Gilles Peterson invited Colleen to his weekly 'Brownswood Basement' radio show on Worldwide FM on June 06th 2024. About this show. – Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy joined Gilles in the studio this week to discuss her latest release, Balearic Breakfast: Volume 3. Gilles is also joined by Kiiōtō (Lou Rhodes and Rohan Heath) for a stripped-back live session and for conversation with Rikki Stein and Mark Murphy. Listen back to Brownswood Basement (6th June 2024): PLAYLIST Curtis Mayfield – We Gotta Have Peace SHOLTO   –   For The Love of Stripes Melissa Aldana   –   Echoes Of The Inner Prophet IZCO & P Wavey   –   Beauty Inside Androo   –   Lyriso Joe Armon-Jones feat. Nubya Garcia   –   Nubya's Side of Town Holy Tongue feat. Dali De Saint Paul   –   Breicha Bricknasty   –   Ina crueler Hypnotic Brass Ensemble feat. Yasiin Bey   –   Space Mås Ēxödus   –   Arrival (lofi version mastered) Andromeda Turre feat. ELEW   –   Earth Waltz Insane Who Sane Featuring DePeila   –   Keep Pushin' Aun (Original Neo​-​Tech Soul mix) William S. Fischer   –   Patience Is Virtue James Alexander Bright   –   Oh My Yara Lapidus   –   B4 from The Man Who Sold The World Metronomy feat. Faux Real & Miki   –   Contact High TYSON   –   Jumpstart James Clay   –   New Delhi Rubel   –   Forró Violento Bruno Berle – Tirolirole Mike Welch   –   All My Life Jimetta Rose & The Voices of Creation   –   Portals Jacob Gurevitsch   –   Elevation In Minor (Cosmodelica Remix) Zero 7   –   On My Own (12" Version) Pigeon   –   Infinity (Josh's Extended Disco Mix) Scientist   –   The Voodoo Curse Scientist   –   Dance of The Vampires Scientist   –   Blood On His Lips Fela Kuti   –   Question Jam Answer Charles Aznavour   –   For Me Formidable Rachid Taha, Brian Eno & Mick Jones   –   Rock el Casbah (live) Fela Kuti   –   Fear Not For Man Randy Crawford   –   You Might Need Somebody Kiiōtō   –   Painkiller Kiiōtō   –   Hem [live in session] Kiiōtō   –   Here Comes The Flood [live in session] Kiiōtō   –   Song For Bill [live in session] A Guy Called Gerald & Lou Rhodes   –   Humanity Kuna Maze   –   Broken Light THE INTERVIEW colleen and gilles [Gilles] Yes, Colleen. Hi. Hello. It's lovely to see you.   [Colleen] Great to see you. It's been a while. [Gilles] It's been a while.   [Colleen] Oh, no, actually, I saw you at BBE at Muscle Cars. We were. Yeah, I did see you there. Just a few.   [Colleen] Well, my daughter was tending bar. [Gilles] Was she? [Colleen] Yeah, she works.   [Gilles] She works for Pete. It's become a spot, hasn't it?   [Colleen] It has. It has. And I'll be doing a party over there with Hands On Fam . [Gilles] Will you? [Colleen] Yeah, I don't want to mention the date yet because I have to promote my breakfast release party first, but we'll be doing one. Yeah, I'm really excited about that. [Gilles] They've nailed the sound in there, haven't they? [Colleen] It sounds fantastic. They have all that great Klipsch heritage speakers, Cornwalls, which are some of my favorites, actually. Great, great frequency response on those. I don't want to get too crazy on the sound system here, but it does sound wonderful. And the thing actually, and it's a beautiful vibe. That's the thing that's so great.   [Gilles] Yeah, I think Pete does. If there were medals being given out to people who sort of support the scene over the years, I think Pete gets it because, I mean, that label, BBE.   [Colleen] When I worked at Dance Tracks, I'll be honest with you, actually, when I had mentioned to David and I think it was 1998, David had been suffering quite, you know, so much monetarily at the time. I suggested he do a compilation because I had just done a mixed CD for Nervous Records. I thought that's a way that he could maybe get some green energy. And he said he wanted to do it with me. I was surprised. And I thought I didn't have a label. I thought of two labels, one Nuphonic, of course, the other was BBE. I never got to Pete, though, because, you know, I had been working at Dance Tracks and BBE had such great compilations. BBE did the Stranger Games and things. They had great comps. And I just really admire what Pete has done over the years, over the decades, we should say.   [Gilles] Well, that loft Nuphonic compilation, you know, you still it's iconic, whether it was on BBE, you know, they did a great job. [Colleen] Yeah, Nufonic did a great job. It was a good job. [Gilles] And it was an amazing collection. And it was, of course, your relationship with David Mancuso, who you're talking about. And there's been some talk in the press this week, right?   [Colleen] Yeah, it's upsetting that it's come to this, that it's had to come out publicly. But, you know, there is a group that have kind of taken control of the loft party in New York, David's assets. And also, they've been controlling the narrative, actually, in the community since David's passing. And there have been a lot of kind of untruths and misconstrued accounts and statements that have, you know, I think some have maybe influenced by personal motivations that aren't in alignment with David's vision and David's wishes. And tragically, that's kind of what's been out there. And many of us haven't had a voice, you know, which has been really difficult, as you can imagine. And yeah, sadly, the family after so much behind the scenes trying to work things out or trying to communicate and just being rebuffed, and those opportunities not being taken by that other party. This is what the family has had to resort to.   [Gilles] Okay, well, it's obviously super complicated. You've been an immense champion of the work of your mentor.   [Colleen] Yeah.   [Gilles] And over the years, and there is an exhibition happening in New York, right? [Colleen] There is Yeah, [Gilles] Which is celebrating his life. And yeah.   [Colleen] But yeah, that that that, again, I'm gonna have no comments on that publicly at the moment. It's just, it's just very sad. You know, David had chosen three women along with another man to represent his legacy. And he wanted the parties to continue as you know, as they did. And, you know, one of those women was Elise Sifanushin, who was his best friend, his chosen health proxy. She's been sidelines throughout this. Donna Weiss, as well, who is his the face at the door for 40 years consistently with one of the people who never left David's side. Again, she hasn't been celebrated or taken into account. And then obviously myself as well, when David asked me to be chairwoman of the board. So you have this kind of female majority. And David was always, always championed women's rights. And his vision of the loft was one of, you know, he championed civil rights, he championed gay liberation, he championed champion women's liberation, 55 years ago, even longer. And these things are all kind of coming to the fore now, he was way ahead of the time with his vision, and kind of protecting a very safe space with integrity. And it's been very challenging since he passed. I, on a personal level, have thought many times of just walking away, it got that bad. But, you know, it's very difficult when you've made promises to somebody who's your mentor and one of your best friends. And when you see David's vision, not being executed properly, and not being executed with his core values, integrity, and safe space. And that's something that we have to protect. It's something that's worth protecting. I mean, I feel for the family, because they're the ones that are kind of in the firing line on this. And, you know, sadly, they, you know, there is a legal dispute between them and these, this group. Luckily, Elise, Donna and myself are not involved in any legal dispute, because we don't know anything, and we didn't take anything. But of course, we support, well, we have to support the law, number one, but also they really tried to do the right thing for so long. And, you know, I've, you know, it's, it will all come out the truth, the truth will eventually set us free on this. But for now, well, that's all I really want to say.   [Gilles] Thank you so much for saying that. And it's interesting, because I mean, we're talking about PBBE, having been such an important sort of important part of the structure and the infrastructure of the scene. So have you. And you know, you've come and you've celebrated and it's been consistent and it's forward thinking and it's in the spirit of David and, and that scene that you grew up around, which ends up with records like the New Balearic Breakfast. Now, funnily enough, my, my, my encounter with David, weirdly enough, I only ever played with him once, but I did. I don't know if you know this, but it's funny. I remember this as you were talking just now, because I'm going to Portugal to play a gig this weekend. And the last time I think I was in Portugal was with David. [Colleen] Oh, my Gosh... [Gilles] It was that many years ago, it was at a festival. And I remember he was so specific about the sound. I remember he was there, he was there all day, basically, just getting it ready. You know, I remember he was just extra sort of, you know, I just turned up with my records.   [Colleen] As he said, he said, good sound is a human right. Yeah.   [Gilles] We got Colleen Cosmo Murphy here today. Good morning to you. Welcome. [Gilles] You just tuned in. Great track. Thank you so much for bringing in your album.   [Colleen] Thank you. This is a remix I did for a Danish guitarist who plays Spanish guitar, Jacob Gurevich. Yeah. And it's called elevations in minor. And, you know, it's one of the, you know, you do a remix. And then I sometimes, I don't know, I just don't get sick of it. But I just don't always love it immediately.   [Gilles] Yeah.   [Colleen] And this is one I actually kept liking.   [Gilles] Do you play your remixes out?   [Colleen] Not all of them. [Gilles] Not all of them. I played the Secret Nightgang one.   [Colleen] I think. Well, that was I really enjoyed that opportunity. Thank you. I mean, that was I did. I have played that one. I actually even had an acetate made so I could play it at the loft because we only have digital. We only have digital on that remix. [Gilles] Did we never put it on vinyl?   [Gilles] No, no. Wow. That's something we have to do. We're just doing a new. Anyway, I'll talk to Emily about that. And so with regards and the other one that was really big for you was the Lady Blackbird, that was really big.   [Colleen] I think it was the top five in the DJ history.   [Gilles] Yeah.   [Colleen] You know, poll at the end of the year. That was a great opportunity. And I loved working with Ross Allen on that. Usually I don't I just get on with my mix and I don't really discuss it with A&R. But with Ross, he had we talked throughout it and even before and we just had such a good time. I respect him so much as an A&R guy, also as a radio presenter and a great ear. But I think we got somewhere really, really great with that. And I'm really, really proud of that one. It sounds very different to a lot of other things. I think has a real bluesy vibe, but her voice. I mean, did you hear the new thing? The Slave to the Rhythm cover? [Gilles] I haven't heard that. [Colleen] Oh, that I put it on the Balearic Breakfast Show this week. [Gilles] Slave to the Rhythm?   [Colleen] Yeah. Trevor Horn did a whole album of covers and Lady Blackbird sings Slave to the Rhythm. That's interesting. Unreal. [Gilles] Well, we're bigging up Ross Allen and Ross listens to this show.   [Colleen] Oh, hey, Ross.   [Gilles] I can't believe you didn't you didn't tell me about that. But probably because it's not he's not putting that one out.   [Colleen] Oh, yeah, exactly. That's probably why. Yeah, she has her a new EP out. We should say that about Lady Blackbird.   [Gilles] Absolutely. And also when it comes to your remixes and stuff, this one you just played is that did it come out?   [Colleen] It came out of Music for Dreams. Yeah, but it didn't come out on vinyl. So this Balearic Breakfast Volume 3 compilation, there's a lot of things on there that never came out on vinyl. It could be remixes of mine or things that I've played that we got from Bandcamp, you know, from labels and artists that don't have the cash flow to print, you know, to press vinyl. We know there's not a huge return on that. And so, yeah, it's great to have the opportunity to be able to do that. And plus a few older things that are kind of harder to find on vinyl, especially that Primal Scream. Goodness. And that 07.   [Gilles] We're going to play that in a moment. So we're talking about the labels a bit. I think Heavenly have done a great job as well, because this wasn't it's like, you know, they released they did the Mild Life album. They did that.   [Colleen] Yeah, we just went to see them the other night. We went with the Heavenly crew with Jeff Barrett and Danny and Daisy and Georgia and Catherine. It was great.   [Gilles] And all the kids work in different record shops. [Colleen] Yeah, just like my daughter. [Gilles] Yeah, no, it's great. [Colleen] My daughter did her internship at Heavenly. Yeah, the nepotism. Sorry.   [Gilles] What did Heavenly mean to you as a label? Because it was...   [Colleen] Saint Etienne was the first one. And when Fox Bass Alpha came out, I mean, I was living in New York and all of the a lot of the British music that was coming out at that time had a huge influence on me. Like first was Soul to Soul, then with Massive Attack, Blue Lines, Screamadelica was a massive album for me, as was Fox Bass Alpha. I need to do a classic album Sunday. So Saint Etienne, I've already been talking to Jeff about this. [Gilles] How many have you done, by the way?   [Colleen] Hundreds. Hundreds. You know, I started in 2010.   [Gilles] Yeah. [Colleen] And yeah, it was before the listening bar movement. It was before the Vinyl Renaissance.   [Gilles] You know, when you focus on one record and you've done it and you talk to one of the members of the band or whoever it was within the group or the singer or whatever, and you do all the thing and you concentrate and you have the event. And like you had recently at the London British Museum with Jazzy B, you did Eddie Grant, didn't you?   [Colleen] Yeah. So I've actually interviewed both for the British Library, Eddie Grant. And then I've also interviewed Jazzy many times, but also at the British Library, the one about Club Classics.   [Gilles] Yeah, that was good. And so when you do that and you've sort of, do you do you ever go back to that? You know, it's almost like you can't listen to those records again. You're almost over. Which record do you listen to again from all the ones?   [Colleen] Oh, you know, I end up listening to a lot of them because they're all rediscoveries for me. I go, oh, my gosh, I forgot how much I love this album. And also just the act of sitting down and listening to an album in its entirety is really good. Sometimes I do that as a break at the end of the day, as a transition moment from work into, you know, nighttime relaxing, either that or beating my husband at backgammon, you know, so.   [Gilles] Or the two at the same time.   [Colleen] Two at the same time, exactly. But it's a really great thing to do. I mean, I'm just looking right now, Gil Scott-Heron, Pieces of a Man. You sit down and you listen to, I'm just looking at your record collection, or Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt. These are great classic albums. And just sitting and listening and not doing anything else for 45 minutes is a great way to, like, lower your blood pressure, to get your head maybe out of these negative thought loops, which is something I've had to practice a lot over the last few years. And, you know, it's just and also to kind of recognize this as a whole statement by an artist. It's an entire artistic statement, whether or not it's a concept album. But it's great. I get to rediscover so much music.   [Gilles] So because, of course, my problem as well, with regards to what we do on a day to day being that we have to listen to music, new music, old music, the whole thing. So sometimes to find that moment to put on that classic record doesn't always come easily.   [Colleen] No, it doesn't. Yeah. And because we're listening to music all day. I get that, you know, you have to have other hobbies as well. So but it is once you commit to it, and you'll get drawn in. Yeah, I promise you.   [Gilles] I mean, so this is this great. And that 45 minutes before going to bed. Let's play this. Actually, this is a classic record as well. Not this particular one. This record might well be when we play it. But their first album, 07.   [Colleen] Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Simple things. Simple things. I wanted to do a classic album Sundays with them about this too. I'm already working on that. It was a very important album, actually, for my husband and I to kind of soundtrack to our courtship. You know, these these albums have cultural influence, but they also become personal soundtracks as well. And that album was very and Sia being on that as well. I mean, she had just and then I got her solo album and went down that little kind of, you know, rabbit hole. But I'm really pleased 07 are playing with me. They're they're DJing. They're doing a DJ set for the record release party at NTS loft on the 15th of June. So very excited about that. [Gilles] Good memories of doing a gig actually with Sia at Cafe Mambo. It was when I was on radio one, we did live from Ibiza and we did a session with them. They played live. And I think that night I played at space or something with Carl Cox and I had my very difficult evening live on the road.   [Colleen] Oh, no. It's like I can kind of imagine now. [Gilles] Yeah, you can exactly that and two sides of the musical whatever coming together in front of 3000 Italians on ecstasy. Tricky. So, Colleen, tell me about what you're up to outside of doing Balearic Breakfast and what's happening with you on the radio at the moment. You were doing lots of stuff live on Twitch and stuff.   [Colleen] Yeah, you know, I'm still doing Balearic Breakfast. It's the radio show without a radio station, basically. But it's actually kind of in a weird way. It's kind of also upholding David's principles of DIY. I just I continued streaming every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon on my MixCloud Live channel and it gets archived. And the response has been immense. You know, I mean, the thing is, Balearic Breakfast, it's a community. It's not just me now. And this is a request show. Of course, I curate it. I bring my own music to the table. I host it. I kind of shepherd it. But it's every so many people involved. There's a blog that has nothing to do with me that goes out every single week from a guy named Artur in Paris who does that. I have nothing to do with that. He interviews people. It's amazing. It's amazing. I have guest mixes from some of the contributors. Of course, we do lots of interviews, too. So that that's continued. I'm also still doing remixes. I have a remix of Bryony Jarman Pinto coming out in True Thoughts in July. It's just come. I think you will like it, actually. I'm going to send it to you. It's called Moving Forward. I love that song. Yes. I did a kind of a more 80s kind of down tempo groove mix.   [Gilles] Yeah.   [Colleen] And when they asked me to do it, they said we really love your secret night gang mix. So there you go. There you go.   [Gilles] Yeah, that's good. She she she played here last week, actually. She was she was brilliant. [Colleen] Yeah, she's great. Yeah, very, very modest and and totally like just low key, beautiful, wonderful, soulful person. It was wonderful having you around here last week, Bryony. [Gilles] So actually, yeah, you were talking about about your your your your interviews. And of course, you did Eddie Grant.   [Colleen] Yeah.   [Gilles] And I saw I went to the exhibition that day the opening day and I saw him. I had met interviewed him actually Worldwide FM previously and I was introduced to him again. He had no clue who I was. And it was it was it was odd because it had been a few years ago. But anyway, how was he? Because he's a legend, right?   [Colleen] I met him I think over 20 years ago. I think it was 2001 with I may have been Quentin from Strut. Actually, we went out to dinner. And I remember I started I talked to Eddie about I love your coach house rhythm stuff. And he's coach house rhythm section stuff. And he said he turned to his manager and said she knows more about my music than you do, that manager at the time. But I've always wanted to interview him and this opportunity presented itself. So he came over for dinner a couple nights before we did the event.   [Gilles] Yeah. That's a good idea.   [Colleen] And because we had had dinner before he had actually invited us to Barbados. We got on so well when I met him over 20 years ago. And he is I respect him so much in so many ways. Of course, there's the creative artists side. I mean, we've all heard the music. He doesn't sound like anyone else. He really forged a different sound that even hit the top 40 airwaves. But he's also as a person, an incredible, incredible person for many reasons. One, he's a real entrepreneur. He's a business entrepreneur. He has also had the business acumen to own his own music and to license some of his stuff to major labels. He even owns the equals music. He's also really spiritual. He kind of you know, the challenges that I've been going through. He was he said a lot of things that really resonated with me. And he's a family man. He has a great family. And he works you know, his children work with him and they're wonderful. His daughter Pauline is fantastic. His daughter Diane came over for dinner and also came over to our London loft party afterwards. There. I just I really, really adore him and respect him.   [Gilles] Amazing, amazing. And the talk was good. I bet.   [Colleen] Oh my gosh. Yeah, it was it was it could have gone on for hours. He is a storyteller. And he has an incredible memory. He can remember everything. He'll say, I was walking across the garden holding a hot chocolate, like, literally detailed stories. And he does have an autobiography coming out, which would be well worth a read.   [Gilles] But I think it's interesting in the kind of art of interviews, the fact that you spent some time with him before socially, and then because I feel that when I've heard him in the past, even when I interviewed him years and years ago, not prepared like you had, obviously, I felt that he was kind of when they've had such a long career, they tend to fall into those autopilot answers. And so suddenly, you're feeling like, yeah, they're delivering it well. But they've heard I've heard it before somewhere. So to get into the cracks is the idea. And that's what you managed to do.   [Colleen] I did. And also the thing that was nice is he invited some of his old colleagues, we had members of the equals sitting in the front row. [Gilles] Wow.   [Colleen] So that just lent a whole kind of electricity, electricity into the air. And I just it was just phenomenal. It was such a career highlight for me. Did you enjoy the exhibition? I have to see it still because I couldn't see it that day. And I've been away I was in the States for a while. Taking care of my mom. But I am going to go see it on a weekday in the morning, not on a weekend. So yeah, I have an invitation. But I've heard my daughter went the next day. I've heard great things. Everyone that's seen it has really said a lot of great things about 500 years of black British music.   [Gilles] Amazing. The British Museum, which is on now for a little while longer. Colleen, brilliant. What have you got in the summer and the gigs? We're looking forward to we out here of course.   [Colleen] Yeah, we have the love dance and tent here, which we all love. And thank you again for that opportunity. It's such a party. It's the party tent there. Also doing Houghton, which thankfully is on a different weekend this year. Yeah, lots of other festivals. And what I'm doing for Wayne Hemingway, which is really interesting called First Light Low stuff.   [Gilles] Oh, yeah.   [Colleen] That's a good one. So I'll be doing the evening doing a down step. But then I'm playing on the sunrise, the most easterly point of the UK on the on June 23. So pretty close to the solstice. I'm playing in Ibiza this weekend. You know, I have a record release party.   [Gilles] Where'd you play there?   [Colleen] I'm playing a record release party at the Standard on Saturday. And I'm doing Glitterbox. Actually, I'm opening for Moose Tea Main Room. [Gilles] Hello. [Colleen] Yeah, so that should be fun. He's he's another lovely, positive guy. Oh, my gosh. He's a great spirit.   [Gilles] Do you like going to Ibiza? [Colleen] I do. [Gilles] What happens when you come out when you when you know when you when you're picking up your bags and you see all the people coming through?   [Colleen] Yeah, what's your energy level? I'm more into the nature side of the island. And that's just who I am as a person anyway. So on the Sunday, I'll be breaking out and going somewhere with a nice lunch that's far away from all the activity, you know. So yeah, that's brilliant.   [Gilles] Colleen, thank you so much for coming in today. The album is out tomorrow. [Colleen] Tomorrow. [Gilles]   Great timing. Big up to Adam. [Colleen] Oh, thank you. [Gilles] Breakfast volume three. [Colleen] Big up to Jeff Barrett and the team at Heavenly too. [Gilles] You are a beacon of light and energy and the work you're doing is amazing. Keep the spirit and have a lovely summer. [Colleen] Thank you. You too.

DJ_Emma, a member of the Balearic Breakfast family, is a renowned DJ and radio host. In this episode of Boogie Boulevard, she interviews Colleen! About this show. – Boogie Boulevard is DJ Emma 's monthly radio show on 1BTN . In this episode, she interviewed Colleen about her musical journey. Let's dive deep! Listen back to Boogie Boulevard with DJ Emma: PLAYLIST ( 2008 ) Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra – San Diego ( 1987 ) Quintus Project – Night Flight ( 1982 ) Pat Metheny Group – Are you going with me? Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes – Wake up everybody (Re-recorded version) ( 1975 ) DJ Rogers – Hold on, Be Strong ( 1976 ) Stevie Wonder – As ( 2024 ) Residentes Balearicos – Balearic for President (Puerto Montt City Orchestra Blue Sky Mix) ( 2000 ) Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now (Orchestral version) ( 2008 ) Primal Scream – Uptown (Weatherall Mix) ( 2023 ) Jacob Gurevitsch – Elevation in Minor (Cosmodelica Remix) ( 1979 ) Brass Construction – Music makes you feel like dancing THE INTERVIEW [DJ_Emma] Hello, hello, welcome back to my June edition of Boogie Boulevard. I hope you're all well and enjoying this lovely sunshine. This show's going to be perfect for a sunny Friday because I've got a very special guest coming in very shortly and it's someone I hold in very high esteem and who's a big inspiration to me so I'm extremely honoured to be welcoming Colleen Cosmo Murphy onto the show for an extended interview. She's also going to be picking out some tunes as well and some of her favourite tracks and also I'm going to be playing a few of the tracks from her latest Balearic Breakfast compilation, Volume 3 . For the next two hours it's going to be quite a lot of chat but also some amazing music so I hope you're going to stick around. I'm kicking things off with one of my favourites from the compilation, this is San Diego and it's by Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra . Before we get started on the interview I just wanted to give you a little intro about Colleen and why I'm such a huge fan. So Colleen describes herself as a music lover, a music curator and a music educator and as well as DJing across the globe you will also find her hosting the London Loft Party, presenting both the classic album Sundays and her Balearic Breakfast show and remixing artists like David Holmes and Roisin Murphy. I'm an avid listener to her Balearic Breakfast radio show and have been for years and I had the pleasure of being on the dance floor in Love Dancing at We Out Here. I'm sure if you've listened to this show before you've heard me talking about this more than once. So I experienced her DJing and it was just on another level entirely, something I haven't experienced before and I have been around a long time. Colleen is a true inspiration to me and so many others. There's not many people out there that have such a vast knowledge of music and more importantly know how to share it with others the way Colleen does. So I'm really honoured to have her as a guest on the show. She's lived a truly fascinating life and I could have chatted to her for so much longer. I began by asking Colleen about her earliest memories of being a child and what inspired her musically.   [Colleen] I grew up in a small town outside of Boston, Massachusetts and you know it's a very small town and most of my family were there. I was the oldest grandchild and my aunts and uncles were still like eight, ten, twelve, fourteen. You couldn't walk down the centre of town without seeing a Murphy. It was a great place to grow up. It was a great place to grow up but by the time I was a teenager I just I had to get out.   [DJ_Emma] Yeah, the way it is isn't it? And what were your first musical memories and influences as a child?   [Colleen] It was mainly what my aunts and uncles were playing. My parents were into music but not hugely into it. It wasn't something that was always on in the house. It was always on in the car but it wasn't really on in the house. But my aunts and uncles were so young and some were teenagers that it was really their record collections or their radios that I was listening to. And the things that I grew up with, I mean I remember hearing Rock On by David Essex which was a real kind of psychedelic experience. I was in my uncle's room and he had the blue lights were on and that song came on the radio and I thought little men were singing it and it was really intense. And then I was listening to The Beatles, Hey Jude in my other uncle's Red Convertible. And then my other aunt, she was really into Bowie and Elton John. And my first record that anyone bought me was Elton John's Greatest Hits (ed. 1974) . I think it was my eighth one. So yeah, lots of kind of classic rock and of course there's always Top 40 on the radio. I really got into the radio. I got my first transistor radio about seven or eight at Christmastime and I just became obsessed. And I remember running upstairs, plugging it in, turning it on and Silver Convention, Fly Robin Fly was the first thing that came on the radio. So that kind of dates exactly what year I actually got it. [DJ_Emma] That's amazing. You can remember that that song came on.   [Colleen] Yes, they're real. I can remember everything. I remember, you know, I just remember the whole feeling and the radio became one of my best friends probably. So it was very, very important to me. And then I got my first turntable when I was 12 and started raiding my aunt's and uncle's record collections and, you know, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Moody Blues, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, kind of all the classic stuff, you know.   [DJ_Emma] Brilliant. Did you have siblings as well?   [Colleen] Yeah, I have a younger sister and I'm really proud to say her daughter, my niece, has just started on her high school radio station as well.   [DJ_Emma] Oh, amazing.   [Colleen] Yeah, it's really cool.   [DJ_Emma] So let's go to your first tune. So your Ultimate Goosebumps track. I know you've struggled to find one. You've got quite a few, haven't you?   [Colleen] I have quite a few. And I decided to go with Are You Going With Me by Pat Metheny because it's just so emotive. It's so lyrical, even though there's no words. There's a bittersweet kind of feeling to it. There's a nostalgic feeling, but there's still kind of these soaring melodies that take you elsewhere. And I remember playing, I've played it many times in my life and every time I've played it, it's been a very emotional moment. The most emotional time I played it was in 1999 or 98 or 99. I was on the radio on WNYU 89.1 FM and I had hosted radio shows there for nearly 15 years. And I was doing my last, I was announcing to my listeners that I was moving and that I was leaving not only New York, but the United States. And, you know, I had a very dedicated fan base. In fact, one of them is still one of my listeners and a contributor to Balearic Breakfast, Bert Francois. People hear his name all the time.  But I played that song and I got so many emails and letters that I found during the pandemic, actually, and re-read how much this radio show meant to people. Because house music, even though a lot of it was coming out of New York, we didn't have a lot of places where it was actually played, especially on the radio. So I did turn a lot of people on to house music. Because it was terrestrial radio as well, you're flipping on the dial. It's not like you're online looking for something. And there were people that had never heard it before. And yeah, it was just a very emotional, beautiful song. I love Pat Metheny's work. Pat Metheny was also a favorite of my mentor and friend David Mancuso. We bonded on that because I had gotten into Pat Metheny in high school. And yeah, I think that's the goosebumps track for today. But tomorrow that could change. I have a list of a bunch of them. You know, I was thinking like, it's also like This Woman's Work. Kate Bush is another one that just, you know, leads. And then I was thinking about like, Wake Up Everybody by Harold Melvin, the Blue Notes. I was thinking about Charles Earland drifting.   [DJ_Emma] So there's so many. Yeah, This Woman's Work. I actually remember requesting it on the Balearic Breakfast about two years ago. I think I did. Yeah, you did play it as well.   [Colleen] Oh, cool.   [DJ_Emma] One significant part of your musical journey was your friendship with David Mancuso and the Loft Parties . And he once told Time Out New York in 2000 about you. He said, "she's very devoted and very pure about the music. She's one of the only people I would trust both with the music, the equipment and the dance floor to fill in for me" . So tell me about your deep connection to David and his music and and how the relationship developed from being his protégé into becoming his close friend.   [Colleen] Yeah, it was probably more the other way around, friend to, or maybe simultaneous, even really. But, you know, I started going to his parties in 1992 on East Third Street, and it was a beautiful space. But it was at a time, and I was just transformed by the music, the vibe, the feeling of safety as a young woman. I could go alone and have a great time. And the fact that it was in somebody's home, it was also in my neck of the woods, the East Village, which is where I spent a lot of my time when I lived in New York. And he and I, I didn't really know him in the beginning.   I just went to the parties. You know, I'd say hi, but I'm not one of those types of people to crowd the DJ booth or anything. And also at that time, I was still I was just beginning to I was DJing already as a radio DJ, which kind of led me to playing some, you know, public venues in the 80s, whether it was Mars (ed. now closed ) or CBGB's Record Canteen . And then in the early 90s, when I started DJing as well, I was playing, you know, local bars and things like that. But I was just so inspired by what he was doing. And I had a radio show called Soul School, and I wanted him to come up on the radio show and play some music. And he said, why don't we go out for a drink so we can talk first? And we just had a really deep conversation, you know, about music and synchronicity. And, you know, I had I think we connected on a spiritual level as well, because I had studied Buddhism. I had lived in Japan in 1989. And I was a radio DJ there and I had studied Zen Buddhism. And I noticed with David, there were a lot of things that I learned in Buddhism that he seemed to be striving for himself as well.   And I could just felt this kind of connection on so many different levels. But then very early on, and I thought about this, it's crazy, because I didn't know what the loft was. I think I think it's very important to say this, this party wasn't really that it was definitely not oversubscribed at the time. Many times there were hardly anybody was hardly anyone showing up. David was really suffering. And this is the 1990s for a lot of different reasons.   And so I didn't really know his actual place in dance music history. It was all learning that and there was no internet and there weren't really you'd have to go to find old magazines on microfiche at the library. I mean, that was the only way to find stuff. So it was more like this is a really good guy. I love what he's doing. I want to help him. So that's why I wanted to get him up on the radio to kind of say to people, hey, the loft is still going on. You need to support David because so many people supported him in the 70s and the early 80s. And then they didn't in the 90s for various reasons. And, you know, I was really trying to get the word out there that, you know, he was still around and still doing it. And then soon after, he asked me to play some records with him, which was something that I had never even considered would happen. Like I when I invited him up my radio show, I didn't think that we'd then be working together at some point. It was just more like, let me help this guy, however I can help him. And yeah, it was when I look back on it, I mean, I only played four records the first time, but then he started playing a bit more with him and then filling in for him. And we were doing fundraisers around my birthday. And I just became very involved with him. I was being part of his music pool. We would listen to records during the week and turn people, turn each other on to stuff. And yeah, he became a friend. And I remember asking him a few years before he passed away. I said "You know, why did you trust me? You know, you didn't know. You didn't really know me very well. I was young. I was maybe 24, 25. And you trusted me with the music, with the people that were there, the dancers, but also the sound system" . I mean, the Koetsu moving quill cartridges he was using were like two thousand dollars each. And I just you know, he taught me how to handle it. And there's no headphones. It is all class A amplifiers and which run really hot. And he trusted me with it. And he said it starts with the vibe long before when it's the turntable. In any case, you know, I came up with the idea for the compilations in 1998 because I had just done a mix CD for Nervous Records in 1998 called New York After Hours, Later Shade of Deep . And I thought, gosh, David, if David did a compilation, that would really raise awareness about his story. And also it would be some good green energy for him, too, because he was, you know, as I said, times were really, really tough. And when I mentioned this to him, he said, "I only want to do it with you" . And I thought, oh, my gosh, I don't have a label. I was moving to another country. I didn't have the confidence to get investment to to start my own label. And that's that's when I spoke with Nuphonic about doing it because I had a relationship with them anyways. And they did a great job. And it really got David's story out in the world. And then, you know, he started going different places and traveling and playing. And he did parties with us here in London. He and I played together in different countries throughout Europe. He was going to Japan and his fortune started to change. The parties were reaching capacity. All the reservations would have gone. And he was getting into a better financial space as well, which was very helpful. And then once I moved here, we started working internationally together. So, you know, I was thinking about it today. [DJ_Emma] Yeah. [Colleen] I worked with David and the loft for over half my life. [DJ_Emma] Wow. [Colleen] And I just a friend of mine said that. And she said, you've been working with him because she was there. You've been working with him for over half your life. I thought, oh, my gosh. And yeah, it's it's a relationship that I'll always treasure. You know, it's he says he felt he was lucky he found me. I feel lucky that I found him. [DJ_Emma] You continue the loft legacy by running the parties in London now.   [Colleen] Yes. And I was and I was part of the loft parties in New York as David had brought me back before he passed away. But there's been a recent article in Resident Advisor , which sort of details an event that happened back in September 2022. Basically, David had chosen a board that he wanted to represent his legacy. And he had asked me to be chairperson and two other women who are in their 70s or his best friends to be on this board. And it was himself and another gentleman. And it was a woman majority board. And he won. One of the reasons he wanted me to chair it was because I was a woman as well. The whole yin yang balance was hugely important to David. In any case, he didn't he didn't legalize that. But the family that who inherited everything after David passed, because David didn't leave a will, they recognized our group and worked with us. We let some others onto the board. And in 2022, they did exactly what that Resident Advisor article said they did. They sent an email to say that some of us would no longer be involved. They took out the majority of funds from the bank account and took all of David's belongings, including his personal belongings, and moved them to another space. We don't know where they are. And, yeah, so the family is in a legal dispute with them at the moment. And luckily, at least Don and I are not in this dispute because we don't own anything. We didn't take anything. But it's been a very harrowing, you know, as you can imagine, very difficult. But, you know, I have I have faith that we'll be able to somehow restore David's vision. And I think the interesting thing is David went through so much of this himself when he was alive. You know, he had when I first met him, he had a building stolen from him.   [DJ_Emma] Oh, wow. Oh, my goodness. Yeah.   [Colleen] Yes. So these types of things, because it's an open kind of space and because there is so much trust in the community, it can almost open itself up to these types of people and situations, I suppose. [DJ_Emma] So I think that's a really good point. Yeah. [Colleen] Yeah. So, you know, I'm actually a little relieved that this story is starting to come out. It's going to probably have a lot more coming out. But I just I just hope that everything that, you know, David's vision is restored. And it's something that I and my fellow board members, Don and Elise, and I know the family are really committed to. So staying positive.   [DJ_Emma] Going back to your loft parties, I mean, how would you describe the difference of the loft party experience to the more standard club experience? And for anyone that hasn't experienced one of these parties, how would you kind of talk about the loft parties? Because they are different, the way the music's played, you know, and there's other other aspects as well.   [Colleen] There's a lot of aspects. I think the first thing is that it's based around community. And when you do and that's something that I've done with Balearic Breakfast as well. It's based around community, whereas a club night, it can be, but it's kind of open to one and all. And we decided to keep our membership private. You know, if you still become a member, you just have to contact one of us who, you know, are running the London loft. But it's keeping tabs on who's there and creating a sense of intimacy. So it's not just, you know, random flyering and postering and club listings where anybody can turn up. So people need to be aware and interested in the ethos, aware of the ethos and interested in it. And because it's based around community, I think that really sets it apart from, you know, other aspects of my career, which is, you know, I DJ as well. And I do love DJing. It's just, it's a different thing to this. Of course, the way we play the music, we use an audiophile sound system. You're hearing music in a completely different way. I think it's more immersive. It's warmer. It's more enveloping. And the volume isn't too loud. You know, we peak at about 100 dB, which isn't that loud. And when you think about clubs like Ministry of Sound, and it's, you have to wear earplugs. So there's a very kind of, it's a safe space in terms of, for hearing as well, because you're trying to create a safe space, not only socially, but also for people's, you know, for their health, really. Also, music isn't mixed. It's just one song to the next. So there is no kind of performance element like there is when you're DJing and you're mixing, which I also love, don't get me wrong. I do look at these as there's some overlap, but they're also distinct. Yeah, because it's just a different way of programming and putting music together. So there's a lot of freedom with that as well, of course. It's a very long set. I mean, sometimes when I filled in for David, it was 12 hours. So this one here is seven. Yeah. So that's really great, you know, because you really feel like you can go places, you know, that you can't normally go in a more, you know, shorter DJ set, like two hours. [DJ_Emma] And people applaud sometimes at the end of the songs, don't they, as well? [Colleen] Yeah, they do. You know, they don't have to, but they do, I guess, because they're feeling it. They're feeling a certain life energy come through the music. And, you know, it's a different way of, you know, you're trying to channel more, you know, and I'm really trying to relax so much into it that I don't even have to think too much about what the next record is going to be. It should just present itself.   [DJ_Emma] Oh, wow. It's like almost spiritual, spiritual thing. [Colleen] Yeah. There's more of that kind of a feeling. Yeah. So there's a lot of different things that make it different, but it's really the energy of the team as well that do it. We have a great group of people who are just so positive and just have a lot of love. And that comes through as well. So it's not just me, it's the entire team. And they're just good vibes people and really committed to David's vision. And, you know, it's so that's really great. So I'm really proud of them. David was very proud of them as well.   [DJ_Emma] So talking about David's vision, do you think we need it more than ever in these current times? Because, you know, do you think a Loft's values stand up in today's social media and obsessed world that we live in? And yeah...   [Colleen] It's difficult. It's certainly not present in a lot of social media and in a lot of today's world. I mean, David tried to create an idealist community. So it's almost like you have a microcosm of a social experiment. And because it was in his own home when he started these parties, he was able to kind of control it, you know, who was coming in, who would kind of people he allowed to be there, you know, who he would trust. And, you know, sometimes people take advantage of these situations, or maybe they don't understand the social evolution aspect of this. I think, you know, it's something I think David and I both believe, I believe we're here to evolve as a species. And part of that is that we evolve as an individual. And, you know, I'm always trying to work on self-improvement. And I know David was too. He was a human, he was not a god and all this kind of deity language surrounds him. And I find quite distasteful. But he was an extraordinary human being. And he really tried to foster, you know, social justice and things like that. And yes, we do. We do need it now more than ever. I mean, you see steps forward and then steps going back and we see this whether it has to do with, you know, racism, sexism, homophobia, and all these other nasty kinds of isms. [DJ_Emma] Yeah. [Colleen] And on social media. Yeah, I mean, some people don't behave themselves and they say terrible things. And it's awful to behold. But I do sometimes wonder if there'll be a reaction. I know we have daughters at a similar age and I do wonder if their generation will have a backlash against it at some point. So I think, you know, we'll see.   [DJ_Emma] I feel like my younger daughter definitely is different to the slightly older one. I think the younger one's generation. So she's 18. You can't put all 18 year olds in the same group. But definitely her and her friends are very different and they still need their phones all the time. But it's kind of different.   [Colleen] It's not constant selfies.   [DJ_Emma] It's not the selfies. It's not the posing for the selfies and taking photos of yourself at every opportunity. Yeah, that's definitely changed.   [Colleen] I just wonder if people get embarrassed when they're doing that. I see them. I'm like, you see everyone's looking. I mean, I think I've done two selfies. I'm terrible. [DJ_Emma] I hate them. [Colleen] I'm a total Gen Xer. I'm like, I can't even do it. And I look terrible in them. And I also feel like a nitwit, you know, when people are looking at me doing it.   [DJ_Emma] I take the worst selfies ever. It's awful. It's not attractive. Usually I use it for a mirror when I'm walking the dogs. I'm like, I wonder how bad I look today. Oh yes, I do. So your second tune that you've chosen is one more tune. So something you play at the end of the night and you've chosen As by Stevie Wonder . So I've gone for this one.   [Colleen] Because everybody loves it. And I am not too proud to say that I will play crowd pleasers because I don't only play crowd-pleasers. My whole philosophy as a musical curator, whether it's DJing or classic album Sundays or radio hosting, is to both have stepping stones and touch points for people where they know certain songs and then to turn them onto something new. So it's almost like you're getting the trust and you're having this great, joyous musical experience when people do know the song and can sing along. And then that kind of sets you up as well to be able to maybe play things that they don't know. I feel an end of the night song in general, not always, but in general, it's great to have something uplifting that people can sing along to and they hold in their hearts when they leave. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I go really spacey and really just out there. Like I think I did the last London Loft Party. I played a Malcolm McLaren remix. It was really out there. But generally, other times you want to leave people really up and quite happy. And this is Stevie Wonder. I once joked I was doing a Stevie Wonder Classic Album Sundays event and I said, you know, I was being a little facetious, but I said, if somebody doesn't like Stevie Wonder, they cannot be my friend.   [DJ_Emma] That's true. Who could not like Stevie Wonder?   [Colleen] And I really, I don't know anyone who doesn't like Stevie Wonder because I just wouldn't be in my world. You know, I just wouldn't come across them. So it's kind of, you know, and it's such a beautiful, positive song as well. It's really uplifting. And musically, it's phenomenal. It's just it's just a great song that just seems to, I think music should bring people together. And that song really does. [DJ_Emma] Yeah, that's really interesting what you say about you give people a crowd pleaser and then, you know, you'll play some other things because your set in Love Dancing, honestly, is probably the best that I've ever seen in my life. All my friends, even my husband, who it takes a lot for him to enjoy himself.   [Colleen] Now that he has a house full of women DJs because your daughter DJs too.   [DJ_Emma] You know, he's very picky when it comes to music and DJing. And he's like, it takes a lot to to please him and get him to really relax and have a good time. But he absolutely loved it as well. And yeah, it was brilliant. That brings me on to the Love Dancing tent, because you obviously curate it for we out here. And curating the line up must be fun.It must be a fun job to curate something and put on different DJs and acts. [Colleen] But I love it. I love it. But it's also a bit difficult too... [DJ_Emma] Because it's a bit of a challenge.   [Colleen] So many people. I mean, I've had you before. Yeah, I mean, I've had you before as well. It's such limited space. And and because I mean, it's great because Trojan Sound System programs the Thursdays this year. Sometimes Scruff and I switch days depending upon what else other things we're doing. He's programming the Friday and he always has a great lineup. And I'm programming the Saturday and then Dingwalls on the Sunday. So all jazz. So I just program one day and, you know, you only have a few songs available. And what I try to do is have younger people and then more, you know, people who've been around as well, been around for a while, like myself, or a heritage act as well. So this year I have Greg Wilson in that heritage spot. And before me, I have Muscle Cars , who are a lovely young duo from from New York City. They have a new album out on VBE. And last year I brought Love Injection from New York. And I noticed that people really like the fact that I was bringing people over from New York as well. That connection seemed really important. And so I wanted to do it again this year. It's like turning people on to somebody that they may not get the opportunity to hear. And then having younger DJs this year, you know, you have younger DJs and a DJ collective, Eve's drop Collective , are joining us on my day this year. Of course, I always try to keep a good balance, but I think we all do on all the days trying to keep a good balance of, you know, gender balance, which has always been something important to me. But I think, you know, it's also having the giving younger people the chance. And it's something because they get a chance to play on a really great sound system, because our sound system is, well, of course, I think it's the best. But also Lemon Lounge is great, too. They're like our, they're our, they're our kind of little brother, little sister tent that we share a generator, which went out twice last year.   [DJ_Emma] Oh, no, no!   [Colleen] That was great, too! I love them.   [DJ_Emma] Because you played the whole 15 minutes of Get Ready.   [Colleen] I did.   [DJ_Emma] Off in the middle of it, didn't it?   [Colleen] It really did! It's like right, maybe like a minute or into it and it went off. And I only had a few minutes left before Ashley and Rob were coming on. And I said to Ash, I'm going to be cutting into your set if I play this. He said, just play it.   [DJ_Emma] It's just brilliant. It added to the whole thing because it sort of went off and we were like, Oh, what's happened? And then it came back on. It's like, woo! It's amazing. Honestly, it's the best night. [Colleen] Play it from the start again. [DJ_Emma] Yeah, that was really fun to be back on the dance floor.   [Colleen] Yeah, I can't wait. And this year I get to hang out the whole time because the last since the pandemic, I had multiple festivals on a weekend and the weekends that it's been held on was kept changing due to venue, the venue as well. But this year is on a different weekend and so I'll be there the entire time hanging out, listening to DJs and seeing bands and, you know, and hanging out a lot in our love dancing tent because I just, I love all the DJs that play there. It's so much fun.   [DJ_Emma] We're there for the whole weekend as well. I can't wait. It's the only festival this year that I'm going to do the whole thing because they are knackering. [Colleen] Are you camping? [DJ_Emma] Yeah, well, we've got, we've got not quite a camper van, but my husband's got like this utility van that we can sort of put a mattress in. So we are kind of doing living vehicle, which is a bit better for when you're a bit older. [Colleen] Definitely! [DJ_Emma] He's got like a makeshift shower in it as well. So, so we can have even freshen up, which is good. [Colleen] That's so cool! Very good.   [DJ_Emma] It's good. Are you camping or are you in a van?   [Colleen] I haven't camped the last year or two. I did the first few years, but the problem for me is I'm not a great sleeper and it's the sound and the light is too, too much. So just staying, staying off site.   [DJ_Emma] Oh, nice. That sounds good.   [Colleen] Being a little bit of a diva, you know!   [DJ_Emma] Well, I think when, you know, when you get a little bit older, you have to have your comfort. So I can't, you know, you definitely have to. [Colleen] And I'm working every day.   [DJ_Emma] Yeah, exactly. [Colleen] You know, I am working. Yeah.   [DJ_Emma] So no, it'd be fun. But yeah, gigs in general, do you still from time to time get gigs that are difficult or are you at the stage where you can say no to an event if you know it's not going to be right for you?   [Colleen] Yeah, definitely. We definitely say no quite a lot in certain situations. And it's not that I'm snobby. It's just I have a better idea of who I am and what's right for me. And so does my husband's my manager. So I'm really lucky. So he vets everything. And he's more protective over me than I am, which is which is great. But sometimes that's due to the sound system as well. Like if the sound system is just not going to work at all or. But generally, to be honest, because I don't have generally. Hum. I'm in nice situations, like if someone's asking me to play, they have a good idea of who I am. I'm not getting offered like big techno sets or anything like that.   [DJ_Emma] Exactly.   [Colleen] So I think it's, you know, I've been around for long enough that, you know, if people want to book me, they and I'm a bit versatile as well. It's not like it's not like just a single sound that I have. I did a Balearic Breakfast set last week for the for the record release party, and I've done a few of those. In fact, I have a Balearic Breakfast set at First Light Festival on the 23rd of June, and it's the most easterly point in the UK. And I'm doing the sunrise session. So it's like the day after the solstice or something.   [DJ_Emma] Oh Wow.   [Colleen] Yeah. So that's exciting. So there's different. I feel quite lucky because there's different styles.Like, you know, I was playing Glitterbox main room last weekend in Ibiza. That's a whole other thing. And it's so fun.I mean, the people are great and it's a really well run club, but it's a different it's a different thing than other things that I do. But I like the fact that I do a lot of different things. It keeps me interested musically.   [DJ_Emma] And you've certainly got a lot of records behind you to pick. Yeah, exactly. How does how does your memory? Can you remember all your records? Because I'm looking behind you and my I know my memory is absolutely horrific. And on my USB, I just I just forget what tracks I have.   [Colleen] Oh, USBs are terrible. I cannot because I don't I have a visual memory. So now the only thing with my record collection, because I've worked in so many record shops, I've worked in four shops over the years. I'll think, oh, do I have that? Let's say, do I have that, hum, Chaka Khan album. And because I've seen all the albums and held them at different, you know, record shops that I've worked at, I have this visual memory that's attached to it. But then I can't remember if it's in my collection or not. So I'm thinking, gosh, maybe I need an intern to kind of like catalog all this. But generally, I do. I do have a pretty good idea. And it is relatively organized as well for my own for my own... [DJ_Emma] Alphabetical.   [Colleen] It's all different. It's just how I can access it. So they'll be like a balearic section now because it's easier for me to go there when I'm doing a set rather than going through, you know, 8000 records. Um, yeah. So you have to kind of do that. Yeah. So but yeah, it's like it's it's it makes me feel like home. These records because, you know, they've been with some of them I've had since I was 12, 13, you know, years old.   [DJ_Emma] I don't want to depress everybody, but the third tune is your funeral song. And I had so many songs.   [Colleen] I had so many songs for this one. But the first one that came to mind was both sides now by Joni Mitchell. And she did it. She it's been on recordings three times. This is the first one that's on her album, Clouds, I believe. And she had just written it. She had just written this song. And in fact, Judy Collins is the one who sang it first and popularized it. Then Joni recorded it herself. And it's it's a song that's so advanced for her years. So she's singing in her higher register because she still had a higher voice. And she's in her 20s singing this song. And it's so deep. It's really, really about life experience. And the time that the version I would want played at my funeral. There's two other versions. One is from the year 2000. So she was just a few years older than me now. She was in her late 50s. And the gravitas that she has when she sings it. I mean, I'm almost crying just thinking about it. It 's so deep. And then she sang it again. She there was a concert. I think it was Newport Folk Festival. They brought her. It was a few years ago. Joni Mitchell and Friends. And they performed that as well. And then she's now in her 70s singing this song. And it's incredible. But the one I feel that is resonating with me is the one that she released in the year 2000. And it's an orchestral version. I think it's maybe been nominated for some kind of award, possibly a Grammy, actually. And it's just phenomenal. And I think, you know, that line, I really don't know life at all. I mean, we are all still trying to figure out why we're here, what our purpose is. We have belief systems that might help us, guide us and get us through. But at the end of the day, the jury's out about what's going to happen. Like, is there life after death? We don't know. And you won't. Yes, you can't live to tell the tale of whether or not it is. So I think it's that that song kind of taps into that emotion. She means seeing life from many different angles.   There was another one, too, that I thought if I could do a second choice, is Louis Armstrong, What a Wonderful World. Why not? Because life is a gift. Yeah. Life is a gift. And it just is, even with all of its all of the terrible stuff going on that has always gone on, quite honestly. There's always been terrible things going on as part of the human experience. But we also find beauty. And I remember seeing a photo. I believe it was in war-torn Syria, possibly. But it was an older man in a room with his turntable. And things, you know, things are bombed all around him. And he was still trying to find beauty in life through music. And that's just image stayed with me. And, you know, it still is a wonderful world. And we do. You know, it's our job to protect it. But but life is a gift. You know, it really is. And we are whenever things are bad. You try to remember the good things if you can. And obviously, I'm not getting this millions of people on this on this planet right now that have are facing a life and death situation every day. And I'm in a very privileged position to not be facing that. I am saying this with my privilege and I want to acknowledge that. But you do have to be grateful. I suppose if you're in that situation, maybe it's grateful for another day being alive. But yeah, it's it is a it is a wonderful world in many ways, a difficult, challenging world and lots of terrible things. But there's just so many moments of beauty and joy. [DJ_Emma] Let's just go on to the Balearic Breakfast show. So you started that in 2020, didn't you? Was it 2020? Yeah. And it turned out to be a great comfort to so many people during that challenging time during the pandemic. And then, you know, four years later, the Balearic Breakfast community has really grown and friendships have been made. And every Tuesday, your show brings loads of happiness to so many. So as the creator of the show each week, what does the Balearic Breakfast mean to you?   [Colleen] I mean, it is a community that is based around the love of sharing music, that that's definitely what it is more than a radio show to me now. And I think, you know, because it started in a pandemic, made it so much more emotional and gave it a lot more weight and gravity. And it's, you know, so many people struggle with mental health. And so many people got in touch privately to say that this show really helped them. It helped me when I was struggling through different times as well, just being there with the community and, you know, focusing on music and having a support system. Um, I think that's and it's great because, you know, once everything opened up again and I started traveling, I've been able to meet people. I've met people in Australia, New Zealand, people in Hong Kong. There's people all over the world. I was just in New York and I was at a record shop and a guy said, are you Colleen Cosmo Murphy? I said, yes. He said, I'm from Ecuador. I listened to your show and yeah, it's crazy. I think, you know, it's, it's really when, um, Worldwide FM took a pause. I thought I could just end this show, but then I thought, you know, let me take a leaf out of David's book and do it yourself. And it just flew. It kept going. So I think, you know, the fact, I think it's the community is number one. And then the music is, you know, it's all over the place. It's new and it's old. I get turned on to stuff every week and everybody else gets turned on to stuff every week. And plus you hear some favorites as well.   And I think it's just a show that appeals to a lot of different ears because it is so eclectic. Whereas it's not like a house mix show or something like that, which would only appeal to certain people.   [DJ_Emma] And I think it's also, you know, you learn so much from the music because you're so knowledgeable. For me being a listener and also your voice is really calming. You've got a really nice voice to listen to on the radio as well. But it's also, yeah, the way you educate about the music. I learn something new, I hear something new every week. So yeah, I can see how it's grown as big as it has. And it's so popular. And you've released the third Balearic Breakfast compilation recently, very recently. It's just literally a few days ago it was released. How do you go about selecting the tracks for these compilations?   [Colleen] We avoid the major labels like the plague. That's the first rule. Because everybody, because the licenses aren't that much. It's only for vinyl, that's why we don't have digital releases. It's a very simple license and everybody gets the same. So there's none of these kind of major label politics and the costs and you have to buy a bunch of them. So the way I do it is I try to sort of create the arc of a radio show. So it's kind of starting out a bit more mellow and building up. Also, there's difference, making sure there's different sounds represented. I try to get a few things that are older tracks that are hard to find on vinyl. And then some of it is stuff that I've played on the show that never had a vinyl release. Because so many people are able to release their own music through Bandcamp, which is great. But they may not have the funds to press up vinyl because it's very expensive. So I kind of will go through things I've played to see if it's something I loved and it never came out on vinyl. I also want to play it out. So it's also for myself as well. And then Heavenly do all the licensing. Ardnex does the artwork. I love working with Heavenly. Jeff Barrett is a legend. He's been running an independent label for 35 years, at least. And I remember I got Fox Bass Alpha by Saint Etienne when it came out. And it was one of my favorite albums at the time. So I've kind of been a fan of the label since that time. And Jeff and his whole team, Daisy and Danny and Catherine and Georgia, they're just great people. And they've really done such a great job with this. I can't believe it's still going.   [DJ_Emma] And I have to say, you mentioned the artwork. It's just beautiful. And I know sometimes when I'm going vinyl shopping, I will pick out a record. I won't know who it's by, but if it's got a really lovely artwork on it, that sometimes, you know, if there's no work and listen to it, sometimes, you know, you can get a chance to listen to it on some decks in the shop. But if I really like the artwork, I'll buy it. But the artwork from Black Breakfast, I love it. It's really eye-catching and gorgeous.   [Colleen] Yeah, he's a fabulous artist. He's from Indonesia. And you should follow him on Instagram because anytime something comes up, Ardniks is his name. A-R-D-N-E-K-S. Because it's just beautiful to see that on your feed. And he also does stuff for Craven as well.   [DJ_Emma] Yeah, I love it. And I think this third compilation is probably my favourite so far. Yeah, I think I really love your selections. [Colleen] That's so cool... [DJ_Emma] And you've picked one. So your final track that we're going to play is a track you've picked from the third compilation. And you've picked Uptown, the Andrew Weatherall remix by Primal Scream. So this is really rare, is it?   [Colleen] Oh, it's so rare. So I borrowed a copy once to play at one of the loft parties that we do in Italy. I remember hearing David playing it once at one of our loft parties here in London. But I've never had a vinyl copy. And I went on to Discogs and I'm like, wow, it's so expensive. Anyways, once I befriended Jeff, he told me, Jeff was Andrew Etherill's first manager. So he said, I have a copy of everything that Andrew ever did on vinyl. I said, do you have a copy of Uptown? Because I am just desperate for a vinyl copy. And he said, if I have one, I'll give it to you. Because he says, I don't really need to use it. I said, great. And then he looked and said, I don't have a copy. So I started to think like, maybe this could be good. But you know, Primal Scream, major label, this is going to be difficult. Now, I've interviewed Bobby Gillespie four times in my life. The first time was in 1991 for Screamadelica when I was producing syndicated radio shows in New York. And then I interviewed him again a few years later, the entire band. Then I interviewed him for my sixth music show, Sounds of a City. Then I interviewed him in the band again for another event. So I've interviewed him quite a few times. And Jeff is very close with him. And Jeff mentioned that I would like to include this on the compilation. And he said he'd be happy for me to have it on the comp because the major label doesn't know the copyright on that. Andrew Weatherall mix, thankfully. So, yeah, so I was really lucky. And I have to thank both Jeff and Bobby Gillespie and the spirit of Andrew Weatherall as well, because I think it's important to recognize his great contribution to music and especially this kind of a sound. I mean, when Screamadelica came out, it was a really important album for me because it kind of married my rock and indie rock sensibility with my dance music sensibility. And we didn't have the acid house revolution in America. It was a different thing. Ours was, you know, house music. It wasn't a bunch of younger people on ecstasy. It's not that it didn't have that element, but it was, you know, we dance music had been going on. It kind of evolved out of disco. And so you have these communities were already present already. So it's a different thing. But I kind of lived through the acid house movement vicariously through interviewing. I interviewed all these bands like Apex Twin and Orbital and Shaman and Prodigy and like all these bands. I kind of knew what was going on and had my finger on the pulse, so to speak. But getting that Primal Scream song was just that Andrew Weatherall mix was just when he said we got it, I was just jumped for joy. It was amazing. [DJ_Emma] Lastly, you've been in the world of music for a few decades now. And I know from my own experience that music creeps into every aspect of your life. It can be an obsessive thing to be into. And it's sometimes at the expense of family and friends as well, I think. And relationships. How have you managed that? And who got better at it over the years, do you think?   [Colleen] Yeah, I mean, I think it's interesting. I've noticed a lot of women who are in music tend to often are with partners who are in music as well. And I think my husband and I have a very good understanding. We work together on some things, but we support each other on the things where we're not working together as well. The life balance when I had a baby was difficult. Actually, at that time, most people forgot about me anyway. So it's not like everyone was knocking on my door to do gigs, quite frankly. You know, this is at a time when, you know, now it's great because when women have babies, whether you're Jamz Supernova or Ash Lauren, they're right back out there. And that's wonderful. But, you know, my agent got rid of me. I had no agent. Nobody was booking me, really. It was very few people. Some people still were. There were some friends that were. But I ended up doing a lot of production at that time. I just kind of got into my own world, which was fine. And then I later started Classic Album Sunday. So I had to generate my own thing. But it was, you know, still difficult. You know, if I went to Japan for 10 days, I'd have to arrange child care. So I'd have to like sometimes I remember once I had to fly to Boston to drop Ariana off with my family and then fly to Japan and then go back to Boston and then back here. And so things like that were very because we have no family in London near us. So that was difficult as well. But, you know, I wouldn't trade any of it for the world. I mean, your your your path and your journey is what it is. It makes you who you are today. So, yeah, there have been challenges. But, you know, trying to stay on top of taking care of yourself and eating right and all that kind of stuff. I don't burn the candle on both ends. I mean, I'm a hard I'm a hard worker, but I'm not like out partying all the time either.   [DJ_Emma] So I think it's difficult because, I mean, my daughter, obviously, she's in a DJ collective and they've just gone over three years. They've just catapulted into the stratospheres very quickly. And I think, yeah, I think it's quite overwhelming for for her because like she's been thrust into this world and it is a lot of partying, a lot of traveling, a lot. And it takes its toll on her mentally, I think. And she does find it she does find it tricky at times. I think she's definitely a little bit better now and she's enjoying it. But it is definitely had its challenges. And I think, yeah, it's it can be a difficult to manage it in that way.   [Colleen] It is it can be, you know, it's interesting because you spend a lot of time by yourself and maybe she's in a collective. But a lot of times I'm out traveling by myself. Not that I mind. I enjoy my own company. I used to go backpacking by myself for months on end. So it's not a and I love reading and I love all I love exploring and taking walks. And now, actually, that I've been doing this for so long that this communities and a lot of the places where I go, where I know people. So that's that's really quite nice, too. But it is something that has to be managed. I think for myself, because it wasn't like that for me where it was like it's just been like a kind of slow and steady kind of build for my career. So I've been able to accrue wisdom on how to handle it gently, you know, and as opposed to like, you know, you look at some of these superstar DJs like the whole Avicii story. Here's a young man had no support system out there on the road by himself, had some issues, mental health issues. And and then he's playing, you know, he's just has this massive following it and the pressure is on to deliver as well. And yeah, it's such a sad, sad story.   [DJ_Emma] It's so true what you say, where you've done it gradually and it's it's taken, you know, organically grown over the years. It makes a big difference. It's true when you're thrust into it so quickly, it's it can be very difficult, I think, mentally, especially when they're so young, especially if you're young. Yeah, yeah. I'm keeping my eye on her at the moment a little bit.   [Colleen] Good. Well, she's she's lucky to have you because you understand some of the pitfalls because, you know, you think about Avicii's family maybe didn't like off you go. You know what I mean? It's like I'm not saying they did it. I don't know. I'm just saying if you're from a family that has, you know, you have musicians or, you know, people that understand what you do, it my family don't really understand what I do still. I mean, my my my my family, like not not my husband's daughter, but my, you know, other. Yeah, exactly. Like and do you get on the microphone?   [DJ_Emma] Yeah, well, my mom's the same. She's like, oh, you're deejaying again. You know, she's like, shouldn't you stop doing that and get a proper job now? Go back to your teaching. Yeah, so that's the kind of about it now. But just lovely coming up the next few months for you. Have you got I know you've got Houghton got we out here. You've just come back from a.   [Colleen] Eastern Electrics. Yeah. Eastern Electrics first light low stuff festival. I'll be doing some other gigs throughout Europe. I have a remix of Bryony Charmin Pinto coming out on True Thoughts next month. A song called Moving Forward. Great lyrics. Really beautiful. And I just did a remix for Joe Goddard.   In fact, I'm working on new music with Joe Goddard from Hotship. So I'm working with the whole band and a woman named Lou Hayter.   [DJ_Emma] Oh, I know. Yeah, I know who Lou Hayter is.   [Colleen] And we're starting another kind of act. So I've been working on music. Yeah, she has a new album coming out, too. So that's really exciting because I haven't made new music. I've just been doing remixes for a long time.   [DJ_Emma] We haven't touched on that at all, because I know I love your remix on on the Balearic Breakfast compilation that you just released.   [Colleen] Thank you.   [DJ_Emma] That's one of my favorites on there. Actually, I'm going to play it in a minute. Oh, great.   [Colleen] Fantastic.   [DJ_Emma] But yes, I know Lou Hayter. And I've sort of been following her over the years. Because she used to work in Aire. The Young Pony Club.   [Colleen] And she's worked with Aire as well.   [DJ_Emma] One of my really, really good friends used to be her boyfriend quite a few years ago. So that's how I know of her. It's small world.   [Colleen] Cool. Yeah.   [DJ_Emma] Anyway, oh, that's brilliant. Well, thank you so much for chatting today. Oh, thank you, Emma. We can talk all day. And I'm sure, are you ever going to write a book? Because I know DJ Paulette, Smoking Joe. I'm reading Smoking Joe's at the moment. I just think people have been asking.   [Colleen] And yes, eventually I will probably do that. I just have to find the time.   [DJ_Emma] It would be a brilliant book. Yeah. Well, I'll be first to write that one.   [Colleen] Yeah, I'd love to do that.   [DJ_Emma] Oh, the story. Yes, exactly. I definitely look forward to your partying days at the beginning.   [Colleen] Let's remember, we didn't document any of that stuff.   [DJ_Emma] Yeah, that's the trouble.   [Colleen] We weren't taking selfies.   [DJ_Emma] No, thank goodness. Thank God, we were just living life. Thank God we didn't have cameras around that time. That would have got me into a lot of trouble.   [Colleen] I know.   [DJ_Emma] Goodness!   [Colleen] Yeah.   [DJ_Emma] Anyway. [Colleen] Not good. [DJ_Emma] Oh, thank you so much. [Colleen] Well, thank you so much for having me.   [DJ_Emma] And thank you. And yeah, brilliant to chat to you. [Colleen] You too.

Beats Boats n Bloodlines presents Colleen and her daughter Ariana (here in her first radio show ever) for a two-hour musical chinwag! About this show. – Colleen made her first appearance on the Boat pod alongside DJ Marcia Carr in 2023 (check out the great interview here ). She returned as the headlining DJ on Wednesday, 19th July, with a special guest: her daughter Ariana! "Beats Boats n Bloodlines present DJ 'Cosmo' and her daughter Ariana (who we've now poached for our on board DJ network). Look out for DJ Ariana coming soon. Mother n daughter dig out some gems while discussing their influences and musical journey together. This is also up on our youtube channel to watch back. Big sunshine vibes. Enjoy!" This show is one big, happy, surprising musical journey. It also has a beautiful human touch as we discover Ariana's musical tastes, superbly brought to the forefront by our dear Captain. Let's welcome Ariana to the Boat Pod and wish her many lovely musical adventures! "Proud mum alert. I was thrilled to co-host our daughter Ariana's first radio show at The BoAt Pod . It's all over the musical spectrum: MJ COLE  Bahamadia Mike Skinner and The Streets   King Krule   Imogen Heap  Candido, Barry Biggs and more. But the banter is even more fun - learnt a thing or two 😉" Listen back to Beats, Boats n Bloodlines: PLAYLIST ( 2024 ) Audrey Powne – Feed the Fire ( 1975 ) Junior Byles / The Upsetters – Long Way ( 1976 ) Barry Biggs – Work All Day ( 2023 ) Frou Frou  – A new kind of love ( 2024 ) Mount Kimbie (feat. King Krule) – Empty and silent ( 2021 ) Greentea Peng – Jimtastic Blues ( 2006 ) Clyde and Capital A – Serve It Up (Starship Interpretation) ( 2022 ) Emma-Jean Thackray –  Venus (Black Science Orchestra Tough Love Vocal Mix) ( 1983 ) Midnight Star – Freak-A-Zoid ( 1982 ) Django Django (feat. Yuuko Sings) – Don't touch that Dial ( 2002 ) The Streets – Has it come to this ( 2000 ) Bahamadia  – Pep Talk ( 2023 ) Goldie   –  State Of Mind (Searchlight Remix) ( 2000 ) MJ Cole –  Sincere ( 2000 ) Wookie (feat. Lain) –   Battle ( 2023 ) Nicolas Conte – Life Forces ( 1970 ) Candido – Thousand Finger Man ( 2017 ) Charlotte Gainsbourg – Ring-a-Ring O' Roses ( 1964 ) Françoise Hardy – Mon Amie La Rose ( 2024 ) Amy Winehouse – What is it About Men (live) THE MUSICAL CHINWAG [Colleen] Good afternoon and welcome to Bloodlines, a show that brings together parent and child onto the boat to play some tunes together. I'm Colleen Cosmo Murphy and I'm here with my daughter Ariana and I'm absolutely thrilled to be hosting her first radio show here with her on the boat pod. We'll be taking you until four o'clock. Ariana, welcome to your first radio show.   [Ariana] Thank you.   [Colleen] How are you doing? You okay?   [Ariana] I'm good. I'm excited. Are you excited?   [Colleen] A little bit nervous, maybe?   [Ariana] A little bit nervous, but not that nervous. I'm trying not to dupe it. I think it's going to be fun.   [Colleen] It will be fun.   [Ariana] We're playing songs we both know very well, so that'll be exciting. [Colleen] Exactly. Now you picked that. In fact, you picked most of the songs that are playing on today's show. I thought the music was so good, I wanted to add very, very, very little. The first thing we heard was Audrey Pown , Feed the Fire , and that's on BBE. Can you tell us why you picked that song? Tell us a little bit about it.   [Ariana] I'm working at BBE at the moment and this is her debut album. She's a multi-talented artist. She actually plays trumpet as well. But this is probably my favorite album besides the Muscle Cars that's come out this year on BBE. And it's definitely my favorite track on the album. There's some other great ones too, but it's a very long album too. But this is the standout track and it's probably done the best as well. I think it's the main single of the album.   [Colleen] Yeah, it's a lovely album and it's her first album as well. And she's done some really cool stuff. She's also worked as a session player with people like Maceo Parker . And also Midnight Oil , a really famous indie band from Australia.   [Ariana] She's young as well.   [Colleen] She's young and she's from Melbourne, isn't she?   [Ariana] Yeah, the whole album is actually about the Melbourne fires. The whole album and the tragedy of it.   [Colleen] What do you do over at BBE? Do you want to tell the people who are listening what you do over there?   [Ariana] I do a few things at the moment. I'm doing the admin, but I'm also doing bar work. But I'm just kind of doing random things. I do a lot of the Instagram PR, YouTube videos, all those kind of things. Creative jobs. Mostly creative right now, which is quite fun. But then on the weekends, I'm at the bar. And you're playing next week. [Colleen] Yeah, I'm playing. Thank you. Thank you for that link, Ariana. You're a r adio pro already. You already know how to promote me. I am playing over at the BBE store on Thursday, the 25th of July. Along with Hands On Family . And Cindy, actually, from Hands On Family.   [Ariana] And Free Entry as well.   [Colleen] And it's Free Entry. And you'll be attending bars, so people need to come by.   [Ariana] Mmmh !!   [Colleen]   Well, our next track that we have lined up is one that I picked. And it's along the Jamaican music lines. And that's because your dad, my husband, is Daddy Ad from Trojan Sound System . And when you were growing up, your first festival, I think you were six or seven months old. It was over at the Big Chill. And I was playing, and your dad was playing with Trojan Sound System. And you recently saw Trojan.  What's one of your favorite gigs that Trojan Sound System did? [Ariana] Probably last year at Boomtown, because all my friends were there. And it was so fun. And it was a really sunny day. We were all out. Loads of people were out there. And it was one of those stages that had all the trees around it. It was in the really cool, trippy Boomtown, you know, the garden festival bit. But that was really fun. And it was a long set. And everyone was in a good mood. And it wasn't too late in the festival, not too early. So it was like everyone had still a bit of energy left.   [Colleen] Okay, well, let's get back to the music. It's a beautiful Friday afternoon here in London. And we are on the canal, on a boat. Ship's ahoy. And our next track is by Junior Byles. It's his 1975 single, Long Way .   [Colleen] Well, I'm definitely not working all day long. And I think a lot of people are taking the day off, because it's a gorgeous day. And I can't consider this work, because I'm here at the BoatPod Studios with my daughter, Ariana. That was Barry Biggs' Work All Day . And Ari, when you first turned me on to that song, I had never heard that song before. It's incredible, incredible.  Tell us how you dug it out.   [Ariana] Gabs showed me that song. My boyfriend showed me that song. And he showed me that maybe like a year ago now. And I remember showing Dad. And he was like, yeah, I know this song, I know this song. But then I had to really show him the song properly.   [Colleen] I know he's playing it in sets now.   [Ariana] Yeah, now he's playing it in sets. He's got it on 12-inch. But it's definitely like a very underrated reggae track. And it's kind of up there with a lot of the good stuff. And I haven't heard that track being played anywhere, really. Which I'm unsure why.   [Colleen] Yeah, well, I think Dad played it in his last gig. So now people are going to pick it up. All because of you and Gabs. How about that? All right, the next tune is the next couple of songs you picked yourself. And I couldn't really figure anything else that would match with it. Because I thought they kind of sounded really good together. So do you want to announce the next song?   [Ariana] This is a completely different vibe, though. This is Frou Frou. I'm pretty sure it's Clown's Casino and Image and Heap. I know it's Image and Heap. But this track is a very ethereal track. I was kind of scared that too many people would know this song. But then again, it's just such a classic. And also, when I discovered it, it was already famous. And I didn't know the song.   [Colleen] What's the name of it?   [Ariana] A New Kind of Love, Frou Frou . [Colleen] This is A New Kind of Love on Bloodlines. [Colleen] Empty and Silent by Mount Kimbie and King Krule . And that was one of my daughter Ariana's choices for today's Bloodlines show here on The Boat Pod . Why did you pick that song?   [Ariana] He's one of my favorite artists of all time. I saw him recently in Mexico City as well. And that was probably one of the best gigs. Mainly the crowd. But the actual band he has right now, the studio musicians are crazy.   [Colleen] This is King Krule, not Mount Kimby.   [Ariana] This is King Krule. And then Mount Kimby as well is also amazing. But he's a whole different thing. [Colleen] So why were the Mexican fans so amazing?   [Ariana] They didn't push. They didn't push. And they knew all the words. They were so respectful. But also just so dedicated. And it was a whole different vibe. Even the UK concerts have become so pushy and so less communal. Camping festivals are a whole different thing. But King Krule, he's such a good artist. He grew up in Bermondsey. When he was 14, he started making beats. And he even applied to play at Glastonbury when he was 14 in a competition. And he won it. [Colleen] Really?   [Ariana] Yeah.   [Colleen] Wow. He's a great lyricist as well.   [Ariana] Very great. He's more of a poet, I think. But he's definitely very influential for current artists right now in our generation.   [Colleen] Now speaking of your generation, which festivals are you trying to hit up this year?   [Ariana] Definitely going to be out here. Definitely for all days. Potentially Boomtown again.   [Colleen] If you get on the guest list?   [Ariana] If I get on the guest list. Festivals are so expensive now. Festivals are so expensive. You could go on like a two-week holiday for the same price.   [Colleen] I know.   [Ariana] It's crazy. It is ridiculous.   [Colleen] But the artists do need to get paid.   [Ariana] They do.   [Colleen] And also a lot of people are out of work for many years because of the pandemic. So things are different. Now this next artist that we're going to play is one that you did see at We Out Here. And that's Greentea Peng .   [Ariana] She played in 2021. And I was in the front row. And I remember we could like jump over the fence to go see her at the end of it. So me and my best friend, we jumped over the fence, went to go see her. And we could smell where she was. We couldn't see her. But we could smell this like scent of roses. I'm not even kidding. And we followed the scent and eventually found her trailer.   [Colleen] Because you couldn't smell the green tea.   [Ariana] No, she smelled like roses. Eventually got there. And she was so sweet. But she thought it was a bad gig. But we loved it. It was such a great gig. She's definitely one of these artists that are very versatile. Especially for my friendship group and my generation too. And my group in general. But she's so versatile. Very soulful. But she's definitely shaped a lot of us as teenagers in terms of what we're into. And the kind of vibe we're going for. And she definitely fits that.   [Colleen] Very inspirational. So what's the song we're playing? [Ariana] Jimtastic Blues . [Colleen] The Black Science Orchestra remix of Emma-Jean Thackray ' s Venus . And I just love that mix. And Black Science Orchestra is Rob Mello, Ashley Beedle, and Darren Morris. And I remember when they were working on that track. Because your dad manages them. So I got to hear it as an award. But you still loved it. Because you're the one that picked this record. Why?   [Ariana] My dad showed me. And then I didn't like it at first. Because I thought that it wasn't cool enough. Because my dad was showing me it. And then I started. I listened to it by myself. And my good friend Christabel, Rob's daughter, we played it together. And then we were like, this is actually a really good track.   [Colleen] It's a really good track. I mean, she's amazing too.   [Ariana] She's amazing. She plays quite often as well. She was playing at We Out Here a few years ago. But she might be on the... Is she playing this year?   [Colleen] I don't know.   [Ariana] I think I saw her name.   [Colleen] I hope she has a new album coming out. Because that was from her 2021 album, Yellow . So you would think that there's a new one on the horizon. I certainly hope so. Ahead of that, we had Clyde and Capital A , Serve It Up . And I used to play... That record originally came out in 2003. And there was this hip-house mix that I used to play. And when I became pregnant with you, I had this residency at AKA in central London. I didn't tell anyone I was pregnant in the beginning. And I used to play that song all the time. But I was thinking of this song the other day. And then I just found that other mix, which came out a couple of years later. But by 2006, I had my hands full with you. So, I had no idea it came out. But I really, really love it. And Capital A was also on Silk 130's album, When the Funk Hits the Fans . So, some Philadelphia musicians there for you. Now, this next one is one of my choices. And it's something that really brings me back to the underage disco that I used to sneak out to. Sorry, mom. She's probably listening. It was called The Gazebo. It was on the very lush location of Route 9 in Framingham. Just down the road from where I worked at Strawberries Records and Tapes , the record shop. In any case, this is kind of like early electro-funk. But it was a band that also put out a bunch of R&B and soul records. And this was their fourth album. They're originally from Kentucky. They're called Midnight Star . But they signed to the Solar label in late 1970s at the height of disco. And this was their big breakthrough album. And this one I just love. It sounded very futuristic at the time. It may not as much now. But I think you'll still like it. It's Midnight Star with Freakazoid . [Colleen] So many of us know that song. Couldn't live in London without hearing it in 2002 or Manchester. The Streets , Has it come to this from the Original Pirate Material , The Streets' debut album. And I remember when that came out. Because your dad was one of the owners of Jockey Slut. And they put Mike Skinner on the front cover. And such a great tune. Why did you pick this one, Ariana?   [Ariana] It's one of my favorite songs ever. It always has interchangeable memories, though. It's such a nostalgic song for me. But the memories remind me of always happy or sad. And they interchange very often. But it's just a very prominent song of my mid-teens.   [Colleen] And it's such an earworm. My gosh. That hook.   [Ariana] It's just the beat.   [Colleen] The beat's great. The hook's great. It's so good. As well as the song before, Django Django featuring Yuuko Sings . And Django Django is an art rock band from London. Yuuko Sings is a Japanese rapper . And I was turned on to this song a year ago by one of my listeners. And I ended up playing it all the time in my sets. And it's just such a great tune.   [Ariana] Everyone loves this song.   [Colleen] Everyone loves this song. It's so rhythmic. It has a real 1980s kind of electro vibe. Which is why I play the Midnight Star. I even played it this week in the Netherlands. When I was doing a set between 3 and 6 on Tuesday morning. I know, Wednesday morning. I play Wednesday morning from 3 to 6 in the morning. I think that's a first. So why did you pick Django Django ? Because you love that song.   [Ariana] Because I heard it at your set.   [Colleen] You did? Where did you hear me play it? Everywhere.   [Ariana] No. There was this one time. You remember. It was with Gabs.   [Colleen] Oh, maybe.   [Ariana] Central London.   [Colleen] Central London somewhere.   [Ariana] Somewhere in Central London. But I've shown everyone since. And everyone always loves it.   [Colleen] It's such a tune. Such a tune. All right. This next one is another Philadelphia rapper, Bahamadia . And can you tell us why you picked this one?   [Ariana] My friend showed me this song. But I wasn't really used to the sound from her. But it all made sense. It remains one of the best tracks off her album, BB Queen. But it is a whole different sound to what she normally plays. She's also playing it this year. Everyone's playing it this year. But this is one of the best ones on the album.   [Colleen] What's it called? [Ariana] Pep Talk. [Colleen]  You're listening to Bloodlines on the Boat Pod with Colleen Cosmo Murphy and Ariana.   [Colleen] One of the originators of UK Garage, Wookie , featuring Lain with Battle , which was a hit for him back in 2000 when it was released as a third single from his only album. And it so reminds me of when I moved to London. And I was living in Tottenham in 2000 and listening to all the pirate radio stations, including one called Y2K, which sounds very corrupt FM right now. But, oh, my gosh, it was just so great to hear that sound. It sounded so fresh coming from New York City. And the reason why I picked that is because you, Ariana, picked the song before, which was MJ Cole 's Sincere , which was another big record for me. But you talk about that one.   [Ariana] I think it was during lockdown I found that song. But it's just bad. It reminds me of, like, just being drunk in the field when I was 14. It does, though.   [Colleen] The truth comes out. Maybe we should have been...   [Ariana] It does. And K-Side is even worse. It's, like, really outdated. [Colleen] It sounds very corrupt FM as well. [Ariana] No, but this track was always, like, one of my favorites. I used to bring my massive speaker to these shows and, like, I would always play that song every time. Oh, in Hackney Marshes? Yeah.   [Colleen] Yeah, very, very nice. Ahead of that, we also had a great song by Goldie , State of Mind . And the original version came out on his 1995 LP, Timeless, which is a timeless classic album . It's one of the ones that really put drum and bass onto the musical map as a really serious, serious art form. And I was working at Downstracts when that came out, a record shop in New York City. And we sold heaps of them, even in the U.S., where drum and bass wasn't as big. But that's a different remix by an Irish duo named Searchlight. And I played that as my last song on the beach at First Light Festival in Lowestoft recently. And people are a bit surprised I was playing a bit of drum and bass, but I used to. I like to keep people on their toes, Arianna. I like to keep them on their toes. You're listening to Bloodlines with myself, Colleen Cosmo Murphy, and my daughter, Arianna, here on the boat pod. We're going for another half an hour until 4 o'clock. And this next little section revolves around the loft and David Mancuso, a very dear friend of mine, the late David Mancuso, who started his loft parties in 1970, and he's one of my mentors. And he saw Arianna really grow up for, I guess, the first eight years of your life when he was still coming over to our house about four times a year to listen to records and have dinner. And he just loved being in a family home and just absolutely adored watching you grow up. And you picked a loft classic that we're going to play in another song, but I wanted to play something a little more recent, something new that I will play at our London loft party. And this is a great one by Nicola Conte. Nicola Conte is a composer, arranger, I think guitarist, producer from Bari, Italy, where the Schema Records scene is also in Bari, Italy as well. And he kind of melded acid jazz along with bossa nova and Latin jazz. And recently he was signed to Far Out, which do a lot of Brazilian reissues, but also newer Brazilian music, even though he's Italian. In any case, this song is called Life Forces , and it's remixed by my old boss over at Dance Tracks, Joe Claussel, Joaquin Claussel, and the song is called Life Forces.   [Colleen] The late Cuban percussionist Candido , who moved to New York City in 1946 and ended up playing with some big bands like those of Stan Kenton, Machito, also Dizzy Gillespie. But then he kind of was able to switch gears during the disco era. And that song he did originally release in 1970, but he kind of disco-fied it a little bit. It's very, very, very deep. In 1979, when he was signed to the Bronx record label Sal Sol, which was kind of a combination of salsa and also soul music. And it's a complete loft classic, and it's very deep and very, very subtle, and it always surprises me how much you love that song, Ariana.   [Ariana] It's just so dramatic.   [Colleen] Yeah.   [Ariana] It's a very dramatic song. It also reminds me of The Loft. It's a very good car ride song as well, because it takes up a lot of the journey. It does.   [Colleen] Are we there yet? Nine minutes.   [Ariana] Yeah, it reminds me of The Loft. It also reminds me of Could Haven Ever Be Like This, those long, passionate, very detailed songs, very intricate.   [Colleen] And very ethereal as well.   [Ariana] Yeah, very ethereal. But yeah, it just reminds me of The Loft and being a kid, and that's just kind of one of those ones that sums it up a lot for me. [Colleen] Oh, good. Wow, fantastic. Well, we're going to switch gears and kind of go a bit more down-tempo now as we wrap up the show. This is Colleen and Ariana on Bloodlines, taking you for another ten minutes or so. We're going to squeeze in a few more tunes. This next one is by Charlotte Gansbourg , and can you introduce it, Ariana? This is one of your choices.   [Ariana] This is quite an eerie song. Most of her tracks are very haunting. I think she's quite good at that, like Deadly Valentine, and this is Ring-a-Ring O' Roses. But this is, yeah, one of those emo-eerie songs that I found when I was in my emo phase. But this is Ring-a-Ring O' Roses.   [Colleen] on Bloodlines. [Colleen] Mon Amie La Rose by Françoise Hardy , who the late French icon, singer, also actress, fashion icon, and a French cultural icon who sadly passed away last month. A beautiful French chanteuse, a lot like what Charlotte Gainsbourg is right now, and you, of course, picked that one, Ariana, the Ring-a-Ring O' Roses, a beautiful song. Well, this is Colleen Cosmo Murphy and my daughter, Ariana. We're getting ready to wrap up this episode of Bloodlines here at the Boat Pod, and it's been so much fun. It's Ariana's first time on the radio, and we're going to finish with one of your favorite singers, one of your favorite musicians of all time.   [Ariana] I think she is my favorite singer of all time.   [Colleen] Well, why don't you tell us a little bit about it?   [Ariana] The next track I'm going to play is Amy Winehouse , What Is It About Men , live at the North Sea Festival. But this track is so special to me because I'm not sure. Have you watched Amy, the documentary ?   [Colleen] Yes, I have. Yeah, it's amazing.   [Ariana] And this live version features in the documentary, but I watched it again recently, and I always cry at the same bits, but I've watched it about six times now. But they play this track, the live version, in the documentary, and it's probably one of our best performances of all time.   [Colleen] Wow.   [Ariana] It really is so spiritual, but also there's a massive reggae influence in the live version. And it's only been 13 years since she passed away in three days' time, so this is also a big thing, four days' time. But yeah, this is What Is It About Men, live at the North Sea Festival. [Colleen] And Amy Winehouse rests in paradise. Thank you all for joining us. Thanks to The Boat Pod for having us, and Ariana, I just have to say it's been such an honor hosting your first radio show with you. Thank you so much.   [Ariana] It's been so fun.   [Colleen] And thank you all for listening.

I met Flamingo Pier's Luke Walker (the band's DJ) to chat about their musical journey, as their new Tour is starting in just a few days! 1) I am so thrilled to welcome you onto the Balearic Breakfast blog, Flamingo Pier! Thank you so much! How are you guys doing?! We saw you at Colleens' Balearic Breakfast launch Party (she played Cosmic Sunset from your LP)! How was the party?! Kia ora! Pleasure to be here! Some of our crew are still based in London so were able to make it along to Colleen’s party. All the Flamingo Pier collective met and lived in London but the band are now based in our hometown Auckland, New Zealand.  It was so lovely to hear Colleen playing Cosmic Sunset! We passed on the vinyl when she played our Waiheke festival earlier this year. The album came out on Soundway Records in 2021. 2) Speaking about it, your album was created during the pandemic. To make such a happy musical place in such dark times must have been quite an 'out of mind' experience. Was it a cathartic experience? How did things happen back then? Just before the pandemic, we had moved back to New Zealand. Because NZ is an island, it managed to stay covid free for 18 months whilst the world was battling, so we were still able to throw parties and get together to make music. We couldn’t host any internationals, so it was a great time for local artists to shine. We try to stay positive and hopeful no matter the situation, and our music reflects that.  3) Balearic Breakfast is a show where we dig deep into music from the past and the present! It's so refreshing to hear that musicianship is still going strong in these "consumerist" days and that real musicians take time to meet together to craft sounds that empower those who listen to them. You played with so many great musicians on that album ! Your approach to music really emphasises your intellectual approach; you're all about "amplifying joy." How did the collaborative aspect of the album take place? All the artists we collaborated with are from our hometown, Auckland, and incredibly talented! Julien Dyne, on drums, also releases music on Soundway Records solo and with his band Circling Sun. Nathan Haines, a friend of Colleen’s and our most well-known jazz artist. Jess Penson, aka Kédu, is a super talented young singer and music maker with a voice like honey. Jack Thirtle is a jazz-trained young trumpet player who is now a key member of the live band. They’re all friends of ours and have played their own shows at our Waiheke festival and club nights so it was a natural progression to collaborators! 4) You will tour the US and Europe in July 2024 (a world tour launch party took place in Auckland on July 13th)! Congratulations! Can you tell us more about the show you prepared and what we can expect to see and hear? We’ve got our new Supro EP coming out on Soundway Records to coincide with the tour so we’ll be playing tracks from that plus the best of the rest of our catalogue. The first single Mazunte is out on July 19 and full EP August 9. We’re a five-piece band with live vocals, synths, bass, guitar, trumpet and percussion and like to keep it high energy and dancefloor focused. We’re super excited to jump in a van and traverse the U.S together for our first proper tour of the country ! Then we head to Europe for some key shows in Berlin (returning to Heidegluehen, one of the best clubs in the world), London and Greece. 5) When one take the time to discover your musical influences, your approach to music and the way you interact with your audience, there's a strong feeling of happiness of course but also, I would say "unity". Everything you do flows in one joyous and cohesive musical and human moment. Wouldn't that be a nice vision of what it is to "be Balearic" and something that 'Flamingo Pier' stands for? Absolutely. We’ve always been about bringing people together to connect joyfully on the dancefloor, whether through our music or the parties we throw. The eclectic side of the Balearic sound and aesthetic is a big influence for us – from mellow sounds to full-blown 2 a.m. dancefloor energy. We celebrate 10 years doing our thing in 2024 and hope we’re still getting together in 2034! Thanks for having us! It was a pleasure, Flamingo Pier!

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 184th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud and Twitch TV socials on July 16th 2024. About this episode. – Between two DJ sets, Colleen managed to record and stream today's episode (coming from Berlin, where she played last weekend, Colleen was boarding this morning on to the Netherlands ^^), which was a beautiful and uplifting one! Welcoming her friend Andrei Sandu, Colleen let him play a few tracks from the ones he commented on in his book, "Mates' Crates' (which is out now and which you can order on Andrei's Bandcamp). The show's second hour saw Colleen play tracks that undeniably uplifted the Balearic Breakfast's family souls! Listen back to the 184th episode of Balearic Breakfast: "This morning’s Balearic Breakfast is now up on my Mixcloud and this week we have something a bit different. I handed the first hour over to my friend @andrei.matescrates a member of The London Loft team, part of the @melt_my_heartz DJ crew (who are joining me in our Love Dancin’ tent at We Out Here) and author of the new book Mates Crates. In the book Andrei tells the stories behind 100 songs – personal anecdotes along with historical and musical connections. It’s a great book and even better, all of the proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders and the Music Venue Trust. Head over to the matescrates bandcamp to pick up a copy. For the second half of today’s show I picked up the pace with more of a club set. I had an amazing time at heidegluehen in Berlin this past weekend (pure vibes!) and didn’t want to leave the club. As I’m playing in Blauwdruk tonight I wanted to keep the party going so I hope you will join me for a dance." PLAYLIST Andrei Sandu Mates Crates Mix (1987) Ahmed Fakroun – Ya Farhi Beek (1989) Womack & Womack – MPB (Missin’ Persons’ Bureau) (1976) Gabor Szabo – Keep Smilin’ (1985) Ivan – Sueños de Papel (1977) Average White Band & Ben E. King – Get It Up For Love (1978) Carly Simon – Tranquillo (Melt My Heart) (1977) Kimiko Kasai – Love Celebration (1980) Tata Vega – (I've Got My) Second Wind (1978) Elkie Brooks – As (1978) Don Beto – Nao Quero Mais (1977) Ornella Vanoni – Ti Voglio (1984) Jose Pinhal – Tu Es a Que Eu Quero (1983) Jean-Luc Ponty – Computer Incantations for World Peace Colleen Mix (2nd hour) (1986) William Bell – Passion (Froggy Mix) (2023) Fabio Santanna – You Can Do It (2024) Bustin Loose & Magnolia (ft. Catalina) – Paradise (Hot Toddy Remix) (2024) Joe Goddard & Hayden Thorpe – Summon (2024) Sven Hammond – It's Alright (Felix Dickinson Remix) (2024) Radio Slave (ft. Caged Baby) – Amnesia (Lindstrom Remix) (2003) Sandy Rivera – Changes (Ben Watt Lazy Dog Remix) (1997) Presence – Better Day (2024) Musclecars – Tonight (Louie Vega Remix) (2001) Kings of Tomorrow (ft. Julie McKnight) – Diamond Life (Dance Ritual Remix) THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE Since both of today's mixes are straightforward, leaving no room for further intellectual/philosophical analysis, we're just going to share some information about some of the songs, as we always try to do here on the Balearic Breakfast blog, starting with Adrei Sandu's mix: starting his mix with Lybian artist Ahmed Fakroun's "Ya Farhi Beek" (reissued on 12" recently, click here for more info), taken from his 1987 studio album "Love Words" ("Mots d'Amour" in French), this very Balearic love song has a disco groove, typical of Ahmed Fakroun's musical influences, interestingly enough the album was recorded at the Parisian "Studio des Dames" recording facility where numerous other french artists recorded during the 70s/80s; Womack & Womack's 1988 Missin’ Persons’ Bureau is taken from their "Conscience" album "The tempo drops on M.P.B (Missing Person’s Bureau) which opens with rhythm section and guitars, with handclaps accompanying the vocal, with Cecil giving a gentle and thoughtful vocal. His voice is tender as he sings about a lover who’s missing. Meanwhile, the arrangement is slower, a mixture of soul and subtle funk. There’s a great guitar solo, which replaces the vocal. It’s accompanied by the rhythm section contributing elements of gentle funk, before Cecil and Linda combine wonderfully. Their vocals are perfect, gentle and thoughtful, delivering the lyrics brilliantly. Together with a slower, subtle arrangement, which never overpowers the tender and thoughtful vocal, this is a potent combination, resulting in one of the album’s best tracks"; Gabor Szabo's Keep Smilin’ is taken from his 1976 'Nightflight' studio album and his biggest hit, although this one is a cover of the 1974 song by Bunny Sigler found on his Keep Smilin' LP (Sigler produced Gabor Szabo's version!); 1985, from Ivan's "Baila" studio album, "Sueños de Papel" is your sunny and funky track per excellence. Juan Carlos Ramos Vaquero (born 1962 in Madrid) was discovered by CBS producer Oscar Gómez, who made him record his first album in 1979, "Sin Amor". By 1980, he sold more than 5 million records (you may remember him because of his 1985 Fotonovela hit, which can be found on the aforesaid album) and collaborated regularly with José Luis Perales, with whom he got many hits (he was very popular in Latin America) before his career was put on hold because of his military service. His last album is the 2015 "Porque...te quiero tanto"; Average White Band & Ben E. King presents in their 1977 studio album an astounding cover of a song we all love, written by Ned Doheny, Stephen Michael Schwartz's "Get It Up For Love" (of course already featured during the show); Carly Simon's "Tranquillo" (Melt My Heart), from her 1978 "Boys in the Trees" studio album (also the title of her memoirs), can be found on an astounding double LP "The Ladies of Too Slow to Disco", taking a look at the women who kick-started the female pop revolution in the seventies; Kimiko Kasai's 1977 "Love Celebration" from her "Tokyo Special" studio album was composed by Tatsuro Yamashita (who also composed Mariya Takeuchi's "Plastic Love"); Tata Vega's (I've Got My) Second Wind (in duet with Motown Legend G.C. Cameron) is taken from her 1980 studio album "Givin' All My Love" on Tamla records, this version being a cover of Al Johnson track, found on his 1980 "Back for more" studio album; Elkie Brooks' 1978 "As" (found on her "Shooting Star" studio album) is of course a very nice cover of Stevie Wonder's song found on his incredible "Songs in The Key of Life" double LP&45 studio album (a Loft Classic often played by David and always bringing the dancers to their knees); Don Beto's "Nao Quero Mais" is taken from his 1978 studio album "Nossa Imaginação" (featuring arrangements by producer Lincoln Olivetti and ultimately winning the Golden Globe award that very year). Musically and soundwise, it is close to The Doobie Brothers' track ‘Long Train Running’ (it also made me think about Cerrone's "Hooked on You"), with a more soulful chorus section but a solid vintage disco-boogie style indeed; Ornella Vanoni's "Ti Voglio" (I want you, in English) is taken from her 1977 studio album "Io Fuori" and nicely reflects the brilliant Italian Disco era with its Huge productions (contrasting with the singer's lifelong battle with depression that didn't stop her from releasing more than 40 studio albums!). A brand new edition of the song was issued in 2022; Jose Pinhal's "Tu Es a Que Eu Quero" from his 1984 studio album is a bouncy number from the Portuguese singer who made a posthumous comeback in recent years; Jean-Luc Ponty's 1983 "Computer Incantations for World Peace", is considered by many musical lovers a Balearic Classic, Ponty's discovery of sequencers and synthesisers gave him the idea of working on another level with music as he explained in an interview: "What I was recording in that new sequencer gave me the idea to go for a totally different concept, to use these recordings as rhythmic backgrounds, sometimes without drums or percussion. I planned to record a new album in which I would play all the background parts with my synthesizers and add my violin later on in the studio. I also invited a few guests on different tracks, rather than record yet another band album". Colleen's mix was nothing short of amazing! We were all impressed by the house/club atmosphere she created for us! I believe we all needed to immerse ourselves in the music, especially with the unpredictable weather we've been experiencing lately! Here are a few information about the songs played by Colleen: as Musician Sean McPherson wrote it, "From the early 1960s to this very day, Stax recording artist William Bell has crafted soul classics with a clarity, passion and grit that is truly unparalleled". "Passion" is taken from Bell's 1986 studio album, Colleen here plays the Froggy Mix from 1986; Brazilian multi-instrumentalist and producer Fabio Santanna takes us to the dancefloor with "You Can Do It" a very funky number from his 2023 album ASA; Bustin' Loose and Magnolia (feat. Katalin) "Paradise" (Hot Toddy remix) is on the 75th release special (The Express remixes five from Disco Express and other remixers as John Morales, The Reflex, and Dr. Packer). It's coming out this Friday on the Disco Express Bandcamp; Hot Chip's Joe Goddard has just released his third solo album "Harmonics". It features many guest vocalists, including Alexis Taylor, Nell Doyle, also Alabaster De Plume, Fioris, Bibio Sound Machine, and a host of others, including former Wild Beast frontman Hayden Thorpe, who we heard on the song "Summon" (there's a Cosmodelica remix of a forthcoming Joe Goddard single in the pipeline); Dutch band Sven Hammond released six studio albums. The Felix Dickinson remix of their new single "It's Alright" is taken from their forthcoming seventh studio album, Cosmic Gold, on Marmalade Records, which will drop in early 2025; Radio Slave's (feat. Caged Baby) "Amnesia" originally came out last summer, but this is the Lindstrom remix, which just came out last month. Speaking about the song, Matt Edwards said "I’ve always romanticized about Ibiza in the mid to late 80s. Partying outside. Listening to that perfect mix of European dance tracks and 80’s extended pop mixes and ‘Amensia’ is a love letter to that era”; One-half of the Kings of Tomorrow, Sandy Rivera, did a remix of Colleen's first single, Loneliness. Here he is with his own 2003 single, Changes, given the remix treatment by Everything But the Girl's, Ben Watt (the Lazy Dog remix); 1997 Presence's (Charles Webster on production duties and Steve Edwards on Vocals – remember Bob Sinclar's "World Hold On"?) "Better Days".

Constadino Folias' mix was featured in the 175th episode of Balearic Breakfast. The Balearic Breakfast enjoyed his work so much! I met him for a heartwarming interview... 1) Dear Constadino, thank you so much for joining us on the Balearic Breakfast blog! Can you tell us more about your musical journey? How did you start your DJing career, what led you to this musical path and who were your guiding mentors, if you had some? Thank you for inviting me to the blog, Artur! It all started in 1981, at a very young age, when my first connection with music was through my father, who used to play music cassettes all the time in the car while he was driving with me on board. I still remember tracks like Earth Wind & Fire's “Let's Groove," Rick James's “Super Freak,” and Quincy Jones's “Ai No Corrida” being on heavy rotation, among others. In the early 90's, as a teenager, I took part in several parties when electronic dance music started to rise in the city of Athens. My music knowledge has its roots in those parties and the music magazines I was reading at that time, such as Muzik, Mixmag, DJ, Wax, Straight No Chaser, The Source, Jockey Slut, Blues & Soul, JazzTimes, and Wax Poetics, to name but a few. From 1995 until 2002, I had a job in the best record store in Athens (Metropolis), which helped me expand my musical horizons. I love music, any kind of music, just as long as it's grooving (track from The O'jays), whether it's Soul-Jazz-Funk-Disco-Reggae-House-Balearic etc. I can't say that I have a professional career as a DJ, nor do I have a mentor, but for sure, there are many music artists and DJs who have given me music inspiration through the years, and they still do. I can describe myself as a music lover, music selector and vinyl collector. Sometimes I do play music as DJ here in Athens, but I wouldn't say that this happens often as I don't make a living from it. 2) As you know, I love it when a DJ takes me on a mental journey where I can see pictures in my head while my soul sets itself free. I felt that quite strongly when your mix was aired during Balearic Breakfast's 175th episode . Your transitions were so smooth, perfectly respecting the mix's somewhat 'nightish' soul, and the whole thing kept on evolving as time went by. How did you work on that mix?        I was very excited about doing a mix for Colleen's “Balearic Breakfast," which I must say is my favourite show at the moment. I always prepare my mixes for the radio. Everything depends on the show and the music style it represents. So, for this mix, I picked up some modern, mostly, “Balearic” gems that I believed would match and mixed them together as smoothly as I could to achieve the best possible result for the listeners. I recorded the mix about three times. Each time, I added or put out some tracks, trying to find the perfect flow and harmony in music. According to the comments from you and the Balearic Breakfast family members during the broadcast, I think the mission was successful, and I'm really happy about it! 🙂 3) There is a sense of unity, at least to me, in the "Balearic" musical domain. For instance, you can have tracks that are both worried and cheerful, while others may blend elements of salsa with progressive rock. When you think about it, Disco itself had some absolute "Balearic" bangers! Does it make sense to you?         Anyone who really knows the meaning of the term described as “Balearic” will totally agree with you, and so do I!  4) How do you listen to music? Do you believe that listening at night brings something more to the experience?          For me, the ultimate listening experience is when I play my vinyl on the stereo. Nothing can compare to the "warm" analogue sound that comes out from the speakers. As an alternative, I listen to music via digital music platforms such as Bandcamp, Mixcloud, Spotify, and YouTube. Definitely, music sounds better at nighttime. One primary reason is that there is generally less ambient noise, and you can focus entirely on the music. Our bodies are naturally programmed to rest and relax at night, making it easier to feel and process emotions. Listening to music at night can create a sense of intimacy and privacy that enhances the listening experience! 5) On the human side, what is the most important thing to you in life?         In the fast-paced world we live in, it is easy to lose sight of the important things in life that truly matter. A famous quote from Mrs George Sand says, "There is only one happiness in life: to love and to be loved" , and I agree 100% with that! Thank you so much for being here with us, Constadino! Thank you for everything, Artur..... it was a pleasure!! 🙂 Take care & stay blessed! Constadinos music links: MIXCLOUD https://www.mixcloud.com/DjConstadino SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/user/11182954077?si=08f2393b6c1149a4 HEARTHIS.AT https://hearthis.at/constadino/ SOUNDCLOUD https://soundcloud.com/djconstadino

When Colleen played Gus F's remix of Jimmy Somerville's classic song "Smalltown Boy", I instantly felt I had to meet him for an interview. Little did I know what I would find there! 1) Hello, Gus, and thank you so much for joining us here on the Balearic Breakfast blog! Colleen played your remix of Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy" during the 180th Balearic Breakfast episode dedicated to Pride Month. The song resonates on many levels for a lot of people around the world. How did you work on it? Could you tell me what you wanted to convey? As a producer, Is it hard to touch a "classic"? Hello Artur! My pleasure! I started an event called Secret Sunset during the Covid lockdown as an outlet to continue playing music whilst clubs and other venues were shut. I would find beautiful locations around the island of Jersey, where I live, and broadcast a live stream. However, Facebook would frequently cut a stream due to copyright issues as the algorithms would detect recognisable music. I had dabbled in music production before, but not seriously. I bought a new synth and ended up producing music just for those events so I could bypass the Facebook police! One of the tunes I loved as a child (without understanding its significance – just the iconic top line of the melody and of course, Jimmy’s vocal) was Smalltown Boy. Whilst there have been many versions over the years, I wanted to give it the Secret Sunset treatment and give people watching from home a kind of nostalgic experience, whether for Ibiza sunsets they missed during lockdown or for the actual original Smalltown Boy that might spark memories. I had no idea it would mean so much to so many people – I uploaded a version to YouTube, and it exploded. So many views and nice comments with no marketing whatsoever. I’m obviously fully aware of the meaning of the song within LGBTQ+ communities, it’s such an incredibly sad story, and one that so many people can identify with, so I was keen to try and maintain the melancholy of the song and obviously the iconic vocal from Jimmy Somerville, nostalgic and dreamy. 2) I read on your socials that you got Jimmy's support! That must have been quite a moment for you! Congratulations from the bottom of our hearts; we know how much such a moment is precious! How did that all happen?! Tell us the story please! Believe it or not, some unknown person shared it with Jimmy’s team and he approved of it; I had nothing to do with that part of it… Next thing I knew the YouTube video I had made with my bootleg (unauthorised/unofficial) version was shared on Jimmy’s official channels and it blew up! I figured if Jimmy liked it, there was a possibility I could maybe get an official release, so I set about learning how to do this. At the time, I don’t think I had any signed music yet, no label or anything; I had to learn how the music business works in terms of licensing, publishing rights, recording rights, etc. It took me almost two years, due in part to my naivety, but I kept working away and after an email a week (not even joking… I sent a LOT of emails!) I finally got full permission. Funnily enough, the usual difficulty is not with publishing, but with the master recording from which the vocal sample came; however that part was easier as I was in direct contact with Jimmy’s team. When you’re a nobody in the music business, it’s difficult to get anybody to respond to emails! It was worth the wait 😊     3) Then, you kept on flying on the wings of your dream and got the track released, the 1000 CDs being sold out during the pre-order campaign! Wow, just wow! What was the hardest part of the whole adventure, in your opinion? Was it crafting a track that would enhance the original version while respecting its legacy, or were they the publishing steps? I think my version surprised Jimmy’s team with its popularity when it was released on streaming platforms . When the 40th anniversary releases were being planned, they asked me for permission to include my version on the limited edition 1,000 CDs, that are coming out later this month. Of course, I said yes… I was delighted to be asked! This was a big validation moment for me and one I’ll always be proud of. Quite honestly, the effort to get the official release was a LOT more time-consuming than making the remix in the first place (which actually came together really quickly! Sometimes things just fall into place!). 4) Music is the centre of your life; you're someone reaching high with a smile, and we here, on the Balearic Breakfast blog, love that! You're the first person who DJed the full London marathon! Wow, once again! Can you tell us how that happened and how you prepared yourself for that incredible journey?! (It's easier to reach incredible goals with music right?! ^^)   When one of my son’s best friends was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (an aggressive form of cancer) over a year ago, I felt absolutely powerless and helpless to do anything about it. Cancer is a horrible disease at any time (my father passed away 11 years ago from pancreatic cancer), but it’s even worse when it’s a child. It’s completely indiscriminate; another friend was recently lucky to survive an 11-hour surgery, resulting in the removal of her pelvic tumour, colon, part of her liver, spleen, and a total hysterectomy and ileostomy. Although I felt helpless, I wanted to do something about it anyway. After a slight glitch myself (I was hospitalised twice last year) I regained my full health decided to raise as much money as I could for Cancer Research UK, the world’s leading cancer research organisation. With my music reach, I just figured I’d have a chance at raising more than simply asking friends & family for donations, especially during difficult economic times. So I decided to try & run the London Marathon whilst DJing. It was a story of trial and error… There were a lot of failures along the way! Blood, sweat and tears… Literally all three… Quite honestly, I’ve had better ideas as I struggled around the course, and no surprise to me that I was the first person to do it, as nobody else is crazy enough to try it… 🤣 But I got there in the end, and it was an overall success. All my fellow runners were supportive, but it was the crowd that got me round; the noise was amazing as they heard me approaching (I had a subwoofer and two speakers on my back, as well as the speakers on the Numark Mixstream Pro Go I was using – thanks to Numark for all their support!). Not sure if I’ll do anything like that again, as it took me a long time to recover physically and emotionally. I’m not sure if I’m there yet 😅   5) You seem to be very busy, active, and musically prolific! What's next on your agenda?   I love electronic music, I absolutely devour it and can’t get enough of it. But I’m also keen to produce an album whose shelf life isn’t as ridiculously short as a lot of music is today. Popular one month, then consigned to the archives. More music is being produced today than ever before, and Artificial Intelligence coming around the corner will not slow this down… But I still think there is room for an original album of music that can be listened to from start to finish, and one that won’t sound out-of-date in a year or two. So that’s my aim, to focus on creating something I can be proud of and that will hopefully be appreciated for more than a few short weeks 😊 Thank you so much Gus! You're welcome Artur!

Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 182nd episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud and Twitch TV socials on July 2nd 2024. About this episode. – Recently, I've stopped trying to figure out why I consistently encounter a peculiar "Synchronicity" while working on the blog. All I do is let things happen and notice when they do... A few days before this very show, I saw a video that really shook me. In this video, Kyan Khojandi, French humorist and actor, asks Alexandre Astier, French author and actor, where his confidence comes from. Alexandre's answer is one to keep in mind here: "If you don't have confidence in yourself, that's the only thing that makes you go down. The only thing that differentiates people who do from those who don't is just a sense of legitimacy in doing. It means, I have the position of someone who makes, whether it's good or not, it's none of my business, whether people like it or they don't, it's none of my business, I have to do what I have to do, I have to do it with everything I can put into it, I have to do the best I can but if I do the best I can, if it doesn't suit you, it's okay, if you don't like me, don't look at what I'm doing, don't insult me, that's all. And you know what, there's something I want to say there. I met really Great people. You must have met some too. Do you know what they have in common? They're all kind. So when you read harsh words, they're just coming from someone that wishes he was great"... A few hours before hitting the desks at the great Last Note Party (held in Perugia, Italy), Colleen posted the Request line on her socials on June 30 st, 2024: "A lovely snapshot of the last week’s summer solstice weekend at @firstlightlowestoft - turns out I not only love sunset sets but also sunrise sets! Must be the lark in me. I’ll post it up soon. Which brings me to…. What would you like to hear as part of your weekly Balearic Breakfast this Tuesday (10am-12pm BST on my Mixcloud Live and Twitch TV). Looking forward to@your suggestions as always and thanks for your incredible contributions to last weeks’ 3+hour Pride special - it’s now archived along with all of the other Balearic Breakfasts on my Mixcloud (please give a a follow while you’re over there). Now relaxing in Umbria before tonight’s @lastnote_party - photos to follow. Have a great weekend!" The Balearic Breakfast family answered with songs showcasing one commune element we've all been missing lately: sunny feelings! Today's show was indeed sunny on all fronts, as we'll discover together in the listening experience part of this post! What a great way to celebrate the 181st episode of our Beloved show! Onwards! Listen to the 182nd episode of Balearic Breakfast: PLAYLIST (1987) Orquesta de las Nubes – Vendrán Lluvias Suaves (1984) David Sylvian – Weathered Wall (2024) Iraina Mancini – Undo the Blue (Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve Reimagination) (2024) Feel Fly – Sole (Versione Tramonto) (1984) Pellegrin El Kady – Seiva De Carnaval (2024) Dan the Drums & Ronnie Turner (ft. Emma Noble) – JazzCazz (1986) Prince – Mountains (2024) Barbara Hernandez – All Nite Tonite (2024) Belouis Some – Imagination (Orchestral Extended Version) (2024) Shunt Voltage – Resistor (Cosmikuro Remix) (2023) Precious Bloom – Teka Teki Asmara (2024) Galliano – Pleasure Joy & Happiness (1980) Change – A Lover's Holiday (Jim Burgess Mix) (1989) The Beloved – The Sun Is Rising (Danny’s Love Is Mix) (NOL) Lindstrom – Sirius Syntoms (1993) Black Rascals (ft Roger Harris) – Keeping My Mind (2024) Myrna Summers – So Much to Live For (Joaquin ‘Joe’ Claussell Remix) (2024) Lea Lisa – Poem for the Lost Souls (Kuniyuki Version) (2000) The Boyz from Brazil – Land of Make-Believe (A Terra do Fazer Crer Bossa Novo Mix) THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE (Coming soon) A calm, wavy, evolving and very Balearic sound comes to you, entwined with nervous electronic outbursts, decorated with a Spanish guitar... Welcome, a new day has just begun... Colleen always chooses tracks that open up the musical scene for every show. She, once again, perfectly does it here by playing Orquesta de las Nubes' (the Cloud Orchestra),Vendra Lluvia Suaves, (Black Rains Will Come) from their 1987 LP Manuel del Uso Ario. Orquesta de las Nubes were a trio: guitarist Sonic Manipulator Suso Saiz, percussionist Pedro Esteban, and singer Maria Villa. Influenced by the sounds of ECM and Brian Eno, they were trying to develop a new kind of Spanish music that drew on the new music of Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich, along with the hypnotic music of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Extending the beautiful morning sunset visuals, Colleen then plays David Silvian's Weathered Wall, taken from the former Japan's frontman solo debut album, Brilliant Trees, released on the 25th of June, 1984 (on which we found a track already played during Balearic Breakfast's first episode, Red Guitar). Even though Japan had disbanded, former band members Steve Johnson and Richard Barbieri both appear on the record, alongside a stellar array of other guests, like Hans Holger Zukai, Danny Thompson, the bassist John Hassel, Mark Gisham, and the late Urichi Sakamoto, who had collaborated with Silvian before. It was a well-received album. Sounds critic Carol Linfield wrote: "Silvian has grown up. He's left art school, gone through the gray, and come out in a spectrum of pastel shades that entrance and enthrall. Gone is the clichéd imagery that once haunted Japan. "'In its place is a solo artist who deserves more respect than his beautiful face often allows." In a beautiful interview that you can read here, David Silvain explains a few things about "Weathered Wall". – "I have never visited Jerusalem. Again, the album 'Brilliant trees' was written in a period when my belief system, my faith, came under attack. I wanted to see what remained when all pillars of support were removed. The pieces you mention are explorations along those lines. The narrator of Brilliant trees ultimately finds redemption in human love which for him is linked to the divine." Once again, when listening to Colleen's show, pay attention to the details. The rhythmic perfection meets us once again as the next track, a gentle and promising number, this time of singer, songwriter, and DJ Iraina Mancini's Undo the Blue, starts, allowing the listener to dive fully into this new morning. This "Beyond the Wizard's sleeve reimagination" is a new single. On the flip side is a Saint Etienne remix of her song Sugar High. You can hear touches of French pop, psychedelia, and some cinematic soul on there. Speaking about the very song in an interview, Iraina shared "I wrote this song about reinvention and fresh starts. Leaving the bad behind and seeing a bright shiny new you.“ Even through Silence, Colleen's soul shines. Do you hear the musical continuity here? Listen to the musical "pattern; I'm sure you'll understand what I'm talking about. Pure Beauty, right? Italy's Feel Fly's Sole (Versione Tremonde), or sun, came out very fittingly on the summer solstice on June 21st and oh so perfectly gave me the title of today's post, just a few minutes before Colleen actually introduced the track. Isn't this intellectual Synchronicity in its purest form right there? (.....) Feel Fly is Afro-Templum co-founder Daniele Tomassini, and there's just so much good music coming out of Italy right now. You know, from jazz, all that whole Napoli scene, and also kind of the further evolution of Italo disco, Italo house. As Colleen said, grazie per la musica! Following this blissful moment comes a track that I considered the Wow moment of today's 181st episode: a profound, visionary, freewheeling, incantatory and musical trip by Ricardo Pellegrin-Elkady, with Seiva De Carnaval. What's really interesting at that moment of the show is the "timing" element; you could almost draw a little storyboard in which every song would see the sun going up in the sky; what a beautiful musical progression right there! Ricardo came from Guinea-Bissau. Settling in Quebec in 1974, he became a pioneer of world beat in Canada, blending sounds from Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe. This incredible track is taken from Elkady's 1984 EP Sanguila. Elkady spent his life sharing the importance of Culture, fighting against analphabetism, sharing music that would always go beyond "folklorization" (he issued 3 albums between 1984 and 1995) and putting the respect due to the person on the forefront of his strongest beliefs (read here). Keeping her pulse tremendously perfect, never missing a beat, Colleen then plays the lovely cover of Casanova, the 1980 single by Coffee (First release by Ruby Andrews, 1967), given here a jazzy and broken-beat twist by Dan the Drums and Ronnie Turner with vocals by Emma Noble (the track is out now on the wonderful Ramrock Records), beautifully followed by the incredible, and still funky fresh-sounding Mountains by Prince! Colleen is such a musical delight right here!!! The funky and high-spirit reaching song Muntains isTaken from Prince's eighth album and his last one with the Revolution "Parade", released in 1986, a year after Around the World in a Day, two years after Purple Rain, and alongside a load of other projects. Do you hear the rhythmic connection between Mountains and the Trinidadian disco number that is Barbara Hernandez's All Night Tonight? It's another blissful Balearic musical moment we absolutely all love here on Balearic Breakfast! Issued on another one of Collen's favourite labels, Soundway, which reissues fabulous and often forgotten nuggets, also featuring upcoming stars like Australia's Psy Galaxy, this Cult Soca Disco 12-inch was produced by Leston Paul, initially released in 1984, and now available in full vocal and instrumental versions for the first time in 40 years. Barbara was a backing singer for Kool and the Gang in New York at the time this track was recorded, and the session featured Kool and the Gang's horn section as well as a who's who of the Trinidad music scene for what would be Barbara's only solo release. Colleen perfectly ends the first hour of the show by playing two incredible songs, perfectly mixed by theway (once again, laughs!): the slow starter but definitely strong builder (laughs!) orchestral extended version of Imagination by Belouis Some, followed by The Cosmic Kudo remix of Resistor by Shunt Voltage (Shunt Voltage's generator is featured on the Balearic Breakfast Vol. 3 compilation btw). I absolutely adore this last track as it does have these strong and sunny visuals attached to it! That track is so Mean, I really mean Mean! Another Wow moment of this 181st episode for sure! Originally a hit from his 1985 debut album Some People, Imagination is about a British man's encounter with an extremely self-indulgent American woman and one that expresses the conflict between reality and dreams. The album was produced in New York City, and the video was directed by the late Storm Thorgeson, who designed many of Pink Floyd's album covers. It caused a little bit of controversy because it featured full-frontal nudity. Now that the sun is high in the sky, it's past 10 o'clock in the morning already, we can all have a proper Balearic Breakfast Party! And this is exactly what Colleen is going to propose us here in the second hour of today's sunny episode, starting with Precious' Bloom, Teka Teki Asmara, oh so beautifully followed by the light "carnival-like" number that is Galliano's Pleasure, Joy, and Happiness, the "ha-chika boom boom" moment ending with the incredible A lover's Holiday by the Italian studio project that is Change! Precious Bloom, a band from Jakarta in Indonesia, is comprised of record digger and producer Aradea Barindana and singer-songwriter Adinda Dwimadasari. With a penchant for 80s Indonesian city pop, the band released Precious Bloom last year. The album has a wide spectrum of sounds, including new beat and proto house, high energy, and even some bossa nova influences. Pleasure, Joy, and Happiness from Galliano's forthcoming album, Halfway Somewhere, is coming out on Brownswood Recordings on the 30th of August. It's a cosmic, uplifting take on Eddie Tricone's 2020 record. Rob Gallagher was inspired when he saw Eddie perform it at Clapton's Church of Sound and at We Out Here, and he felt a strange disco version trying to get out. The immaculate sounds of the Italian studio project Change with A Lover's Holiday, a single from their 1980 LP produced by Jacques Fred Petrus with backing vocals by Luther Vandros, who sang lead on other Change songs. The song was written by David Romany of High Fashion and the BB&Q Band, and it was mixed by the late DJ Jim Burgess, who that same year became one of the resident DJs at the newly opened gay club The Saint in New York City. For the second mini mix of today's show, we all love when Colleen does these, our dear Captain plays Danny Rampling's mix of the beloved 1989 Balearic classic The Sun Is Rising perfectly followed "in da beat" by Norwegian producer and DJ Hans-Peter Lindstrom's Sirius Syntones; lifting this incredible musical moment with a well-deserved tribute to the Loft, bringing us all to David Mancuso's home on East 3rd Street (in Manhattan's Alphabet City) with Black Rascals' (ft. Roger Harris) Keeping My Mind, climaxing it in a craze and gospel cry with the incredible Joe Claussell's workout that is Myrna Summers' So Much to Live For and ending it in a stunning mix with Lea Lisa's Poem for the Lost Souls!!! Another Wow moment for sure (allowing us all to send positive thoughts to Rick's mom, who celebrated her 80th birthday today)!!! Sirius Syntones, a Norwegian producer, and DJ Hans-Peter Lindstrom's new single on his own Fidelity label has a fun, uplifting and Italo house feel to it. Great for festival sets on warm summer days. Such a great arranger with a great ear! Black Rascals featuring Roger Harris' Keeping My Mind was actually Blaze, Kevin Hedge, and Josh Milan. The track came out in 1993 as a first single on Danny Diaz's label, Suma Recordings, and he released their productions and also one by the late DJ Camacho in 1996, called "Renegade". Joe Claussell has become something of a powerhouse of Latin jazz house productions and can be here heard on Maryland gospel singer and a minister of music at Reed Temple AME Church Myrna Summer, who released 19 albums between 1970 and 2006, here with So much to live for. French DJ and producer Lea Lisa is a Lausanne-based artist. She released records on Wolf Music and Fonica, and now has a new one on German label Smallville. Here she is with the Kuniyuki version of her Poem for the lost souls. There's also a double 12-inch released last week. After such an INCREDIBLE SHOW, Colleen signs off by playing one last song, actually a cover of a song many of us treasure. A true Loft classic that really makes end meets (if you see what I mean (😜) here in a version by The Boys from Brazil (taking this opportunity to wish her friend, James Hogarth, a Happy Birthday!). By the way, I almost forgot. Yesterday evening, as I was talking to my friend Ana, she told me, "I've read your last post on the blog. It's really good. I don't know how you do it." My answer came instantly: "I do it by dying every time." Remember, the sun doesn't think about the fact that it must shine. It Shines.

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.'