100th Monkey was a one-time-only alias of Toronto-based trio, The Boomtang Boys (1). While brothers Paul and Tony Grace, together with keyboardist Rob DeBoer, were prolific all through the 1990s, they only released one 2-track 12 using this moniker. Heels & Souls have now picked it up, and the music is both cracking, and really interesting. While the E.P. comes outta Canada it’s choc full of samples, and references to, Balearic-by-design Beats that I assumed were only a thing in the UK, and bits of Europe, at the time (2). It turns out that one of the Boomtangers, Paul, was a buyer at a local shop, Starsound, who plugged them into the tunes that were being played at “Balearic Network” bashes up and down Britain, at clubs such as Flying, Back To Basics, Most Excellent, Slam, Venus, and Wobble (3).

The opening percussive rattle on Raindance, for example, is fresh from a then favourite, while the track’s vocals are also samples – shouts and chants, that are either treated, or cleverly cut off before trainspotters can easily ID their source. Its mid-tempo machine b-line kinda doing the macarena beneath explosions of euphoric synth glissandos. Remixer Manuel Darquart clearly understands what’s going on, and sticks with the program, continuing the light-hearted light-fingered fun, by lifting the bass-line from Unlimited Pleasure’s cheeky cover of Supermax’s Love Machine – a huge Flying floor-filler – for his more uptempo rework. He also filters everything from the OG, sorta scratching it – whistling – in, adding sirens and a synthesised saxophone straight out of an early `90s slice of Italian paradise house. Nyika Nyika is a cute collection of hand claps, and kalimba / marimba-like chimes, whose voices mix an ethereal enchantress with a chorus of African cries. Imagine if Ben Cenac’s Push / Pull met African Head Charge’s Stebeni’s Theme and they both necked a couple of Calis (4). River Ride, produced with the other pieces in 1994 but previously unreleased, sighs and shimmers and is significantly more chilled. Rippling with relaxing tender tribal percussive patterns, and again with a great groovy bottom end. This one inspired by Bobby Konders’ The Poem.

NOTES

(1) Back in the day I actually picked up their debut 12, Love Trip, from Flying Records. 

(2) Balearic-by-design versus Balearic-by-accident. Before 1988 and the second summer of love DJs such as Alfredo, Leo Mas, Pippi, Jose Padilla, Cesar de Melero… created the “Balearic Beat” by cherry-picking music from every genre. None of it made – specifically – for dancing on pills. Following that cultural explosion, however, tons of turned on folks tried their hand at producing tunes solely for that purpose.

(3) The Balearic Network was the name given to a group of sonically like-minded clubs from across the UK: Flying in London, Spice / Most Excellent in Manchester, Back To Basics in Leeds, Wobble in Birmingham, Venus in Nottingham, Slam in Glasgow… These local scenes to a large extent were all brought together by Flying`s Ibiza 90 trip (immortalised in the documentary, A Short Film About Chilling). 

(4) A Cali was a tablet of high quality Californian ecstasy, which in London, in 1989, when you could generally pick up an E for 15 quid, would still set you back 25.

100th Monkey’s Raindance can be preordered directly from Heels & Souls.