Downtempo / Balearic Recommendations April 2016

Review: Made 10 years ago in only 2 weeks, The Rev. Thorn's debut LP "Airport West'" brings the world of easy listening Muzak and chilled out disco together. It is his second release on his very own label Dreamtime UK, following Goldie Thorn's "Canal Life". After being played heavily in Melbourne cafes and BBQs, it is now due to make waves across the world. Romantically bitter sweet strings with a vintage disco beat, on an LP journey to heartbreak and back.

Review: Leo Mas: one of Ibiza's most influential selectors since his legendary residency in Amnesia during the 80s, everything about him is Balearic as it gets. Even his socks. For this brand new Music For Dreams series we launch with four versions of Leo's vision of the island's musical genus: "Adamo & Eve". Building, subverting and repurposing elements with some of his favourite peers throughout, each take tells a different tale: Rocca's Paradiso and Original Sin mixes provide a UR pace and space-aged energy while Italian selector legend Fabric creates much slower, sensual experiences with the On Air mix embodying everything that's great about Balearica and Es Vedra mix taking us even deeper into dubbier pastures.

Review: Here's a question for you: What happens when you take a track by a British power trio heavily influenced by blues and psychedelia, and get a master of wayward, left-of-centre Balearica to remix it? You get the latest 12" missive from Claremont 56, which sees Bella Figura's "Better Man" reworked twice in impressive fashion by Magic Feet boss Craig Bratley. If you are familiar with Bratley's output for s It Balearic, Bird Scarer and Tsuba, you know the man breathes cosmic goodness and his work on Bella Figura's track offers a subtle new version that loses none of Justin Gartry's bluesy poignancy whilst adding a sparsely treated beat and plenty of low lying studio trickery.

Review: Having previously delivered killer 12" singles from established talents Aquarian Foundation and Anom Vitruv, Canada's Total Stasis has turned to the previously unseen CS & Kreme. The project is in fact a new collaborative endeavour from Melbourne musicians Conrad Standish and Sam Karmel, known for their respective work in Standish/Carlyon and F ingers. Together, their atmospheric, world-weary, ambient house influenced sounds are fully in keeping with the imprint's output. They begin with the ultra-deep, ultra-dreamy downtempo vibes of "Devotion", before getting busy with a drum machine and electric piano on the enveloping "Basic Instinct (Club Scene)". This formula is explored further on the deliciously evocative and atmospheric "Fresh Exit", before they head to the heavens on the deep space ambience of "Paw Paw".

Review: Hell Yeah Recordings has gathered together an all-star cast to remix Underground System's "Bella Ciao", a punchy, horn-heavy dub disco cut based on a popular Italian chant. The A-side boasts a collaborative rework from Leo Mas, Fabrice Laguna and Gigi Masin, which brilliantly slows down the original to a stoned crawl, with the latter's impeccable synths and piano solos creating an undeniably horizontal, sun-kissed mood. The flipside "On Air Mix" by Mas and Laguna is, if anything, even better, stripping the original back to little more than a heavy dub bassline, delay-laden trumpet solos and sparse percussion hits.

Review: Berlin producer Rising Sun serves up a full length release on local imprint Fauxpas Musik but this is on more of a broken soul tip. Starting out smoothly with the blissed out breaks of "The Light And The Dark" he soon launches into the breakbeat driven deep house of "Entrance (Live)" and the trancey house-dub crossover of "Pressure". Elsewhere there's a variety of moods and grooves on here that are equally as splendid such as the heavenly chill-out electronica of "Parade", the pitched down liquid drum and bass of "Brighter Day", the lovely and majestic ambience of "D.E.T.R.O.I.T" and the emotive and bittersweet trip-hop of "Hold The Line". A solid effort over its entirety of 14 tracks that deserves your attention.

Review: Polish RBMA graduate Naphta builds on the strong foundations he's been digging since 2013 via releases on Studio Barnhus, OMENA, Father & Son and now Transatlantyk with his debut album. A dense foggy, fuggy weave of influences and ideas, 7th Expedition is a dizzying melting pot of sounds from the heaving Hammond blasts of "Arrival/Contraptions/Ancient Perils" to the classic b-boy breaks of "Guardians Of The Forbidden" via the trip hop swampiness of "And The Consequences". Cosmic, unhurried and playfully immersive; a clumsy comparison might be Lindstrom being remixed by Dilla but that's about as clear as you can be when beats are as unique as this.

Review: Stuffed Monkey dip into Interstellaires, the 10th studio album from sultry flame-haired provocateur Mylene Farmer, to pick out "City Of Love" for 12" issue. "City Of Love" oozes synth soul charm with a mild pop edge and just the right amount of floatiness for it to achieve Balearic status. The instrumental, however, is straight up sunset whichever way you look at it. Spacey percussion, evocative chord changes and all-round feel good vibes, save this one for the sunset.