The Orange Place came out in the summer of 2011, on Andy Blake’s cult imprint World Unknown. Home to folks such as Neville Watson, Scott Fraser, Timothy Fairplay and Man Power’s Geoff Kirkwood, I think the label then span into the now long-running parties. It could have been the other way about. Both celebrated the darker, funky alternative, side of “Balearic”, mixing up new beat, industrial dance, and EBM. When Paul Byrne aka Apiento produced the track he pictured himself raving at the legendary Belgian club, Boccaccio.

A 2 to 3, 000 capacity venue located in Destelbergen, near Ghent, Boccaccio, was a key club in the development / history of new beat. Opened in `87, from the outside it looked like a huge cube, but inside was kitted out like a Roman collossium. Fitted with Klipschorn speakers and a state of the art laser light show, Eric “Eric B” Beysens and Olivier Pieters were the resident DJs. The biggest night was Sunday which ran until noon. The work unfriendly hours attracting a crowd of students and music industry players. Many only arriving at 5AM. Consequently The Orange Place is a novo new beat march. Shadowy and sexy, drawing you in with snarling almost acidic sequences and a catchy cowbell loop, before setting off snake-charming Middle Eastern synths. Tipping its hat to Balearic Beat classics by Code 61 and Jahlib.

Picked up by Bless You, the original is now backed by a great remix from Sound Metaphors’ Castro Moore. A dub deconstruction, he isolates elements, echoes them, then adds live-sounding congas and wild tape effects. The moody B-line managing to hold everything down. Spaced-out and significantly trippier, the results are relatively radical without losing any of the OG’s hooks or groove.

I have very fond memories of The Orange Place, not least because at the time Paul and I were working together and it was great to see the tune become such a success. However, I also remember playing the record at a particular Lone Star party, held at Bar Bonobo in Harajuku. The event was pretty special, since it was the summer o matsuri / festival, and the night of the nearby Meiji Jingu annual firework display. The road that Bonobo’s on is usually deserted after 9 or 10, but instead the streets were busy and lined with food stalls. Before I started spinning we sat on the stoop eating watermelon and drinking rum punch, while the bar’s big bank vault-like soundproof door, normally kept tightly shut to avoid complaints and police hassle, was left wide open. Folks were free to wander in and out. The night was special for another reason, since this was shortly after the tragedy of the Tohoku Earthquake, which took place on March 11th, and the energy and buzz felt like a show of strength. A collective effort to raise the city’s spirits. The weight was still there but it was momentarily lifted, and as a Westerner it was a real privilege to be part of it. I mixed The Orange Place into Angelique Kidjo’s Batonga, and bent down behind the decks to pull the next tune from my box, which was gonna be Max Essa’s Glass-Bottomed Boat. By the time I stood up the Middle Eastern melody had kicked in and the space around the booth had gone from being fairly empty to somehow surrounded by a dream harem of belly-dancing girls in bikinis and sarongs. Tokyo in August is hot. A testament to the power, magic of music. I may have had more than one rum punch. 

You can listen to Castro’s remix and preorder a copy at Juno.