Wonderful words by Balearic Mike.

Almost a year to the day since Volume One first shone its sonic sunlight onto the world, Paul Hillery pulls another fantastic Folk Funk & Trippy Troubadours out of his expansive, expert, record bag…

Right from the first funky, flutey, notes of album opener, Grand Union’s Morning Brings The Light, we’re instantly transported into Paul’s world of trippy troubadours and wonderment… but where and when is this world exactly? While a list of Grand Union’s major influences would cause little surprise, after hearing this wonderful collision of woodwinds, guitars, and sophisticated, jazz infused percussion – i.e. Pentangle, Davy Graham, Pharoah Saunders, Alice Coltrane – we might be more surprised by the time and place that this music was created. Surely, this hails from a `60s Laurel Canyon, or some mid-70s commune near Woodstock? Nope! Try Brentford in 2005! This is its first time on vinyl as well. Just like the previous volume, no stone has been left unturned while compiling this collection, and the oldest track here dates from 1974, while the most recent was recorded in 2021. The artists included stretch, span the globe, from Australia to the UK. Side 1 provides another surprising modern discovery, in Tasha Lee McCluney‘s beautiful Undone, which sounds like the lost British mid-70s folk of Susan Christie or Vashti Bunyan, but was actually recorded for UK independent, Creation, in 2001, but had remained unreleased until today!

Side 2 sends us a firm favourite in the shape of Mike Glick’s The Ballad Of Ho Chi Minh. Mike was a member of the Vietnam anti-war movement, and his shuffling, jazzy groove is propelled along by an array of intricate percussion toys and topped off with smashing flute parts. This was previously released only as a rare private press in 1977. Magical.

Side 3 begins with two knockout numbers from Jennie Rylatt and Lucy Kitchen. Rainfall and Olivia were recorded 42 years apart, and on different continents, but sound like they were made to be together. Jennie’s song, from 1979, was another privately pressed release, while Lucy’s song, recorded in 2021 has never been released before. Lovely. The Stallions’ incredible remix of Findlay Brown’s Teardrops Lost In The Rain is one more contemporary track that also lives on Side 3. Stallions are Andrew “Lovefingers” Hogge and Lee Douglas, and they turn in an 8 minute-plus hypnotic, chugging, blissed-out Balearic throbber. Previously available digitally, but here on vinyl for the first time, this is so stunning it’s worth the price of the album on its own! 

The closing Side 4 launches with possibly my personal pick, Frank Pyne & Loon Saloon’s Waco, a song written from the point of view of cult leader David Koresh, and concerning disastrous siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Texas. It’s a sombre, yet rhythmic number, with brilliant brushed percussion, and a moody, atmospheric synth / harmonica part, played by house legend, Move D.

The band Cascade hail from all over the place, with members from Uruguay, Morrocco, The Antilles, and Netherlands, and their Weepin’ begins as a gentle, melancholic ballad, but, halfway through, pauses, and then accelerates into an explosion of frantic Latin-infused drums and percussion, before morphing back into a ballad once more. It’s simply fabulous.

Every track on this album will have you scratching your head and wondering how you ever lived without it. It’s another painstakingly, passionately, lovingly curated deep dive into music which has been criminally overlooked in the main. Thank you to Paul, and all the other musical archeologists out there, digging, exhaustively, to make our lives better.

Paul Hillery’s Folk Funk & Trippy Troubadours Volume Two can be ordered directly from Re:Warm.

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