Viajes Orgaizados – Residentes Balearicos

Essential new music via Ibiza and Brighton..

Dr Rob’s got the words: ‘The White Isle`s Residentes Balearicos come bouncing back with a debut EP, Viajes Orgaizado, for Brighton`s Higher Love Recordings. The super prolific Italian duo of Luca Averna and Ale Doretto, who’ve now made Ibiza their home, have previously released music, across a range of tempos – from serene sunset shuffles to nocturnal, psychedelic, shamanic shakedowns. Gracing labels such as Shades Of Sound, Music For Dreams, Balearic Ensemble, and Takeo Toyama`s Archipelago. Noteworthy names such as Joe Morris and Robin Lee`s Rudy’s Midnight Machine have remixed the results, while they frequently collaborate with current king of “chillout”, Melodica`s Chris Coco. This fresh four-track outing finds the friends fashioning two new tunes, each given an additional guest “twist”.

D110 starts with a solid rock drum battery, quickly joined by characteristically bionic “balearicos” bass. Ripe with ravey synth signals, and filled with flickering frequencies, the track taps directly into their Italo disco roots. Its sleazy, suggestive, stomping novo new beat, countered by breakdowns of cute cascading bells and chimes – raining prettily above the punchy, pumping, pounding. Mancunian musician James Bright, himself a Higher Love veteran – as well as working with imprints such as Sveva, Quattro, and Eclectics – smooths out the still banging, gargantuan groove. Manufacturing melody from masked marimba and energetic, particulate, ping-ponging patterns, while making excellent use of echo to build, and release, tension.

Juno’s Dream is technologically tribal. Its robotic rhythm rising and falling hypnotically, while grounded by more “organic” finger clicks. The warm, womb-like, constantly mutating, bottom-end, an homage to both acid house and bleep. Bali-based Liverpudlian Joey Fiztgerald, aka Gold Suite adds trippy gated sequences, and bonus human hand percussion, in the shape of bongos and congas. Then tops this off with huge rushing waves, swirls, of stirring, emotive, synthetic strings.’

Out now via Bandcamp and all streaming services

Chris Coco & George Solar – Lagrimas De San Lorenzo

The Balearic brethren are back again, bringing the sound of Summer with this beautiful guitar lead two tracker, another essential soundtrack for your escapist journeys, be they real or virtual.

‘With “Lagrimas De San Lorenzo” Chris Coco & George Solar channel their inner star child in order to complete their summer Island phenomena tribute trilogy in style.

Following up on the dub infused “Noche De San Juan” and the rather tropical jazz  smoothie “September On The Island”, this time it’s all about getting lost in cosmic stargazing: the quite impressive “Tears of San Lorenzo” occur as an intense Perseid meteor shower night time spectacle all across the Mediterranean each year around mid august – and this is their rather adequate soundtrack. A star struck one.

This time around, the crisp beat section touches the more hip active mid tempo regions, with spacey synths & funky organic percussion layers carrying a light yet pretty profound jazz guitar skywards… the latter contributed by Argentinian born & Ibiza based Virtuoso Mathias Kamelman aka Kamelmat exclusively for the occasion. 

And so it’s time again soon to gather on that island and get together under the moon & the stars in order to celebrate life. All the tears shed on warm summer nights like that are destined to be tears of pure joy. Look up there… or just ask Lorenzo!’

Released March 19, 2021 via Bandcamp – link below

Cafe del Mar Mixtape Vol 2 1991

Del Mar Tapes

I recently found a couple of Cafe del Mar mixtapes, vols 2 & 8, I’m guessing they were bought in Summer 1991 (?) from legendary resident DJ Jose Padilla who used to sell them from behind the decks. He got bored of my nagging him for track id’s so he let me copy the track lists from his notebook. Maybe I’ll dig out the cassette deck and digitise them sometime, but for now here’s the track list and some links for volume 2. It’s a seminal collection, the Balearic blue print of ambient, electronics, classical, new-age, film scores and rock all going into the mix…

Update November 2020, finally got round to digitising one of the tapes, this is Vol 8, sides 1 & 2

1. Spiritual High – Moodswings
2. Hoomba Hoomba – Voices of Africa
3. David Morley – Birth
4. Opus for 4 – Art of Noise
5. My Father was a Teacher – Megabyte
6. Cafe del Mar – Frank Fischer

7. Good to See You – Vangelis
8. Marimba Dream – Reed Maidenberg
9. Twilight – Vangelis
10. The Big Blue Overture – Eric Serra
11. Adagio  – Shankar
12. Passion – Peter Gabriel
13. Do You Be? – Meredith Monk
14. Before Night Falls – Peter Gabriel
15. Release the Pressure – Leftfield
16 Struggle for Pleasure – Wim Mertens

Update April 2021 – Finally managed to digitise Vol 2, side 1…

  1. Wally Baderou – Mt. Fuji and the Mime
  2. Jean-Michel Jarre – Souvenir of China
  3. Yello – Blue Green
  4. Wally Baderou – The Dachstein Angels
  5. Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Perpetuum Mobile
  6. Jon & Vangelis – I hear you now
  7. Steve Miller – Wild Honey
  8. Laurie Anderson – White lily
  1. Laurie Anderson – Radar
  2. Marianne Faithfull – The Hawk
  3. Astor Piazolla – Regresso al Amor
  4. Mark Isham – Interest Persued
  5. Art of Noise – Moments in Love
  6. Jean-Michel Jarre – Oxygene

A Man Called Adam – Barefoot in the Head

‘I put a seashell to my ear…’

I put a seashell to my ear, and it all comes back.
The yellow sun,
the Mediterranean blue of the sky,
The children running on the beach that day,
The killdeer birds marching in formation
Down to the sea and back, down to the sea and back.

When my memory wanders, as it does when bad things happen,
I put a seashell to my ear and it all comes back.
That day,
You,
Even the gypsies
It all comes back.

You see what loving does?
It makes you trust in horoscopes
and gypsy wands
and fortune tellers
and even seashells.

I still believe in love.
It’s hard these days, you know?
And yet it’s still a great adventure
Better than blowing bridges
Or a bus ride to Chicago
Even better than running away from home to join the gypsies.

https://www.discogs.com/Anita-Kerr-Rod-McKuen-The-San-Sebastian-Strings-The-Sea/release/1458104

https://www.discogs.com/A-Man-Called-Adam-Barefoot-In-The-Head/master/10642

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Man_Called_Adam

http://www.amancalledadam.com/