Juno Recommends Balearic / Downtempo Best of 2019

Review: BeachFreaks Records co-founder Charles Bals is a man who knows about records - and obscure European ones at that. Club Meduse, his first compilation for Spacetalk (a label with a track record for producing these kinds of killer, crate-digging comps), is loosely designed as the soundtrack to life around a mythical (IE imaginary) Cote D'Azure resort. Musically, it gathers together the kind of hazy, soft-focus and life-affirming cuts that you would have heard at resort discos in the mid-to-late 1980s. Suffice to say that Bals' selections tend towards the rare, magical and undeniably Balearic, from the glassy-eyed, cascading jazz-funk of the Keyboys and loved-up post-boogie sweetness of Gemini's "Take a Chance", to the sparkling Euro-electro of Miss' "Hip Hop" and pitched-down drum machine chug of Gigi Flag's "Nymphomaniac (Instrumental)". Essential.

Review: Emotional Rescue turn their attention to Rare Silk and their sublime cult classic "Storm". It's one of those rare tracks with a wonderful otherworldly quality that manages to be smooth and accessible, and somehow not like anything you've ever heard before. It must be somewhere in the mix, between the dreamy harmonized vocals, lush instrumentation and curious sense of space. The original on the A side is a treat enough, but then throw in a mercurial dubbed out version by Arp on the flip and you've got yourself a 12 inch portal to a most delightful dimension.

Review: Given the rise in popularity in new school jazz in recent years, it seems a fitting time to welcome back Ninja Tune stalwarts The Cinematic Orchestra. "To Believe" is not only their first album in some seven years, but also one of their strongest releases to date. Opening with the poignant neo-classical/soul fusion "To Believe", the set sees Jason Swinscoe and company attractively saunter between jazz-electronica fusion (Roots Manuva collaboration ("A Caged Bird/Imitations Of Life"), pastoral jazz epics (the sunset ready epic that is "Lessons"), gentle downtempo songs ("Wait For Now/Leave The World"), ambient jazz ("The Workers Of Art") and slowly unfurling dancefloor workouts (killer closing cut "A Promise"). In a word: stunning.

Review: For their first foray into the mix market following the conclusion of their original, 100-volume series, London superclub Fabric has decided to offer up a rare DJ mix from genre-defying producer Simon Green AKA Bonobo. It's his first mix of any sort since 2013 and it is really rather good. Beautiful, picturesque, melodious and fluid, the mix not only includes heaps of previously unheard material from the man himself, but also touches on a dizzying number of styles (most notably ambient, loved-up deep house, African and South American drum music, IDM, electronica, techno, electro-soul, broken beat and dreamy breaks). That it all hangs together brilliantly is testament to Green's impeccable DJing and production skills.

Review: By the time they released "Amplified Heart" in 1994, Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn had spent a decade churning out admired but relatively commercially unsuccessful "lite-jazz" albums. Then, on the back of a string of on-point club remixes (Todd Terry's chart-topping version of "Missing" included), the set surprisingly became a runaway success. To celebrate the album's 25th birthday, "Amplified Heart" has been given the audiophile reissue treatment. It suits the album's gently breezy, emotion-rich feel, with Thorn's evocative, lovelorn vocals perfectly matching Watt's sunset-friendly blend of acoustic guitars, soft-touch double bass, trip-hop style beats and Balearic-minded electronics. It remains one of the duo's greatest albums and should be in every discerning listener's collection.

Review: Said to have been created after a long period of writer's block, Mark Barrott wrote much of Sketches From A Distant Ocean when he returned to his former home of Uruguay for the first time in a long while. The long break is said to have taught him about the value of self-expression and connection, and he returned to work with an invigorated enthusiasm. This has certainly paid off, as Sketches From A Distant Ocean shines through musically. Our picks are the sun kissed balearica of "Galileo", bossa nova-inflected island dreams of "Low Lying Fruit" and the evocative trip-hop journey of "The Rowing Song", which calls to mind his earlier output from the '90s as Future Loop Foundation.

Review: Music For Dreams' latest must-have compilation of obscure Balearic treats comes courtesy of noted digger Basso, a DJ, producer and re-editor who has previously released some killer scalpel jobs on Joe's Bakery and People Must Jam. You'll find one of his edits tucked away towards the end of the EP - a tidy extension of Wolfsmond's sun-kissed, Chris Rea-esque German language number "Fuhl Dich Frei" - alongside stunning selections that variously touch on stoned West Coast jazz-rock, new age, ambient, drowsy 80s pop, kosmiche and loved-up late night AOR shufflers. An inspired collection of pretty much unknown gems; what's not to like?

Review: Say hello once again to an old friend - mid '00s lounge soundtrackers extraordinaire Zero 7 are reissuing their second LP When It Falls. The follow-up to their best-selling "Simple Things", this album found the pair exploring a more psychedelic, funky sound without losing that smooth finish that made their music so massively popular first time round. From the laid back groove of "Passing By" to the brooding soul of the title track, this is the kind of album that goes down easy and sets the perfect mood in the room. The production is second to none, and considering the eye-watering prices the original pressing fetches online, there should be a lot of people happy to see this one back in print.

Review: Emotional Rescue dig out a quintessential private press curio and give it a tasteful 7" release that should tickle all lovers of blue-eyed soul with a subtle electronic kink. There's a smooth pop nous at the heart of "Passion", but also a naivety in the production that hints at the bedroom studio roots of 4AM's limited forays into recorded work. There's space for Fairlight-esque stabs and something approaching an acid bassline, but it's all framed in a mellifluous slice of melodious groove. "The Man I Feel" takes the A side and steers it into playful instrumental territory to great effect, the consummate 80s dub out.

Review: Often found cruising around on Music For Dreams, Bonnie & Klein sidle up to Is It Balearic? with the appropriately smooth sounds of 1983. Taking the concept of island boogie to a blissed-out, peak ideal, "1983" answers the record label question with a resounding 'yes' - this is as Balearic as it gets. Shaking up the sundown sweetness of the original, Ron Basejam is on hand deliver a remix that should get plenty of dancefloors working hard. It's still steeped in vintage sounds, but Basejam's version piles on the funk and rides a fierce disco beat to ensure the record lands in legions of record bags, as it quite rightly should.

Review: Saint Petersburg Disco Spin Club is the brainchild of Kito Jempere, who can often be spotted dropping heat on labels like Hell Yeah, Bahnsteig 23 and Bordello A Parigi. As such, he's right at home on Emotional Response, where he opens up the window to his loose-fit band project. The results are fantastic, steeped in studio sorcery with a grainy DIY bite, as bittersweet as it is heavy grooving. "Simple Customers" is especially heavy, with equal lashings of distorted blue-eyed soul, psych and dub, but don't overlook the freaky finesse of the remix of "Can't You See Me" by Auf Togo, Becker & Mukai.

Review: Way back in 1988, Italian label Les Folies Art put out a dreamy chunk of Art Of Noise style ambient experimentalism by Quiet Force called "Listen To The Music". It's long been in-demand amongst Balearic collectors for its unique fusion of Fairlight-manipulated vocal samples, glistening guitars, sparse beats, snaking clarinet lines, jaunty fretless bass and new age synthesizers, so this licensed reissue on Rogue Cat Sounds is long overdue. This time round, the duo's original "For Love & Emotions" version comes backed by two fresh remixes. Justin Strauss and Max Pask turn it into a deliciously dreamy chunk of acid-fired early morning house, while Apiento & Tepper re-imagine it as a slick and seductive instrumental Sade B-side.

Review: The mysterious Shelved Recordings imprint is not your average re-edit label, with the producer behind the series (sometime Ruf Kutz and Magic Wand contributor Andi Hanley) focusing not on disco, but rather the more Balearic side of 1980s pop. The label's second outing - which is being released in two parts - begins with a hazy, sun-kissed version of what sounds like a little-known Japanese Balearic-pop masterpiece, where dewy-eyed female vocals rise above a slo-mo groove, marimba style synthesizer motifs and twinkling pianos. Over on side B, "All Night Long" is a suitably chugging, spaced-out take on Godley & Creme's quirky 1981 classic "Babies", while "What?" is a hypnotic, largely instrumental interpretation of The Who's "Eminence Front" that wisely emphasizes the original's most atmospheric elements.

Review: Swedish house producer HNNY gave up DJing in 2016 but has still been working on music in the background, and we're glad he has, because the two cuts here for new label born out of a Stockholm audiophile bar, Hosoi, are lovely. A side "By" conjures a gorgeous mood with soft snares and what sounds like Spanish guitar strumming away beneath aching vocal coos. Flip over for "Hosoi", a dreamy downtempo groove with live sousing drum work and incidental chords that drift by on a warm breeze. This EP is a perfect tonic for those needing a break from busy modern life.

Review: Music On Vinyl completes their Moloko reissue series with a new pressing of the Sheffield-based duo's final album, 2002's "Statues". The set was recorded while Roisin Murphy and Mark Brydon's relationship was falling apart, giving the set an added level of poignancy - something heightened by the pointed, bittersweet nature of some of Murphy's lyrics. Musically, it has stood the test of time well, with the skewed, low-down jazz-funk of "Come On", the string-laden pop melancholy of "Familiar Feeling", the heart-aching poignancy of "the title track and the jaunty electrofunk hum of "100%" amongst the many highlights.

Review: In 1988, Yasuaki Shimizu moved to Paris and collaborated with avant-garde artists such as David Cunningham of Flying Lizards (who is a special guest on this album) and Manny Elias of Tears for Fears. His second album Dementos conveyed a spirit of the times unique to Shimizu - who was at the epicentre of a world music movement that was extremely prosperous at that time. He brought his sister Mieko over from Japan and made her engage in hours of idle talk which is a constant throughout the LP and this eventually led him to conclude that human patterns of communication were indeed strange.

Review: First released in 1987, Stephane Severac's sun-kissed European pop gem "Hold On" has long been regarded as something of an under-appreciated classic by those DJs of a Balearic persuasion. This new edition replicates the track listing of the original 12", opening with the evocative extended version. This builds in stages, opening with Chic inspired guitars and dreamy synth chords before introducing a poolside-friendly groove, snaking saxophone solos and Severac's heavily accented vocal. Over on side B you'll find the shorter "Single Version" - less sax, but just as much eyes-closed vocal action from Severac - and "Dreams", a bonus cut that sounds like his take on Duran Duran's mid-'80s big studio synth-pop sound.

Review: "Do You Like My Tight Sweater?" is the album that announced Moloko to the world, but is also one of their most experimental. The dance duo's debut featured big singles like "Dominoid" and the UK Top 40 charting "Fun For Me", which was also used in the Batman & Robin soundtrack of 1997. The album finds producer Mark Brydon combining elements of trip hop, big beat, disco and electronica with Roisin Murphy's sensuous and widescreen art-pop vocals, despite the fact that at the time she had zero prior professional experience. This timely limited reissue comes on heavyweight turquoise vinyl and reminds us of a golden era of UK electronica.

Review: 2000's "Things To Make & Do" was Moloko's third album and marked something of a new direction in sound for the British electronic outfit. This time round, the band looked to more live musicianship and each track brimmed with life and vitality as a result. The biggest single off the album was the band's biggest ever, "The Time Is Now" - with Roisin Murphy's vocals front and centre but never repeating the same sounds, styles or moods, the album was a real musical journey of highs and lows, and plenty in between.

Review: To our ears, Rollover's ongoing "Edit Service" series has delivered some of the most interesting, obscure and intoxicating re-edits of recent times. The Milanese crew and their associates are in fine form again on volume three. They begin by offering up a re-shape of a pleasingly percussive, hypnotic and off-kilter chunk of pared-back Afro goodness (the drum-heavy quirkiness of "Mimi"), before Italian scene veterans Fabrice and Leo Mas go all low-slung and spacey on the dub disco chug of "Genius". Mark:eno savagely (and brilliantly) chops up a cosmic chunk of obscure disco-funk on "Io & Te", while Abbrangeli has his/her wicked way with a sleazy disco workout on druggy-but-funky closing cut "Dillo Ancora". In a word: essential.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: Ever the educators, Emotional Rescue are now turning their attention to the 90s "Afro-cosmic" scene - a sound that spread through Europe following the influence of Daniele Baldelli and his pioneering DJing in Italy in the late '70s. Munich's The New Morning were amongst the many crews inspired by what Baldelli was championing, and they created incredible, unusual dance music that easily stands up to modern standards for its inventive fusions of global influences and electronic technology. From the heady house throw down "In Japan" to the cosmic dancehall flex of "Jay's Rhama", there's so much to vibe off here, all of it highly compatible with the adventurous sounds creeping into DJ sets in the current era.

Review: Last month's debut salvo from off-kilter Balearic pop edit imprint Shelved Recordings sold out in record time, so it's likely you'll have to act fast to secure a copy of this speedy follow-up. Editor Andi Handley gets things going via the blissful bubbles of "Up and Down", where sustained synthesizer chords and meandering melodies stretch out across a sparse electronic rhythm, before diving even deeper into delay-laden slow-motion synth-pop pastures on the tactile and emotive drowsiness of "Stop Me". Best of all, though, is extended flipside edit "What Are You Fighting For", a typically dubby and on-point revision of an arpeggio-driven, guitar-laden alternative pop/post-punk cut by Marianne Faithfull.

Review: While A Man Called Adam's recent "Farmarama" album did contain a few dancefloor-centric cuts, it was more geared towards sofa-bound listening rather than club play. Hence this tidy EP, which offers up a trio of dancefloor-focused revisions for Balearic-minded DJs. For us, the standout is undoubtedly Carrot Green's inventive revision of "Ou Pas", which re-casts the cut as a dubbed-out, acid-powered psychedelic house trip. That said, many will enjoy Prins Thomas' jazzy and surprisingly trippy take on "Paul Valery At The Disco", which contains tons of new Latin-tinged live percussion and a suitably wonky cosmic disco vibe. If that lot's not enough to set the pulse racing, A Man Called Adam's own "Too Much Dub" of "Farmarama" strikes just the right balance between chunky, bass-heavy rhythms and melodic dreaminess.

Review: Three years on from his last acclaimed outing on Endless Flight, Berlin-based Canadian Eddie C returns to the Japanese label with another high quality full-length excursion. Those who've followed his career over the last six or seven years will feel at home straight away. Opener "Hello baby" is a quirky, break-driven head-nodder rich in dub disco bass and quirky samples, while the cut that follows, "Carbon Date", offers a deeper and more spacey take on the same heady blueprint. From then on its' a loved-up, saucer-eyed jaunt through laidback Balearic disco grooves ("In The Park"), spaced-out punk-funk ("Way Uptown"), percussion-packed Latin beats ("Batacuda"), bustling breakbeat house ("Berlina"), warped digital dub ("Dancin' Music") and spaced-out broken beat ("Listen"). In a word: superb.

Review: Dualismo Sound has a great track record when it comes to unearthing and reissuing gems from Italy's small but vibrant Afro-Cosmic scene. This 12" from Meo (real name Daniele Mei) is another. Both A-side tracks were initially released back in 1987 and are appearing on vinyl for the first time since. "Cikuana" is a jolly, synth-laden affair that inhibits similar sonic territory to some of Tullio de Piscopo's 1980s work, while "Alturas" does a great job in wrapping Flamenco guitars and new age synths around a rubbery electronic bassline and gentle drums. Epic flipside "Fiesta", meanwhile, was first featured on 1986 album "Sesta Traccia" and makes great use of both evocative fretless bass (a staple of Balearic records from that period) and snaking sax lines.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: Emotional Rescue are doing a fine job of sifting through the considerable Vox Populi! archives to present the finest sounds from this most adventurous of French collectives. The specific period focused on here is the post-1989 sound of the band exploring more explicit world influences with stunning results. At times delicate and folky, occasionally funky and elsewhere more experimental and heavy in its atmosphere, there's so much to absorb here as core members Kyrou, Mitra and Khalatbari work with a swelling cast of musicians to take trips to distant lands both real and imaginary.