Attempting to recreate the golden yesterdays of Jose Padilla’s White Isle sunsets with the tunes of today…

Mark Barrott / Berlin & Pankow / Anjuna Chill

Berlin and Pankow are 2 previously unreleased tracks from Mark Barrott’s extensive Everything Changes, Nothing Ends sessions, that didn’t quite make the album’s final cut. The former builds from a pittering pattern of piano notes, subdued choral backing and softly weeping violin, to a finale of massed strings and bolder chords. The latter is a low, graceful, glacial, sad, mournful, stately orchestral drone. Both compositions fit perfectly with the the pieces that make up the long-player’s quieter, more reflective / heartbreaking second half. Titles such as It’s Just Like Falling Asleep and Mono No Aware. 

Chris Coco / It Takes Time To Find Your Freedom / DSPPR

A teaser for Chris Coco’s new album, Coco De La Isla, It Takes Time To Find Your Freedom is a piece of positive poetry recited, and I’m assuming written, by the man himself. Chris’ words lay out a plan with its sights set on not only surviving, but celebrating the day-to-day, and into the bargain perhaps changing the world one person at a time. The music consists of warm, woozy waves of resonance, sourced from woodwind and guitar. 

Pablo Color / Le Rêve / Ish Records

Pablo Color’s Le Rêve is a very stylish cut. Pablo’s guitar playing is packed with Spanish drama, while Liza Carrey’s spoken, French vocal simultaneously leans proceedings toward The Liminanas’ version of ye-ye. Thoroughly modern, there are echoes yet, of a cool, swinging European `60s, Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin, Bridget Bardot, La Nouvelle Vague, in its gentle jazz syncopation and romantic keyboard melody. Lexx’s remix is equally excellent, but more electronic, and more erotic. Bubbling slowly, seductively as he fashions a laid-back, dubby, skank. 

Pepe Link / Belfast / Music For Dreams

Mallorcan chillout maestro, Pepe Link has prepared a second full-length set for Music For Dreams. His Scenes From My Soul II pays proper homage to the Cafe del Mar’s Jose Padilla-helmed heyday. Tracks such as the Jazzy hip hop poetry of Groove Memories are highlights, but Pepe’s cover of Orbital’s techno / rave anthem Belfast is just inspired. A whole lot more organic than the original, the tune is shaped from chiming keys and shuffling drums, while Ella Crevani performs the famous Abbess Hildegard Of Bingen choral sample. Pere Navarro’s muted trumpet then begins a call-and-response with Crevani’s holy, heavenly vocal, and Pepe tickles his TB-303. Four minutes in, this extended intro jumps into jazz-funk groove, as Delgado’s Herb Alpert-like horn hits a solo and takes the lead. 

Aisha Vaughan / Song To The Hills

This is a wonderful new track from rural Wales-based artist, Aisha Vaughan. Still taking her cues from ethereal folks such as Clannad, Song To The Hills sails on sad, prayer / hymn-like swells and haunted by gentle, benevolent Gaelic ghosts. 

Dusan Vranic / Andaluz / DSPPR

Granada based artist, Dusan Vrandic, pays tribute to his homeland with a track titled Andaluz. It’s a slow, seductive belly dance, with wafting, weaving North African melodies, reflecting the fact that geographically the province is just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Tangier, and it’s name derived from Arabic. This is further emphasised by the instrumentation which is sorta psyche-tinged, consisting of traditional sounding strings, zithers and things. The vocal, Algerian Rai-like. Together they summon some simmering Moroccan bazaar heat. Sadeedo submits an uptempo, percussive remix of broken, stuttered funk. Chris Coco’s dub is sleepy, stoned, trip-hop-esque. Extended, stripped back and extravagantly echoed, it teases with the vocal but saves the hooks til the end.