Mancunian “Balearic” institution, Aficionado, is celebrating its 25th birthday. To mark the occasion, the party / event / label founders, Jason Boardman and Moonboots, are releasing a comp. A cracking collection of 17 songs cherry-picked from play-lists, spun over those 25 years, kindly pressed on to double vinyl by Re:Warm. 

I’m lucky enough to own already own around half of the tracks they’ve selected, since, all through the 2000s, Moonboots was a musical mentor of mine (1). He’d send me mixes upfront, before they went online, and was always free with “IDs”, upon request. Also tipping me off to top new, and newly discovered old tunes. There are countless records on my shelves that Moon turned me onto, and I’m seriously considering compiling a list. So, some of the tunes here are familiar to me. 

Waves’ Summer Sunday was one of those un-Google-able tunes. An American soft rock pick me up – happy harmonies hiding the lyric’s heartbreak. It was finding, and championing, such folk-flavoured fare that the Mancunians excelled at, and it was a sound that they made their own (2). Sure, Harvey might have played his share of prog / soft rock, but as far as “Balearic” goes, this is something completely separate to, say, Jose Padilla at the Cafe del Mar or Alfredo Fiorito at Amnesia. Paul “Mudd” Murphy’s Summer In The Woods is another fine bit of funky folk (3). Despite being a mellow moment, the 12’s pressed so loud that the bottom-end shook and nearly blew my speakers. The Kajagoogoo-esque slapped bass and pretty synth melodies of Trevor Herion’s Love Chains are a little bit like a more chilled take on Fashion’s Move On. What it does here is illustrate the pair’s power to spot a TUNE. On a cursory flick through, you might think it disposable, nothing special. However, if you have the patience to listen from beginning to end, as the arrangement explodes, you’ll understand, and be completely hooked. The ruly talented Dan Lissvik turns Korallereven’s Honey Mine into a bouncy, buoyant Chris Rea / Josephine tribute. Its summery strummed, and tastefully twanged guitars delivering some dynamite toward-the-end-of-the-night business. Georgio Tuma’s Through Your Hands Love Can Shine is a lovely lounge reggae lilt, led by Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier. Teacher’s Can’t Step Twice On The Same Piece Of Water crops up in the favourites of a lot of old Northern ravers (see BBTT’s own Cal Gibson). I’m assuming it was a Hacienda classic. As Danny Rampling used to say on the radio, down south, “Happy, happy, happy”, it’s brilliant bongo-led pop-house with African chants, highlife guitar, and words of wisdom lifted from a martial arts movie. Music perhaps inspired by Malcolm McLaren’s Duck Rock. Haggis Horns’ The Traveller – ace authentic modern afrobeat, Fela Kuti and Tony Allen, with strings – is something that I actually heard Joel Martin play first, in a set for a party run by London’s Voices crew. 

Stuff that’s new to me includes the opener, Held By Trees’ In The Trees, and Stanley Clarke’s Desert Song. The former is new age cosmic Americana. A mid-west dustbowl heathaze mirage, based around bent bottleneck blues notes, that bears some similarity to the short-lived Japan reunion, Rain Tree Crow. The latter is cool acoustic jazz. Both demonstrate the Aficionado duo’s ability to separate standouts from oceans, seas, of standard, run-of-the-mill “chillout”. Another of Jason and Moon’s fortes is digging up dusty obscure cover versions from pound bins and turning them into secret weapons, sought-after spins (4). With this in mind, Jan Akkerman and Alan Debray’s opulently orchestrated takes on Bobby Gentry and Rodriguez, respectively, certainly don’t disappoint. 

The album welcomes the work of a few close friends and fellow Mancunians. J Walk’s Cool Bright Northern Morning is a sweet synth instrumental with a Style Council / My Ever Changing Moods-esque melody (5). James Holroyd – aka Begin – the former Bugged Out resident and Chemical Brothers long-standing support DJ of choice – reworks Australians Canyons into a bionic Bahia breeze, like The Art Of Noise go bossa nova. Staying in their hometown, `80s avant-jazzers Kalima get a `90s acid jazz makeover from Gilles Peterson and Patrick Forge. The Vibrazone Mix of Shine On is a careering, high speed, collage of congas, dubwise drops, and snatches of rhyme. Instrumentation – woodwind, reed, and some smashing Spanish guitar – flickering in and out its energetic machined beats and pieces. A track that doesn’t stop to breakdown, but rather builds up, layer on layer (6).

There’s more acid jazz from High Tower Set. DJ Harvey remixing their Departure Lounge into a sort of trip hop riff on Roy Budd’s Hallucinations. All classy keys and drums that sound like a slowed down snippet stolen from Hall & Oates. I guess, not too far removed, at least in terms of of genre / sub-genre are The Superimposers, featuring Miles from Wonderfulsound. Their Seeing Is Believing uses acoustic guitars, baroque keys, and treated vocals to create groovy mod gold. Part Electric Prunes, part James Taylor’s Prisoners, softly psychedelic like some long lost `60s garage nugget. The vinyl’s worth the asking price for this song alone.

I never got to `Nado. The closest I came was when Moon guested at Phil Mison and Steve Terry’s Saturday afternoon sessions, at Cafe 1001, in London’s Eastend, on Brick Lane. He brought a huge Manchester contingent with him, who were dancing on tables, and punching the air, to obscure Ibiza “unclassics”, hidden treasures from Jose’s tapes, like The Church’s To Be In Your Eyes. If you know, well, then you know. 

I can hear that the tracks on the comp have been super carefully selected and sequenced. Jason and Moon seem at pains to mix the rare / expensive with cheap / penny finds. Most of the tunes are relative unknowns, but never are they showing off, or disappearing up their expert arses. The set is one of constant “crossover”, playing to the popular, and totally accessible. While listening, to make notes, to pen this review, the music literally lifted my spirits sky high. It’s such a smart sonic snapshot. A proper document. The excellent eclectic collection perfectly reflecting Aficionado’s “anything goes – as long as it’s good” ethos / aesthetic. Where pieces, on the surface disparate and from unconnected sources, are tag-teamed together to produce a uniquely cohesive whole. I’ve said, written, this many, many times, but if it wasn’t for Phil Mison in London and Jason and Moon in Manchester, then there’s no way that the word “Balearic”, as a “brand”, a “genre-not-genre”, would still be being bandied about.

Jason Boardman & Moonboots’ 25 Years Of Aficionado is available directly from Re:Warm. 

Notes

1 – Moon and I first met in Eastern Bloc at the start of the 1990s. I’d been at University in Leeds, and visited Manchester regularly. When I moved back to London in `89 I’d still pop up North to stay with mates, buy records, and go dancing – Hacienda, Most Excellent, Glitter Baby, Space Funk, we even turned up at Spice the night someone drove a car through the venue’s doors. Moon always sorted me out vinyl wise, and also helped me out of a few clubland scrapes. We reconnected on DJHistory.com.

2 – See Firefall’s Mexico for another `Nano championed example of this stuff. 

3 – Moon and Mudd have long been close compadres. The Mudd tune, Shulme, is an homage to the two of them hanging out. 

4 – Check Moon’s on-going obsession with versions of Lesley Duncan’s Love Song. 

5 – The promo-only Club Mix of Style Council’s Long Hot Summer is another `Nado classic. 

6 – Is acid jazz Balearic? Well, Leo Mas played stuff by Animal Nightlife, Matt Bianco, and Blue Rondo a la Turk at Amnesia. Animal Nightlife performed in Ibiza in `85, A Man Called Adam in 1990. In London, acid jazz’s clubhouse, Cock Happy, happened in parallel to Shoom, and Talkin` Loud at Dingwalls always had its share of still-up-from-last-night ravers (Byron Morris’ Kitty Bey was their favourite).  Boys Own championed tunes like Rose Windross’ Living Life Your Own Way, and Tammy Payne’s Take Me Now. Gilles also contributed a Vibrazone chart to the fanzine…