Various - Island Breeze - Dubby, Tropical & Balearic (2013)

01 - intro (the san sebastian strings - the gypsy camp)

02 - richard schneider jr. - hello beach girls

03 - roberto lodola - marimba do mar (vocal version)

04 - azymuth - estrada dos deuses

05 - tony asha - lion of zion

06 - naturally - sunny gets blue version

07 - cornell campbell - be thankful (niagara 12inch)

08 - vikings guadeloupe - sweet florence

09 - ahmed fakroun - la ya hob (edit)

10 - ilonar staller - cicciolina pane marmellata e me (discodromo re-edit)

11 - ze roberto - lotus 72d

12 - joao donato - o morro nao tem vez (onur engin edit)

13 - original tropicana steel band - spanish hustle

14 - azymuth - dear limmertz

15 - letta mbulu - nomalizo

16 - helen - zanzibar (afro mix)

17 - ivano fossati - panama (nassau dub edit)

18 - noel ellis - version (black gold 7inch)

I made this compilation like six months ago for a friend. At first I meant to call it "Island Breeze - Dubby, DREAMY & Balearic" - but the "dreamy" got all "tropical" over the course of time - while I was selecting & listening to songs for this compilation. Expect to find some classic balearic sounds - mixed with leftfield late 80ies dancehall instrumentals with dreamy synths, island disco, brazilian boogie, italian sweetness & much more...!

After a short intro using the spoken part from the Balearic classic The San Sebastian Strings - Gypsy Camp from their 1967 album The Sea, I am ''mixing'' right into track #2 - the wonderful & joyful Hello Beach Girls. John Schneider Jr. from Germany made this warm, dreamy and latin inspired song, which you can find on his album Dreamlike Land, from 1977. ''…Imagine Jaki Liebezeit on Drums, a guy called Jumpy (Helmut Zerlett) on keys & synths, almighty Wolfgang Maus on Bass and an ironic Mr. Schneider on Glockenspiel, Acoustic 12 String guitar, Synthesizer, Tubelar Bells, Tambourine & Cowbells… See you at the beach!'' (via The Growing Bin). On track #04 we have got another sun touched beauty full of jazz smoothing grooves & some incredibly warm synth sounds - that will bring you straight to the beaches of Rio de Janeiro: Estrada Dos Deuses from Azymuth's 1975 debut album of the same name. Track #05 - Tony Asha's Lion Of Zion takes us right from the beaches of Rio de Janeiro to the Ghettos of Kingston Jamaica in the late 1980's - when the digital revolution forever changed the face of Jamaican music. Digital music was taking Jamaica by storm - all started in 1985 by the legendary Under My Sleng Teng by Wayne Smith. ''While the riddim is quite easy the sound of it was outstandingly new - it was produced 100% digital reggae, never heard before at that time! Wayne Smith, a singer for Jammy's, experimented around with a CASIO music box and did some interesting stuff with a slowed down rock'n'roll preset-drum pattern out of which Tony Asha (also know as Tony Asher), keyboardist at Jammy's and one of the few people around who new their ways with the new equipment, build the final riddim. Jammy produced the revolutionary classic of it, which today is one of the most versioned riddims ever'' (via Jahtari). Read more about the Sleng Teng history here. On ''Lion Of Zion'' we have aforementioned Tony Asha going loose over the classic Rumours riddim - which took its name from Gregory Isaacs's 1988 hit tune Rumours. I think some of these digital riddims blend & mix quite well with other 80ies (?!) balearic not balearic songs - the synths, the minimalism or even ambientness, the insistent pulse of drum and bass, scattered and shuffling percussion, the sparness, a certain rawness and sometimes shards of vocals - and all the time being uncompromisingly electronic. And these riddims have swing & bump. Some Detroit Techno/House & or even Acid House tunes spring to mind. I will be sharing some more of my favourite Riddim ''versions'' or b-sides soon... (Isn't ''Balearic'' so often about ''b-sides'' - or those overlooked songs?!). On track #15 - slowly coming to the end of this compilation - we have Nomalizo by South African artist Letta Mbulu. A fine slice of South African boogie funk straight out of 1985 - summer vibes all ova’...

"At the beach, life is different. Time doesn't move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides, and follow the sun." (Anonymous)

Enjoy! DubMe

Sexy, Sophisticated & Melodic: Balearic Dreams - Your Mind is on Vacation (2012)

01 - azymuth - linha do horizonte

02 - jorge ben - oe oe faz o corro de boi na estrada

03 - jago - i'm going to go (instrumental)

04 - tullio de piscopo - primavera (stop bajon) (12inch version)

05 - rah band - float

06 - london aircraaft - rocket in my pocket (more info here!)

07 - pino daniele - yes i know my way (special 12inch version)

08 - prism - the white shadow (rare remix of risco connection version - 1980)

09 - salena jones - summertime (mark wayward edit)

10 - supermax - camillo

11 - kid creole and the coconuts - im wonderful thing baby (12'' mix - 1982)

12 - nohelani cypriano - lihue

13 - fleetwood mac - dreams (far away edit)

14 - the hollies - draggin my heels (special disco version)

15 - jimmie rowles - your mind is on vacation

''Its the undefinable that makes it almost like a secret society. You either get it or you don’t. In or out.''

I have finished compiling this selection of some Balearic favourites of mine a while ago, but I thought I ought to do some proper writing to accompany it. What is Balearic? As I can't put it any better - I will give the word/pen to Radio Jiro from the great website Panther Club:  

''First off you need to understand that Balearic isn’t just some kind of genre, it’s more about a vibe, a feeling and an attitude. This might sound like some hippie shit but that’s exactly what Balearic music is all about, it’s about being in Eivissa and listening to Alfredo while you dance naked during sunrise, it’s about that feeling of total euphoria, where there’s no problems just pure bliss (...) There aren’t really any rules as to what can and can’t be classed as Balearic as long as it feels right, but to me it’s usually something sexy, sophisticated and melodic that gets your body and mind feelin’ good.''

Next I am going to quote Apiento's What’s It All About? Balearic Beat In 2012 from Testpressing: 

''By definition, and harking back to it’s original origins, it means a musical style that means anything goes. To some it means a specific period in Ibizan clubbing history, as Terry Farley, DJ and producer, says when questioned. ''Its all about Alfredo - pure and simple. A South American kid in exile looking at the rich and fabulous slumming it at an after hours club off their rockers and thinking ‘I can play anything and they will dance’. The UK take on Balearic is totally shaped by what he played in those two summer seasons before 1988. By ’88 by and large he was playing HOUSE - using that logic Balearic lived for two beautiful years then died a death in ’88.''

But then again, it is also worth noting - as Bill Brewster, author and DJ, wrote in 2008 on djhistory.com: 

''In the 1980s, before the arrival of house music, almost all club DJs played an eclectic range of music that might incorporate disco, funk, soul, rare groove, go-go, electro, hip hop and even the occasional comedy record. Nobody billed these DJs as Balearic; a) because the term did not yet exist and; b) because everybody played in this style.

In New York, it was the same story, too. Larry Levan, with his wide ranging tastes that encompassed the classic disco and soul of his youth to bands like the Clash or Cat Stevens or even Nu Shooz, it could be argued (and is, frequently, by some ninnies) that Larry Levan was Balearic. The same could be said for Ron Hardy. And Frankie Knuckles. Oh and Tony Humphries, Shep Pettibone, David Mancuso, Nicky Siano and about a hundred others.''

Back to Apiento from the great Testpressing website: 

''So what does Alfredo, one of the Godfathers of the whole scene, think? “Originally, it was as simple as me trying to make a party with a very cosmopolitan and different crowd very late at night, or very early in the morning!!! A crowd that came from another places and was open to a special experience. This fact gave me the opportunity to play all kinds of styles and tempos of music, and not only English, also Italian, French, Spanish, Brasilian, African, South American… That was the beginning. In actual terms - a mixture of chill out, lounge and dance music. At that time in Ibiza I could play soul, reggae, rock, pop, Latin, and if I like it, the crowd would like it. They where kind of ready for that. And I think they where looking for that 'cos I was one of them!”

It’s certainly true that Alfredo was the original DJ and there are those like Farley who believe his playlist in those two years is where it began and ended, but there are thousands more around the world that picked the baton up and ran with it, loving the anything goes spirit of the genre that allowed DJs and producers to take in folk, ambient, house, R&B and whatever suits the mood.

Manchester duo Moonboots and Jason Boardman of the Aficionado club probably have a better take than most on the overall sound of the modern balearic beat. “Its all about playing anything good outside of the four-four mainstream for minds and feet with a balearic edge. Referencing the multi-tempo playlist of Ku , Shoom and the Cafe Del Mar, disco has been added to the mix alongside electronic and folky oddities.” Bill Brewster shows the extremities of the genre, ''Balearic Beat in 2012 is the same as it was in 2011, 1999 and 1984. It’s shit pop records and brilliant EBM records. It’s everything and nothing.'' We disagree on the shit pop records but then we like The Blow Monkeys. Mark from International Feel, the label behind DJ Harvey’s recent releases amongst many others, also goes for the anything goes angle. ''Balearic Beat is anything I want it to be… Anything you want it to be. In a world of digital noise, black sausage waveforms and ringtone pop music, its pure atmosphere and melody, the last bastion of real emotion in music.'' (...) (Balearic) means the beautiful sounds of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra with their fusion of world and classical music in the 80s. It means finding strange records no-one has ever heard or hoping to find a B side on an Italian pop record with 'that' sound. It could be any of the host of new producers and DJs bringing the sound full circle to the current day and starting to bend its edges into new shapes. It’s getting a new mix (...) and marvelling at the amount of music that fits our world. It’s not just music. Anything can be balearic. The art-house film Bagdad Cafe is very balearic for example, and on the subject of video, if you want to watch the most balearic thing ever then check the Ku Tourist clip Look De Ibiza (...) from the mid-80s with its amazing soundtrack. To summarise, to us its an attitude.

We’ll give the final word to Alfredo. A don and Ibizan legend. ''My definition of Balearic; its a music mostly, eclectic, happy , sexy, not cheesy, that gets its roots in the origins of dance music and flourishes on the dancefloor, as a sound that makes you forget genres, or categories and you just enjoy it, listen to it, dancing and sharing it. Beat poetic, but real!'' 

Here a little selection how the term "Balearic" has been discussed on djhistory.com which pretty much sums up what I wrote/quoted above:

1. Balearic is whatever was in Alfredo's record box back in Ibiza in the mid-'80s and cannot be anything else, or replicated. (It was a time and a place.)

2. Balearic is radio-friendly pop music, but played at *that* moment in the night transforms into a thing of dancefloor magic. (Can be any DJ at any time.)

3. Balearic is a mindset, not a record or a musical style, which understands the first principle and is capable of pulling off the second.

More Balearic Niceness coming in the future! Until then enjoy this first selection of some Balearic favourites of mine.  

DubMe

Original links, videos & some mixes I enjoyed listening to on soundcloud:

1. Amnesia Closing Party With Alfredo DJing in 1989 on youtube.

2. What’s it all about? Balearic Beat in 2012 (Apiento / February 2012)

3. In Search of Balearic (Bill Brewster / 2008)

4. Balearic Beat on Wikipedia.

5. One March Morning by Moonboots on soundcloud. Quite a few new Balearic classis  on here. Beautiful mix! 

6. Autumn by Wonderfulsound. Deep Balearic stuff for some long Autumn evenings!

Oriental Discotheque - Disco Not Disco (2012)

01 - ahmed fakroun - njoom al leyel

02 - tanya - darladi ladada version

03 - antares - arabian dance

04 - orient express - abdullah dollar (jean pierre massiera '83)

05 - les mogol - madimak

06 - baris manco - aheste (baris k edit)

07 - rachid taha - agatha

08 - djamel allam - edit d'algerie (julian horn)

09 - bjork - crystalline (omar souleyman remix)

10 - elias rahbani - dance of maria

11 - abdul hassan orchestra - disco arab

12 - ait mislayene - el fen

13 - ahmed fakroun - yo son (prince language edit 'soleil soleil')

14 - raina rai - hagda

15 - les edits du golem - sumak

I have always liked the various forms of oriental music from the Middle East. Listening to my father playing some Mohammed Abdel Wahab (check out the classic Abdel Halim Hafez song Ya Albi Ya Khali produced by him) or Farid El Atrache tapes as a child was always deep and fazinating stuff! And the record covers of some of his Belly Dancing albums never seemed to disappoint. In recent years, whenever listening to some oriental music, I found myself mostly listening to music from Nickodemus, Zeb, The Spy From Cairo, Rachid Taha, Natacha Atlas - music which sometimes is summarized/described as global grooves (whatever that means) - music shared on many great Putumayo, Rough Guide to... or Turntables on the Hudson compilations and mixes. Today's compilation is a little different. Kind of Oriental Disco, Disco Not Disco, No Wave, Leftfield, Edit, Balearic, Italo Disco with an oriental theme, Pop-Boogie-Electro, Cosmic... I have always collected "oriental" songs which fit the above mentioned description. One of the first songs for this compilation might have been track #7, Agatha by Rachid Taha. Found it one a nice Balearic mix, whose name I have forgotten. Another early favourite is track# 10, Dance Of Maria by Lebanese musician and composer Elias Rahbani. What a stand out track with great drum breaks, killer organ, flutes... Too beautiful not to cry! Taken from his 1972 album "Mosaic of the Orient". Let me share what Little Danny, who is responsible for the great Officenaps blog, writes on soul sides - he did a great job describing the surroundings of the song: "In 1972 you’d still come across references to Beirut as "The Paris of the Middle East" in current issues of National Geographic; the city was, after all, the region’s nerve center of television, cinema, and radio. And Lebanese pop wunderkind Elias Rahbani was squarely in the middle of it all. His "Song of Maria" works precisely because of its cosmopolitan soul: it’s Eastern melody with Western circuitry, experimentalism with a sense of pop humor, and it’s crammed with flowing Farfisa organ lines, electric bass, keyboards that aren’t mizmars but sound exactly like them, bouzoukis, guitars, and even a few choice moments for you breakbeat aficionados. But, then again, this was 1972, a ravaging decade and a half of civil war was still a few years away, and, as far as Rahbani was concerned, there was room for all of it inside the pleasure dome.“ Read the rest here. The song that really got this compilation rollin' was track #13, the Prince Language killer edit of Libyan singer Ahmed Fakroun's 1983 hit "Soleil Soleil". Find the original here. John Storm Roberts, of Original Music, wrote that "among rai singers, the pop-oriented Ahmed Fakroun stands out on two grounds. First, he is influenced by Euro-pop and French art-rock (...) Second, he's a multi-instrumentalist in both traditions as well as a singer. He plays bouzouki-like saz, mandol and darbouka drum, as well as guitar, bass guitar and keyboards." This is what the jonosaudio blog had to say about Ahmed Fakroun, far the best introduction to this fine musicians I found on the blogsphere: "Multiinstrumentalist Ahmed Fakroun musical career started already in the early 1970's after which he had several lenghty recording and performance sejours in England and France. (In 1974 he recorded "Njoom Al Leyel", which is the first song featured on this compilation. Produced in England by famous BBC Radio producer Tommy Vance in 1974, it features some funky flute workouts over a deep groove. In 1977 he worked together with famous Greek composer and artist Vangelis resulting in the track "Nisyan". Listen to the Les Edits Du Golem edit of the same song on youtube.) In 1983 his Mots D'Amour album was released including the hit single Soleil Soleil to make his mark in world music circles, combining traditional Arab instruments and melodies with modern electronic music and dance rhythms. But then came the US aerial bombing of Libya in April 1986, followed by years of international sanctions and isolation, ...(which) seriously impeded its citizens' freedom of movement and Fakroun's international career plans were effectively put on ice." Here is another lengthy article about Ahmed Fakroun from the BBC website - well worth reading. If you want to further explore Fakroun's musical works, check out his website. Some of his original recordings can legally be downloaded through CD Baby here and here. Track #8 is another song I would like to mention. A brilliant edit of Djamel Allam's Fatiha from his 1974 album "Laissez Moi Rancorter" by Julian Horn. Julian Horn aka. Giulio DJ started his career DJ'ing in Vienna around ten years ago, bringing his love for authentic disco, balearic beats and cosmic leftfield sounds to the plates of many locals. Check out some of his music released on Is it Balearic...? and Elevator People. And don't forget to give this amazing song and video on youtube a listen. Pure feel-good-music! Educated as a sound engineer in London, Giulio's musical visions mostly expand on the themes of balearic disco, fusion jazz, and prog rock. I hope he will soon share another magical edit of a north african, arabic, oriental delicacy! I would have loved to include the 1978 song Do You Love Me by the Bendaly Family from Lebanon on this compilation, but I couldn't find a copy of it anywhere. So, you gotta watch the youtube version right here:

Amazing raw footage that leaves me jaw dropping stunned every time I watch it. And happy! For sure my favourite musical family out there - together with the Jackson 5... Doyo love me? Doyo Doyo...

Enjoy! DubMe

PS: This compilation fits perfectly on one CD - just click "NO PAUSE BETWEEN TRACKS" when you are going to burn it - and the CD will be exactly 79:59 minutes long...