Super selections and wonderful words by Balearic Mike.

This summer has had almost as many fabulous record releases as rainy days. Here are some I want to share with you…

Ghoßt Assembly – I Miss Your Love – Ruf Kutz

This is an absolute killer tune from long-time friend and fellow Vinyl Exchange Manchester survivor, Abigail Ward. If you listen to my 1BTN radio show you will already have heard me play the ‘Club Mix’ a couple of times. I Miss Your Love manages to effortlessly fuse the bassline, sense of longing, insistent piano riff, and synth stabs of early Chicago deep house, with the tempo, handclaps, ‘orchestra hit’, and quick vocal edits of early `80s New York electro disco and garage. Topped off with a haunting female vocal part, this is a slice of dancefloor devastation which will be one of the tracks of the year, as well as a future classic. 

Abs is one of music’s great historians, having co-founded the wonderful Manchester District Music Archive (MDMA). She is also a seasoned veteran behind the old ones and twos, and a respected music journalist / writer. Here are some of her own words on the record:

“I love house music that creates a sense of euphoric melancholy on the dancefloor. This is my attempt to evoke a certain kind of queer longing: going to a club, holding your secrets, knowing that you will leave alone. So, you turn to the music for transcendence and companionship. Ultimately, it’s just you and the music. It’s all you need.”

Lovely!

Released on Ruf Dug’s Ruf Kutz label, it looks great as well, with vintage style hype sticker and an insert, part of a newsletter from legendary `80s Manchester gay club, Jive. This includes 2 killer charts from the Friday and Saturday residents, and news of Les Cokell opening his record shop, Energhighs, in Clone Zone. It ends with this sage piece of advice, still as relevant today as in 1988:

“Fuck the Tories and see you on the dancefloor.”

Earth Angel – Earth Angel – Foundation Music 

This is another strong contender for record of the year! This Earth Angel mini-LP is the work of hugely respected Sheffield DJ and producer Crooked Man, a.k.a. DJ Parrot, a.k.a. Richard Barratt, someone who’s been at the forefront of UK dance music since co-hosting the legendary Jive Turkey club nights in the mid/late `80s. Here, he returns to the 80s sounds of electro and street soul, adding a heavy dose of lover’s rock, and throwing lots of dub into the mix. Filtering and twisting this through 30 odd years of club sounds, utilising the technology and hardware of hip hop, house and techno, but framed within a decidedly downtempo set of rhythms. Creating a unique, cavernous, sonic landscape. Plus, of course, there’s that trademark Sheffield bowel-emptying bass! Very reminiscent of the music coming out of Bristol in the late 80s / early 90s, and the Balearic slowdown of 1989-92, the 4 tracks get reworked over 9 versions. Each taking the songs further into outer space and deeper into dub.

Opener, Happy, gets things going with a tough 808 beat, fat, squelchy, techno synths, topped by a sultry soulful vocal with a rip-roaring, uplifting chorus. This gets dubbed out on 2 further mixes, while Really Really is the most straight-up track on offer, and the only one not given the dubwise treatment. There are 2 outstanding cover versions. Both more than stand up to comparisons with their source material, and are totally essential. The Patrick Adams-penned classic, Ain’t No Big Thing – made famous by Donna McGee, Personal Touch, etc. – now starts life as a sweet, yet tough, slice of lover’s rock, but, over 3 takes, moves, morphs, into heavier, more electronic territory. Love Unlimited’s Move Me No Mountain is also given an incredible treatment, reverbed and delayed into oblivion on MOVETURNSWIMLONGDUB. 

Beg, borrow or steal a copy of this record. It is THE SHIT!

I’d been waiting for this record to arrive for some time, having only heard rumours of its existence…

Prince – 17 Day (Piano & A Microphone Version – East Coast Love Affair Remix)

17 Days is one of Prince’s finer B-sides. Originally released on the flip of When Doves Cry, the studio version was a heavy slab of electro-funk – which would have been right at home on the albums, 1999 and Purple Rain. Then, on the wonderful Piano & A Microphone 1983 album, posthumously released in 2018, we all got to hear the original version, with Prince sitting at his keyboard, seemingly making the song up on the spot. This haunting, beautiful, and sparse arrangement was like catnip to Prince-adoring house heads, and in 2019 Chicago DJ / producer, Rahaan, released a superb re-work on G.A.M.M. A live sounding re-work, with some harsh, 1984-era Prince drum samples, a great bass part, and some funky guitar playing, it is really great. However, I think this remix, from Athens Of The North-affiliated production duo East Coast Love Affair, might just top it. It’s certainly the most ‘house’ version of the two. Both versions start in a quite similar style, but on the ECLA one a huge, throbbing house bassline joins the fray, and the track just continues to build and build for its entire duration. Extra percussion is slowly added – handclaps, hi-hats – and, then, those synth-strings. There are some beautiful drops, and things just seem to get bigger, and faster, and more powerful, as it grooves along.

You all know that I’m a huge Prince fan, and I can be very critical of anyone fucking with his shit, but this is an absolutely majestic remix. A total house music bomb! The12 is as limited as hell, so don’t hang about. I have The Mighty Zaf at London’s Love Vinyl to thank for my copy. Cheers!

This next one is a strong contender for the most Balearic reissue of the year… and done with the usual impeccable quality control you expect from Be With Records.

Malcolm McLaren & The Bootzilla Orchestra – Call A Wave (Remixes) – Be With Records 

That Malcolm McLaren character certainly recognized a good thing when he heard it, and back in 1989 he had a fairly good hunch that this Italian house music lark was pretty cool. 

The original Call A Wave is a brilliant slice of wonky pop-dance, built around a sample from Barry White’s I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby.  It appeared on McLaren’s album, Waltz Darling – the same LP that included the track, Deep In Vogue, and released a full year before Madonna celebrated New York’s ballroom culture. One of the anthems of the summer of 1989 was the E2-E4 sampling Italian masterpiece, Sueno Latino, and it was one of the men behind this hit, Massimino Lippoli, that Malcolm cannily called on for a remix. 

Massimino turns in 3 outstanding mixes, in a slow (104 BPM), dreamy, Italian house style, a breathy, seductive blend of tough drums, twittering synths and uplifting piano – using only the subtlest, slightest part of the Barry White track. Matthew Burgess & Jolyon Green included his DFC Dance Mix on their Claremont 56 compilation, Originals Volume 4.

On a second disc we first get the Orbital Mix, which isn’t by the band Orbital at all. No, this remix is by Mark Moore and William Orbit, who, with their rework of Les Negres Vertes’ Zobi La Mouche also tearing up dancefloors that summer, were on something of a hot streak. Their take is a chunky, funky, Balearic shuffler, with much more Barry White. It’s also great. Finally Massimo, Mark and William, all get all chillout on us, and provide 2 gorgeous beatless versions.

There were only 300 copies of this double-pack promo pressed in 1989, and although the Lippoli mixes got a limited European release, they’ve become highly sought after. This is a superb reissue, in an identical gatefold sleeve, with an hype sticker.

For more from Balearic Mike you can find him on both Facebook and Instagram – @balearicmike. 

Mike has a Mixcloud page packed with magnificent, magical, music, and you can catch him live on 1BTN, from 12 noon until 2 (UK time) every 1st and 3rd Friday.

You can also check out the super silk screen prints of “Balearic Wife” over at @jo_lambert_print