Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 181st episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud and Twitch TV socials on June 25th 2024. About this episode. – Just when you think the sun will shine down on you, something happens, making you think again about the world you live in. To say that some battles are harder than others is an understatement. You might think that in our times and age, it would be easier to say "I'm gay and I'm Proud". However, attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community differ globally, with certain countries displaying significantly less tolerance than others (click here for an insightful article titled "The Global Divide on Homosexuality Persists"). And I came to think about it, but can you ask for such important recognition worldwide when there are still so many conflictual situations arising between people? As George Carlin once said, "We haven't learned to care for one another; we wanna save the planet?!" Let's just take a quick and easy example here. Let's say I have a different point of view from the one you defend in a conversation. Let's say I'm wrong, and I don't know it yet. Would you take the time to explain your point to me, or would you simply reject me from your life because I do not "follow your line"? Nowadays, I feel that communication-wise, we lack openness and humility, and many of us are defending our own points of view without trying to understand the hows and whys leading to different ways of thinking. And that's a shame. It's really a shame. We all must change the way we behave towards one another, and this starts by being able to discuss without bringing in judgment and rejection. The road is very long, but, as I like to say, there are people of goodwill... We need care, love, understanding and togetherness, and today's episode was all about this unity we're dreaming of... Let's stop building walls; let's draw prairies with blue skies filled with rainbows... Listen back to the 181st episode of Balearic Breakfast: "Today’s Balearic Breakfast was a PRIDE celebration and is now archived on my Mixcloud. It was a joyous celebration and we had the most attendees on the live stream in the show’s history. Thank you for all who participated! This Balearic Breakfast pays tribute to artists from the LGBT community. And as always, you delivered with the requests – there is a wide spectrum of songs and sounds – a rainbow of musicality. There are some of our favourite artists from yesteryear along with more contemporary artists, some new to my ear, as well. Thank you for delivering! And wishing a very Happy Pride to all of our Balearic Breakfast family members who are part of the LGBT community." PLAYLIST (2024) Bay Bryan – Drifting (2022) El Hardwick – Avatar (Nailah Hunter Remix) (2024) John Grant – Marbles (1984) Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Do You Know the Way to San Jose (1981) Sylvester & Jeanie Tracy – Here is My Love (2024) Meshell Ndegeocello – Love (1992) George Michael – Too Jazzy (Happy Mix) (1997) Diana King – L-L-Lies (1990) Erasure – Ship of Fools (Orbital Southsea Isles of Holy Beat Mix) (1983) Nona Hendryx – Transformation (1979) Dusty Springfield – Baby Blue (1983) Gwen Guthrie – Peanut Butter (Larry Levan Mix) (2015) Smokey – I'll Always Love You (1978) Brooklyn Dreams – Music Harmony & Rhythm (Disco mix by DJ Bobby Guttadaro) (2024) Gossip – Real Power (2004) Rufus Wainwright – The One You Love (link) Wham – Everything She Wants (Danny Krivit Re-Edit) (1977) Carl Bean – I Was Born This Way (2022) Gus F (ft. Jimmy Somerville) – Smalltown Boy (Sunset Mix) (1994) Terre Thaemlitz – Raw Through a Straw (2023) Romy – Loveher (1981) Patrick Cowley – Sea Hunt (2024) Elkka – Right Here (2004) Arthur Russell – That's Us / Wild Combination (2024) Hi-Fi Sean (ft. Inaya Day) – The Redemption (2008) Hercules & Love Affair – Blind (Frankie Knuckles Remix) (1987) Frankie Knuckles (ft Jamie Principle) – Bad Boy (1977) Sylvester – Over and Over (1970) Peter Wyngarde – Neville Thumbcatch THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE (coming soon) Starting the show with Bay Brian's new single "Driftin", which he calls both a callback to his concept album of last year, The Meadow, and a planting of seeds for what is to come, Colleen perfectly sets the tone of this new Marathon show, celebrating Pride Month and solely featuring artists from the LGBT community. Featuring a wide spectrum of songs and sounds, a rainbow of musicality as Colleen so Rightly put it, this 180th episode of Balearic Breakfast features both beloved artists from yesteryear and more contemporary ones, including brand new releases from 2024! Keeping the "reflective" and, somehow, worried yet explorative vibe alive, Colleen then plays the following songs, crafting a beautiful introduction to this show, not resembling anything she proposed before: London-based multidisciplinary artist and musician Elle Hardwick identify as trans, non-binary, with their work exploring the queer world and also how we can heal on a damaged planet. Last year, they released an album called Eight Remixes, a collective reworking of Elle Hardwick's 2020 debut album, an idea they had in store from the start. "Avatar", in Los Angeles-based harpist Nyla Hunter's version (she has an album, Love Gaze, of her own and plays harp for sound baths and meditation), certainly is a musical trip; American singer, songwriter, and musician John Grant, who now lives in Iceland, is the former lead singer of The Czars and has had an illustrious solo recording career. His sixth and most cinematic and opulent new album, "The Art of the Lie" (from which Marbles is taken), allowed him to work with Ivor Guest, who co-produced Grace Jones' "Hurricane" LP ; Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" has already been featured during the show and is a cover of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song, made famous by Dionne Warwick in 1968 (although she hated it), the song has been the city’s unofficial theme for fifty years; Sylvester is a widely loved and much-respected artist. On "Here is My Love" in duet with Jeanie Tracy, he shows off his low tenor baritone range, leaving his Falsetto behind. The 1981 studio album was a huge disappointment for the fans as it proposed new material being far away from Sylvester's flamboyant musical style "Too Hot to Sleep is not a disco album; it is more like slow funk and pop soul, something that is definitely OK on the background in a certain place but not actually very exciting". Taking us gently through the show, Colleen speeds up the rhythm in this section but never forces the mix, always standing on the edge of falling; I love that when she does not force a mix like so many other DJs. She's not afraid to let Silence speak, it's so refreshing, always keeping the beat though... Here are some more information about the songs played during that section of the show: Meshell Ndegeocello has a new album coming out, "No More Water, the Gospel of James Baldwin", which will be released on the 2nd of August, marking the 100th anniversary of the late author's birth. James Baldwin wrote some great books, including "Giovanni's Room", a novel addressing gender and sexuality identities, which he wrote and he published around 1956. Meshell's album offers a transformative experience: part music, part sermon, part celebration and part call to action. "No More Water" promises to be a genre-defying, spiritually enriching journey that honours Baldwin's legacy and adds a unique musical perspective; George Michael's Too Jazzy (Happy Mix) is the B-side to his Too Funky single, which he donated to Red Hot and Dance, a compilation that raised funds for AIDS awareness. George Michael was generous and an incredibly multi-talented artist with a golden voice, even duetting with Aretha Franklin (his "Songs from the Last Century" album is to die for...); La La La Lies is taken from Diana King's second album, 1997's "Think Like a Girl", which debuted at number one on the Billboard Reggae Album chart. O ne of the most successful modern Jamaican artists who got their start appearing on Notorious B.I.G.'s 1994 song Respect, King then hit the charts with Shy Guy, a top 40 hit. In 2012, King became the first Jamaican artist to come out publicly and was awarded the prestigious Vanguard Award at the Out Music Awards; Synth-pop duo Erasure is founding Depeche Mode member Vince Clark and singer-songwriter Andy Bell. Together, they released 19 studio albums, the most recent of which was 2022's Dayglo, based on a true story. Going back to a single from their third album, their breakthrough number one hit album, The Innocent, this track proposes a remix of their single "Ship of Fools" by The Orb (not Orbital ^^ - By the way, I love Colleen's mix right there, such a nice way to let the two tracks follow each other, what a groove...); Nona Hendrix, formerly one-third of the LaBelle Trio, is a solo artist, author and an LGBT activist. Her single Transformation from her second album, Nona (a fun song she admitted), was produced by Bill Laswell's Material Collective, with whom she had recorded their hit Bustin' Out (to me a WOW moment of the show because of the lyrics of the song...); Dusty Springfield had 17 UK hit singles between 1963 and 1970, followed by a gap of nine years until she appeared again in 1979 with the number 61 hit Baby Blue written by the Buggles (Trevor Horn's group), whose single "Video Killed the Radio Star" reached number one the same week that 'Baby Blue' was released. Dusty was also a TV presenter who helped popularize black American music to mainstream audiences here in the UK. In the late 1980s, she had another hit "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" With the Pet Shop Boys. For the next part of the show, Colleen steps up the rhythm, playing the following songs: Larry Levan's remix of Gwen Guthrie's Peanut Butter – One of the most influential DJs throughout the 1970s and 80s, maybe even now as well, Levan of the Paradise Garage has had a rich Legacy. An in-demand remixer throughout the 1980s, his remixes for singer-songwriter Gwen Guthrie are some of the best, as she had Sly and Robbie and Wally Bataru recording with her at the famous Compass Point Studios. Island Records commissioned LeVan to remix several of her songs, and they came together on the Padlock EP, which features LeVan's extended grooves, his abstract arrangements and futuristic synths; Smokey (or John Smokey Condon), spent his youth partying with the John Waters crowd in Baltimore. He marched in New York the night after the Stonewall riots on June 28th 1969, and then moved to Los Angeles, where he recorded with budding producer E.J. Eamons. Together, they created Smokey and released seven singles with gay themes on their own label, S&M Records, which have since been collated on the Chapter Music compilation, How Far Will You Go?, including the Bowie-inflected synth work of "I’ll Always Love You"; the atmosphere of today's 180th episode really started heating up with Bobby Guttadaro's remix of Brooklyn Dreams' classic "Music Harmony & Rhythm". Bobby Guttadaro, first a pharmacist, started DJing at Fire Islands, the Ice Palace in 1971, and then Manhattan's Le Jardin and Infinity, becoming one of the hottest DJs of the 1970s disco scene. He was also a beat mix and remix pioneer and was the first DJ to be awarded a gold disc for his work on Love Unlimited Orchestra's Love Theme. Once awarded DJ of the Year by Billboard, he sadly succumbed to AIDS in 1989; Keeping the fire burning, Colleen then chose Gossip's 'Real Power' from their most recent album (a celebration of creative expression and the power that came out of choosing family in the aftermath of collective and personal trauma), released in March this year, actually their first studio release in 12 years, produced by Rick Rubin. Gossip, an indie synth band formed in Arkansas, is fronted by Beth Ditto, who is also a solo artist, a fashion guru, an actor, an LGBTQ+ rights activist, and a style icon who's walked the runway for Jean Paul Gauthier; Rufus Wainwright, the American-Canadian singer-songwriter, is an artist from a very musical family, as his parents are musicians Loudon Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle, and his sister is Martha Wainwright. 'The One You Love' is from his fourth studio album, Want Two, which was released in 2004; The special Danny Krivitt re-edits "Everything She Wants" by Wham, a Balearic classic about a man trapped in a marriage (his wife never being satisfied with what he does). Wham filmed their video for Club Tropicana at Pikes Hotel in Ibiza! ; Carl Bean's "I Was Born This Way" is a gay Pride classic, first recorded by Valentino, released in 1975, then by Carl Bean in 1977 (only issued as a single back then). The Motown recording artist, who had a harrowing childhood, later became a minister and founded a network of LGBT-friendly churches called the Unity Fellowship Church Movement. On his passing, the church stated, "Archbishop Beam worked tirelessly for the liberation of the underserved and for LGBTQ people of faith and in doing so helped many around the world find their way back to spirituality and religion". In the next chapter of today's show, we're diving deep into a more Soulful musical approach...: Bronski Beat's hit Small Town Boy (one of Colleen's favourites) was the first single from their debut album, The Age of Consent; the song tells the story of a young gay man who is bullied in his small town and decides to leave home, Colleen here plays a beautiful version of the song, entitled "the sunset mix' by Gus F, a musician, producer and DJ based on the beautiful island of Jersey whose edit was approved by Jimmy Somerville in person!; Kevin Davey shared with us a memory, stating that Small Town Boy was Gilles' Worldwide Festival closing tune for the midweek night and Theatre De La Mer went wild! It was then teased the rest of the week untl Gilles closing set! Raw Through a Straw by Terre Thaemlitz (aka DJ Springles) is an interesting composition: It's abstract yet uptempo and one that Colleen played at The Loft and which sounded great on David Mancuso's sound system (props to David Mancuso during this Pride Month); Romy's "Loveher", taken from her first solo album, 'Mid-Air' (an album about celebration, sanctuary and salvation on the dance floor; dealing with love, grief, relationships, identity and sexuality and a love letter to the queer clubs where Romy found community and connection), released last year, produced by Stuart Price (Madonna's producer) and Fred again, also featuring an appearance by her bandmate Jamie XX; Patrick Cowley was one of the defining producers of the high-energy scene that was born in the San Francisco gay clubs. Working extensively with Sylvester, producing some of his greatest dance floor moments, he is also recognized as an electronic music pioneer. His 1981 single 'Sea Hunt', is based on the theme song of Sea Hunt, a television series that aired when he was a kid, the song being featured on Cowley's 'Megatron Man' album; London DJ and producer Elkka's "Right Here" is taken from her album Prism of Pleasure, which came out on Ninja Tune a few weeks ago in which the rising DJ and producer explores sensuality and queerness and a celebration of pleasure in all its forms - The track was written in the space of 40 minutes on the day of her father’s funeral. Speaking about the song she explained "It’s difficult equating an album about pleasure with something I wrote when I was in a very different headspace,” she explains. “But I wrote it in a time of extreme vulnerability… It’s about needing and wanting someone to be there for you, even if you’re going to lose them.” The result is a bubbling fever-dream of a song; all yearning piano and lyrics about longing. “It was pouring out of me, and I was like, I’m just going to follow this through. I needed this, and it just came – it felt quite special and spiritual. I’ll never understand that"; Arthur Russell's "That's Us/Wild" came out on a posthumous compilation released a couple of decades ago by Audica Records and Rough Trade. The tracks were taken from Russell's unreleased 1985 album, Corn, and a later unfinished album for Rough Trade. Some of the songs like that one were meticulously reworked and rerecorded dozens of times by Russell up until his passing in 1992 (click here to see more about the brand new book - click here for Colleen's event with author Richard King); Hi-Fi Sean's 'The Redemption', a collaboration with New York singer Anaya Day - also known as Sean Dixon, he was in the successful 1990s indie group The Soup Dragons. Moving to New York, he came out in 2001, left his family and broke down. He then rebranded as Hi-Fi Sean and has been releasing some kicking dance floor crackers, including this one; Frankie Knuckles' single 'Blind' by Hercules and Love Affair. The song was written by Andy Butler and Anoni (of Anoni and the Johnsons who released her sixth album, 'My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross'. And the Johnsons is a reference to Marsha P. Johnson, one of the prominent figures of the Stonewall uprising of 1969. He was a gay liberation activist and a self-identified drag queen, and a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front. He also co-founded the radical activist group STAR, which stands for Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, with Sylvia Rivera). In 1987, the late Johnson was an AIDS activist with ACT UP. Frankie Knuckles, the godfather of House, won a Grammy Award for Remixer of the Year back then; Frankie Knuckles' (ft. Jamie Principle) Bad Boy, the 1989 single. Another house pioneer, Marshall Jefferson, told ID Magazine in 1986, "Jamie Principle got us all into the music. He was the first one to record House and get played by Frankie Knuckles. But by the time he got a record out over three years ago, everyone had ripped off all his ideas. People have got national recognition copying his songs note for note. But he hasn't got a deal and no one's heard of him"; Sylvester's "Over and over", a song celebrating the need for gay men to create bonds in finding friendships, and thus openly supporting the gay community, was played by David Mancuso in 2001 when he celebrated, with Colleen, the release of the Loft compilations on Nuphonic. Colleen ends today's 180th episode by playing quite an incredible tune: this cult classic Neville Thumbcatch is from the late actor Peter Weingart, who recorded a solo album in 1970 when he was riding high as the star of the TV series Department S (he also played the lead in the first gay British TV drama, a 1959 broadcast of a play called 'South'). RCA wanted to record an album with Weingart, but he said no as he couldn't sing. So, instead, he proposed an album of his compositions and choice cover versions via spoken word... What an incredible way to end such an important show that got the whole Family happily dancing, and oh so perfectly summed up by our pal dancing_james "I am going to be in so much trouble when my wife gets home this evening... "darling why haven't the tasks on the to-do list been completed?" Me sheepishly looking at the floor "er, dancing to Balearic Breakfast, Colleen played longer than expected..."" 🤣🤣🤣 And I can tell you a lot of us got into this kind of trouble! 😂😂😂

I met Puerto Montt City Orchestra's Tim Salter for an interview about the band's new track, "Balearic For President", and how both of them approach their musical journey. 1) Hello Tim! Thank you so much for joining me on the Balearic Breakfast blog! Your brand new track is out now on Higher Love Recordings and was played by Colleen on the 177th episode of Balearic Breakfast. Can you tell us more about your journey in music and how the Puerto Montt City Orchestra came to life? Hi Artur! So, Puerto Montt City Orchestra is me, Tim Salter, and Angus Murray. We became friends when our children went to the same primary school in Kent, England. Over time, we realized that we shared a similar taste in music, so we decided to transform our love of all things Balearic into music production. Angus has released music in the past on UK house label Luxury Service as Downtown Loop, whilst I have been in a number of different bands over the years. We were thrilled that Higher Love wanted to release our first track – Our Patagonian Friends – and we’ve not stopped since (We’re not the most prolific producers, but we do have a steady output!). We are also very fortunate that we have some very talented friends that we collaborate with – Ellis on guitar, Dave on bass, and on "Balearic For President", John on saxophone. 2) Why did you guys choose to remix Residentes Balearicos' "Balearic for President"? What did you like, on the sonic side, in that track? "Balearic for President" came out as one of the tracks on the "Higher Love 2" compilation back in 2022.  I think the track resonated with us because of the way the synth chords worked so well with the more acoustic elements. For us it sounded so summery and really evoked that early evening feeling when on holiday. We contacted the Residentes Balearicos to see if they were up for us doing a remix and were over the moon when they agreed and sent over the parts. 3) You did not one but went as far as to propose three different versions! That's impressive! I feel these are more than "remixes" since you really enhance the initial track, a point nicely explained on the Bandcamp page and during Colleen's show. How do you approach the "remix"/ "rework" side of things? What are you after? When we start working with an original with a plan to remix, we look for the parts of the song that we feel we can build something around, and we go from there. On "Balearic For President", the first mix we came up with was the Blue Sky mix, which was built around the beautiful vocal harmony from the original. We love a track with a spoken-word element, so with the track name "Balearic For President", the idea quickly came to us to find an interview with the President of Ibiza! We are always trying to include a 'live' element, which is why we replaced the synth bassline with a bass guitar version and then added the guitar. We have been massive fans of "Schmoov!" for years, so we were super excited when John (Buckby) agreed to write and play a sax line. We built the White Sands mix around what he sent us. The final version we did was the Orange Sun mix, which was based on our hope that if we did a beatless version, people might decide to open mixes with it! We also wanted a version that really highlighted the beautiful parts played by Ellis and John. 4) Colleen shared the way she likes to work on the remixes she does. Do you think that having even a vague idea of the direction you want to take a given track is a preliminary requirement, or do you give yourself time to let the track sink in and then try something out "on the fly"? I’d say a bit of both. One of us will have a strong idea as to what to do with the track from the beginning, but then with time, the track will go through so many iterations and directions, that often it won’t be immediately recognisable from the original idea, but each step in the process is so valuable to us, as without the previous one, however minor a change or idea it may be to build upon it, it wouldn’t lead to the next step, and we wouldn’t end up at that final destination. 5) What are your future plans? Are there any new remixes or other musical goodies coming our way? We have quite a few tracks on the go at the moment. We have a reimagining of a track called "Hay Fever", which is coming out in August. This is one that is close to my heart as it’s a song by 14 Iced Bears – an indie band from the late 1980s that I actually nearly joined as a drummer when I was 15 – but my parents wouldn’t let me as I was still at school! Anyway, we’re super pleased with how this has turned out, and we actually got Rob from the band to sing a new vocal for us. We are also very chuffed that Jesse Fahnestock (10:40 / Jezebell) has agreed to do a remix. We’re also working with Maya Blandy on another tune and hopefully, then have an album coming out next year on Higher Love. So, lots going on and exciting times! Thank you very much Tim! My pleasure!

Discover the beautiful and thoughtful conversation I had with Caoilfhionn Rose whose new album "Constellation" is out this May! 1) Dear Keelin, thank you so much for joining me here on the Balearic Breakfast blog. Listening to your music feels like experiencing an ongoing discovery. There is always an element inviting the listener to search beyond, even if it's unconscious. We feel this very much when listening to your second album, "Truly", which was very well received by the critics, with the track "Paths" being included in Colleen's first "Balearic Breakfast Vol. 1" compilation. How did you start composing music? Sometimes, artists discover their talent by accident. Was it your case, or did it happen gradually? The process of creating music feels like an ‘ongoing discovery’ to me too, so I’m glad you hear that in the music I make. I could talk about a number of things unfolding which led me to start writing and performing my own music and believing that this was something I could pursue long-term. I have always enjoyed music and am grateful to have had piano lessons with a really lovely, encouraging teacher throughout my childhood and teenage years. After a period of illness, when I was 17, I discovered the healing and therapeutic nature of music. I began writing my own songs on the piano and gradually built up to performing them at open mic nights. I decided to delay going to university for a year and earned a diploma in Music Production and Audio Engineering. This was very inspiring and enabled me to create my own demos of the songs I’d been writing. I also met Matthew Halsall (musician and Gondwana Records label owner) before I went to Newcastle to study. He’d heard one of the little self-produced EPs I’d put on my Bandcamp page and was interested in working on my debut album with me to be released on Gondwana. Matthew’s belief and support were really encouraging and put me on a path to pursue music in a more serious and dedicated way. 2) You have your own "Sound". Of course, your voice, which can't be forgotten by the listener, but also, that free and open-minded approach, the tight and not overwhelming bass, and that kind of "eternity" to it, enhanced, I feel, by the beautiful equilibrium found in the several echos and reverbs used for the recording/mastering of your records. The guitar plays a dominant role in this sonic picture. How do you work with your team (bandmates and sound engineers) while you're in the studio? My approach to making music is quite experimental at times, and I don’t really follow any one process. I self-produced ‘Constellation’ with my husband Rich Williams (who also plays guitar in my band). We worked together at crafting the sound-world of the album and constructed the songs in different ways. Mostly, we employed a collage-type method, starting with the core of a song – some chords, a vocal melody – and gradually pieced it together, building layers on top, working with other musicians adding their parts. Sometimes, we stuck two song ideas together, reworking and reimagining as we went along. We recorded a lot of stuff at home in our shed and also had a lovely studio session at WR Audio in Manchester. In this session we invited bandmates – Alan Taylor on drums and Gavin Barras on bass – to jam out ideas and craft them together some more. The song ‘Rainfall’ came about through improvisation over an ambient sample created by trumpeter and producer Aaron Wood. The new album also features my good friend Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands) on saxophone. His parts were recorded remotely sometime during the lockdown. We sent over a bunch of songs, and Jordan interwove his beautiful melodies over the top. I really enjoy working with other musicians and, when making ‘Constellation’, I really opened myself up to collaborating, sometimes in person, sometimes remotely – sending things back and forth. I find it really exciting to find new ways of working and exploring new sound-worlds. 3) Your new album, "Constellation", will be out in May. Two tracks are already available to listen to on the streaming platforms, and your Bandcamp, "Rainfall" and "Fall into Place", played by our dear Colleen on the 165th episode of Balearic Breakfast. Though you keep your "ethereal" nature, even giving it a wider range, one can feel a slightly more solid approach to sound; realism seems more present. What did you want to convey both musically and spiritually through this new album? Musically, I wanted to veer off into a bit of a new direction from my first two albums, ‘Awaken’ and 'Truly’. I did this by using different instrumentation, singing in different ways, writing about new things, being playful with song structures, and collaborating. The whole album was quite patch-worked together, so I’m not sure whether there was ever an overarching plan or concept. ‘Wandering Mind’ was the song that sparked the idea of the album’s sound-world. It was the first song I was working on where I thought: ‘yes this is where I want to go’. It felt like I’d unlocked a new soundscape and style. Spiritually, I hope the music is felt and understood in whatever way is helpful. The album’s meaning seems to reveal itself to me more and more as time goes on. The songs resonate in different ways at different times. I hope it can do that for other people, slotting into their lives when they need it. 4) While watching your album covers, I was surprised by how much they share a close pictural element (I won't tell our readers which one it is; of course, they'll have to look and find it for themselves, laughs!). How do you choose the path to take when working on your album covers? Can it be that just one song brings up the idea, or is it generally the album as a whole that leads you to propose the final vision? The artist – Daniel Halsall – designed the covers for my albums ‘Truly’ and ‘Constellation’ and the cover of my first album ‘Awaken’ is a photo of me taken by my husband Rich Williams. Daniel Halsall designs a lot of the album artwork for the Gondwana Records label and has a way of connecting to the music and bringing that music to life in visual form. The decision to create and choose album artwork is quite collaborative between me and Gondwana Records. It involves a lot of moodboard making and listening to the record as a whole to highlight themes and imagery. I went to Daniel Halsall’s art exhibition last year and was really inspired by his line drawings and use of composition. Serendipitously, the style seemed to correlate with the constellation theme, and so I asked if he could design something of that ilk, incorporating some imagery from the lyrics of songs from my album. 5) You like to share thoughts on some of your songs on your socials, and one can feel you're a positive person. This contrasts with the more balanced tonalities of your songs, which, at first listen, lead the listener onto a more reflective path. Where does your soul guide you, Keelin? I really like this question! Hmm, I’m quite a deep thinker, or well, I am an over-thinker… I try to be positive but often I am overtaken by worries, both of the future and dwelling over things. When I’m writing songs it’s often done in a sort of self-talk way, advisory and with care. The messages I want to send out are of kindness and warmth, with hope and resilience. My soul guides me to constantly work on myself and to be a good person.

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 179th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud and Twitch TV socials on June 11th 2024. About this show. – Balearic Breakfast is a celebration, a never-ending celebration. It has its cycle, though, and this cycle starts with the request line, which opens on Saturdays when Colleen asks us to submit songs we would love to hear on the show. Some of us are really taking this part of the journey very seriously: taking notes when listening to music, creating playlists where they keep their ideas ready or even making themed-titled requests (Hi Bert!)... The requesting part is, firstly, a personal journey for all of us! Then, when it's "our time to shine", we post the songs we took the time to think about on Colleen's socials. And then starts the second cycle of the never-ending journey: the sharing! Oh boy, how much we love posting, commenting, and sharing music on Colleen's socials! For instance, on the last request post, I requested Men Tensel's "Sweeping in the Sweet Nectar, Watch Out" track, just to see that Victor Olteanu requested Alice Cooper's "Welcome to my Nightmare", the two tracks sharing a close tonality and atmosphere! That's fun to me, and that's how "broad" Balearic Breakfast's requests are! Lastly, comes the show, where we discover with a touch of excitement and anticipation if our proposals made the final cut! And, of course, being with our dear Captain is the Supreme moment we all waited for and thought about when preparing our requests. Today's episode was special because we knew Colleen had just returned from Ibiza, where she celebrated, for the first time, the release of her new "Balearic Breakfast Vol. 3" vinyl compilation last Saturday at The Standard from 6 to 11 pm! After returning from her joyful musical journey, she quickly had to make time to get ready for today's 178th episode! Despite having to finish some of her notes during the show, she nailed it. Her commitment to these two hours with us is truly unmatched, and it is the reason for my dedication to this blog and our admiration for her! As always, let's give our captain the mic before turning our spirits towards… The Lighthouse...: "This week’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud if you would like to listen back. Today’s show starts off very spacey and reflective and then takes twists and turns into acoustic folk, italo, soulful house and more. There were so many great requests this past week and there’s no way I can even get to half of them but fear not as they may make an appearance in the future – sometimes it takes me months ;). A massive and heartfelt thank you to all who have supported my latest Balearic Breakfast Volume 3 comp on Heavenly Recordings. The response has been overwhelming. I hope some of you can make it to the record release party at NT’s Loft in East London this Saturday. It’s a daytime party from 3:30 to 9 pm and joining me are my friend Lee Zee and Zero 7 with a DJ set and its both indoors and outdoors with a great view of Londinium. We will also have vinyl comps and Balearic Breakfast tees with @ardneks artwork for sale (there are also some on the Heavenly Recordings bandcamp)." Listen back to the 179th episode of Balearic Breakfast: THE PLAYLIST (2024) Men Tensel – Sweeping in the Sweet Nectar, Watch Out (2009) Portico Quartet – Isla (2024) Isaac Alva – Valle de la Luna (2021) Boozoo Bajou – Orfeu (Extended Mix) (1977) Ashra – Deep Distance (2024) Lady Blackbird – Purify (1974) Mark Capanni – I Believe in Miracles (1971) Labi Siffre – Summer Is Coming (2024) DJ Pippi & Willie Graff (ft. Santino Surfers) – Island in the Sun (2024) Lou Hayter – Frequency (2018) Qvark – Mi Alzo (2024) Stevie R & Parisinos (ft Ellivia) – Egal (Massimiliano Pagliara Remix) (2008) Suburban (ft. Ten) – Sky High (1992) Was Not Was – Listen Like Thieves (Giant Club Mix) (2024) Modula (ft Gino Soccio) – Che E’ Stato? (Pellegrino Rework) (1997) D'Influence – Hypnotize (Masters At Work Remix) (2024) Quiet Village – Reunion (Edit) (2024) Hardway Bros (ft Sarah Rebecca) – 1979 (Glok Remix) (2024) Ambient Jazz Ensemble – I Am the Black Gold of the Sun THE LIGHTHOUSE... Dear Michael, I'm writing to you once again. Who knows, maybe they'll give you this letter this time around. Maybe it will help you come back from the retreat you have secluded yourself into, far away from my feelings. In any case, even if I don't trust this will ever happen, it is the only thought that helps me to keep breathing here. Oh, you know where I am, don't you? Well, at least you think you know, because, sometimes, I really don't. It's so cloudy in here, always. It's often quite cold, too... Still, I must share with you what hapenned to me yesterday as I was lying on the cloudy and dark sky. I heard a door opening, a door... I was unaware that there were doors on the stairway to heaven... In any case, I heard someone enter my piece of the sky, and, suddenly, just as the door closed itself, a strong wind appeared, swirling, blowing, making me so scared, so uncomfortable, and these voices came to meet me. I started crying, and, on the dark surface of my walls, I saw this strange name appear: Men Tensel. Did you ever hear anything about him? I love his cinematic musical approach, which uses nature's sounds and very "Niemen-like" organs... As I tried to understand what was happening, I saw a spiral staircase appear, and I was thrown into what appeared to be... A Lighthouse... Me, the lost soul, the abandoned one, should I say..., lying here, in a lighthouse... A tower structure containing a beacon light to warn or guide ships at sea... And then, I heard the music, foggy, searching, coming to me in fearful waves and this lost Spanish guitar, reaching out to the darkest of skies... [Note 1] What am I? Do you think you could tell me? Am I something that could guide anyone? Am I anything that could save anyone? Since I wasn't able to save you, I doubt myself so much. Am I a Lighthouse? I should be one... Am I an Island on which you could come and take a needed rest? I should be one [Note 2]. But it seems I am none of these, since I'm not here, within you. I'm there, absolutely lost, in the huge Balearic space that is this cloudy sky, waiting for my sentence to arrive; maybe your light will shine on me then? Although, thinking of it, being a vague idea is a valid option, as Portico Quintet shared in an interview, saying, "One has to start with an idea first and foremost. Then it becomes a process of realising that idea. The only way to get started is to simply begin - the work evolves from that point. I personally don’t think it is the start of a process that is hard, it is seeing the ideas through in a convincing way that conveys meaning." For the time being, all I can see is the moon calmly shining down on me [Note 3]... And I guess, me lost here, in this now... Lighthouse... Well, it only makes sense that I totally surrender to nature's call [Note 4]... Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't let you know that while I was drifting away, I could still hear the music coming from nowhere, like a constant chant, something so light, so unique, like a flying bird over the ocean... I then remembered I already heard that melody a long time ago. Was it with you, my dear... And the Lighthouse kept on flying, its light pulsating, resembling the one on the 1976 "New age of Earth" album cover [Note 5]... and I felt the wind engulfing its windy hands on my body, right under my transparent shroud, right at the core of my most intimate self-being... And it felt good, so good. I was flying calmly, seeing oceans and rivers, letting myself go; it happens so scarcely since I'm always crying out to you... I heard that Voice again; the wind kept on hiding it from me though, but the melody came back so strong then; I think I cried when I heard the lyrics and these words; they never seem to tell the truth... This song [Note 6], it's so much me, it’s so much you, tell me, where are you, why can't I be purified by your presence, where should I look... Where...? But you know, Michael, I do Believe in Miracles [Note 7], I'm still youthful at heart, I'm still young inside. I found myself in the lyrics of that song, and I kept on flying above the ocean, embraced in a beautiful, positive moment... The Lighthouse even seemed to glow; I can't clearly remember as it may have been a dream, you know? But this moment really felt like my summer was coming [Note 8], like you were here, near, out from your captioned cell, close to entering my heaven, coming back to me. Isn't this a beautiful way of living? I hope one day you'll experience that, my dear. I'm here for you to experience that... As the pumping rhythm kept on playing, I knew the change in the weather was here to stay for a tiny fraction of my depression; I took it all the way up to my heart, you know? It was like an island in the sun [Note 9], and I was experiencing our past, our joys, our bodies in the sun making love endlessly, and you telling me how much you love me... Me tripping on your Frequency [Note 10]; do you remember that? Feeling all of that was unbelievable to me; the transformation from the darkest depths to the brightest light felt surreal... Of course, I was always slightly worried, just a tiny touch, but the whole vibe felt so good... I felt so funky, just like on that Qvark track we used to dance on [Note 11]; it almost made me laugh from pleasure, like, for real, I didn't feel that good for ages! The beat went on seamlessly. I wish I could have known better what was happening there [Note 12], but I can't remember... The vibe was too strong for me... And you, you my dear, you were there with me, despite it all... Sky High [Note 13], do you remember that one? We used to share so many tunes together; we didn't care about anything else [Note 14] but only about the music... and you often talked to me about that radio DJ... Colleen... she was playing these timeless classics... [Note 15] I remember you were so in love with her that I was worried for my own safety! I wonder what she has become since the last time I heard about her... If only I knew... Maybe I should try to reach out to her somehow, someday... She could at least ease down some of my fears... Anyway, I'm so sorry, this letter is quite long, but you know, maybe this strange memory of mine could reach you, touch you; I'm so much trying to help you out... You really seem to Hypnotize me [Note 16], and I can't let go of you; I'm all yours... I wait so much for our Reunion [Note 17]; our perfect embrace is all I live for... You and I really should meet soon... just like in 1979 [Note 18]... As I'm writing these last few words to you, I vaguely remember that, at some point, I lost consciousness... And I woke up here, lost again, lost but found, lost but hopeful that I'll get back to you... Hopeful because if you're only playing the fool, I am the black gold of the sun [Note 19]... And believe me, I'll find you... Your Soul, Michael... Footnotes: {Preliminary note} Michael... is a lost Human Soul. She has been voluntarly abandoned by her human mate, and former lover, who decided he could not keep on living with being influenced by her constant highs and lows. Locked by the Heavens and waiting for her sentence, her journey takes a leap forward as she is thrown into the lighthouse... This text is a celebration of the Human Soul, and while listening to Colleen's show, I was able to write this short story where every song represents a part of Michael's tortuous but positive feelings... Original picture by Larisa Lofitskaya. [Note 1] French guitarist, composer, and nature lover Men Tensel's EP, The Lighthouse, Parts 1 to 3, Enter the Void, was inspired by foggy nights alone in Scotland. The Dunnet Head Lighthouse, perched upon the northernmost point of the Scottish mainland, was the inspiration. But the music has a wide point of reference, as Tensel studied classical guitar in Paris, performed jazz and world music in the Caribbean, and flamenco in Seville. – Speaking of his EP, Men Tensel shared with me, "In the 3rd track of this immersive story [Sweeping in the Sweet Nectar, Watch Out], I mixed field recordings (the sea and the wind but also remixed callings of birds and sea creatures, and many other sounds) with percussions and the bass guitar, to create an uncomfortable and eerie atmosphere: the lightkeeper realises that something very strange is going on that night… Then I play the classical and flamenco guitar in a sweet way to fill you with mixed emotions. Like in a short story by Edgar Allan Poe (I hope)!" [Note 2] When they debuted in 2007, Portico Quartet's album Knee Deep in the North Sea was nominated for a Mercury Prize. And this was their follow-up, also released on Peter Gabriel's Real World label. They're now on Gondwana Records. 'Isla' was produced by studio veteran John Leckie. His resume includes many people: Pink Floyd, Stone Roses, XTC, Paul McCartney. [Note 3] Mexican artist, Isaac Alva performed at the "Triangulos de Luz y Espacios de Sombra, which is Triangles of Light and Spaces of Shadow" event in the early 1990s. I think he performed that song 'Valle de la Luna', which was never actually released. The event took place in Mexico in the early 1990s and welcomed in the spring, featuring a lot of kind of electronic, proggy, new age kind of musicians. And that scene was fostered at a market called El Chapo, a Saturday market where, in the 1980s, rock ephemera like records, tapes, magazines, and t-shirts, were sold, but also private releases of musicians' own music were traded amongst different people. And some of these songs are featured on this great new double album. [Note 4] The German downtempo Dubtronica duo Boozoo Bajou, Florian Seberth and Peter Heider who have been around for about 25 years. Orfeu (Extended Mix) was featured on their fifth album, Finistère, which was released last year. [Note 5] From Ashra's third album, which was called New Age of Earth, 'Deep Distance' was released in 1977. And that rose out of the ashes of Ashra Temple. Manuel Gottsching went solo, and instead of releasing music under his own name right away, went under the Ashra moniker. The German guitarist and electronic composer also released E2E4 just a few years later after that. Sadly, he passed away in December 2022. But I was lucky to do a Classic Album Sundays with him on E2E4. [Note 6] Lady Blackbird has a new EP out called Slang Spirituals. Five songs she and her band recorded when she went back to LA in the midst of her tour. They laid down some songs at the studio East West, where the Beach Boys cut Pet Sounds. 'Purify' has a real Michael Kiwanuka vibe. And I was thinking that when I was listening to it this morning. And I found out that it was mixed by Ken Takahashi, who also engineers and mixes for Michael Kiwanuka because he actually works with the producer Inflow! [Note 7] Mark Capanni with 'I Believe in Miracles'. He actually co-wrote that song with the producer Bobby Taylor, who produced the song for Detroit's The Jackson Singers. They released their single in 1973, and it was somewhat of a hit. Then Mark Capanni recorded his own version that year, but released his own version a year later in 1974. The record has been recently reissued. [Note 8] Labi Siffre is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. 'Summer Is Coming' is taken from his second album, The Singer and the Song, which was released in 1971. Interestingly, Lady Blackbird played a cut, but she also covered It Must Be Love, which was a song penned and performed by Labi Sifre. Madness later covered it and made it into a hit in the early 1980s. [Note 9] DJ Pippi, a legend in Ibiza, and a resident of Pacha, originally from Italy and Willie Graff, who was born to American parents in Ibiza. Their new album, Universal Language, from which 'Island in the Sun' is taken, is out now on Music for Dreams. This is a follow-up to the Follow Your Dreams LP. I had them up on my show. I guess it was last year. On this one, they have a lot of guest musicians, some from the Music for Dreams camp. [Note 10] DJ, singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and producer Lou Hayter with the song 'Frequency'. It's a song about ESP, extrasensory perception, and it's the new single from her forthcoming album that's coming out on Greco-Roman. And it's a follow-up to her 2021 LP, Private Sunshine, released on Skint. She was also in the new Young Pony Club as well, and she's a great person, very knowledgeable about music. [Note 11] Qvark with 'Mi Alzo', on the Italian label Early Sound Recordings. They also released Pellegrino and Zodiaco stuff. Qvark was a group of musicians from Milano who were jamming in a basement in the early 1980s, and they put out one EP in 1983. The demo recordings was released by the Italian label much later, in 2018. They found the demos and kind of cleaned them all up, and Early Sound Recordings did a great job on that. [Note 12] Stevie R & Parisinos featuring the Swiss singer-songwriter Ellivia with 'Egal (Massimiliano Pagliara Remix)' sung in German, exploring the themes of detachment and yearning, reflecting upon the complex ebb and flow of human relationships. The remix is by the Italian-born and Berlin-based DJ and producer Massimiliano Pagliara. [Note 13] 'Sky High' came out on Neophyte Records in 2008. Suburban is DJ Fencer and Suni, two Japanese artists. [Note 14] Classic Danny Tenaglia remix (listen to the original version here), which is actually a cover of Australian rock band INXS's title song and fourth and final single from their 5th studio album. The song actually deals with the idea that since the media haven't been great watchdogs, it is important that there are people who champion the truth... [Note 15] 'Modula (ft Gino Soccio) – Che E’ Stato?' came out on RKO Recordings. It's a Neapolitan interpretation of Gino Soccio's cult cut, Who Dunnit. The remix is from Pellegrino. [Note 16] Masters at Work remix of the opening cut to D'Influence's 1997 LP London. I just loved them so much in the 1990s. And they continue through to the early 90s. To see a live performance of the original song, click here. [Note 17] Quiet Village is the duo of Joel Martin and Matt Edwards, who also goes under the moniker Radio Slave. They put out an album in 2008, called Silent Movie. And then things went silent. For some reason, they were unable to use their name. They couldn't record or do remixes under that name. But they are back. They are having a reunion, which is why their new song is called 'Reunion'. And it's their first single on their new record label, The Quiet Village (more info here). [Note 18] A cover of the '1979' Smashing Pumpkins song by Hardway Brothers featuring Sarah Rebecca. Speaking about the song, Billy Corgan said, "Sometimes, when I write a song, I see a picture in my head. For some reason, it's of the obscure memory I have. The memory that goes with this song is from when I was around 18 years old. I was driving down a road near home on a rainy night, and I was waiting at a traffic light. The song emotionally connotes a feeling of waiting for something to happen, and not being quite there yet, but it's just around the corner". [Note 19] Under the Ambient Jazz Ensemble moniker is Colin Baldry, already featured during Balearic Breakfast. Often described as ‘storytelling', Ambient Jazz Ensemble's productions are "the painting of a scene not unlike the role of a film score". Taken from his latest studio album 'Spirit Dance', 'I am the Black Gold of the Sun' is more than just a cover; it is a reimagination: 'Lyrically it harnesses the freedom of being alive, the essence of the human spirit & the beauty of the natural world. My version attempts to reflect the lyrics’ wonder of humanity & nature, & as such I’ve attempted a large scale arrangement & a faster tempo to make it as celebratory as possible.'

On 5th May 2024, while travelling through Spain, Colleen stopped at the Curtis Audio cafe, cocktail bar & record store for a special show. About this show. – We're so excited to share a new episode of Curtis Radio curated by legendary DJ and producer Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy. Her exciting and successful musical journey spans 4 decades, from her adolescence working in record stores and radio stations in her hometown, to her connection and friendship with the 'godfather of Disco music' David Mancuso and his seminal parties. From the Loft, to current projects Balearic Breakfast, Classic Album Sundays, Love Dancin' Sound System, among many others, her resume is too long and rich to list here. We can simply say that for a humble Barcelona audio bar that cares about quality sound and music, having Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy select 10 songs she likes to be featured on our radio show is an important event and an honor. We share that with our audience. Colleen doesn't just play records. She tells the stories behind the music. In her own words… “I am a music lover, music curator and music educator. It's about trying to transcend everyday life through music. When people say that Balearic Breakfast helped them get through the pandemic, I think it's because music has a healing quality. When people are on the dancefloor, I want them to forget about their daily lives. And the same goes for Classic Album Sundays, when people are completely immersed listening to an album, it takes them to another place. Those experiences have been very important to me. The search is endless and that is what motivates me. I never set out to do any of this intentionally; It just happened because of my passion. One thing led to another which fed another which fed another. I will never stop discovering music. “You always have to be looking forward, expanding your horizons.” So let's do just that, sit back, relax, turn up the volume and fully expand our musical horizons with these 10 beautiful songs lovingly curated by Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy. Press play and enjoy. Listen back to the 43rd episode of the Curtis Radio Show: TRACKLIST (2023) The Circling Sun – Spirits (Part 2) (2011) Jonathan Wilson – Desert Raven (2023) Jacob Gurevitsch – Elevation in MInor (Cosmodelica Remix) (2022) Derya Yildrim & Grup Simsek – Bal (1976) Pacific Express – Sky Ride 2 (1973) Madeline Bell – That's what it's all about (2023) Parbleu – Elios (2021) Flamingo Pier – Cosmic Sunset (2021) Sun Palace – Rude Movments (François K Sats Dub Extended) (1984) Robert Sandrini – Occhi Su Di Me CURTIS RADIO PRESENTATION Let's celebrate. Here, from the Curtis Radio sound system. Your monthly space where we propose music from the best selectors, interviews with quality content, Music with soul. No robots or artificial intelligence here. Through a selection of ten themes, today we are accompanied by a defender of the art of listening. Colleen brings together everything you can dream of in a musical prescriber. Writer, radio host, collector, DJ and producer. Basically, we could define her as a central figure in the contemporary musical scene, with a life dedicated to sharing and spreading. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts. At 14, she was already in charge of her own radio show, marking the beginning of a career that would lead her to be one of the most respected voices in the waves. In 1986, she moved to New York to study sound and radio at the School of Cinema. During her stay, she would become the first female director of one of the most important university radio stations in the United States. There, she would be a pioneer in the diffusion of the emerging house music style, attracting the genre's main figures. The conduction of radio shows, along with her experience working in the main record store in Massachusetts, made her a part of an eclectic musical fanbase that would promote her beginnings as a DJ. The turning point in her career would come when she attended the legendary David Mancuso parties at The Loft back in the 1990s. For those of you who are not familiar with David Mancuso, he is something like the "godfather of disco music". Mancuso's influence led her to appreciate music from a completely new perspective and to adopt a unique philosophy, the dance floor, as a community experience. Soon, a friendship would be forged where Mancuso would entrust her with the task of being the hostess of his mythical parties. In the 2000s, she founded the record label Beaches Brew, releasing a variety of recordings that covered genres from dub to rock. Collecting vinyls, putting records on, telling stories and producing, which would lead her to collaborate with artists like the Irish singer Roisin Murphy, others like Chaka Khan or Stevie Wonder himself, leaving her mark with innovative and eclectic remixes. Her influence transcends and goes beyond, creating the classic album Sundays concept in the Royal Albert Hall, a movement that proclaims the art of listening to albums in full with the audience. To this day, Colleen continues to express herself through her show Balearic Breakfast, which began on Gilles Peterson's radio as a musical lighthouse and transcended to a series of vinyl compilations. Colleen Murphy merges the desire to entertain with the need to heal and educate through music, inspiring with new sounds and perspectives. Today, through Diez Temas, she educates us again with a very special selection for this new episode of Corte y Radio. Thank you for being here with us. Colleen Cosmo Murphy, friends. COLLEEN PRESENTATION Greetings, this is Colleen Cosmo Murphy and right now I am in Andalucía. Actually, I'm in Zahora and I've had a lovely holiday, just about to return home and back to reality, but just love this part of Spain so much. We've been coming here for over 20 years now and I'm feeling pretty Balearic, even though we're on the wrong coast. Of course, we're on the West Coast. Those are Spanish birds that you can hear in the background. I'm delighted to be here on Corte y Radio with 10 selections that give an idea of the overall arc of my weekly Balearic Breakfast radio show, which started on Worldwide FM and I now host on Mixcloud. I'm on Mixcloud Live every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon British summertime. You can join in the live chat. And, yeah, it's a great community of people. The show's been going on for just over three years now. I guess coming up on four years. It was started during the pandemic. And luckily and quite gratefully, I also have a Balearic Breakfast compilation series on Heavenly Recordings. And volume three is coming out very soon. I believe it's at the end of May or early June. And I'm also doing a special record release party in Ibiza on the 8th of June at The Standard, if you want to come along and join me. Today's selection, as I said, represents the arc of Balearic Breakfast. And there's some New Zealand spiritual jazz, some contemporary California singer-songwriter material just kind of hearkening back to the Laurel Canyon days, but more modern. There's a remix of mine, a Cosmodélica remix of mine, of Jacob Gurevich, who is a Danish guitarist who really specializes in Spanish-style guitar. It's a song called Elevation in Minor that I remixed for him. And that can be found on the upcoming compilation, Balearic Breakfast, volume three. You can still hear the Spanish birds here. There's also some Turkish folk dance music, some 70s South African jazz rock, some classic American soul, some Neapolitan jazz funk. I just love what's coming out of Napoli at the moment. Some New Zealand live cosmic disco. Yes, a couple of New Zealand tracks because we went to New Zealand for the first time this year and had a great time. I also have a tribute to two of my mentors, Francois K. Francois Kvorkian, that is. He did a great remix of a song that was played a lot by David Mancuso, David Mancuso of The Loft in New York. They're both supporters, friends, mentors, and just people who I admire and have had very intense relationships with in a very positive way. And I also leave with one little song that's a little bit of a surprise, so I hope you enjoy. Thanks to Curtis Radio for having me here, and thanks to all of you for listening.

Matt Wolfe is one of the core listeners of Colleen's Balearic Breakfast show. I am so pleased to welcome someone that became a friend! Let's meet Matt! 1) Dear Matt, I am truly humbled to have you on the blog, as you are one of the show's "core listeners"! Going back, way back to Balearic Breakfast's first shows, did you feel that "irresistible attraction" to the show? What impact did the show have on your life back then? Hi Artur! 🌅 Thank you so much for your support, your kind patience and for having me! 🫶🏻✌🏻 I was so happy this show came along… Colleen's amazing soundtrack and beautiful selections got me back in touch with my musical roots again. That's really a priceless gift! 2) I have been thinking about it lately, but don't you think that the tragic event of "The Disco Demolition Night" wasn't, in a sense, a good thing as it permitted a new musical approach in the 80s, ultimately leading to "Nu-Disco" with tracks like Findlay Brown's Stallion's Suite thus assuring Disco's Legacy? It was a very sad and shocking event, indeed! Of course, I was too young to remember anything from it. But I believe what happened then has led us to where we are now and the huge Disco resurrection that has taken place over the last four centuries… I believe Disco is bigger than ever with the new generation and with events such as Glitter Box nights. Disco is firmly back on the map. I think Nu-Disco definitely has a firm place on the map, too! 3) Talking about music, tell me more about your 80's! Please share with us some of your beloved songs from that era! For me, everything started back in 86/87. I started to feel the love and energy of the electronic/synth-sounding pop songs like Donna Summer's Dinner with Gershwin and Petshop Boys' Domino Dancin and Heart. These songs led me to dance Music and, of course, house music! 4) As a DJ, how do you approach music when blending tracks together? What is your goal when sharing music with people? I like to play the full song and blend in towards the end… I like people to hear the full 12-inch of the mix as I believe you can fully appreciate it this way! 5) With the vinyl resurgence in recent years, we saw a lot of new editions coming out, and lately, sadly, prices have gone up. How do you buy records, and most importantly, being a DJ, how do you listen to music? Lockdown made me reconnect with my vinyl collection again…. I started purchasing more records, and this led me to do a few live sessions on Instagram! As far as buying goes, Discogs can be expensive, but I love a good charity shop hunt, too. I’m now very selective about what I purchase and only buy what I truly need. I also use a few sites to download songs (Traxsource, beat port, etc.) and love a bit of DAB radio, where I listen to Jazz FM quite a bit! Thank you so much, Matt! See you soon, Artur! ✨✨

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 178th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud and Twitch TV socials on June 4th 2024. About this show. – On Saturday, June 1st 2024, a few hours before her last Balearic Brunch show on NTS, Colleen posted our beloved "request line" on her Instagram and Facebook accounts, sharing "Good morning! After 3 weeks of pre records this coming Tuesday’s Balearic Breakfast is all about your song requests and some of the tunes I have recently picked up. What would you like to hear on the show this week? I look forward to your requests and please join me for the live stream and chat from 10am to 12pm BST on my Mixcloud Live." Boy, hapiness here, hapiness there, hapiness everywhere, laughs! The Balearic Breakfast Family joined together as one, and the requests were off the hook! Showtime arrived, and boy, emotions here, emotions there, emotions everywhere... Each member of the family had at least one reason to be Happy (we were celebrating Bradley Circle's Birthday!), but we all agreed on one point: today's show was one of the finest Colleen ever did. As far as the title of this post goes, it made perfect sense to me, for many reasons that I will explain in the Listening experience, to refer to that situation where, whatever you do in your life, you're somehow in the position of a follower, serving some kind of purpose you don't always understand (and of course, referring here to the profound cover made by Trevor Horn & Lady Blackbird of Grace Jones’ song)... But before we dive into that philosophical part, let's give the mic to Colleen: "This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud for your listening back pleasure. Today’s show features some new and old records I have recently picked up, some new promos and as always, your requests. It was great hosting the show live and thanks to all who joined me on the Mixcloud Live and Twitch TV chat." Listen back to the 178th episode of Balearic Breakfast: PLAYLIST (2023) Yussef Dayes – Tioga Pass (2024) Torn Sail – Consider Your Position (1981) Leon Ware – Rockin You Eternally (1972) Earth Wind & Fire – I'd Rather Have You (2023) Trevor Horn (ft. Lady Blackbird) – Slave to the Rhythm (1990) Gal Costa – Brilho de Beleza (1972) Milton Nascimento – Tudo O Que Vocé Podia Ser (1972) Astrud Gilberto – Take It Easy My Brother Charlie (2024) Paul Weller – Nothing (1980) Rodney Franklin – Felix Leo (1981) Pieces of a Dream – Warm Weather (2024) Shunt Voltage – Generator (2024) Residentes Balearicos – Balearic for President (Puerto Montt City White Sand Mix) (1982) Satin & Green – Spectacular (NOL) Esther Phillips – I'll Be Your Pleasure (Extended Funtown Records Edit) (1976) Johnny Guitar Watson – I Need It (2023) Exo Fender – Music in My Mind (Justin Van Der Volgen Edit) (2024) Luminodisco – Solero (2000) Blaze (ft. Chris Herbert) – Home Is Where the Heart Is THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE It is excruciatingly painful sometimes to find the right words, especially when you're experiencing Loss. We're all losing. Always. We're losing things, opportunities, and more profoundly, we lose people. But the thing we cannot bear to lose, that one thing that's so important, is losing an 'aura'. Yes, an 'aura' can be lost. It can be taken away. To me, the 'aura' is the supreme step of a 'love' relationship. Think of it: we constantly create bonds with people; we have friends, colleagues, mentors, no matter the name, the reality behind it remains the same. There is 'love' there. But not always the same kind of 'love' and this is where 'aura' comes into play. For instance, let's say you fall in 'love' with someone. Of course, you love that person for what she is, but did it ever occur to you that, somehow, there is something more in that relationship and that you also love what that person reflects about yourself? Or, let's take another example: you work with someone for a long time, so it's a professional relationship, yet you create a bond with that person, and you 'love' her for the things she brings to you and that she might even not be aware of, but somehow you receive these 'things'. I think you got it by now that 'love' is not only the direct relationship but also everything that goes around it consciously or unconsciously, and this is the 'aura' part of love, something intangible, not limited to memories, I would say something of a soul... And when someone dies, somehow, you lose something of that 'aura' that was linked to the relationship, but it’s not always dying totally though… And as I said, it can be taken away... I'm thinking here about what Colleen is going through. Not only did she lose her best friend, her mentor, but also, a part of his 'aura' that was reflected through the New York Loft Parties, and that's just painful to a point where words do not have their say... I felt I needed to share this here as the very first minutes of today's show had a profound vibration climaxing in Trevor Horn and Lady Blackbird's rendition of "Slave to the Rhythm." Let's go back to the music and see how much today's show is about situations where all you can do is try not to let destiny swallow you whole into an unknown nothingness... Lost at sea, you can't see anything in front of you, and still, the wind blows, leading you somewhere. You feel the boat drifting; the undertow is there, leading you against your will... Today's show is an adventure, and Tioga Pass, with its worried feel, perfectly represents the destiny that drives us each day (speaking about the song, Yussef Dayes said: 'A family trip in the heart of Yosemite National Park, Tioga Pass was one of the views that remained clear in my mind. Rocco’s bassline and Charlie Stacey's synth instantly take me back to that moment. This is an ode to that time I guess, and to my mother who would bring us to these beautiful locations. We worked with the incredible Chineke! Orchestra for strings and the song felt complete'). This somehow lost feeling, with its twists and turns will stay present in the songs to come. Listen carefully to Torn Sail's Consider Your Position. We also have these 'currents' appearing in this song; although it has a beautiful open soundstage, it still contains these sonic elements that indicate that anything can happen, at any moment. We're expecting them to come, and they do; they're in the details, so listen closely (to read the interview I did with Delia Recordings click here)... As always, Colleen knows what she is doing, and she beautifully keeps on building the atmosphere with Rockin' You Eternally, which starts in a darker tone before slowly evolving, we still have the same structure here, a very open soundstage and that lightly worried spirit somewhere... Keeping the rhythm steady, in a perfect beat, Colleen then plays the loving plea that is I'd rather have you, which still holds the same "scenery" within itself, perfectly fitting into the songs played beforehand, ending this set with the powerful and desperate Slave to the rhythm (click here & here to read about Grace Jones' 1985 album). Listening to the lyrics, I asked myself, what are we in this life if nothing more than just puppets trying their best not to disappear? The tears came down. I wasn't prepared for them. Of course, I cried for personal reasons, but I knew these tears were also dedicated to Colleen... Your pain is ours... I knew by then I just found today's post title and the Wow moment of today's 177th episode... As the show went on, the feeling stayed and got bigger. I slowly felt better talking to other members of the Family on the chat and was very surprised to hear the absolutely modern-sounding Brilho de Beleza by Gal Costa! Balearic Breakfast is that moment where anything can happen, and you can share your feelings and your sorrows with friends on the chat. That's so heartwarming. Each one of us had its hard times lately; some of us lost close friends, and others experienced hearing problems but being able to share our thoughts on the chat helps the mood! Colleen kept on playing songs that resonated with us, such as the poignant Tudo O Que Vocé Podia Ser (a very interesting song – 'Everything You Could Be' in English – dealing with choices in the face of adversity and how, even when remaining silent, one can refuse to obey and stay rebellious...). When I heard Take It Easy My Brother Charlie, I understood that life was a vibe, a rhythm that was leading you, and that you had no choice but to dance along, even when crying, surrendering to the beat... I must add here that the album Now, from which this song is taken, released in 1972, is one every music lover (and Sound aficionado) should have in his record collection. Mind you: Astrud took charge of the production herself, with Eumar Deodato arranging all the songs. The impressive line-up on Now includes Deodato on acoustic guitar, Airto Moreira on percussions, label vice-president and production mastermind Patrick Adams on bass (alongside Bob Cranshaw and Ron Carter), the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet and Jazzberry Patch band's Mike Longo on keyboards, including the incredible Billy Cobham on drums! This peculiar moment of the show was absolutely interesting because I felt the deep meaning of the song without listening to the lyrics (and while writing this, I think about our Dear David Mancuso, for obvious reasons), which, sung both in English and in Portuguese, use the metaphor of the rose to convey a very Balearic Message... (the original version is by Brazilian musician, composer and singer Jorge Ben Jor). As Nothing' started, I was once again struck by the musical unity Colleen proposed. The video clip is quite interesting as it unveils some of the messages found in the song's lyrics and, after all, nothingness is at the centre of today's show, isn't it?... I would like to mention also that the end of the video clip perfectly represents the emotional state we all feel when losing someone... (for the Paul Weller Fans out there, check out the Paul Weller Fan Podcast where former Radio Broadcaster Dan Jennings interviews Paul about his latest studio album 66!) The next two songs (Felix Leo & Warm Weather), closing the first hour of today's show, are quite interesting: while they also have a worried and questioning nature, they both feel like an invitation to dance, perfectly reflecting the title of today's post! As always, for the second hour of the show, Colleen takes us on her private dancefloor! And even if the first hour was deeper than usual, that second half of the show really take us down. The first mini mix Colleen proposes consists of Shunt Voltage's Generator / Residentes Balearicos' Balearic for President (Puerto Montt City White Sand Mix) and Satin & Green's Spectacular! Keeping the rhythm steady, we're then drawn into the groove with Esther Phillips' I'll Be Your Pleasure / Johnny Guitar Watson's I Need It / Exo Fender's Music in My Mind (Justin Van Der Volgen Edit); this crazy dancing moment ending with Luminodisco's Solero! Closing the show with Blaze's (ft. Chris Herbert) Home Is Where the Heart Is, Colleen proved here, once again, how much she embodies the Love Saves The Day "Moto" and how much, the Balearic Breakfast Family mean to her... SLAVE TO THE RHYTHM A short story by The Lioncub A new day was ending. Slowly, above the London houses, the sun gently prepared the indirect end of its journey... Trying to write a few last words on the blog post dedicated to Balearic Breakfast's 177th episode, I was exhausted. Everything was almost ready; I could at least publish a temporary version, which, as usual, I would finish in the coming days... – Once again, nothing was planned; life had a master plan. And it brings endless tears of joy to my eyes… I am living for moments like these, where destiny creates Perfection for you, for me and for the entire Balearic Breakfast family. Yes, nothing was planned, nor the title, nor the structure, nor… – – Artur? – Yes, lion cub? – I'm going to see if Colleen is upstairs! – Ok, big guy, but don’t bother her if you see she’s working! – You know I would never do that! The lion cub headed towards the stairs. I looked at the almost final result of my work when suddenly, I saw… – the image. – Everything was there in front of my eyes; the perfect union was being created once again, and I didn't see anything coming?! How was that possible?! Was life playing another game on me… Petrified with fear, I instinctively understood what was happening. Colleen! Everything but not that! I dropped my keyboard and ran through the living room, hoping to arrive... The lion cub clumsily climbed the steps leading upstairs and was surprised by the crystal-clear silence surrounding the record room... Colleen? ... Colleen?! ... Are You here? ... An icy cold seized the four-legged spirit. God, it's so cold in here! ... It's unbelievable... he said to himself... Suddenly, he saw her and rushed to her feet... Colleen! I am so happy! How are you… ? ... Something ... Something ... He felt ... A shiver of horror ran through his body as he looked up. She stood there. Frozen. Colleen? ... Do you hear me?... Colleen?! repeated the lion cub with tears in his eyes... He felt. He understood. The sadness of the record room suddenly crushed him. He sensed her tears, heard her cries, witnessed a hand reaching out to a vacant sky, and imagined her dignity trapped in the unyielding stone of the rejected moment. Colleen?! Not you! Not now! I refuse to believe it! Come back to me! Can you hear me?! Come back to us! Come back to Your Family! Don't cry, I beg you; don't let yourself be carried away by their smallness! On time... As I gazed at the static image, I realized the inevitable terror unfolding. Holding the lion cub close, I attempted to calm him: – Calm down, calm down dear fluffy thing!! We'll find a solution, we'll bring her back! – No! Howled the lion cub, it's too late! It’s over! I’ve been away for too long! It's my fault! – No, dear Lion cub! No, it's not your fault! Wait... Wait wait wait wait wait. Look! Maybe it’s just… – An Armour?! A freaking and hideous armour?!! declared the bewildered lion cub... A damn armour representing her sadness?!! Tearing himself away from my embrace, the lion cub fiercely struck the hard stone. Come back! Come back, Come back Colleen!! Without you everything is useless! You are my friend, you can't abandon me! You can't leave Us all alone! I know you're in there!! You are not a slave to the rhythm, you are the rhythm itself! You are life! One shot, then two more, like in an endless chain, the lion cub kept on hitting the stone with his forehead... Do you hear me?! You are a part of my aura! I am nothing without you! Colleen! Listen to me!! We're all here for you, we're waiting!! We need you!! With each blow, in the distance, friendly faces were appearing... dozens, hundreds, finally thousands... Unexpectedly, the stone collapsed. As the lion cub soared into a splendid Milky Way, I shouted in terror: "Lion cub!! Nooooo!!!" Plummeting endlessly, convinced his end was near, the lion cub shut his eyes and prayed fervently. ... Suddenly, a gentle voice rescued him... "And remember... Just be Balearic..." – Colleen?!! Colleen?!! Is it you? Is it really really you?!! shouted the lost four-legged spirit... – Yes, my dear Fluffy one, it’s definitely me! – Oh Colleen!!! I'm so happy to see you!! I wanted to welcome you and tell you that David is with us! Love Saves the Day!! The lion cub fell into Colleen's arms and burst into a continuous, unending cry... Slowly returning to their beloved musical path, Colleen was welcomed by all those who knew that love saves the day... As she went from hug to hug, Colleen stopped at the sound of a pigeon cooing there in a very Balearic manner... – You didn't forget me at least, did you...? – Oh Rick! Don't start! While everyone burst into laughter, somewhere, a phrase resonated in their eternity... And remember... Just be Balearic...

An electronic project based in the North West of England UK, Shunt Voltage is nothing short of a musical electrifying band! I met one of its members for a great interview! 1) Hello Jamie! How is the current going lately? (laughs!) Thank you so much for joining me on the Balearic Breakfast blog! Colleen featured Shunt Voltage's music several times during Balearic Breakfast, and we all dig it a lot! By the way, are you into electronics? (laughs!) Hi Artur, the current is flowing very well thanks, and thank you for inviting us on. Yes! it’s actually Damian who knows all about circuit boards and capacitors etc. It's great for us because he’s really good with the gear we use. 2) On Facebook I read that quote from your latest musical effort: "Thanks to Andrew Weatherall for bringing us together". How did you guys actually meet, and what led you to create music under the "Shunt Voltage" moniker? I had worked with Damian for many years on previous projects that he had been involved with, and so we just decided to start our own project. Initially, there were another two guys involved and SV started life a little more organic sounding. When they left, it kind of forced us to approach things differently and we became more electronic-based. We had a rehearsal room (the Bunker) where our mates, who we’d known for years and with whom we used to hang out, played music and did photography/art and so Karl started to look after the projections when we played live. We wanted a name that kind of reflected what we were doing and so, with Damian's knowledge of electronics, he suggested a few names and we both instantly agreed: 'Shunt Voltage' sounded right… I think he then explained to me what it meant which wasn’t quite as exciting, but it still sounded right! The Andrew Weatherall nod is a reference to the sonic ecosystem that in a roundabout way enabled us to hook up with Duncan Gray and John Paynter/Ben Lewis for the remixes on our 12" release. The same musical ecosystem was also a catalyst for a previous release 'Scapeism' on Duncan Gray's Tici Taci label which was remixed by Sons Of Slough (Duncan Gray & Ian Weatherall). 3) That's quite impressive indeed! And it leads us to the song played by Colleen on the 173rd episode of Balearic Breakfast, 'To What Degree (A Space Age Freak Out)' which, in its essence, is quite close to some tracks played at the Loft (I'm thinking about "Torch Song's "Prepare to Energize" here), with that bumping spacey feeling to it. How was that tune born and how did you guys collaborate with ASAFO on that one? The SV version came about like most of our tracks, just experimenting with ideas and jamming things out. We like using vocals but not too much, we try to avoid being too song like (i.e verse chorus and so on). I think minimal lyrics and repetition are good enough hook lines in themselves. Our manager, Paul (Beautiful Burnouts), was the catalyst behind the remixes. He’s put on a number of gigs that John Paynter and SV have appeared on the same bill, and so we’ve got to know John and become friends. We submitted a couple of tracks and a remix for John's “Shelter Me” projects, so it made complete sense to ask him alongside Ben Lewis to do a mix, they did a great job with it, and gave it a bit more of a club vibe. We were also really pleased with the Duncan Gray remix of 'Cowboys', which was a bit more industrial electro-funk style! So all in all we're proud of our first vinyl release! 4) I went down memory lane and listened back to the 120th Balearic Breakfast episode where another track of yours was featured, "Generator", another very electrical name indeed, laughs! It's also a very interesting track because it has some beautiful stereo effects, quite frighteningly realistic, I must say, and also a beautiful soundstage, which helps the listener lose himself in the Sound. How do you work on a track? Do you start with a rhythm or a beat, or do you go another way around while creating? Yes, we have a few running electric themes. Our first release on Bandcamp was titled "Electro Circus”, but this was actually a nod and a wink to the infamous 70’s punk night in Manchester the Electric Circus, where many great bands played like Buzzcocks, Talking Heads and Fall etc. Back to the question… Generator started life very differently to how it ended up. It was based around a Can-type groove on bass guitar and drums mixed with some industrial-type sounds, it was an unusual blend of ideas which is what we still try to do now. Eventually, things were replaced by sequencers and drum machines. However we retained the industrial aspect of it to keep the original spirit of the song and, finally, to finish off, the vocal idea was developed. We generally process all our vocals one way or another to make them a bit more interesting. 5) You're quite busy lately, as I saw you also had a few dates this year leading you to the Social in London! Congratulations! With all of that going on, what's next for Shunt Voltage? Any chance an album could be in the making? We self-released our first vinyl 12’ this year. Hopefully, if we sell all the copies we can fund another release at some point later this year. We also have a single called “Resistor” (keeping the theme going, ha!) being digitally released through Paisley Dark alongside remixes from Adult DVD, Mindbender, Cosmikuro and A Space Age Freak Out. Other than that I guess our future plans are to carry on doing everything we’ve been doing, more gigs and more music. Thank you Jamie! Thanks Artur!

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 177th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud and Twitch TV socials on May 28th 2024. About this episode. – For obvious reasons, and I let you find them (laughs!), I could have entitled this very post "The Double Trouble Sessions"! But since I'm here to facilitate your navigation through the musical ocean that is Balearic Breakfast, I'll respect the naming system I set up on the blog! After playing at the Good Room in Brooklyn last week, meeting her friends Paul Raffaele and Barbie Bertisch for another incredible musical experience (their first commune Cosmodelica party was held some 10 years ago "in the Bad Room", time flies! – and, should I add, Paul and Barbie are awaiting a Baby, so heartfelt congratulation to them!!), Colleen returned home and streamed this 176th episode of our beloved show, sharing great news about the Balearic Musical scene with the release of another splendid compilation! Listen back to the 177th episode of Balearic Breakfast: "This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now archived on my Mixcloud for your listening back pleasure and please give me a follow while you’re over there – trying to smash that 10K ceiling! On this show I’m joined by cratediggers @djkelvinandrews and @balearicmike who each contribute an exclusive one hour mix which will have you heading to Discogs. They also chat about their new compilation Down to the Sea and Back – Volume Tres: The Continuing Journey of the Balearic Beat which is coming out this Friday on @musicfordreams" PLAYLIST Balearic Mike Mix: (2010) The San Sebastian Strings – Gypsy Camp (Danny Mekanik Edit) (2013) Josete Ordonez – Objetos Perdidos (Dagobert Böhm's Las Estrellas Y El Interminable Sonido Del Mar Remix) (1971) Amancio D'Silva – What Maria Sees (2021) Mario Rui Silva – Dembita (2022) Greg Foat – Tropical Love (1975) Thijs Van Leer – Street Rondo (1970) Airto – The Tunnel (1978) Robert Williams – I Believe You’re The One (2020) Lady Blackbird – Collage (Greg Foat Remix) (2023) Steve Cobby – Everything Is Moved By Time (1996) Sade – Somalia (DJ Duke remix of “Pearls”) (2013) Heikki Sarmanto & Jeanine Otis – Magic Song (Ashley Beedle's Heavy Disco Joint) (2019) Larry Manteca – Hanuman Kelvin Andrews Mix: (2023) Habitat Ensemble – Rounded Edges (2016) Steaua De Mare – Babadag (Khidja Remix) (2021) Marten Yorgantz – Ammenain Serdov (De Tout Coeur) (Fundido Edit) (2024) Alex Kassian – E2E4 (Mad Professor Qantas Crazy Remix Beats 2024) (2021) The Slits – So Tough (Party Nails Don’t Be So Serious Dub Version) (2021) Sal Asrula – Poor Boy (Dub Mix) (2022) Wham – Where Did Your Heart Go? (CJ Giovanni Edit) (2023) Creep Show – Bungalow (2016) Atom TM – Magic Sofa (2020) Anak Anak Abu – Korkap Mestap (1983) Car Crash Set – Fall From Grace THE INTERVIEW [Colleen] Good morning, Balearicans. I'm Colleen Cosmo Murphy, hosting your weekly Balearic Breakfast on my MixCloud Live until high noon. And greetings to all over there on the chat groups. Always great to see you. Today, we have a special takeover by a dynamic duo of esteemed crate diggers and purveyors of that obscure, elusive, hard-to-pin sound that we like to call Balearic. They've been rightly described as chroniclers of a scene assembling lost gems and unheard marvels into Balearic mythology. Today, I'm with Kelvin Andrews and Balearic Mike in advance of their new down-to-the-sea-and-back volume Tres, the continuing journey of the Balearic Beat compilation, and it's coming out on Music for Dreams. And I'm overjoyed that they've both given us an exclusive mix because they're fabulous DJs. Hello, Kelvin. Hello, Mike. [Balearic Mike] Hi. [Kelvin Andrews] Hi, Colleen. [Colleen] How are you doing? [Kelvin Andrews] Fine. [Colleen] Good. Good to see you. Thank you so much for joining me. [Kelvin Andrews] Absolute pleasure. Thank you. [Balearic Mike] Thanks for asking us. [Colleen] I love the compilation. I wanted to first just talk a little bit about the history of this compilation, and then we'll kind of take a deeper dive into your backgrounds and also what's coming up. Now, this is volume Tres. Tell us first a little bit about volumes one and two and how they came about. [Kelvin Andrews] Mike and I kind of, I think we met around 1993, four, did we? [Balearic Mike] Yeah, 92, 93. It was early 90s, wasn't it? [Kelvin Andrews] We actually met playing in a five-a-side tournament between clubs at Keele University, which was quite an interesting way to meet. And I think the first thing I said to Mike was, nice shorts. [Balearic Mike] No, you said shorts of the tournament. [Kelvin Andrews] Oh, shorts of the tournament, yeah. [Balearic Mike] Yeah, I had these big kind of like boxing-style black shorts with big white stars all over them from the boys' shop in London. Because, yeah, at the time I didn't have any football hits or anything like that. So, yeah, as I was walking off the pitch after a hard-fought game against Golden, Kelvin said to me, yeah, shorts of the tournament, they are, mate. [Colleen] Who won? [Balearic Mike] Neither of us. Yeah, we were absolutely awful. We'd all been in back-to-basics the night before and come straight there or something. Yeah, it was not very high standard of soccer. [Kelvin Andrews] I believe the cream team won because they had loads of Liverpool football players playing for them. [Colleen] Oh, that's cheating. That's absolutely cheating, isn't it? [Balearic Mike] Yeah. [Colleen] And how did you end up coming to DJ together? Did you start doing parties together first before you did your first compilation? [Balearic Mike] Well, I was kind of DJing with a group of guys in Manchester called Love Dot and Kelvin was obviously already resident at Golden and was like really quite huge, or he was, you know, him and Danny were, she was pure and they were remixing everyone and stuff. Yeah, so I let Kelvin tell you what Golden was. [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah, Golden was a party started by one guy who was in my art class at school, a guy called John Hill and a couple of his friends. And they were coming along to a regular Saturday night thing called the Freetown and they approached the DJ booth and said, we're starting a new club. We want you and the other guy, Pete Bromley, to be residents. Are you interested? And we said, yes. And they just caught a wave really that the whole, the super club era was about to come in, and papers like MixMag were just starting to have this national hold on the clubbing public. And this wave swept in and within a year we were collecting Club of the Year at the Royal Albert Hall. It was quite mad really. It kind of took off very, very quickly. My first paid DJ gig was a 17 year old in 1982. So, and it wasn't very hip when I started DJing at all, especially in the UK. People were like, what are you doing? I said, I like it. I didn't know why I liked it. I just love sharing music. And so I was in the right place at the right time really. And I got, you know, I'd been DJing a few years when that happened. And when the club thing really took off, I was just sort of there and ready. And that's how I met Mike because he was involved with a crew in Manchester and we sort of got chatting. [Balearic Mike] Yeah, we liked partying very hard and Kelvin and I were both really, really, really, really obsessed about records. And so after the club's finished, because you know, back then in the UK things still finished at sort of two, maybe four. So the after party was very important. And Kelvin and I would invariably just end up honished over the deck, like ignoring everyone else, going, have you heard this? And then Kelvin would go, that's great. Have you heard this? And we did that a lot, like every weekend when we'd meet up after DJing at various places. And then one day I think Kelvin said, we should do a compilation of some of these records, shouldn't we? [Colleen] Let's talk a little bit as well about what you were doing at the time because you were working in a record shop in Manchester and you were also part of the Loved Up crew. If you could tell us a little bit about what it was like at that time. [Balearic Mike] Yeah, so I was just really lucky. I kind of bulged up my fine art degree in Brighton by going out clubbing all the time and buying too many records and not really painting any pictures, which is what they were expecting me to do there really. And yeah, I'd been living in the Northwest of England. So I went to Manchester quite a lot. My mum was living in Warrington in the Northwest and I was in Manchester shopping one day and suddenly a job in vinyl exchange and applied and was lucky enough to blag my way into that. And yeah, again, it was sort of right place, right time. It was really early 1991 and it was a really good record shop but it had only been open a couple of years and it was just starting to get its head around the fact that people really wanted house music and dance music. And so I was brought in to sort of help. There was one guy who kind of knew about house music who was Adrian Loved Up and they just said, right, we need more people who can buy this stuff because it's obviously really taken off. And so, yeah, I got the job and yeah. I mean, I was already kind of really immersed in music and clubbing and kind of, I DJ'd a bit when I was back at school and I DJ'd a bit when I was away at art college in Brighton and stuff. But yeah, I was just mainly just dancing and buying lots and lots of records, and the dancing and buying lots and lots of records kind of went into overdrive really when I got a job in a record shop because yeah, I mean, you think you know a lot about music when you start working in a record shop and then within about a day, you realize that you know absolutely nothing. [Colleen] This is what I always say. I say the same thing because I was so full of myself. I wasn't really full of myself, but I was 16 and I got it when I started first working in a shop. And then I realized I will never be able to even crack the tiniest bit of all the music in the world and it's great. I was just on the phone with François before this interview. We're turning each other onto records the whole time. He's 70, you know, and it's just this kind of passion never really stops, does it? There's just limitless music and working in a record shop certainly does kind of, wet that appetite and feed it and it's sort of a bad way too. Do you two remember any of the early records that you turned each other onto? [Balearic Mike] Well, you know, it's weird because the one of them is on Dancy in Back Volume 2, it's Jago, isn't it? Jago was the one that I think when I played it to Kelvin, he went, you know, we should do a compilation with these records. Summer 1989, and the clubs and raves are filled with this new, dreamy lighter sound: the sound of Italian house music. It was one of the longest, hottest summers in memory, and my first living away from home. After the grim Northern wastes of Warrington, Brighton in the sunshine seemed, to this young gun, like the Italian Riviera. The Zap Club had been closed for most of the winter, undergoing a major refurbishment and extension, which took it from two rather small arches into four, encompassing a huge, cathedral-like dance floor. I went as often as I could. The week after it opened I remember Soul II Soul DJing there, which was amazing, but all summer long they had a terrific roster of regular nights, with Harvey & Choci’s Tonka Soundsystem on a Monday (I think it was?), an insane new gay midweek night which I can’t remember the name of, and of course Chris Coco’s Coco Club every Saturday night. I heard this record at all of them. I can’t remember exactly how I found out what it was called or who it was by. If I asked a DJ it must have been at a Tonka night. The Zap Club’s DJ booth was high on a balcony above the bar, overlooking the main dance floor, and so it was a pain to get to, but at Tonka, Harvey and co set up the decks on the stage, right in the middle of the dance floor, so you were literally dancing around them. Much easier to pester them. I bought it from Rounder records in Brighton some time that summer - the reissue with the brown label. I remember at the time Mark (I think his name was?) and the other staff in there all thought that it was a new Italian house record and that the Frankye Knuckles (miss-spelt) mention was just a cunning ruse to get people to buy it. None of us had any idea that it was actually an old Italo-Disco track from 1983, or that it really had been remixed in Chicago by the godfather of house three years later. That’s part of the enduring appeal of this record for me. It sounds like it could have been made at any time over the last thirty- plus years, right up until today. Hence no surprise when I relocated to Manchester and found everyone I met here loved it as well. It’s also one of the reasons why it rarely, if ever, leaves my record box. Back in the early 90s when I first met Kelvin, we were back at an after party in the house in Withington I shared with Adrian LuvDup and Chris Sheep. As usual we were hunched over the decks, deeply involved in a game of musical top trumps. When I played this track we both decided we should release a compilation LP, with this on it. It only took us twenty years to get round to it. My friend Oscar’s son is named Jago. [Kelvin Andrews] Mike had a habit of playing me things. I saw, you know, when you think you've got a hot record box and this guy comes along and starts pulling things out and you're like, he's like, yeah, this is promo only. And it's a Colombian B-side seven-inch. I'm like, what, who is this guy? You know, so I was immediately hooked and, you know, and we were just like, we were probably quite rude to everyone else because we were just talking to each other about records, you know. [Balearic Mike] Ignored the party going on really, didn't we? And yet by putting records on, we're helping facilitate it at the same time, but you know, we're definitely an audience of one rather than everything else in the room. [Colleen] Well, believe me, I mean, the music that the both of you play, it really does translate. It's a, don't think, it's not that kind of Trainspotter-ish, Trainspotter-ish kind of situation where some people are just pulling out records that are rare just for the sake of it, but they're actually not very good. We do see quite a bit of that because we've excavated so much already, I suppose. But literally every selection, every selection on this double album is fantastic. [Balearic Mike] Well, thank you very much. We're really pleased with that, actually, aren't we? It's like... [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah, very much so. It was kind of like, you know, oh, let's do this, because we talked about doing Volume 3. There's been a bit of a gap, as you may know, but... [Balearic Mike] Ten years! [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah, yeah. And I don't think it's really the fact that, you know, we don't have the records to put on there. I think licensing slows things up. This time around, in the past, we put it all together ourselves. This time, we've got a label to help us, and that made such a difference. It was so great. You know, we could concentrate on, like, picking things out and then giving it to licensing people to take care of, you know, which is great. I think when you listen back, you don't know when you're in it, but when you actually listen back to the comp, you think, oh, this is quite good. It's bizarre, isn't it? You know, when you're... I think when you're DJing... When you're DJing, you don't... I'm certainly the same. I'm thinking about the next record. [Colleen] Yeah. [Kelvin Andrews] And I'm not really listening to the record that's playing. So when I... Particularly when I hear a mix back, I'm like, oh, that's pretty good, that is. That's what gives me my confidence, and it always has done. I think back to, like, the first time I got mixtapes recorded. When I listened back, it made me go, actually, I'm all right, I can do this. I think it's the same with the comp. You know, the choices are... And we don't really consult each other. We just come up with two lists, chuck them together and see when we've licensed it, what we can get, and then we make the comp. [Colleen] And then when you do that, do you have one person does one disc, one does the other? Is it back-to-back? How do you sequence it? [Balearic Mike] I think we both just like it to flow like as if we were playing together live. You know, it's like when we DJ, we often do sort of two-on, two-off, or three-on, three-off, or something like that. But we wanted it to work like... We'd like all of them to work like a DJ set almost, haven't we, I think, Kelvin? [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah. [Balearic Mike] Have a kind of beginning, middle, and an end, really. You know, like a flow in a kind of sensible, musical way. And it's really weird, actually, when we were putting the running order together, we both came up with separate running orders, and they were almost identical, I think, weren't they? [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah, yeah. And actually, they've only really changed just to facilitate having the right amount of music on a side of a record and stuff like that. You know, it's the only reason that it had to be moved around, really. [Colleen] Yeah, that's one of the kind of bloody awful things about vinyl, right? [Balearic Mike] Well, I mean, the worst thing is not being able to get things. I mean... [Colleen] That's the worst. And then somebody else gets it. [Balearic Mike] Thankfully, that hasn't happened to us yet, that something's come out that we wanted that's on someone else's comp. [Colleen] Actually, it's fine. At least it's out there, right? I mean, there's so much great music, and the two of you are proper, proper crate diggers. Why don't we get back into the music for a little bit, and we'll come back and speak some more. Right now, we're listening to a one-hour exclusive mix from Balearic Mike. I should also say he has a radio show on 1BTN, which is really good, so you should check that out, too. [Colleen] You're listening to Balearic Breakfast, and with me right now, I have Calvin Andrews and Balearic Mike, and they have a brand new compilation out called Down to the Sea and Back, Volume Trace, the Continuing Journey of the Balearic Beat. In fact, it's not out right now. It's coming out on Music for Dreams on the 31st of May at the end of this month. And right now, we've been listening to Balearic Mike's mix. We have Kelvin Andrews' exclusive one-hour mix coming up afterwards. I just love the way both of these guys play. We were talking earlier about the methodology of how you created this compilation. I mean, we have two different people. I did a similar thing with Ashley Beedle a long time ago (ed.: on "Dark Star" - Discogs). Now, when did you actually start DJing together? [Balearic Mike] It would probably have been sometime in the mid-90s, wouldn't it? I think, did I play at Golden with you, and you played at Loved Up Nights with me? [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah. [Balearic Mike] We played together at things like Wobble and stuff in Birmingham, and then we had a club that we ran together in Stoke called Sound in some 96. [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah, 96. So it's like the sort of 94. We were sort of occasionally playing at different clubs. We'd show up at a club on the circuit, and we were playing. When I think back about how we communicated without mobile phones at that point as well, it was quite weird. But we always used to see each other, didn't we? [Balearic Mike] Yeah, it's mad, isn't it? You see each other like every weekend, and it's like you'd be DJing in Glasgow, and we'd be in London, and we'd meet in Birmingham. It's like, how do you do that without tracking devices and stuff? But yeah, we just did, didn't we? [Colleen] Kelvin, what was it about Mike that really struck you as a DJ? [Kelvin Andrews] Well, he was playing at a level with the digging, which I wanted to be, because I didn't know many people like that. It was like, this is how I see it, like obsession, detail, and just... And it was always about the music too. You're playing a record, I don't really go with the idea that if it's rare, it's good, like you mentioned before. It's got to be good. It's got to be exciting. On top of that, if it's obscure and rare, even better, because it kind of gives you something to play with, and not everyone's playing it. And if I learn that 20 DJs are playing this record, I kind of shy away from it, because I'll be looking for something else. And this was a guy who was, he always had music that I wanted. Luckily, because he was in a record shop, he would buy me copies of stuff. [Colleen] They tried to have. [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah, which is really helpful. [Colleen] Or not, not on your bank balance, that's for sure! [Kelvin Andrews] Well, no, but I did get a discount, generally, so. But we both had the same kind of appetite for records as well. And it was just like, he would make a call to me in an afternoon and go, we've had these tracks in, there's three, do you want me to put one aside for you? I'm like, yeah. I didn't even need to hear it, because I knew I needed it. Because if he was having it, I wanted it as well. It's a bit like that. And I was running a couple of labels as well, Bits and Bobs coming out. I was in the studio doing that side of my thing. [Colleen] Why don't we say what that was? Because not everybody knows exactly what you did at the studio, because you did some pretty big things. [Kelvin Andrews] Well, I worked with my brother, Danny, and we started off by making some house tracks. I was in bands and stuff. It was a very, quite a musical background. My dad was a musician. So we were all into music. My dad said to us, don't go into the music industry. And all three brothers ignored him. We, and it wasn't by design. We were sort of like, we just fell into it because we were into it. You know, it was just the exciting thing to do. You know, you either formed a band or you played records or you, you know, as I was growing up, my parents were into the music that we played. So in 79, we were obsessed with Earth, Wind and Fire, you know, and I was the eldest. My two younger brothers, they were having it drilled into them. So music was everywhere, really. So making music was the next step. So first of all, Danny, younger brother, I was working in 86 for Polygram Records. And I got a cassette of the House Sound of London, Chicago house music. And it was a promo cassette. And I play, I play Jack Your Body to Danny. And he had an epiphany right there. He just went, that's it. That's what I'm doing. Within six months, he'd enrolled into the School of Sound in Manchester. And he was programming drums and, you know, using a mixing desk within, you know, when he was 18, he released a record called Ride the Rhythm by This Ain't Chicago, which almost crossed over. It got to number 41, but it was a big club hit. All of a sudden, remixes started to come in. Then I started to get involved with him. He was like, come in the studio. And then brothers, by 92, we were releasing house records on our own label and stuff. Then we blagged a couple of remixes and then the major started knocking and we were doing remixes like weekly for a while. Some good, some bad. [Colleen] I just want to say some of the names. I mean, Danny was also in Candy Flip. [Kelvin Andrews] That's right, yeah. Danny was a pop star, age 20. [Colleen] And then you were doing Sure is Pure. And that is massive. I remember getting those records over in Dance Tracks. Very well-crafted, melodic, lovely arrangements. [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah, it was great because we've just put all our love for music in these records. And a lot of the time, we were putting in our love of disco and boogie and those things that we grew up with into these house records that were becoming very popular. And the club I was playing at, Golden, when I was resident, they loved that sound. It was like, we'd go from, I remember what, because I was digging out records from my dancing past and one track that springs to mind was the Fat Bat Band's Backstroking. And that's like, not many people mention that record, but it was an anthem at a super club, at a house club in Stoke. [Colleen] WOOW!! [Kelvin Andrews] You know, and we had 2,000 people going. So the minute you played that first, that bendy synth riff, hands were in the air. And it was nowhere else either, which was really cool. [Balearic Mike] Yeah, I'd never heard that record. And like seeing Kelvin play at Golden and 2,000 people go absolutely mental. So it was like, how have I not heard this record before? [Colleen] You know, it's interesting. It's these regional, the regional hits, because we won't have this anymore with clubs, you know, because of everything being online and everything is available for everybody. But the regional, there was one club I used to play in Perugia called Red Zone. It was massive. It was a huge club (ed.. They had all the American DJs there. 6,000 people in the suburbs. And they had their own anthems. The first time I went to a Northern Soul night, I was just visiting. And you know, I thought I knew something about soul music. I was already a DJ. I was visiting in the 1990s and I went up to Glasgow. I wanted to go to the sub club, wanted to check it out. And that night was the Goodfoot. And I didn't know a single song. Everybody was singing all the lyrics. And I just love how there's regional hits like that, where people really rally around a certain song and it's their song. [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah. It was buying records as a teenager, before sort of I started buying 12 inch singles in 79, 80 with pocket money. And then, you know, just things that I could get hold of. And we'd go to a local discotheque called The Place. And then The Place was The Place basement. [Colleen] The Place?! My husband's parents used to go there in the 1960s. [Kelvin Andrews] My parents met at The Place. [Colleen] Oh my, they probably knew each other then. Because, yeah, that was like the place. Well, it was the place to go. [Balearic Mike] The Place was The Place. [Kelvin Andrews] Stayed open right through the 70s and the 80s. And then in the, when I was a teenager, they had a teen scene there. And it was like an under-18s thing. But the guy who used to play records on the Saturday nights, in The Place basement, is a guy called Trevor M. Trevor was my DJ mentor. He used to play import, US import, funk, jazz, soul, that kind of vibe. And the jazz-funk fusion-type things. And there was a whole subculture of these working class, mostly black kids, UK kids, getting their sisters to sew up clothes for them so they had their own look. It was like, it was a brilliant thing because they didn't have the money to buy, you know, fashion labels. They would make their own stuff and they, and the music was the best. It really was. I was quite grown up when you're 14, you know, listen to Ronnie Laws and, you know, and Diodato and Al Jarreau, you know, I mean, quite sophisticated when you're 14, really. But I was already tuned to this because my dad was a musician and he had a decent record collection, not a large record collection, but a decent one. And he, when he stopped being a recording artist in the 60s, he then joined tour management and he worked for a company called Danny O'Donovan Enterprise, he's in the mid-70s. And so he, they used to bring over the black American acts to the UK. So I saw Rufus and Chaka Khan's soundcheck when I was 10. Oh, it was? Right, when you're 10, you don't, all I wanted to do was play the pong machine in the corner. Rufus are playing a soundcheck with Chaka Khan and I'm ignoring it, playing the pong game, you know. I look back, it's like, what were you doing? You know, but that's when you're 10, that's the thing. I was kind of lucky in that sense, but my taste, well, the time we'd been to the basement, we were listening to like grown-up music and that was having an influence on us. Cassette culture was prevalent. We were all sharing cassettes. There was a guy in the basement and there was a guy in town who would, his big brother was buying all the hot imports, putting them onto cassettes and selling them for four quid each in town. So we were- [Colleen] The entrepreneur. [Kelvin Andrews] We were having the best music, you know, on our little ghetto blaster. And it was like, and you were learning how to dance and, you know, it took a while for me because I was a bit stiff. You know, my other brother, Richard, is a great dancer and I wasn't quite as good as him. So I had to work hard at being a good dancer. The first time I heard Trevor M play in the basement, I heard Harry Thuman, Underwater, completely blew my mind. Literally, it was just like one of the greatest things I'd ever heard. I heard Slicks, Face Bass. I heard, and just on the first night this was, my head was like, I want to do what that guy does. And I'd already made my mind up that I was going to be a DJ. So he collected records, played a couple of parties and then someone said, I'll pay you so much to come and do a gig. This was in 82. And that's when I started. [Colleen] Professional DJ career. [Kelvin Andrews] I think I got 15 quid. Yeah. [Colleen] Wow! [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah. Which bought you about, bought you three imports if you're looking. [Colleen] That's more than I got for some gigs. [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah. [Colleen] I started in 82 as well, but it was on the radio, on a 10-watt radio station. And I wasn't getting paid, so I can't call it professional, in any of these. We've been, we've been chattering quite a bit. Why don't we get back to the music and when we come back, I'll be speaking with you, Mike, about how you, what you thought about Kelvin when you first met him and what kind of DJ he was. [Colleen] You're listening to Balearic Mike's mix right now on Balearic Breakfast. [Colleen] And we're back and I'm here with Balearic Mike and with Kelvin Andrews, talking about their new compilation, Down to the Sea Volume Tres. And earlier I asked Kelvin what he felt about you, Mike, as a DJ, when you first started playing together. And now I want to ask you the same about Kelvin. When you two started playing together and you started discovering music with him, what were your thoughts about Kelvin as a DJ and musical selector? [Kelvin Andrews] Do I leave the room now? [Colleen] Yeah, you bet. Yeah, I think you should. [Balearic Mike] Well, I mean, we were at very different stages in our career, really, because Kelvin was already a huge star, really. He had a huge residency, he DJed for years. And so I was just a bit in awe of him, really. He had amazing records, you know, I mean, this is what we really bonded over. We had similar tastes, but really, you know, if you can call such eclectic tastes similar, it's basically like anything that's good, anything that will make people dance, anything that's kind of got something original about it and something interesting, something that's different to what everyone else is playing. So we kind of really bonded over that. But I mean, Kelvin was just like light years ahead of me in his DJ journey at that point, you know. He could take an audience of a couple of thousand people and just have them absolutely in the palm of his hand. So I actually, I've learned so much from kind of studying Kelvin. [Colleen] So how do you feel the two of you complement one another? [Balearic Mike] Well, it's just really strange that we just dig around, we have such similar tastes. And yet when we get together, I mean, we haven't DJed together for a couple of years now, have we? What with COVID and everything that's been going on in the world. And we'll come together and we'll both have completely different bags of records. And yet I'll love everything Kelvin plays and he'll like everything I play, you know. And it was the same when we were putting the comps together, you know, we both came up with lists and there was no duplication at all. It was like, you know, you just think some of us, we're going to suggest some of the same records, but no, it's like, you've just got all these records that, you know, some of them I'd heard because we DJed together and I'd heard Kelvin play them, but some of the things on there that I hadn't heard before. I mean, you just, you realize that it's just never ending, isn't it? You never hear everything, you know. So it's good to have something else, a good pair of ears out there that's putting you on to things all the time. [Colleen] Yeah, exactly. A filter basically, a curator. [Balearic Mike] Yeah, exactly. [Colleen] Now, how did you two fall in love with the sounds that are usually associated with the White Isle? Mike, it's in your name, Balearic Mike. [Balearic Mike] I mean, I only heard the name, the term Balearic Beats in sort of 88, you know. There was the article in ID and then the compilation came out and I liked that, but I didn't really understand what it was. You know, I'd never really been abroad before. I wasn't in a position where I was going to go on holiday to Ibiza and hear this DJ play in this magical club or anything. But I've always had just really quite varied taste and I've always, I mean, growing up during the 80s, I kind of, I moved into sort of listening to clubs and went into dance to music in the sort of, around about 86 when I was about 15, I suppose. So it was before the sort of behemoth that is house music kind of came and washed everything else away before it. And in those days, you just heard lots of different kinds of music. On a dance floor, you know, you'd hear kind of hip hop and electro records and you'd hear kind of smoother sort of jazz funk and things like that. And like electronic pop records and all those kinds of things. And that's basically what Balearic Beats is, isn't it? I mean, it's a kind of, it's a great term, but it's really inaccurate, isn't it? Because actually the DJs in New York were doing exactly the same thing with just slightly different records. DJs in Italy were doing the same thing again with just a slightly different, you know, selection of records. DJs in Belgium were doing it with, you know, a slightly different sound. So, you know, but yeah, so I heard about it then. And I think summer 89 was my first summer kind of living away from home. I was at art college in Brighton. I got a job on the pier selling ice cream all summer and basically went out clubbing every single night to the Zap club in the escape. And again, I heard the term Balearic Beats a lot again that summer because Soul to Soul was such a huge sound. And so, you know, even if you went to hear a DJ who predominantly played house, you'd hear Soul to Soul records and you'd hear De La Soul being played and things like that. And so that kind of, it wasn't just a steady kind of four, four, 120 BPM rhythm that you were hearing all summer. It was all over the place. So there was really unusual records being played. And I went to the Tonka parties at the Zap. I think it was like the first Monday of every month. Yeah, and some of those records were just mad and strange and really interesting. It was like Gaelic Show, Dance Forever and stuff like that. So it'd be strange sort of somewhere between Italo Disco and the Italian house that was just starting to emerge, I suppose. And yeah, and so I've just always liked that kind of stuff that's really hard to categorize. I mean, that's the thing with Balearic, isn't it? It's like you don't know what this is. It's so strange and unusual and it's not really house. It's not soul, it's not funk, it's not a synth pop record. What is it? Oh, I know, it's Balearic. [Colleen] Exactly, it's so much easier. [Balearic Mike] So yeah. [Colleen] If you just have like a record shop, it's just one category. [Balearic Mike] Yeah, good record. [Colleen] Balearic. [Balearic Mike] Yeah, so... and then when I went to Ibiza.... [Colleen] But when did you finally go to Ibiza? [Balearic Mike] I didn't go to Ibiza until 94, the first time. So I was like 23. Kelvin was out there DJing. A friend, Graham, was out there for the summer DJing for Jose. Because we'd all met Jose. We'd all got, Jose had come over to Manchester and- [Colleen] Jose Padilla, everybody. But I'm sure most people listening to this show know that by now, but just- [Balearic Mike] We'd all met Jose and he did a good winter residency at the back room of Golden, Kelvin? [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah, yeah. [Colleen] Really?!! [Kelvin Andrews] He was there as a guest of a few clubs, wasn't he? He had a winter residency. [Balearic Mike] They played at like a few parties for Love stuff and he did a residency for Kelvin at Golden. And then he, when he went back for the summer, he took one of our friends, Graham, with him. And Graham became resident at a couple of parties that he was promoting on the island. And so, yeah, Kelvin had gone out to DJ at the clubs Jose was promoting at Passion and Space, wasn't it? [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah. [Balearic Mike] That order. And Graham said, oh yeah, come. He was staying at Jose's flat in San Antonio. And he said, oh yeah, there's a spare bed. You can come out and I'll get you a gig. And so I just grabbed a bag of records and went out as well. So that was my first visit. And I already, I think actually we had a great time, but we went to like KU one night and it wasn't called KU anymore. It was, they changed its name to Privilege or something revolting like that. And I remember thinking, this is over. This is done. This is like nothing that I want to be involved with. Whereas Passion had been brilliant. I mean, I'd got there, we'd got straight off the plane and went straight into Passion. Caught Kelvin just starting his set. And that had been everything I'd hoped Ibiza would be really. But yeah, it was obviously becoming something else at that point, I think. [Colleen] Well, I think there's different things that pleases different people. That's a nice way of putting it, at least. Kelvin, was that about the time that you started playing at Ibiza or had you been to Ibiza before that? [Kelvin Andrews] No, I'd just heard this myth about this place and you were hearing about Alfredo and the Balearic Beats Comp came out on FFRR. So, and there was also around that time, just a bit previous to that, 91, around that period. It was like all these little Balearic clubs popping up in England. Cause like, the weather in England isn't Balearic, is it? Far from it. But like, I remember- [Balearic Mike] It's kind of Balearic, it's quite Balearic in Brian. [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah. Yeah, it is definitely more Balearic than here right now. But I saw that it was something special. So I romanticized about the whole thing. It was like, in my head, this is what I wanted it to be. So when I got the chance to DJ there, it was like, that fed into what I was playing. Funnily enough, one of the records, which is on the new comp, I played that evening. And the very first time I played at Pasha, when Mike came along, that was the pressure drop record. The reaction was the same as I imagined it would be. It was so brilliant, you know? So in my head, I was keeping the Balearic beat alive, somehow. Well, I went into space and tried a similar approach and got booted off the decks. The same time as Andrew Weatherall did as well at Pasha, didn't he? Because he was over there at the same time as us. [Balearic Mike] Yeah, I miss him being dragged off. [Kelvin Andrews] One of my greatest claims to fame was when I was booted off the same day as Andrew. [Balearic Mike] Yeah, he tried his panel beaters of Prague set at Pasha, didn't he? Yeah. [Colleen] Very well. Oh, I can't see that happening. That doesn't seem like a very good mix. Well, why don't we get back to the mix now? And actually, we are listening to Kelvin Andrews' mix right now, his exclusive mix that he's done for us, which is wonderful. And we'll come back in a few minutes. Right now, sit back and enjoy the music on Balearic Breakfast. [Colleen] And we're back. We've been listening to Kelvin Andrews' exclusive mix for Balearic Breakfast. And I'm here with both Kelvin and with Balearic Mike because they have a new compilation, if you don't know by now, called Down to the Sea and Back Volume tres. And it's coming out on Music for Dreams at the end of the month. Now, this compilation, as I said earlier, is fantastic. And I didn't know the songs. I knew maybe a couple, but most of them I didn't. I mean, there's all different types of sounds. There's 80s Dutch pop, there's 80s Kiwi, electronic Zymoc sounding band. It sounded just like Zymoc to me. You have kind of Sunshine Jones, who's from Dubtribe sound system, kind of bouncy, kind of ping pong electro house, I like to call that. There's a lot of different sounds, but it flows together really well and the two of you did a great job sequencing. I was just wondering if we could talk about some of the individual records, if there's certain ones that have great discovery stories and maybe I can ask about one of my favorites. Was the Lee Ryder or Lee Rita? [Balearic Mike] Yeah, Lee Ryda. Yes, that's mine. So in 2014, coincidentally the last, the summer that the last Down to the Sea and Back compilation came out on, I got invited, I think I got a message on Facebook from some guys in Athens. And I've been to a DJ in Athens once before, but it was at some big music festival. I've not done any sort of clubs or anything. They ran a record shop and they seemed like nice guys. And so yeah, I went out to Athens and I think I did a gig on the Friday night outside the city at some sort of coastal bar, which was quite nice, but it wasn't very busy. But then the next night Giannis, the next day Giannis took me into Athens to meet Dimitris who ran the record shop, Cassetta Records. And we spent the whole day in the shop, just like rooting through all his stock, playing records, drinking beers, having a great time. And then we went to the gig and it was like in this, Athens is an amazing city. It's a bit like Berlin was sort of 20 years ago where basically if a building's empty, people just move in and do things in it. So it was like this empty sort of office block with like big kind of mezzanine floors. And someone just started a bar on one floor and then put sound and lights in the basement. It was just like squatted almost. It was amazing, but yeah, it was fantastic sort of space. And they DJed before me and they warmed up for me. We kind of went, you know, also went on all night till like basically everyone's left basically in the morning. And yeah, so Giannis was warming up and he played it, he played that record while he was warming up for me to go on. And I was just like, what the hell is this? You know, I was stood on the dance floor just going, oh my God, this is incredible. And it's like, and it's a great sign when the people warming up for you are playing music that you think is great and you don't know. You just think, well, if they're getting away with this, I'm gonna get away with murder here, aren't I really? [Colleen] And they're also setting it up nicely for you too. [Balearic Mike] Yeah, I mean, it's just perfect. You just think, wow, this is sort of, if I was playing this warmup set, this is the sort of record I would want to play. And so I immediately ran over and saw what it was and couldn't believe that, yeah, it was a British library record. It's on Bruton and it's like, you see, you know, used to see millions of Bruton library records lying around but not very much. I'd never seen that one before. And yeah, so when I got back, I managed to track what they had on the internet and bought it and kind of hammered it ever since really. It's just an incredible record, isn't it? [Colleen] That's fantastic! [Balearic Mike] Yeah, I was completely, yeah, unaware of it until 10 years ago when I went to Athens. [Colleen] Well, I was straight onto Discogs and then I was like, this is coming out on vinyl anyway, so I'll get it that way. You've done the work for me. [Balearic Mike] Yeah, that's it, yeah. [Colleen] Kelvin, if there's a tune, an obscurity on this album that you picked that has a great story, could you tell us? [Kelvin Andrews] The one track which I was like, like, double fingers crossed that we'd get, and that was a car crash set record, the Kiwi Watch. [Balearic Mike] I knew he was going to say that one! [Kelvin Andrews] I've been obsessed with this record, but this is another recent discovery, really, you know. A friend of mine who used to be a promoter friend who books both me and Mike back in the day from Plymouth, a guy called Dave Green or DJ Verdi, he was on a late night. [Colleen] Yes Dave. I've heard of him. [Kelvin Andrews] He was on a late night chat. He said, hi, mate, have you ever heard this? And he sent me a YouTube link to this track. And I was just, I put it on and I had, the kettle was on and I was just like, oh my God. So it's a Car Crash Set, Fall From Grace, and it's a private released record that did nothing in New Zealand when it got released. They only ever played it once live, this band, and I've got the recording, because I ended up finding the guy, Nigel, the vocalist. I found him on Facebook, which was amazing. And I contacted him and he was really lovely. And he told me the story about how the track came about. It was one of the first conversations I've had of a track from 83. And he talked about a 303 being on there and they used the 303 on there. So it's quite a historical track in that sense. You know, they were using it purely for the fact that they could take it out live with them because it was only small. So it was like, and I'm hearing this track and I'm just going, this is unbelievable. It's like one of the best, it was instantly one of the best things I'd ever heard. So it was just like, it was like a double fingers crossed that we'd get it. And I'm amazed that we did quite easily, you know. And if you look on Discogs, it's pretty rare. The 12 is non-existent. The last one I saw go for was about $300, you know. So that was, that's the, you know, for me the gem in the crown, you know, it's like a, you know, a beautiful thing to have on there. And the many tracks on there that I got excited about, things that we were, we wanted to be on the last compilation we've managed to grab for this one. And some that we, some that I was hoping for didn't make it as well. The Car Crash Set one, the reaction I get, it backs up my enthusiasm for it as well. It's incredible. [Balearic Mike] Yeah, I remember the first time we played it, Mark, that I'd heard it was on one of our dancing team boat and backboat parties at Love International in Croatia. And the reaction to it live, I was just like, oh my God, what is this record? I mean, it's from New Zealand. It's like from the other side of the world. And the only, I think the only reason that Dave knows, he lived there for 10 years or something, didn't he? [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah. [Balearic Mike] So Dave moved out of New Zealand and lived there and he just must have come across a copy of the secondhand shop or a charity shop or something. [Colleen] I was just looking at the track list again and I just realized Tri Atma. I just have to take a quick look. I think I saw a Tri Atma record in my collection today. And I'm like, you're looking for something? I've been looking, I found it. Yeah, yeah. This one. Do you know that one? [Balearic Mike] No, I haven't got that one. [Colleen] This has to be some great stuff on here. [Balearic Mike] Well, wait a minute. [Colleen] It must be the same Tri Atma, right? Yeah, I think so. The yummy moon long version. [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah, the yummy moon from a 12. [Colleen] Yeah. Yeah, it says: 'an effervescent fusion of buoyant Eastern rhythms and electronic popular music. Danceable, hummable, enjoyable. Probably some of the happiest music to come from Germany in a hundred years!' [Balearic Mike] Wow, that's a review, isn't it? [Colleen] That is hilarious. Oh, there's some good stuff on here. Microcosmos is one that I liked. [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah, that's the other one. I've got a copy of that. [Colleen] Do you?! [Kelvin Andrews] Yeah, I found a copy of, I've got a, it's like a radio seven-inch single I found in a junk shop and that's on that, right? Couldn't believe it. [Colleen] Really? Wow. I can't recommend this compilation enough. And I know that you said the two of you haven't played together in a while. Will you be playing some more festivals together at all this summer? Is there anywhere else that people can look out for the two of you? [Kelvin Andrews] Mike and I are playing together in Brighton on the 14th. And we're also playing- [Colleen] 14th of June? [Kelvin Andrews] 14th of June, yeah. That's at the Flower Pot in Brighton on the seafront. And that's gonna be like a release party for the comp. And we're also doing a thing in Newcastle-on-the-Lyme at the Carlton on the 24th with James Holroyd and the pair of us. So yeah, we're making up for lost time, hopefully. [Colleen] Yes, well, good luck with it. I mean, honestly, I love the way both of you play. It's great to hear you doing this together. Hopefully I'll be able to catch one of your live sets. But for now, the compilation will have to do. Thank you so much. And thanks for your exclusive mixes for the radio show as well. Your exclusive Balearic Breakfast mixes. I really appreciate it. I know the listeners are loving it right now as well. [Kelvin Andrews] Thank you. Thanks for the invite, Colleen. [Balearic Mike] Thanks for having us.

I met Delia Recording's crew for an interview about their brand-new Vinyl compilation and the quality craftsmanship accompanying it on its new musical journey. 1) Thank you so much for joining me here on the Balearic Breakfast Blog Simon, Matt, and Huw! It's an absolute pleasure! One of the first questions that came to my mind is, how did you guys start this whole adventure? We know that very often, a project comes from a dream, something we want to do. Can you tell us more about yourselves and share what drove you to launch Delia Recordings? Matt: Why? So that the music doesn't just sit on a shelf in our studio. Huw: And we realised all the music is coming from the same place – our community in Nottingham – with Matt mixing all the tracks and producing a lot of the music, too. It has a shared sound, a texture, and we wanted our records to be out in the world, filed alongside the records we love the most. Matt: Delia Recordings is actually named after my mother, who sadly died while we were recording the Torn Sail album (a future release). While she was ill, she'd said I should "do what I want to do", which was permission of sorts to risk a pile of money and time on a wildly romantic venture. Not for the first time either, I ran a successful drum and bass label called Baltic in the late 90's. Simon: There’s also a small nod to Delia Derbyshire, the electronic music composer, and TV chef Delia Smith; we’re very much a kitchen-table operation at this stage. Huw: I’d been working with Matt over an extended period on the Torn Sail album and introduced friends and now label-mates Brown Fang, whose second album Matt has mixed. Simon had managed my old band, Earth The Californian Love Dream. He came in to create the label identity and push us well out of our comfort zone with ideas like our live Happenings and the idea of launching the label with this compilation record. Matt: It started as a sampler with two tracks each from our upcoming Torn Sail, Brown Fang, and Shrinkwrap double albums, but as I curated, edited, and remixed it, it evolved into a record in its own right, an imaginary soundtrack more like The KLF’s ‘Chillout’. Simon: It’s way more cohesive as a project than most compilations or mix albums, and I think people are listening to it as a whole record, if that makes sense. It’s definitely a label statement of intent too, an answer to any question about Delia Recordings. 2) With the resurgence of vinyl in the last few years, it seems you started at the "right moment". I loved how, on your new compilations' Bandcamp page, you stated " Entitled The Horizon Is On The Horizon (referencing both fastidious craft, attention to never-ending detail, and vinyl production schedules) it’s released on 26th April 2024 on heavyweight vinyl and old-school CD", laughs! Yet, it also seems that vinyl is going through many changes lately. Production facilities and producers are trying to be eco-responsible and produce less polluting records, just like you do. What are the pros and cons of such a decision? Matt: The pros are it’s a little less damaging to our environment, which has to be a good thing. There’s no cons really, unless you want to do a small run of less than 300, then it’s really hard to use an eco-aware company. Having said that, you are right – there is a move away from the polluting process of vinyl production. Some manufacturers are moving slower than others, which is why we’ve chosen to make our vinyl with a company in the Netherlands called Deepgrooves, which appears to be spearheading new eco-friendly processes and not just engaging in greenwashing talk. Their factory in a former prison in northern Holland is powered by 100% green energy, and after many years of research, they are now offering ISO ISCC-certified bio-vinyl with a 90% reduction in CO₂ emissions, the harmful heavy metals taken out of the manufacturing process, and no detriment to sound quality (in fact it is arguably better in the top end frequencies than old school vinyl production techniques). We were fortunate to be shown around their production facility by CEO Chris Roorda, and his warmth and enthusiasm for ‘making vinyl the right way’, as he put it, confirmed we had done the right thing. Of course, there’s still the transport issue of moving the stock to the UK – vinyl is heavy! The boxes of vinyl just about fit in the boot of my friend's car – his mum’s new hybrid ‘family car’ that is very efficient on fuel – so we like to think we brought the stock back to the UK in the least fuel-consuming way! We hope that the records we make ultimately end up on people's shelves, lovingly played, and not just thrown into the sea. Thanks to that charlatan, Mr Johnson, Brexit has made working with partners in Europe a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare, as we found out on our road trip to Holland to pick the stock up earlier this year. We love the ethos Deepgrooves demonstrates, and they did a brilliant job pressing ‘The Horizon Is On The Horizon’, so, on balance, it was worth the drive to pick them up. We also spent a couple of nights in Amsterdam on the way back – so what’s not to like?! 3) Colleen played Nine Voices' "So it Goes" during the "Balearic Brunch" show aired on NTS every last Sunday of the month. I took the time to listen to the other tracks from your forthcoming compilation and I was taken into a modern (yet light) sounding musical trip. When reading the credits, I saw you are working with Mastering engineer JP Braddock from Formation Audio. Another important decision while launching a Balearic record label, laughs! Can you share with us the sound you want to achieve within Delia Records and how important JP Braddock's work has been on this first release? Huw: I don't think we're really trying to achieve a specific sound – it's a natural combination of each artist's aesthetic, with Matt's mixing and production bringing just enough consistency. We're lucky to work with really experienced musicians who bring deep craftsmanship, which wasn't the plan, but it's definitely a factor in the sound. Mastering is a small but vital part of that, making sure every detail is given full attention. I do think 'Immersive' is a relevant word. We have no chart aspirations. We're into the art. 4) We talked about vinyl and the sound, but now it seems we cannot go on without speaking about the artists! As with every great record label, Delia Records must have its editorial slant! How do you choose the artists who will join your label? The Balearic musical scene is pretty wide, so where does Delia Record's soul lie? Matt: We only have the time and money to work with a small family of artists at any one time, so the emphasis is absolutely on quality, not quantity. Torn Sail, Brown Fang and Shrinkwrap are all connected, both through the individual musicians and the Nottingham scene, it’s a genuine family. We’d like to grow the family – the artists featured on 'The Horizon Is On The Horizon' are all part of that family. Huw: Our soul is in trying to represent the humanity of the musicians and artists and respect the lifetimes of energy they've dedicated to a vision – it's about people we know, here, in just another grey city in the UK, and about trying to share the beautiful pictures in these people's minds and spread a kind of love of something better. When you're playing, you're not fighting, right? It's inspiring. 5) Delia Recordings is a team effort – it's pretty obvious. The three of you are even involved in the creative process, working together, for instance, on the sleeve of your first compilation and even bringing up the experience to propose musical events and a magazine! Can you tell us more about the importance of the visual aspects of your record label and its projects? I feel like you guys are proposing something unique here... Simon: We want to bring the same level of care and consideration to everything that supports the music – the record sleeves, the words we use to talk about the label, social media, and our Happenings, events where people can experience what we’re all about. As with music, it’s more than collaboration; it’s co-creation where the magic happens because of the combination of people in that particular place and time. We respect each artist’s visual identity, but Delia is the golden thread that connects everything together, more of a feel and attitude than a specific visual look. We’re warm, we’re open, we’re genuinely optimistic and welcoming… I guess this is the heart of the Balearic connection for us. Thank you so much, Simon, Matt, and Huw!

With the well-fought-out mixes she proposes on her Mixcloud, Christina DeSouza got my attention. We spoke together about the late Burt Bacharach. Read on! Hello Christina ! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these few questions! It's a real pleasure to have you in here as this place is all about Balearic Breakfast, the show, our beloved Captain but also the community, meaning you! So, are you a professional DJ or a professional audio editor? I listened to some of the mixes you published on Mixcloud, and I must say I absolutely love the vibe of your audio creations! l’m purely an amateur; I’ve always loved putting together mixtapes/playlists for friends and family for many years, sometimes whether they wanted one or not! 🤣 MixCloud has allowed me to now impose myself on the unsuspecting public! I have deliberately not promoted my MixCloud to people I know as I want people to discover the page organically, as that’s how I love to find music... often by accident through searching online, checking out various specialist radio shows/stations and crate digging in vintage stores/flea-markets, I’m a strong believer in letting the universe do its work! If you're meant to find something, you will. We have lost a lot of artists lately, including the great Burt Bacharach. With songs like 'Close to you', 'Walk on by', or even 'I say a little prayer', the American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist is still regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. How did you get to discover his music? What aspect of Burt Bacharach's music attracts you the most? I would say that Burt, particularly when alongside Hal David, was the finest songwriter of the last fifty years. As with most of my music loves, it started via my late father who was an avid collector of 60’s/70’s & 80’s Jazz, Soul & Funk LPs. I initially heard Burt Bacharach via Dusty, Dionne & Herb and always loved the incredible melodies and lyrics. My heritage is Portuguese, and we have a word that I feel sums up his music and it’s “Saudade”. This word describes a feeling which can be hard to describe; it’s a feeling of longing, nostalgia, sometimes feeling both joy and sadness at the same time. And, for me, Burt Bacharach's tracks encompass this feeling - Many quality songs that you hear make you feel emotional, but tracks such as Raindrops, Alfie, Look of Love and numerous others can make me smile and cry all within the same three minutes and often at the same time! Burt Bacharach had a complicated personal life with many love stories and marriages; this comes through in his melodies. A friend of mine worked as a make-up artist for a UK television station for many years, making up many stars for their TV appearances. I once asked her who her favourites were. She told me that two artists had stood out, as they were so warm and seemed genuinely interested in her rather than just going on about themselves! ... These were David Bowie and Burt Bacharach! This makes me love him even more! You did a wonderful mix on Mixcloud to pay tribute to him; obviously, you chose rare versions of some of his songs. How did you prepare it? Was there a special message, or a special feeling you wanted to convey through the mix? I wanted to post a set of well-known Burt Bacharach tracks but in less-known versions by a wide range of artists. On my MixCloud, I prefer to post less-known tracks. I like people to discover things they maybe haven’t heard before or not heard for many years. I like to “feel“ music and therefore, the Burt Bacharach post is a rollercoaster of emotions, both within each track, but also as a whole. The set also includes two songs performed by Dutch artist Trijntje Oosterhius who has released three Burt Bacharach songbook albums, I really love her delivery of Burt’s tracks and her version of the final song on my post “Make It Easy on Yourself”... Makes me blub every time! Coming back to a technical aspect, that's what we audio lovers like to talk about right? (laughs) Can you tell us more about the way you work on your mixes (the gear, the software you use etc.)? I don’t use much gear to do my posts, I am definitely an amateur! The tracks are on my iTunes and I use the App “Mixxx” to put the sets together, with the Auto-DJ option to blend the songs. I can’t mix for toffee (laughs)! I like to think of myself as a music collector rather than an actual DJ! I admire DJs who can mix so much! Colleen is such an inspiration, particularly in what can be such a male-orientated industry. I love the Balearic Breakfast show so much, it’s an incredible mix of genres and Colleen has the talent to be able to weave them together to create a feel/vibe with each show. She can mix, she is so musically knowledgable, she has a tremulous vinyl collection and she has an awesome sound system... She’s got the lot as far as I’m concerned! Last question, are you working on a second part of the Burt Bacharach Mix? Any other ideas for the future? I have so many ideas, too many, actually! I do have a very large collection of both vinyl and CDs that I inherited from my father and have then added some more over the years, I absolutely love to spend time in vintage music stores whenever I can. I’m a big fan of 80’s Soul, Funk and Boogie and tend to post one of those related sets per month, with one other monthly post being “something else”. I do have plans for a “Burt 2” set, so stay tuned! Thank you so much Christina! See you soon on Balearic Breakfast with our dear Colleen!

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 175th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud and Twitch TV socials on May 07th 2024. About this episode. – Occurring when the Moon’s orbit falls directly between the Sun and the Earth; in astrological terms, the New Moon means the Moon is conjunct or joined with the Sun. Since the Moon reflects light from the Sun, it seems to have disappeared from our vantage at this phase of the lunar cycle. This peculiar time of the year holds, on the astrological side of things, a special meaning of new starts and hopes and is often seen and felt as a positive time of the year. And I feel like sharing with you one of my favourite Poems by the great Robert Louis Stevenson: The moon has a face like the clock in the hall; She shines on thieves on the garden wall, On streets and fields and harbour quays, And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees. The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse, The howling dog by the door of the house, The bat that lies in bed at noon, All love to be out by the light of the moon. But all of the things that belong to the day Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way; And flowers and children close their eyes Till up in the morning the sun shall arise. As you shall see, and though I missed the first half hour of the show live, today's episode has a very special groove, a nice musical expansion, shall I say, a growing glow, a leading light, here, somewhere, under a new moon on Groove Avenue... But before I hit the night walk with you all, let's hand the Mic over to our dear Captain! "This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now up and features new music from George Solar, Ken Fan, Jimi Tenor, Aura Safari, Sai Galaxy, Kaivili and Bernardo Pinheiro along with some of your requests, dedications to our birthday boy Bert Francois and a few tunes that sounded incredible at our London Loft party on Sunday (and thanks to all who joined us on Sunday!). It also features one of my favourite Eddy Grant songs which I played on Sunday. I had invited Eddy’s daughter Diane to come along on Sunday and hadn’t seen her arrive so thought perhaps she wasn’t able make it. So I put on ‘Living on the Frontline’ into ‘Frontline Symphony’ which is how David Mancuso liked to play it at The Loft – playing both movements together. About a minute into the song Diane walks up, says she has just arrived as this tune went on and that she has brought me a gift from Eddy and she hands it to me – it’s a t-shirt that says Living on the Front Line. You couldn’t even make that up – a true example of musical synchronicity. Next week I will be streaming remotely as I’m off for a couple of weeks – this Sunday in Athens for Burger Disco Club, then in Boston on Saturday the 18th May with Saucy Lady at Slamfunk on the 18th May and then over to NYC to play at the Good Room with Love Injection on Friday the 24th May. On Sunday, the 26th May I’m back in London for a double header – Gala Festival and then for an after party with CC Disco at The Pickle Factory. If you can make any of those, please say hello. And FYI - there are still some London Loft T-shirts available at https://weare1of100.co.uk/clothing/t-shirts/the-loft-party-music-is-love/" Listen back to the 175th episode of Balearic Breakfast: THE PLAYLIST (2024) George Solar (ft Ken Fan & Jen) – Moonbeams (2024) Aura Safari & Jimi Tenor – Lunar Wind (2024) Mary Greer Mudiku – Happy Sunrise (1982) The Valentine Brothers – Just Let Me Be Close to You (1975) Kimiko Kasai – Use Me (1978) Lemuria – Hunk of Heaven (1975) Earth Wind & Fire – Shining Star (2024) Kenneth Bager & Findlay Brown – Red Flowers (Club Mix) (1982) The NYC Peech Boys – Life Is Something Special (Special Edition Mix) (2024) Sai Galaxy (ft Kaivili) – Sometimes It Rains (2013) An 2 – Lazy Sun (2023) Bernardo Pinheiro – Virabrequim (Original Disco Mix) (2013) Ananda Project – Love Like This (Sean McCabe Remix) (1995) Lil Mo Yin Yang – Reach (Little More Mix) (2009) Primal Scream – Uptown (Andrew Weatherall Remix) (1979) Eddy Grant – Front Line Symphony / Living on the Frontline (1969) Minnie Ripperton – Les Fleurs THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE Under a new moon, a man walks alone. The celestial star shines slowly, in a steady beam, a reassuring light in a somewhat dark night and in certainly uncertain and worried times. The very visual opening track by the self-designated "sunset specialist", the Ibizian DJ George Solar certainly knows what he composes as his visions (quite strong actualy on Moonbeams) transcend the music, meeting our own imagination. His next album on Nunothernsoul promises to be quite excptional! As we shall see, a lot of the coming tracks will have that "Lunar-themed" soul, both lirically and musically. The second track, Lunar Wind, keeps that calm and concentrated feeling with that light lingering shadow somewhere in the sky, allowing us to see more of the "Groove Avenue" we'll spend some time on for the next two hours. It's easy to understand why the listener creates images in his mind when listening to this track, the answer lies in the natural inner grove of the song! As it translates from an interview the 8 piece band Aura Safari gave a few days ago to dirtydiscoradio: "Most of the songs were recorded in one take without a metronome, capturing a naturalness often lacking in modern music". Originaly an instrumental piece with Jimi Tenor on the sax, Lunar Wind became a song and its initial groove has been changed as Nicola shared it during the interview "What I remember about this song is that I kept thinking, “I need to change the groove,” and indeed, at the three-minute mark, it changes completely, with flutes being added, the song reaching another magical dimension. "It’s a very warm and sensual tune". Maybe today's "under a new moon Walking feeling" comes from the fact that this 174th episode has a very "poetic" soul, since George Solar collaborated with the Washington DC based love poet and since, for the next song, visual and performing artist and poet Mary Greer Mudiku, shares, in the absolutely powerful, yet distanced and Balearic musical piece that is Happy Sunrise, positive thoughts we should all keep inside our souls. The track is taken from the jazz-fuelled, spoken word odyssey album that is "Black Love Alive Again" and sees the poet, painter and percusionnist supported by the incredible musical group Oneness of Juju, formed back in 1975! It seems the album has been recorded back in 1995 (as per a Strut Records Instagram Post), but no other information can be found for the moment, as this post on discogs states! Colleen keeps the cool and Moony visuals very alive with : the 1982 Just Let Me Be Close to You, by The Valentine Brothers who were responsible for "Money's too tight to Mention" (btw. Billy Valentine issued a wonderful album not so long ago, check this interview out); the next cool and funky number Use Me by Kimiko Kasai, a cover of Bill Wither's 1972 song appearing on his Still Bill studio album: "I didn't write it about a particular person. I came up with the song when I was working as a mechanic making airplane parts - the original inspiration was my employer. After all, I was making $3 an hour and I wasn't getting much attention from the ladies" (click here to listen to Colleen's special CAS shows "Exploring Japan with Audio Technica"); letting this nice funky moment flow with the 16-member group from Hawaii Lemuria, based around 4 vocalists – and named after the mythical lost continent – who, in 1978, recorded a 45 of the song Hunk of Heaven to promote their self-titled LP, ending it with the absolute funker that is Earth Wind & Fire's Shining Star, composed by Maurice White while he was strolling at night during the band's recording of That's the Way of the World at Caribou Ranch. He became inspired by looking up at the starry sky and took his ideas about the song to the other band members. This song is absolutely representative of the Band's musical philosophy, one that David Mancuso embrace dduring his whole life: "There are certain disciplines we apply to our life in respect of diet and living, the way we live. There are certain aspects which have to be kept clean, things that relate directly to the Creator. By adopting a totally positive approach to our life, we can reflect this in our music - we won't allow it to reflect any negative vibes or thoughts. All our music is 'up' in the sense that it is intended to bring people to that state. It is truly gratifying to know that we are finally getting to people, they are accepting us." Colleen ends the first hour of todays 174th episode of Balearic Breakfast by playing: Kenneth Bager's Red Flowers (Club Mix); followed by Larry Levan's special mix of The NYC Peech Boys' Life Is Something Special. Actually, the band was formed at The Paradise Garage, influenced by Larry Levan, and recorded only one album in 1983 splitting in 1984! For the "fun fact", did you know that the song "Theme from S-Xpress" contains a sample from their 1983 hit, "Don't make me wait"? ending this small mix with Sometimes it rain from a band drawing its musical inspiration from 1970s Disco, Afro Disco & West African Funk (with artists like Nkono Teles, Jake Sollo et Mike Umoh etc.), including artists from all over the world, making music that is full of joy & positivity: Simon Durrington's Sai Galaxy. Susan Chan, Colleen and Bert François The second part of today's show beautifully expands the visuals set in the first hour. With her "rhythmically upfront" selections, Colleen allows the listener to dance his night away on Groove Avenue... Can you see the Moon shining over the sea as An-2's Lazy Sun starts? Well, the title itself does not directly match today's show imagery, but it does when you put it into context, right? Keeping the rhythm steady is something not everyone can do at that level; listen... Colleen then plays the very Balearic and happier Virabrequim (Original Disco Mix) – a nice cover of the Marcos Valle / Azymuth jazz dance classic, “Virabrequim”, taken from the soundtrack to the 1973 "O Fabuloso Fittipaldi" movie which presents the then rising career of the Brazilian Formula Driver. The soundtrack, which includes excerpts of dialogues from the movie, was reissued in 2019. The next mini-mix is truly one that got us all on our knees! Starting with Ananda Project's Love Like This (Sean McCabe Remix), dedicated to our Friend Bert François celebrating his birthday with us all on the chat (to read an interview I did with Bert, click here), Colleen then plays the InFaMous Lil Mo Yin Yang's (collaborative house-music duo consisting of producers and DJs Erick Morillo and Masters at Work's Little Louie Vega) Reach (Little More Mix), beautifully mixed in with Andrew Weatherall's take on Uptown, which really fits into our imagery! (to read an interesting reflection I had on Adrew Weatherall's musical specificities, click here). Today's show ends with two great songs, Eddy Grant's Living on the Frontline/ Front Line Symphony (played by David Mancuso at the Loft back in the day!) and Les Fleurs by the great Minnie Riperton from her 1970 "Come to my Garden" studio album (also played at the end of the 20th episode of the series)... Are you sure you want to leave Groove Avenue now?!