Balearic, Chill Out & Sunset Music

updated my 2024 playlist with new adds from John Grant (gorgeous new album with vocoders aplenty), Svaneborg KardyB from Denmark, Dominic Dawson's update on the Maze classic Twilight + the recent reissue of Spanish party fave Volao, and of course the mighty Pilli Pilli which now has the Coyote treatment (easy Phil!)

 
Our mate Steve has penned a few words about CDM

A MAN CALLED ADAM - ESTELLE
(React LP, Cafe Del Mar (compiled by Jose Padilla), 1994)

Back in 1994, in the last weeks of my teens, I went to Ibiza for the first time. I flew out with a bag, a boom box and a load of pre-recorded c90s, including the first licensed Café Del Mar compilation, FFRR’s Balearic Beats Volume One, KLF’s Chill Out, Screamadelica, the wonderfully targeted cash-ins ‘Spiritually Ibiza’ and (ahem) ‘Spiritually Ibiza 2’ plus a few Orb live bootlegs I’d picked up at Camden Market. I had some idea of what I was going to find but within a day or so it was obvious I knew very little.

These cassettes and a few others I’d made from my slowly expanding record collection were to soundtrack my fortnight. I spent nights at Amnesia, Pacha, Play2, Ku, Es Paradis and Kaaos but spent evenings going to an abandoned lighthouse and watching the sunset alone, with just my boom box and a couple of those cassettes for company.

As we were staying in San An Bay most nights we’d wait until about 11pm before hopping on a boat across, watching the lights of San An open out in front of us (I still get goosebumps when I see the MAY shop sign from the sea) A lot of those nights were spent on the West End strip at Play2 and Koppas, or the more credible Kaaos or Star Club - with Carl Cox rocking it from behind a caged booth one night, the glamour years of Ibiza still a way off - and we’d give Es Paradis a whirl if we had the right flyer to get in for free.

There are a couple of photos of us outside Space that summer too, but only because we were going to Aquamar. We could hear the music fine (from the car park!) but didn’t even consider going in (see note at the bottom). Daytime clubbing wasn’t really something we’d ever considered at that point, besides I wanted to go on Foam. Fortunately, we had a few decent memories to savour as we hopped on the Disco Bus too, to Amnesia (for the foam party of course, especially memorable because the terrace was still open with THAT pyramid) and to Pacha but these nights were ridiculously expensive in comparison, even in 1994, so the following nights it was back to the West End and free shots.

On the last night of the trip I caught the ferry across San Antonio Bay and walked around the rocks to the Café Del Mar. Despite having played their compilation repeatedly it simply hadn’t occurred to me that there were DJs playing music – I had assumed the compilation was a collection of music played there by the bar staff. We’d stopped by a week earlier to check it out and it was closed - padlocked up and deserted - so put two and two together and came up with five, and never went to check again until the last night.

On each of those evenings at the lighthouse I was playing my tapes to accompany the sunset, just as Phil Mison and Jose Padilla had been playing their records across the bay. I just had no idea that they were doing what they were doing. On the evening that I made it across I was blown away and spent the remaining money I had on a few tapes and returned home determined to track down every track.

Others may disagree but Balearic wasn’t a dirty word at this point: Is It Balearic? wasn’t a question people asked. It was simply music associated with a particular place, partly rooted in physical geography but also, of course It’s A Feeling.

The infamous compilation Balearic Beats Volume One was close to six years old by this point and the clubs mentioned in Farley’s sleeve notes – Shoom and Future – were long gone. I missed the first wave of Balearic Beat entirely: those who were there reckon the original Balearic scene had ended as early as spring 1991. Weatherall had been kicked off the decks at Es Paradis in 1990 for being ‘too heavy’ and A Short Film About Chilling, which originally aired on Channel Four, also in 1990, featuring a lot of the key players of the time, had already passed into cult history. The last edition of Boys Own, complete with ‘instructions’ on how to start your own Balearic Network was published in spring 1992 some two years earlier than my journey started so I was already well late to the party.

Three months later, with the summer season nearly over, I returned to Ibiza, this time with my family. I went back to the Cafe Del Mar a few times, despite it often being almost entirely empty, and absorbed as much as I could. Ibiza is a beautiful place when the tourists go home - I mean, it’s beautiful all year round in many parts, but the whole island glows in autumn. Once the closing parties are over and the island can renew itself it feels different, less wary, less chaotic, more relaxed.

From this point on I returned year after year, learning more about the island and the music that I heard there. The hedonism of 90s Ibiza may have captured the headlines and encouraged generations of absolute tools to visit but there was - always has been - something else going on.

There have been a lot of changes to Ibiza over the past 30 years and it undoubtedly lost its way for a while. The expansion of the strip, for which CDM is as culpable as Mambos, diluted the atmosphere there and with the quest for celebrity endorsement, money money mon-ey, and Instafame poisoning everything half decent it became increasingly difficult to find the ‘Real Ibiza’. To this end, it was a real shame when the rocks were covered over at CDM and the terrace kept expanding over them, but the lure of those extra Euros was always going to win out over the nostalgia of stepping down from the Cafe straight onto the water’s edge. Mambo’s celebrity culture driven bookings and increasingly awful music ruined the strip and the classic CDM vibe for years, although it's improved since the CDM expanded next door but the real vibe can still be found in the secret bars, the ones we dedicated the Andres y Xavi album too, like Babel, where my dear friend Bernat Darder Roca can be heard playing the true sounds of the Balearic Beat (or will be again when it re-opens in 2025). These are the places that keep me coming back to Ibiza now.

But through all of the changes we’ve spent hours sitting up top, playing Scrabble on cold spring evenings; hundreds of hours with a couple of take-outs from the supermarket sitting on the rocks, and just as many sat at the poser tables outside, sipping Mojitos and watching the most beautiful sunset imaginable. I’ve lost count of the cross-island moped dashes I’ve made to get to San An to watch it go down. For those glorious Phil and Jose moments, and more recently for Phat Phil, Andy, Mark, Chris, Samantha, Marco and Kenneth (and that’s just last summer!)

Whether it be a clear sky, or dark and stormy, when the sun dips beneath the horizon it’s always a special moment, especially when the ripple of applause rings out, gently sweeping up from those at the sea edge, to the good people at the bar.

One of the greatest privileges was hearing our Andres y Xavi records played at the Cafe, which was equalled only by getting the opportunity to play there last summer. I was fortunate enough to play on a gorgeous summer evening and for 90 minutes I just did what I thought was right: a Jose record, a Phil record, one that each of my BAOL brothers would have liked to hear. Loads of pals turned up and it turned into a very late night, where Graham Newby aka DJ Gripper’s mum was the star turn. I always knew that if I received the invitation my first track would be one from that original CDM compilation: the most wonderful A Man Called Adam’s Estelle.

Estelle is a beautiful song. When Sally and Steve came to the 1BTN festival last year and played a live set they made sure to include it. The phrase i’m looking for is “I had a bit of a moment”

The CDM album was a touchstone for me. It introduced me to music I’d never have heard anywhere else at the time. It remains one of my most played records, so much so that I’m on my second copy of the vinyl and I’ve got a CD somewhere too. And, of course, there’s the wonderful gatefold cover that opens up to reveal the sun disappearing behind Sa Conillera.

It never gets old. Each of the 12 tracks still sounds fresh - indeed the Sisterlove track was issued again on a 12” recently and AMCA are going to release new (old) mixes of Estelle. I’d recommend you buy them!

NOTE: In 1995 I made it across to Space for the first time. After disco-bussing across the island on my own and with just a bottle of water for sustenance, I was adopted by a couple of older girls and the three of us went down to the (then!) deserted beach in the early evening, and had dinner at an empty Sa Trincha - their treat, too. They then drove me all the way back across to San An. A little bit like Bobby Goldsboro’s Summer without that bit. I can’t remember their names but I’ll always be grateful for how they looked after me - I’d like to think I wasn’t that wet behind the ears but I was hardly going to complain!
 
The Sun God said:
Our mate Steve has penned a few words about CDM

A MAN CALLED ADAM - ESTELLE
(React LP, Cafe Del Mar (compiled by Jose Padilla), 1994)

Back in 1994, in the last weeks of my teens, I went to Ibiza for the first time. I flew out with a bag, a boom box and a load of pre-recorded c90s, including the first licensed Café Del Mar compilation, FFRR’s Balearic Beats Volume One, KLF’s Chill Out, Screamadelica, the wonderfully targeted cash-ins ‘Spiritually Ibiza’ and (ahem) ‘Spiritually Ibiza 2’ plus a few Orb live bootlegs I’d picked up at Camden Market. I had some idea of what I was going to find but within a day or so it was obvious I knew very little.

These cassettes and a few others I’d made from my slowly expanding record collection were to soundtrack my fortnight. I spent nights at Amnesia, Pacha, Play2, Ku, Es Paradis and Kaaos but spent evenings going to an abandoned lighthouse and watching the sunset alone, with just my boom box and a couple of those cassettes for company.

As we were staying in San An Bay most nights we’d wait until about 11pm before hopping on a boat across, watching the lights of San An open out in front of us (I still get goosebumps when I see the MAY shop sign from the sea) A lot of those nights were spent on the West End strip at Play2 and Koppas, or the more credible Kaaos or Star Club - with Carl Cox rocking it from behind a caged booth one night, the glamour years of Ibiza still a way off - and we’d give Es Paradis a whirl if we had the right flyer to get in for free.

There are a couple of photos of us outside Space that summer too, but only because we were going to Aquamar. We could hear the music fine (from the car park!) but didn’t even consider going in (see note at the bottom). Daytime clubbing wasn’t really something we’d ever considered at that point, besides I wanted to go on Foam. Fortunately, we had a few decent memories to savour as we hopped on the Disco Bus too, to Amnesia (for the foam party of course, especially memorable because the terrace was still open with THAT pyramid) and to Pacha but these nights were ridiculously expensive in comparison, even in 1994, so the following nights it was back to the West End and free shots.

On the last night of the trip I caught the ferry across San Antonio Bay and walked around the rocks to the Café Del Mar. Despite having played their compilation repeatedly it simply hadn’t occurred to me that there were DJs playing music – I had assumed the compilation was a collection of music played there by the bar staff. We’d stopped by a week earlier to check it out and it was closed - padlocked up and deserted - so put two and two together and came up with five, and never went to check again until the last night.

On each of those evenings at the lighthouse I was playing my tapes to accompany the sunset, just as Phil Mison and Jose Padilla had been playing their records across the bay. I just had no idea that they were doing what they were doing. On the evening that I made it across I was blown away and spent the remaining money I had on a few tapes and returned home determined to track down every track.

Others may disagree but Balearic wasn’t a dirty word at this point: Is It Balearic? wasn’t a question people asked. It was simply music associated with a particular place, partly rooted in physical geography but also, of course It’s A Feeling.

The infamous compilation Balearic Beats Volume One was close to six years old by this point and the clubs mentioned in Farley’s sleeve notes – Shoom and Future – were long gone. I missed the first wave of Balearic Beat entirely: those who were there reckon the original Balearic scene had ended as early as spring 1991. Weatherall had been kicked off the decks at Es Paradis in 1990 for being ‘too heavy’ and A Short Film About Chilling, which originally aired on Channel Four, also in 1990, featuring a lot of the key players of the time, had already passed into cult history. The last edition of Boys Own, complete with ‘instructions’ on how to start your own Balearic Network was published in spring 1992 some two years earlier than my journey started so I was already well late to the party.

Three months later, with the summer season nearly over, I returned to Ibiza, this time with my family. I went back to the Cafe Del Mar a few times, despite it often being almost entirely empty, and absorbed as much as I could. Ibiza is a beautiful place when the tourists go home - I mean, it’s beautiful all year round in many parts, but the whole island glows in autumn. Once the closing parties are over and the island can renew itself it feels different, less wary, less chaotic, more relaxed.

From this point on I returned year after year, learning more about the island and the music that I heard there. The hedonism of 90s Ibiza may have captured the headlines and encouraged generations of absolute tools to visit but there was - always has been - something else going on.

There have been a lot of changes to Ibiza over the past 30 years and it undoubtedly lost its way for a while. The expansion of the strip, for which CDM is as culpable as Mambos, diluted the atmosphere there and with the quest for celebrity endorsement, money money mon-ey, and Instafame poisoning everything half decent it became increasingly difficult to find the ‘Real Ibiza’. To this end, it was a real shame when the rocks were covered over at CDM and the terrace kept expanding over them, but the lure of those extra Euros was always going to win out over the nostalgia of stepping down from the Cafe straight onto the water’s edge. Mambo’s celebrity culture driven bookings and increasingly awful music ruined the strip and the classic CDM vibe for years, although it's improved since the CDM expanded next door but the real vibe can still be found in the secret bars, the ones we dedicated the Andres y Xavi album too, like Babel, where my dear friend Bernat Darder Roca can be heard playing the true sounds of the Balearic Beat (or will be again when it re-opens in 2025). These are the places that keep me coming back to Ibiza now.

But through all of the changes we’ve spent hours sitting up top, playing Scrabble on cold spring evenings; hundreds of hours with a couple of take-outs from the supermarket sitting on the rocks, and just as many sat at the poser tables outside, sipping Mojitos and watching the most beautiful sunset imaginable. I’ve lost count of the cross-island moped dashes I’ve made to get to San An to watch it go down. For those glorious Phil and Jose moments, and more recently for Phat Phil, Andy, Mark, Chris, Samantha, Marco and Kenneth (and that’s just last summer!)

Whether it be a clear sky, or dark and stormy, when the sun dips beneath the horizon it’s always a special moment, especially when the ripple of applause rings out, gently sweeping up from those at the sea edge, to the good people at the bar.

One of the greatest privileges was hearing our Andres y Xavi records played at the Cafe, which was equalled only by getting the opportunity to play there last summer. I was fortunate enough to play on a gorgeous summer evening and for 90 minutes I just did what I thought was right: a Jose record, a Phil record, one that each of my BAOL brothers would have liked to hear. Loads of pals turned up and it turned into a very late night, where Graham Newby aka DJ Gripper’s mum was the star turn. I always knew that if I received the invitation my first track would be one from that original CDM compilation: the most wonderful A Man Called Adam’s Estelle.

Estelle is a beautiful song. When Sally and Steve came to the 1BTN festival last year and played a live set they made sure to include it. The phrase i’m looking for is “I had a bit of a moment”

The CDM album was a touchstone for me. It introduced me to music I’d never have heard anywhere else at the time. It remains one of my most played records, so much so that I’m on my second copy of the vinyl and I’ve got a CD somewhere too. And, of course, there’s the wonderful gatefold cover that opens up to reveal the sun disappearing behind Sa Conillera.

It never gets old. Each of the 12 tracks still sounds fresh - indeed the Sisterlove track was issued again on a 12” recently and AMCA are going to release new (old) mixes of Estelle. I’d recommend you buy them!

NOTE: In 1995 I made it across to Space for the first time. After disco-bussing across the island on my own and with just a bottle of water for sustenance, I was adopted by a couple of older girls and the three of us went down to the (then!) deserted beach in the early evening, and had dinner at an empty Sa Trincha - their treat, too. They then drove me all the way back across to San An. A little bit like Bobby Goldsboro’s Summer without that bit. I can’t remember their names but I’ll always be grateful for how they looked after me - I’d like to think I wasn’t that wet behind the ears but I was hardly going to complain!
Click to expand...
Mmmm.... Amnesia with the terrace open in 1994?
I wouldn't bet on it...
 
This months Balearic Sunrise show!

https://soundcloud.com/voicesradio_ldn%2Fbalearic-sunrise-wmooreo-050724-voices-radio


1-Linkwood&Foat - Marina
2-You'll Never Get To Heaven - Setting Sun
3-Total Blue - Corsair
4-Edu K - Bob
5-Jean-Luc Ponty - Mirage
6-Tania Maria - Come With Me
7-Mario Rui Silva - Lembranca De Um Velho
8-Dennis Mpale - Do Like Miles
9-Mr. Marvin - Entity (Jazzy Mix)
10-100th Monkey - River Ride
11-Quiet Village - Reunion
 
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