Super selections and wonderful words by Balearic Mike.

I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for September babies, since I am one myself. All of these beauties, celebrated significant birthdays last month…

Art Of Noise – Into Battle With The Art Of Noise – ZTT 1983

Released on September 26th, 1983, this 12” / E.P. / mini-LP (what the fuck is it?) had a huge impact on the worlds of hip hop / electro, and this music / movement / abstract concept we call Balearic Beats. Not bad, considering it started life as a load of offcuts from the sessions for Malcolm McLaren’s Duck Rock. Having assembled his team of Anne Dudley, Gary Langan, and J.J. Jeczalik, Trevor Horn obviously realised that this extra material was really rather wonderful, and they should probably do something with it. Author / Journalist Paul Morley managed to get himself invited to the party, spotting the potential for much ‘wanging-on-at-length in an artistic, obtuse and pretentious fashion’, and for just plain upsetting people in the music world with their clever goings on. The Art Of Noise was born.

To be fair to Morley, he did come up with the name, nicking it from the essay “The Art of Noises” by noted futurist Luigi Russolo. Morley later wrote “I loved the name The Art of Noise so much that I forced my way into the group”. Trevor Horn wrote in his autobiography of his delight in seeing kids on the streets of New York breakdancing to Beatbox, knowing that they’d never believe him if he told them he’d made the record they were spinning on their heads to. 

…and Moments In Love? Well, it’s only one of the most beautiful records ever made isn’t it, and a staple on the Island of Ibiza, long before anyone even coined the term ‘Balearic Beats’. It’s the first track on Ku’s famous ‘Look de Ibiza’ video, which I think dates from 1986?

Paul Rutherford – Get Real (Happy House Mix) – 4^th & Broadway (Island Records) 1988

This is one of the records that really reminds me of my first term at art college in Brighton, and the autumn / winter of 1988… including smoke and strobe filled midweek visits to The Zap Club and The Escape.

After Frankie Goes To Hollywood fell apart in the aftermath of their criminally underrated second album Liverpool, Paul Rutherford was the first band member to launch a solo career, starting with this incredible, if rather odd number. Co-written with Martin Fry and Mark White of ABC, it’s fair to say that, although these guys were used to spending time near the ‘topper-most of the popper-most’ of the UK’s charts, this collaboration wasn’t really aiming for the same destination. Instead, this pop-dance dream team conspired to create, a deep, unsettling, and yet euphoric slice of acid house. Not the soul music-inspired acid house sound of Yazz & The Plastic Population, or the disco and acid house fusion of S-Express, but something altogether more underground. As well as the slightly disturbing ‘speak-and-spell’ style robotic voice asking “Are you happy? Are you high?”, we get a pounding beat, and intense 303 acid line from the off. The track is tough and sparse, but also has quite an ethereal quality, and slightly European sound, with Paul’s vocals almost spoken at some points, seeming to drift in and out of the mix, adding to the sense of disorientation.

The track was banned by the BBC, amid the acid house hysteria sweeping the nation, and with no radio play, spent 3 weeks in the lower reaches of the charts in October, peaking at #46, and another in November (possibly when the remix 12” was released?), but was definitely not a hit. In the clubs however, it was a different matter, with the track acquiring legendary status on the coolest dancefloors across the UK club scene, including The Zap, and legendary Balearic / acid house nights like Shoom, Future and Spectrum. In a 1989 interview in Melody Maker, Paul was philosophical about the record’s lack of chart success: “I knew no one would understand it, but Island said it was a definite Top 10 hit. It got to Number 46… but it wasn’t made for that. It was done because I was so happy about music at the time, and there were some major records flying around. There was a nice spiritual feeling, and it made me want to get involved, and it was also a thank you to all the people in Chicago and Detroit for the records they were making.”

I picked my copy up sometime in October ‘88, after hearing it repeatedly at the Thursday ‘FRENZEE’ night at The Zap. It looks like it was just before I discovered the joy of Rounder Records in Shambles Square, as it still has the £1.99 HMV sticker on it, so must have been bought from the old HMV store in the entrance to Churchill Square, which to be fair, was pretty great for dance records at the time. It’s a record that I’ve played regularly in the 35 years since I first bought it – it never leaves the box / bag / wallet / stick depending on what decade we’re in – and still sounds contemporary and futuristic, and just plain brilliant and weird! It’s unlike almost any other acid track, which is why the song is so timeless.

“Don’t let them get you down, Get up and stand your ground, get real.”

P.S. After posting this: Frankie Says (Paul Rutherford) replied: 

“Thanks for that mate…………let’s all stay real xxxxx”

Pet Shop Boys – Very – Parlophone 1993

I’ve been thinking, listening, and writing about the Pet Shop Boys A LOT recently, as I’ve just contributed a rather substantial piece on the poptastic pair for the latest issue of Disco Pogo. In the firm belief that you can’t really have too much of a good thing, here’s some more on the dynamic duo… 

A 3-year gap had ensued between the release of Behaviour, which had been PSB’s least commercially successful album to date, and Very, which sets out to strongly reverse that trend. Full of bouncy, up-tempo, and incredibly catchy pop songs, Very has a much warmer, and more optimistic feel than its predecessor – in every aspect, including a colourful, sci-fi style makeover image wise for Chris and Neil. A good deal of this warmth comes from the orchestral arrangements, which come care of Art Of Noise virtuoso Anne Dudley.

This new set of songs and slight gear-shift sound-wise, would be duly rewarded, and the album went on to be by far their most successful album, and their first UK#1 LP! Not only that, the record would produce 5 singles, all of which made the UK top 20, with their brilliant cover version of Village People’s Go West spending 2 weeks at #2, and being denied the top spot by the twin behemoths of Culture Beat’s Mr. Vain (a track PSB would cover in their live shows the following year), and DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’s Boom! Shake The Room. Hard to compete with those two really.

My favourites are opener, and first single, Can You Forgive Her?, which contains one of Neil’s finest rhyming couplets:

“She’s made you some kind of laughing stock, Because you dance to disco and you don’t like rock…”

… and the sublime Young Offender. Both these tracks also had wonderful remixes on the single releases, but more of that elsewhere … (you’ll have to buy Disco Pogo to read about them!)

Actually (did you see what I did there?), I really love The Theatre as well – one of my favourite album cuts from The Boys.

Very was released on vinyl in a colourful sleeve, but the CD version really pushed the boat out, with an incredible ‘Lego’ style case, which apparently cost Neil and Chris a fortune in royalty payments, but which I’m sure you’ll agree was totally worth it. 

There was also a rubberised limited edition 2CD version called Very Relentless, which included a bonus 6 track mini-LP (called Relentless). This consisted of a set of more experimental dance tracks, and was also pressed as a triple-coloured vinyl promo in a limited-edition of 500 copies. I wasn’t lucky enough to be sent one of these, but my dear friend Justin Robertson was, and agreed to swap his copy with me for some rare Italian Balearic battle-weapon that I had a spare copy of. Both parties were very happy with this deal. However, later in the `90s, I temporarily fell on hard times, and had to sell it to buy drugs! OK, that last bits a lie. I sold it to buy more records, obvs! I’m not really sure what was going through my head when I did that, but hey-ho! I do have the 2CD (currently lost in my loft), but still, I was very pleased to hear that Relentless is just about to get its first commercial vinyl release next month. Put me down for one of those please.

Some fans may argue that Behaviour saw the end of Pet Shop Boys “Imperial” phase, but I think there is a very (see what I did there AGAIN!) strong argument that this record should also be included. It’s a great pop album.

If you want to read more about how much I LOVE PET SHOP BOYS, please pick up the new issue of Disco Pogo magazine.

This is without doubt one of the finest electronic dance records ever made. It turned 40 on September 19^th. 

Shannon – Let The Music Play – Emergency Records 1983

New York label, Emergency Records, was mostly known for licensing Italo-Disco tracks for the US market, releasing “cult” stuff like Electra’s hugely influential Feels Good (Carrots & Beets) stateside. Written and produced by Chris Barbosa and Mark Liggett, Let The Music Play was originally an instrumental called Fire And Ice, before the addition of vocalist Brenda Shannon Greene. The genius of this record is that it somehow manages to fuse elements of the electronic Italian disco sound, with the home grown New York sounds of electro, and in doing so create something new. This might be because it was one of the first tracks to sync together TR-808 drums and a Roland TB-303 bassline, notorious in later years as key components in creating acid house. The killer mix of exciting and groundbreaking production, paired with a great song and beautiful vocal meant that this didn’t just stay an underground club hit. In the US Let The Music Play reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, #2 on the Billboard R&B, and #1 on the Hot Dance Club Play charts, while in the UK it went to #14 (we don’t have loads of silly categories), and was a smash hit all over the world.

Barbosa, hugely influenced by the productions of Arthur Baker and John Robie, infuses the track with a Latin American rhythm, a heavily syncopated drum sound. Something that became known as ‘Freestyle’, this had a massive impact in the following years, spawning hits such as Lisa-Lisa And Cult Jam’s I Wonder If I Take You Home, and its influence can also be heard on Janet Jackson’s 1986 masterpiece, Control.

Cantoma is the alias of my dear friend, and Balearic legend Phil Mison. Phil is also a September baby…

Cantoma – Moonsmith (World Dub Pastry (Part 1 of 3)) – Music For Dreams 2004

Phil Mison is not only a most excellent fellow, who I’ve been lucky enough to know for nearly 30 years, but he’s also possibly the Balearic centre of the universe, supremely talented as both a DJ and producer, and he’s also one of the top 5 funniest humans on the planet.

I dug this Moonsmith record out a few weeks ago to play on my 1BTN radio show. It’s a gorgeous slice of spatial dub reggae, with a haunting piano melody, and it’s a beautiful example of not only Phil’s talent, but also his sense of humour. I also have a soft spot for this particular track as its named after me and Richard Moonboots. My ‘real’ name is Smith, hence “Moonsmith”. However, there is a bit more to the story than that…

Back in the late 1990s / early 2000s Phil had a review column in Muzik, Ben Turner’s title, which also employed Rob Da Bank and Frank Tope. Phil was tasked with reviewing the month’s new ‘Balearic’ records. Now in the late `90s, absolutely no one gave a shit about Balearic Beats anymore, and very few records were being made which would qualify as such. So, to fill the column, to amuse himself, and me and Richard, Phil would occasionally just invent a record and write a review of an imaginary track. It got to the point where he regularly featured the invented a label, Bal-Jed Recordings, and artist, Moonsmith. Some classic Moonsmith releases were Where’s Mike? – named after my habit of disappearing without saying goodbye when I realised that I was too wasted and needed to go home – and Lionel’s Room – a title inspired by seeing a copy of Lionel Richie’s backstage rider for a concert at Wembley. Thank you Phil for immortalising me in vinyl!

This was the culmination of a 5-year project, something that I was very honoured to have been a part of…

Claremont 56 Originals 2008-2013 Box Set – Claremont 56 2013

Around the time that I left Vinyl Exchange, Paul “Mudd” Murphy brought up the idea of a series of compilation CDs, asking  to me and Moonboots if we would be interested in contributing. I’d already started to put together the first Down to the Sea and Back comp with Kelvin Andrews, but that was taking a while, so I jumped at the chance to get involved. Others did too, but despite the likes of Mark Seven, Sean P, and Phil Mison all agreeing, not everyone was so enthused by the idea. 

“You can get loads of mixes by the likes of Balearic Mike and Mark Seven free online. Who’s going to pay for something like that?”, was just one of the less enthusiastic responses Paul received when trying to drum up support for the project. Regardless, he persevered, and the Originals series became a benchmark for quality in a sea of often dubious compilations. 

It’s telling how much the musical landscape, and the profile of Claremont 56 changed over the course of the series. When Richard and mine’s volume dropped in December 2008, there was no thought of doing a vinyl version; it just wasn’t an economically viable prospect. However, during the 5 years while the series ran to completion, things had changed considerably, to the point where the idea for this box set seemed like the perfect way to sign off. With a selection of 2 tracks from each of the 10 volumes, pressed nice and loud over 5 x12”s, it must contain a couple of grands worth of tunes.

Obviously, mine and Moon’s CD was by far the best in the series, but the others all tried their hardest – bless! Since I know a lot of the contributors personally it’s hard to pick a favourite, but I think the CD which really blew my mind was Volume 9 from Yozo, proprietor of Koenji’s EAD Records. Paul, take a bow.

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