like there are now. [Greg] Same as here, you know, there were some DJs that were like Chris Hill and, you know, Broggie and people like that, that were elevated, you know. But generally speaking, you know, most DJs... We were still in a time then where DJs were regarded as... I can't remember the term, you know, the ten-a-penny. You know, there's DJs... I mean, now you could say that even more, you know, like everyone's a DJ now. But DJs weren't really taken that seriously here until, as I say, you know, the idea of kind of mixing. I mean, you know, on the specialty scenes, they were, of course, taken to that, like on North of the Soul or Jazz Funk. But, you know, where I was in a club situation at the time, DJs, you know, were disposable. That's how it was seen. So you had to kind of somehow rise above that. And how you did that was that you developed a relationship with your audience so that the club manager couldn't be sacking you because half of the audience would go along with you, you know. And that was how it worked back then. So, you know, it was. It was good in those days in terms of that kind of development of that kind of reciprocal situation between yourself and an audience that allowed you to... And, you know, what I did in my little area was I developed my own small scene where I was playing imports to, you know, it was only a backwater kind of club, but we had, like, Blues and Soul come and see us and recommend us and things. So that was great. But that took me nine, 12 months to get the confidence. I mean, one of the things that I used to... It's like DJs really cleared the dance floor in those days. If they played the wrong track, they cleared the dance floor. Everyone walked off. And that wasn't sinful, really, because DJs could take a risk and it might not work out. But the sin was not being able to reclaim it straight away. And it was having the records that you knew to get you out of a rut so that you could try things new, but then be able to bring everybody back in and work it on. And so, yeah, you know, you'd see DJs that would... Back then, they'd come in and they'd play all the big tunes really early and they'd think it was great because the people were dancing. And whereas my attitude was I'd hold the dance floor off because I wanted to wait till an optimum moment where there were enough people congregating around, then open it up, and then we're dancing all night. There's not going to be a... Whereas what I saw other people do, they'd throw all the big tunes at it and then they run out and all of a sudden they're losing the floor. And next thing, they've lost the floor and they're screwing it. And then they're doing really bad form things like playing what they've just played. [Colleen] Yeah. You've got to recover. You don't have to do that, Greg. We know that. [Greg] It's the old days. [Colleen] Where can people hear you this summer? I assume you have some festivals. [Greg] Well, yeah, I mean, you know, in the rounds of the festivals, we're still kind of blocking in the final ones at the minute. Probably be back at Glastonbury, which, you know, I'm not, you know... I'll wait till everything's kind of in place, but hopefully, you know, I missed it last year. It's not on next year, so it'd be a good time. Obviously, lots of other festivals around. You know, with the club dates, as I say, towards the end of the year, I'm going to do 50th anniversary club dates and stuff. [Colleen] Yeah, that'd be great. [Greg] We'll bring it up to December and stuff. I'm doing a really nice thing at Joshua Brooks in Manchester. The Hacienda. I'm doing a six-hour. I haven't done, like, such a long set for a while. I remember doing a few eight-hours, one in London and one in Berlin a few years ago, which were great. So I'll be doing that. I think that's in July. So there's just, yeah, you know, it's, as you know, from your own side, you know, that whole summer thing comes on and all of a sudden, you're out there, you're ping-ponging, you know, pinball in between different kinds of gigs and everything. And we're crossing over with each other all over again, you know, in the summer. [Colleen] Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Greg, for joining us. It's always fascinating to speak with you. And, you know, maybe you and I should do something in person as a live event for your 50th anniversary. We'll talk about that. Okay. [Greg] All right. Take care, Colleen. [Colleen] Well, thank you so much. All right. Lots of love. And thank you so much for joining us. [Greg] All right. Nice one. Good to hear from you.

The Balearic Breakfast blog is the place where you meet Talented Musicians and Djs. Scott Ferguson is undoubtely one of them! Let's discover his journey! 1) Thank you so much for joining us here Scott! Can you take us back to your first years? How did you start your musical journey, who were the artists/DJs who influenced you? Thanks for having me Artur! My musical journey started back in the '70s in Glasgow and The Borders, where I grew up, thanks to my three older brothers, who were big into music. I’d always be digging through their vinyl collections. My oldest brother bought me a six-pack of Madness picture-disc 7” records for my birthday—I couldn’t have been any more than 7, and that probably cemented my lifelong obsession with vinyl. Back then, I loved the sounds of the 2Tone scene—The Specials, The Selecter, and The Beat—before moving on to bands like The Jam and Secret Affair. The first taste of dance music that grabbed me came from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, followed by Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock . That track completely blew my mind and hooked me on the sounds of electronic music. Around that time, a friend’s cousin would bring us tapes from Tim Westwood’s Kiss FM show, which introduced us to the emerging breakdance and electro scene. My mates and I were obsessed—we got into breakdancing, bought records, and were all into music in a big way. My mate Richie was the first DJ in our ‘crew’; I still call him Richie Fresh today. When I was 18 and living in London, I saw my friend Richard Bell DJ for the first time—I knew I wanted to do that. He was so skilled technically and creatively, and a pretty big influence. I had already started collecting records seriously and going to clubs in London, listening to DJs like Andrew Weatherall, Danny Rampling, Johnny Walker, and Trevor Fung. I then moved back up to Scotland, where the likes of DJ Harri and Stuart & Orde from the Sub Club continued to provide me with a priceless musical education. I played my first gig in 1990, and by 1991, I was a resident DJ at the Citrus Club in Edinburgh and other venues across the city. I worked at the legendary Bomba Records in Glasgow, which connected me with other DJs and producers, sparking collaborations and studio experiments. It was at Bomba that I met Colin Gate of Deep sensation, and together, we opened Defunkt Records, also in Glasgow. My first studio session was with my mate Gordon Smith, aka Blackbeard, in 1997. We made a Balearic tune and recorded it at Can Can Studios. I’ve been making music ever since. 2) Colleen played your track "Beats from the far east" during Balearic Breakfast, can you tell us more about the way you composed that song and what you wanted to convey? Beats from the Far East evolved from an ambient track I’d previously produced and released called Dreams From The Far East which was played on Radio 6 and featured on Nightmares on Wax’s Cover Mix for Mixmag magazine a few years back. Sometimes it happens like that—a tune doesn’t just begin and end with itself. If I sense that there’s ‘more legs’in a track, that’s what I like to do: develop it further and bring a new dimension, like a new episode to a story. In the case of BFTFE, I had a clear vision of the Balearic and trip-hop tinged sound I wanted to create while retaining the personality and unique features of the original track. I added some mid-tempo beats and keyboard riffs to the existing ambient elements, blending those chilled vibes with a rhythmic energy to make it feel fresh and dynamic. Small musical changes, but they elevated the tune to something pretty special. I am very proud of it, it’s definitely one of my favourite works, and I’m happy it’s been so well received. 3) Generally speaking, what drives your imagination? Where does the music come from and how do you work when composing? Do you try to draw a general musical line and then perfect it or do you work, on the contrary, bits by bits? My general love of music drives everything. I’m constantly listening to different genres and I find inspiration everywhere. After over 20 years of making music, I’ve got seriously loads of unfinished musical projects sitting on my computer and ideas on paper too. I am always jotting ideas down in my diary so I don’t lose them—it happens more often than I’d like these days! On the whole, my tracks come together in pieces, I start, but then I will take a break and sit on it for a while and come back with a fresh ear, then tweak it until it feels right—there’s always something to return to. Some releases are projects that have been completed over many years. Once there’s a seed of an idea my process starts with sample hunting, and I’ve got a big record and digital music collection so there’s thousands of samples to work with. A track often begins with a few loops, then I layer in beats, vocals, and other elements bit by bit. 4) How do you approach your DJ sets? Do you prepare them in any way or do you rely on the spur of the moment, the vibe you feel when being right there with the dancers? I prepare in as much as I’ll have a rough idea of what I’m bringing to a gig, but it’s all very spontaneous. It’s always about feeding off the crowd, which comes from experience and plain old practice. It’s like give-and-take between yourself as the DJ and the crowd. I’m there to take them on a journey, but they guide the story too. I’ve been DJing for a long time, and mostly that’s meant DJing on vinyl as well as CDs. I was a very late adopter of the digital way and resisted it where I could. But times change, and you evolve your methods. Back in the day, you’d turn up with a box of maybe 100 records. If you ran out of music, you’d play the B-sides or dig deeper into your crate. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t—that was just part of the game. Now, with thousands of tracks at your fingertips, it’s all about being organised, making smart selections and memory. 5) I read in another interview that you suffered a stroke. I am so sorry to hear about this. How are you doing today? Can you share with us a few of your next musical moves for 2025? Thank you for asking. That’s right, yes, I had a serious stroke in 2022 that nearly took my life. I was very lucky, my wife was with me and got help very quickly which is key with a stroke. It’s been a tough recovery, and I’m still dealing with the effects of my brain damage, I have physical difficulties with my left side, some sight and spatial awareness issues. Day-to-day this shows itself in various ways relating to how the brain uses planning and memory. Sadly, one of the ways this has affected me and I still really struggle with is mixing records, trying to get that coordination working together in my brain just doesn’t quite work yet, and that breaks my heart. Over the past two years, however, I’ve overcome many hurdles and I make improvements all the time, so I keep pushing forward. Recovery never stops, and the human brain is pretty amazing, so you never know how much things can improve with time and effort. I’m hoping for 2025 to continue on the strong momentum of the last few years with my production (all of my tracks are availiable on my Bandcamp ). I have a four-track EP — Robot84 Promo vol 5 — coming out on vinyl via Juno Records in February, and the response so far has been brilliant. I’m also releasing a Balearic-fuelled EP on the Magic Wand Special Editions series ; I’m very excited about this one. I’ll continue to put digital releases on Bandcamp, and I’ve started work on Robot84 Promo 6 , which is taking great shape. Beyond that, I’m wondering and hoping 2025 might be the year I DJ again, which would really make it a year to remember. Thank you so much Scott. You are in our thoughts and I'm sure we'll meet all on a dancefloor soon. Take Care and thank you for the Music!!

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 209th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on January 28th 2025. About this episode. – While enjoying her last moments in Lanzarote (a small town in the Canary Islands), our dear Captain streamed this beautiful episode that brought us so much hapiness! Although she did everything that could be done to ensure the episode would be streamed flawlessly, Colleen wasn't lucky as Mixcloud stopped working during David's mix! Sigh! This episode was a very joyous one: Tigerbalm's mix was off the hook (the transcribed interview is here), David's mix (read the review here) was soulfoul as can be (he shared with us the luck he had, meeting Rose Robinson when she did a vinyl set in London), we celebrated Natalie Alleyne's Birthday and talked everything music on the chat! Our friend Macho Grande summed it all up perfectly by saying "Loving this, makes me wish I was on holiday and not sat in an office" 😂💕👌 And, for your complete information (we're doing our best here 😉) Colleen is heading to Massachussetts and NYC next week and she will be streaming the show at 5am! Listen back to the 209th episode of Balearic Breakfast: "It’s the last day I can hang out with my new buddy in Lanzarote. I’m going to miss him! This week’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud and features a guest mix and interview with @tigerbalmmusic . I have played many of her tunes and remixes on the show - tunes that are spread across labels like @razorntape and @ubiquityrecords . I know you’ll love her mix of global electronic beats. And she was kind of enough to take some time while on the road in Peru to have a chat about her music-making process and her forthcoming second album. After that we have a guest mix from Balearic Breakfast family member @davstod . He has put together a gorgeous mix of orchestrated soul which will hopefully clear away the winter blues for our listeners in the Northern Hemisphere. Thanks for those who joined on the Balearic Breakfast live stream - it was wonderful to be together as always. The ‘Request Line’ is back this Saturday and I look forward to your suggestions for next Tuesday’s Balearic Breakfast (and once again I’ll stream live from my Record Room). Enjoy your week and thanks for listening!" PLAYLIST Tigerbalm's Mix (1969) Stevio Cipriani – Mary’s Theme (2020) Gitkin – Chicha Nola (2024) Yuksek, Diogo Strausz, Juveniles (ft Julia-Baptiste) – Pura Onda (C'est pas I'oiseau Jam Mix) (NOL) Tigerbalm (ft Jimena Angel) – Columbia Calypso (1998) Aldo Sena – Cumbia Reggae (2024) Tigerbalm (ft Joao Selva) – Vem Ca (2023) La Jungla – Salto Palante (2025) Dennis Liber – Hidden Island (1974) Trio Ternura – Filhos de Zambi (Bernardo Pinheiro edit) (2020) Super Mama Djombo – Dissan Na M´bera (Suur Di No Pubis) (Daniel Haaksman Edit) (2019) Maria Bethania – Eu A Agua (Lov.ini Edit) (2023) Coati Mundi – Me No Popeye (Juju Muzik Edits) (2024) Tigerbalm (ft Joy Tyson) – Profunda Alma (2021) Tania Alves – Fankiando Planador (Aroop Roy Rework) (2022) Balkan Beat Box – Adir Adirim (Nickodemus Remix) (2024) Emperor Machine – La Cassette (Tigerbalm Remix) (2021) Mainline Magic Orchestra – MMO Theme David Stoddard's Mix (1971) Isaac Hayes – Early Sunday Morning (1978) Jeffree – Mr Fix It (1979) The Love Unlimited Orchestra – As Time Goes By (1976) Leon Ware – Learning How To Love You (1976) Diana Ross – One Love In My Lifetime (1970) Shirley Bassey – Spinning Wheel (1971) Labi Siffre – The Shadow of Our Love (1964) Tenorio Jr. – Nebulosa (1978) Lemuria – Hunk of Heaven (1978) Chaka Khan – Some Love (1978) Esther Phillips – Native New Yorker (1977) The Originals – Call On Your Six Million Dollar Man (1979) Mongo Santamaria – Watermelon Man (disco promo 12" version) (1979) Angela Bofill – People Make the World Go Round TIGERBALM'S INTERVIEW WITH COLLEEN [Colleen] Greetings, I'm Colleen Cosmo Murphy hosting your weekly Balearic Breakfast on my Mixcloud Live until high noon. And hello to the Balearic Breakfast family joining me on the live stream as always. Today we have two special guest mixes. The first is from Tiger Balm, born in South London as Rose Robinson. She DJs and produces a unique sound that gathers African, Latin, and various world influences and somehow makes them work alongside modern electronic music. Her penchant for global music flavors is infectious and peppers her debut album, International Love Affair. She has also done remixes for Nicodemus and Razor and Tape and Emperor's Machine, and she has a new album on the horizon in 2025. After that, we have a special Balearic Breakfast family mix from David Stoddard, who has been wowing us with his requests for the past couple of years. But first, it's over to Tiger Balm. Now I'm here in the studio with Tiger Balm. I've been following her career for the last couple of years. She put out a fantastic album called International Love Affair in 2022 on Ubiquiti. The following year, she had some great remixes on the follow-up album. And then just recently, she put out the Profunda Alma EP. She's put out great music on Ubiquiti, Razor and Tape, and Leng, and she's here in the studio with me now. Hello, how are you? [Tigerbalm] Hi, I'm great, thank you. Thank you for having me. [Colleen] Oh, it's a pleasure. It's a pleasure. And the fact that you live just on the other side of the park from me and that I see you at the hairdressers is pretty cool as well! We're official neighbors. Official neighbors, exactly. I just wanted you to kind of, if you could kindly recount how you got into music. [Tigerbalm] At uni actually, I just was clubbing a lot in London and would kind of hear the DJs playing and a lot of the West End clubs actually at uni and wanting to like, I'd quite often be that annoying person going, oh, can you play this song? Can you play this song? Or if it was a DJ, can you play that song that I loved last week? And was, yeah, just really into it. And I ended up just buying myself my own CDJs and started learning to mix at home and having little art parties. So that's how my first little DJ moment started. It was during uni in London, but I had always been really into music. My mum and dad are so musical and they had a big record collection and a salsa and yeah, there was always music. My grandma's a singer, opera singer, so music was always like a massive part of me anyway. So it was just like, I loved dancing. I used to do choreographs when I was younger. So it's just music and dancing have always been a big thread. And then it developed, I think like just, I found a couple of like styles of music I really liked. I was playing at Momo's a couple of years after getting quite good. I used to play, you know, there it was this kind of Moroccan world global sound and it was dance music, but more electro. And I found some music I liked and felt really at home there. And then struggled with the shift in genres and I just couldn't find music I liked. And I was sort of like, shall I make music? And then I met a guy called David Baker, actually an old friend of mine who introduced me to new disco, but like more cosmic new disco, like Jaxophilus, really spacious cosmic sounds. And that was like, Ooh, I love this. So then I kind of started going to Hackney Whip, these mental warehouse parties that blew my mind because I was like, what is this music? Oh my God. But it was like sacked off West London completely. I was going to these parties like Colours, it's like Guillaume Ronin. And yeah, the music was like a lot of Afro inspired mixed up with cosmic disco, but not too cheesy. And yeah, from there it was like, I just wanted to be a DJ. Every time I was at those raves, I was just staring to get there. I want to be there in that moment. And that was kind of like a goal. And unfortunately, by the time I'd established myself, all of the awesome raves got shut down, you know, but it was like a big inspiration for me to make music, to like embody those moments. So yeah, I just started learning on 8th of June and worked a bit with my friend Christy Harper. We sort of were learning together. We tried making some music together as well, which was really fun and did some edits. And then yeah, I met my ex-partner, Isaac Gray, who we formed Earth Boogie, which was our production duo. And yeah, after that, after that relationship ended, I went on to do my solo career. So it kind of, it was very organic. [Colleen] Wow. It sounds really interesting. You have such a unique sound, which I love because as you mentioned earlier, it is influenced by global sounds and you're making it and, you know, bringing in this kind of electronic kind of modern dance element, which is really, really great. And it seems to me like when you first started in 2020, you did your first single with Ella Coco, and I see that our friends in New Zealand, Flamingo Pier, also did a remix. Now, were you initially just getting inspired by different places to make music? [Tigerbalm] Like on a psychological level, I've been somewhere in a moment and I want to make a song for that moment. And I'm often making the song I'm thinking about that moment. And I have, as an empath, like a strong ability to recreate feelings and emotions in the form of a memory. So Wacky Key from my first album was made because I played at Weekly Z Festival with Flamingo Pier. So when I was there DJing that set, which was amazing, I was like, I need to make a song that I could have played in that set. [Colleen] Wow. That's a great idea. That's fantastic. I played for them last year. I wish I had done that. They do have a song called Cosmic Sunset though, which I've kind of co-opted to play quite a bit. No, I can't call it my own. But they're great guys. So you got, that's how you got inspired to do your first release. And then after that, you started to get inspired from other cultures like Indonesia and also Brazil. [Tigerbalm] Exactly. [Colleen] Do you travel a lot? [Tigerbalm] Yes. So Ella Coco was started in Indonesia when I was still with Isaac. So we had to split our Erfugi tracks and that one, I was kind of really excited to have it because it was half done and I got to finish it off. And yeah, so that's what the Ella Coco was. And then everything after that has come from a trip. So if you look at the first album and you dissect it, like Labrisa on that album is called Labrisa from Beach Club in Bali. But like each name has a thread to something historically, like a bit like a diary, I guess. And yeah, I'm trying to think of the order of the songs now because so much stuff has come out. But yeah, the album was an amalgamation of my style from Erfugi into Tiger Bomb. So it was more deep electronic, more clubby. And as I've evolved, I've learned to work with session musicians and create more of a live sound. So it's really like when I went to Brazil, I was like, how am I going to make this music, like this style of music? I'm like, OK, I've got to work with people. Who am I going to work with? So I just contact friends of mine I've worked with and say, hey, do you recommend anyone that plays this style of percussion or a really good bass player that could do this vibe? And, you know, all the good people always just go, yeah, yeah, I'm going to introduce to him. Then that person knows the trumpet. And all of a sudden you've gone down the rabbit wheel and you've made all these new tracks. Yeah, I guess. [Colleen] Fantastic. Now, what is what are some of the great things that you've taken away from other cultures in terms of producing music? [Tigerbalm] Mexico is where I've spent the most time. I'm working with the trumpets and kind of creating that. I don't like to use the word tribal so much, but they call it tribal house, you know, the more Afro house sounds. I've always loved that deep Afro house sound. And I was very inspired by my Tulum trips to create Pagoda Dance, which was my one of my singles this year on House Music With Love. I was in Tulum and I was playing in these different venues and I was like, OK, I need to make a big Afro house track. And then, you know, getting big trumpets in it, because all of those tracks have the sound. So finding someone that could record with me. So I sort of take different instruments from different cultures and sounds. Brazil, obviously, you know, I couldn't record the percussion that I bring in amazing percussionists. I worked with Miquel on Trifunda Alma. He is based in Napoli, actually, but he is a composer and he is just a Brazilian guru. So I came up with a concept for a song and was like, OK, here's the different Brazilian songs I love. Can we take these sounds and recreate them? And so you have to go down a rabbit hole with instruments. And in Brazil, there's so many unique instruments to work with. And definitely Ipanema, I went to a music store. I've actually got some different pieces that I bought there, about five or six crazy pieces. And we've used those in some of the songs as well. I like a couple of the shakers, but only little layers, you know, that we can use in the studio. I want to buy more instruments when I travel that I can actually record live. But my new album has got a lot of live recorded instruments that I use from a studio in Portugal. [Colleen] We'll talk more about the new album in a while because I want to stay where we are, because this is so interesting. As you're traveling, are you just going into people's studios as well and recording as you're traveling as well, like local musicians? [Tigerbalm] Recording the new album, yes, in Portugal with a singer and a guitarist that were recommended to me. But in the new album, yes, but that was the first time I'd done it. So far, it's all been remote. But we'll do a Zoom session, we'll chat, and then we'll bounce backwards and forwards quite a few times. And there's also Fiverr, which is a really unusual platform that a friend introduced me to. I'm not allowed to share the name of the people I'm using there because he made sure I wouldn't share them because I like his weapons. But he introduced me to a couple of sick keys players on there and Brazilian musicians and they've recorded on Lacassette and my Mama Chip album, and Mama Chip remix, sorry. So I've got all these little special musicians that I've been starting to work with. But it's always remote, they'll send you a draft, you give them feedback. And it's like two or three rounds of, you know, it's almost like with COVID, you learned to work remotely. [Colleen] Exactly, I had to do the same thing. It was so interesting. Yeah. [Tigerbalm] Yeah. And the singers as well, like there's a new track that I've just sent to a singer called Kemena Angel in Colombia. I met her at a festival in the summer and I had this track and I was like, well, let me send it to her. I was like, babe, what do you think? And she was like, she just sent it back, she'd already recorded on it. Like she didn't even be like, yeah, I like it. Let's work together. Let's have a chat. It was like, boom, she sent me these Insta videos and I was like, whoa, this is amazing. Okay, so I reworked the track and then I sent it to Juksek and he was like, I love it. We'll put on a compilation. So it's just randomly organic. It's like everything is like, yeah, just flowing in some kind of weird way. [Colleen] Well, it certainly sounds like it. Well, why don't we listen to your mix, get back to the mix, and then we'll come back and talk about what's in store for you in 2025 and a new album as well. You're listening to Tiger Balm on Balearic Breakfast. [Colleen] And now we're back with TigerBalm here in the studio on Balearic Breakfast. We've been listening to her fantastic mix and I just want to talk with you about what's going on in 2025. I mean, I just have to say that your enthusiasm is so infectious and your vibes are so positive and strong. It's absolutely a pleasure to speak with you, but also to hang out with you and to listen to your music. And I think because of that, you've had a lot of really fruitful collaborations and I see that you've worked with many different people and two people that I see that you work with quite a bit. One is Jay Kriv from Razor and Tape and the other one is Joy Tyson. I just wanted to speak with you a little bit about that because Jay Kriv is also a very prolific producer and you seemed to start on a journey with him a few years ago. Tell me a little bit about your relationship with with Jason or Jay Kriv from Razor and Tape. [Tigerbalm] Yeah, we met in the Hamptons in New York about, wow, it probably was eight years ago now. It could be even nine. But I was doing a residency at a beach club at the Andre Balazs Hotel on Shelter Island. And I was there for, I think, nearly three months. And I was like, right, I'm here. Like, who do I want to meet that's in New York? And of course, I was a massive fan of Razor and Tape. And pretty much most of my new records have been from the label because they do the disco with a bit of Afro and Brazilian. So I've been really inspired by all of his remixes. I was like, basically his biggest fan. And yeah, I just text him like, you know, I think on Instagram, like, oh, you know, I'm in town for a few months and gonna be doing some different shows. It'd be great to link up if you're free. And he was on Shelter Island that weekend visiting a friend. [Colleen] How funny. That's serendipity. [Tigerbalm] Yeah. And yeah, I remember he was having lobsters at the house. I remember the whole conversation the first time we met and I was playing outside and it was all sunny. And yeah, after that, we just stayed in touch, like music swaps and things like that. And then, yeah, as I sent him, I was sending him music for a while actually, but before they first were like, right, this is the song that we love. So when I send them Nina, he was like, wait, wait, don't send that to anyone else. I was like, okay. I was actually in Margate when I sent him that, I remember the moment. So I was like, oh my god, because it was like a dream to release on Razor and Tape. I mean, they're prolific. [Colleen] Very prolific. [Tigerbalm] And yeah, we're just great friends. [Colleen] Oh, he's a lovely guy. I finally got to meet him the last time I was in New York, because I played at their record shop. And I have been a big supporter of his music as well. Also, I've been a supporter of the label Ubiquity. And that's where you released your album, International Love Affair and the remix album. Can you tell me a little bit about that relationship and how that developed? [Tigerbalm] Yeah, that was also a lockdown moment where I made the album and I was like, who do I want to release it with? And I was researching all my favorite artists at the time that had a similar sound and was just contacting, I think, like Soundway Records, just different people. And I found this album from Bossk that I had on vinyl. I was literally methodically going through my record collection, flipping the back, where was this released, going online, contacting him on Bandcamp. That was my process. And yeah, like they were on that list. And I got a call from Michael, the head of Ubiquity and was like, yeah, we love the album. And I was like, oh my god, like, okay. And then it was like, yeah, it just like, just, again, I was in Margate because it was lockdown. I remember I was on, I've been on like a beachwalk, I was sitting in the car and I was like, screaming out loud. But yeah, it was like such a big moment for me, you know, it was like my first solo album, you know. And it was a struggle for doing Earth Boogie sometimes because it was like, you know, we would work on the projects alone and then together and they'd go in different directions. And it wasn't always your authentic result. You know, you didn't always love it. You had to compromise like a relationship, you know, it was the same with the music and the songs. And then it was like, this is me doing me. And it felt great. [Colleen] That's great. I mean, it sounds great as well. It was like such a cool album. And the whole image you kind of put together is really great as well. I mean, it's, you're controlling all these different aspects of what, of your output, image, music, doing the productions, doing remixes. And I can hear from speaking with you too, that it's, you're very driven. This is something that you're not just sitting around waiting for people to ask you to do things. And I found this with a lot of different women DJs and producers. They go out and create the stuff rather because they know they're probably not going to be asked if they just sit around waiting. I mean, you know, we have to kind of create our own platforms and really be quite disciplined and driven to kind of get out there. And I really admire what you're doing. Now, you also put out some great remixes too, one for Emperor's Machine, which I love them. And I know that they did a remix for you. I guess you're doing some swaps on remixes now, aren't you? [Tigerbalm] Yeah, that was a Lange swap, that one. Yeah. And I actually loved doing that remix. It was really interesting. I kind of wish I'd lowered the BPM now for some reason, because I was umming and ahhing for a long time about the speed. But I end up DJing at lower BPM, which is laughable, because I debated for so long about the BPM. But anyway, you have to laugh. Lange Records are obviously my original baby. I was with Fugi, where all my albums came out with them. And then they released my first single. So Simon from Lange Records has been incredibly supportive all throughout my career and books me at his Philly Brooklyn venue in East London. So yeah. But yeah, we were talking about Ubiquiti there. You'll laugh, because they were like, we want a photo of you on your next album. And I was like, oh, my God, I've got to curate a whole thing now. Because I was like, let's just get Illustrator to do it. Like, just like take it off my hands. And then it was like, oh, my God, I had to create this whole image again. But it's actually really fun. It's a lot of work. And it's a lot of pressure. And it can be a little stressful. But when you actually look at the product at the end, it's like, I just did that. [Colleen] It looks great. Your website looks great. It's fun, as well. Your music is fun. It has energy. It's uplifting. It's different. I love it. So tell us, right now you're in Peru. Are you doing any recording in Peru? Are you doing any music in Peru? [Tigerbalm] I've got my Roland RO7 on me, which just field recording. So I have captured Carnival in Rio on there, as well, which I still need to put into a track. But yeah, I plan on using it a bit more, I think, in the Sacred Valley. There's a lot of amazing artists who live up there. And I'm definitely going to use that. And I might meet people on the way. So I'm remaining very open to whatever comes universally. I just trust the process. I've got one gig there called Discophobia in Lima, which I'm very excited about. Apparently, the vibration in Lima for parties is up there. So I'll be in my full element. But yeah, I think the trip is very action-packed, apart from the Sacred Valley, which is up in Cusco. It's very high altitude. And yeah, I just, the universe just, yeah, I never know what's going to come until it comes. [Colleen] Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. You have to be trusting, trusting that it's all going to work out. Just put your faith in it. [Tigerbalm] Yeah, something will come out of it, though, for sure. [Colleen] Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. Now you have a new album coming out. Is it all ready to go? Is it all finished? [Tigerbalm] It's finished. [Colleen] Okay, tell us about that. [Tigerbalm] Yeah, that's definitely, I have to say, really proud of it. Definitely the best thing I've done. I've worked with, I've recorded every singer on there, and there's about three session musicians on each track. And it's 50% women, 50% men. [Colleen] Brilliant. [Tigerbalm] On the vocals, it was really important for me. Also with the remixes, everything needs to be 50-50 and neutral. So there's four Brazilian tracks, four Afro tracks, all inspired by sort of late 70s, early 80s Afro disco bubblegum vibe. So yeah, it's a really new sound for me. And yeah, it evolved the album because I started it. And then I created this new sound. And then I had to drop some tracks out because they weren't fluid with the overall sound of it. But I've sung on two tracks. [Colleen] Oh, fantastic! [Tigerbalm] That was a huge, you know, I had to go, I had to see a voice coach, not for singing, but for like, moving through emotional blockages, because actually using your throat, your throat chakra is like, about not trauma, but like, you know, you've got to release it and work with it vibrationally. So we did a lot of like chanting and vocal work and cleansing. And that actually was what gave me the confidence to sing. [Colleen] That's fantastic. Yeah. I did singing the other night at karaoke on Boxing Day for the first time since 1989 when I was in Japan. I did have a few drinks, but the last time I sang in public, maybe the last time I ever will. No, I'm just joking. But that's fantastic. Because that's you have to really let your guard down to be able to to sing. I think if you're not a, you know, if that's not your usual vocation. [Tigerbalm] Yeah, I used to love singing. I just I had glandular fever a lot when I was younger. And I used to lose my voice and always get sick. And I think I just, that process sort of disengaged me from because my voice just goes a lot. Even after like talking of a loud sound system, it will go more than anyone else's. But I had this sort of fear around using it, especially because I thought if I record something great, I probably can't sing that live because I just find my voice very unreliable. But I just worked through that and I'm sort of finding my sound. I'm gonna keep going and keep trying to make songs. One of them I'm singing in English and it's like a rap, which is the single. And it's it's kind of jungle bookie, but it's it's funny and playful and silly and kind of new canary. And the other one I'm singing in Portuguese. So I had to work with someone to get that. And I wrote the lyrics for that one based on my last Brazilian trip. So yeah, there's a whole story around those tracks, but they're Brazil and Afro. Basically. [Colleen] Fantastic. And when is that coming out? Which label? What's the name of the album? [Tigerbalm] That's Ubiquity Records. And it's called Bubblegum Disgust. It's fun. And so the single should be either the end of March or early April. And then we're going to stream three more singles and then the album will come out June or July. And there will be about one year later a remix as well. And we're just signing off those artists slowly, slowly, you know, looking at budgets and things. But yeah, it's a long process, but it's exciting. [Colleen] Fantastic. Well, I'm really looking forward to it. We'll obviously give it support on Balearic Breakfast. And thank you so much for joining us today, and for taking some time out of your busy schedule in Peru. And we're loving the mix and really good luck with all of your endeavors. I'm really happy for you. And I just absolutely admire you and what you're doing. [Tigerbalm] I'm the same. I'm a huge, huge admirer of yours. And thank you so much. It's been great to be here. [Colleen] Thank you so much, Rose. That was fabulous. And now a special guest mix from one of our family members, David Stoddard. Each week I look forward to a special Soulful Requests, which often send me directly to Discogs. And here's a little note from David himself. The selection is quite eclectic, but definitely soulful string led, which always lifts the heart in the depths of winter. And it's vinyl only, hence the occasional clicks and crackles. Here is David Stoddard. THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE I still keep in my mind that interview Colleen once gave where she said she stopped writing album reviews because she felt it was impossible to write about music in a way that would serve the purpose, with a lot of the reviews being poorly written. On the contrary, I would say this: if you think you love Music, then go ahead, and write about it. But write about it with your soul, with your guts, make that article the music you're listening to. Try to describe everything you feel, everything you see, make the listener listen again to the songs and help him find what you found. If you're able to do this, then your paper was a good one. If you didn't, then, obviously you served no one interests... And as far as I'm concerned, I konw I've not found the best words to perfectly describe a mix yet, one thing I know is that some mixes require a classical writting style whereas other ones require a more creative style, and it all comes down to what I hear and feel... Dave Stod's mix is one of those mixes that you need to listen to again and again. First because the songs selected are off the hook, they're not well-known or overplayed hits. They're reprensentative of what Soul is, they're so groovy you're going to melt. Also, the way Dave presented them, in a relaxed yet precise mix, really puts them into a beautiful spiritual light. Dave changes tempos, sometimes with a lot of audacity, but he keeps the listener awake and he does not lose him along the way by selecting songs that would be too much apart from one another. To the topic, listen to the first three songs, the way tey're mixed together perfectly depicts what I've just written. Jeffree Page's Mr. Fix it slides in the end of Early Sunday Morning (from Shaft's Soundtrack), like a bird gently flying away and As Time Goes By's quicker rhythm (a musical cover of the 1931 song by Rudy Vallée) perfectly embraces Mr Fix it luxurious rhythm, with Learning how to love you really starting the party! (the great Minnie Riperton is among the backing vocalists - more about the 1976 studio album here) The mixes are short ones, they're not long, they're not complex, they tend to be close to Colleen's way of mixing during the show, so Dave really respects the Vibe that Balearic Breakfast is... The audacity of Dave's mix is well represented with how One Love in My Lifetime enters the mix, Dave is not here to play around, he knows where he wants to take us, and he does that with aplomb. When a DJ knows his craft, you feel it. Of course, the mix can be prepared, but still, if there's a musical soul in there, anything is possible, and the pleasure given drives the listener crazy, lifting his spirits up! Fun fact, the identity of the backing vocalists was never disclosed and even people at Motown kept the secret for a long time, the new release of the album allowed for this information to be released at last: the Jones Girls were the backing vocalists on Diana's album and on that particular song! I must also add that Dave's setup must be a fine one, there's a nice realism in the sound! Did I saiy a bird flying somewhere? Here he goes again when Spinning Wheel enters the mix (a cover of the 1968 song by Blood, Sweat & Tears), if you don't feel the groove here, you will never feel anything, it's delicate, it's precise, it's wild at the same time, it takes you, it grabs you and takes you away, there's nothing more I can say. God, I love that. And listen to that rhythmic guitar sliding on your left and then on your right, with the bass guitar being also so precise, you can hear every note being played, great sounding record!! "Spinning Wheel" was written by vocalist David Clayton-Thomas, arranged by saxophonist Fred Lipsius, and produced by James William Guercio. In our 2015 interview with Clayton-Thomas, he explained: "I came up with the song just picking it away on a guitar when I found some chord changes I liked. As for the lyrics, everybody was getting so serious about 'The Revolution' and everything else in those days. It was just kind of a way to say, 'Lighten up people. Take it easy. It's all going to come full circle.' And it did. Ten years later, we went from 'The Revolution' to Ronald Reagan." Even if Labbi Siffre's The shadow of our love's start is slighthly calmer, the fact it has the same rhythm as the previous track keeps the listener hooked on the groove. With Tenorio Jr. Nebulosa arriving so unexpectedly in the mix, Dave strikes the listener because that song acts like an ending point to Labi Sifre's song! Absolutely mesmerising musical moment! WOW Dave! And what can I say about the way Hunk of Heaven enters the mix? Another stunning moment, there's a beautiful musical momentum here, we're forgetting the mix and we're able to concentrate on the vibe the music brings to the table, that's what a real DJ should be able to do, mix in a way that lets the music speak without barriers! Such an astounding mix here! "The minute you think you're greater than the music, you're finished." - Frankie Knuckles I love the small "décroché" Dave does at the start of Chaka Khan's Some Love (from her groundbreaking 1978 studio album). Listen again here, you'll hear that the track does not perfectly start on the beat, yet, this creates an uncredible Groove, bringing out Dave's musical message! I am melting here... Mixing is not always about perfection, never forget that 😉 By playing Ester Phillips' Native New Yorker (a cover of the 1977 song, sung by Frankie Valli and made famous by Odyssey later the same year), The Originals' Call On Your Six Million Dollar Man, incredibly followed by Mongo Santamaria's Watermelon Man, Dave keeps the rhythmic unity intact, keeping our feet on the dancefloor and our spirits high as a duck flying to a new destination (am I going crazy now?!) 😄 Ending his mix with Angela's Bofill's People Make the World Go Round (a cover of the 1971 song by The Stylistics), Dave Really grooved us all... Out... All in all, Dave's mix is an astounding listening experience, the only thing I'm missing is a bit more dynamics in the sound, maybe by turning the volume knob slightly down on the recording output of his mixer (just a few dBs down) will Dave be able to take that sonic groove out and free his listeners even more!