Dilated Choonz: balearic

Balearic Gabba - Hell Yeah!

The Double K — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:19:00 +0100

A while ago I was asked to put a selection of tunes together for the Hell Yeah! podcast. I was keen to oblige but I’m not really a DJ and despite owning decks I’ve never learned to beat-match. The brief was pretty wide – “something we can listen to in the afternoon, 1 hour” was all the guidance I had – but still enough to worry me as (regular readers here will know) I don’t really do laid-back so much, and while I’m happy to listen to banging jungle and hardcore all afternoon I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea for that time of day.

So I gave it some thought and came up with a set of some of my favourite records that you don’t hear in mixes nearly enough and that I thought would go together tolerably well with my ham-fisted blending from one to the next. It’s really a very mixed bag, with ambient house, acid, techno, dub, jungle and more, starting off mellow and nice, building up to a pretty dark section in the middle and then ending up happier again. The DJ skills are non-existent but I stand by the tunes – each one is great in its own right, you can decide for yourself if they should ever have been put in a mix together!

You can read more and find the tracklist over at the Hell Yeah blog.

And while you’re there check out Hell Yeah’s output – you can listen to everything on the site and pretty much everything on the label is a winner. I’d recommend starting with stuff by Luminodisco, Crimea X and the Balearic Gabba Soundsystem edits. Support them with a purchase or two if you can, they’re an independent label trying to make a living putting out great music.

Also highly recommended are the Balearic Gabba Soundsystem mixes that you can find in various places on Soundcloud – check the links below for a couple and have a search for more if you like them – you won’t be disappointed!

The Hell Yeah! shop :: Listen and buy here!
Balearic Gabba Mix 4 Urban Disorder :: One of my favourite BG Mixes.
Balearic Gabba on Soundcloud ::
Hell Yeah! website ::
Hell Yeah! on Soundcloud :: There are more Balearic Gabba mixes here.

The Herb grinder

Kevvy K — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:03:00 +0100

Herb Alpert – Rise (Secret Mixes & Fixes Gay Marvine Edit)

Just quickly extending the Herb postings, and before the deluge of piano-anthems that are queued up and ready to be unleashed (although, I hasten to point out, this does feature a great piano hook, the phonice blurb says that it “reminds us why we loved those jacking house piano chords in the first place”), this is the title track from the Herb Alpert album from which I posted earlier, only pitched right up, stripped of the trumpet noodlings, and thus transformed from a Balearic chugger into a sprightly little, bass-driven housey jaunt, from the ever-interesting, Detroit-based, Secret Mixes & Fixes edit label, who I thing are something to do with Ecotomorph but it could just have been the first couple of 12”s.

This is Volume 7 in the series, and also comes with some great other edits of Prince, and a very interesting take on Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough.

buy it from Phonica ::

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Peaches from Herb

Kevvy K — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:59:00 +0000

Herb Alpert – Rotation

A blissed-out Balearic classic to celebrate a) getting round to adding a Balearic category and b) getting the album that this is on for 50p in a charity shop in Whistable over the weekend, along with the 12”s of Gino Soccio Dancer, Gary’s Gang Let’s Lovedance Tonight, and Martin Circus Disco Circus. One of my best and cheapest chazza-shop hauls ever.

Following on from the messages discussion as to what Balearic records actually are, here are the top 25 as voted upon by people on the DJ History Forum.

1 Tullio de Piscopo – Primavera (Stop Bajon) (Bagaria, 1984)
2 William Pitt – City Lights (Public Sound, 1986)
3 Elkin & Nelson – Jibaro (CBS, 1986)
4 Chris Rea – Josephine (Magnet, 1985)
5 Herb Alpert – Rotation (A&M, 1979)
6 Manuel Goettsching – E2-E4 (Inteam, 1984)
7 Mandy Smith – I Just Can’t Wait (Cool & Breezy Jazz Mix) (PWL, 1987)
8 Dizzi Heights – Would I Find Love (Parlophone, 1986)
9 Art Of Noise – Moments In Love (Island, 1983)
10 It’s Immaterial – Driving Away From Home (Virgin, 1986)
11 Carly Simon – Why (WEA, 1982)
12 Sebastien Tellier – La Ritournelle (Lucky Number, 2005)
13 Donna Summer – State of Independence (WEA, 1982)
14 Laid Back – Fly Away/Walking In The Sunshine (CBS, 1983)
15 Kate Bush – Running Up The Hill (EMI, 1985)
16 Cure – Lullaby (Fiction, 1989)
17 Linda Di Franco – TV Scene (WEA, 1985)
18 Flash & The Pan – Walking In The Rain (Epic, 1978)
19 Izit – Stories (ffrr, 1989)
20 Fleetwood Mac – Big Love (Arthur Baker Remix) (Warners, 1987)
21 Double – The Captain Of Her Heart (Polydor, 1985)
22 The Beloved – The Sun Rising (WEA, 1989)
23 Enzo Avitabile – Blackout (EMI, 1986)
24 Mike Francis – Features Of Love (Concorde, 1985)
25 Richie Havens – Going Back To My Roots (Elektra, 1980)

And here’s the Herb vid

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