Juno Recommends Balearic / Downtempo July 2021

Review: Just in time for Pandemic Summer #2 comes the beach and poolside flavors of ABC Versions (Afro, Balearic, Cosmic) on Rocksteady Disco. For this hand-stamped white label Rocksteady Disco assembles a crew of deep diggers. While these reimaginings harken back to the golden era of dances on the shores of Lake Garda, the White Isle, or all-night bath houses, it's hardly a retrospective. Leading the release is label boss Mr. PC's edit of "Drum Song", a kalimba-driven ecstatic freakout for discerning dance floors. Next up is Blair French's flip of a classic MPB joint "Circo Marimbondo", beefed up and primed for your next poolside hangout. Moving to the flip side, Son of Lee delivers with his meditative and transcendent rework of "Groove Me". Island Times closes the release with his blissed out acoustic edit of "What's Going On", which made its debut in Belle Isle Balearic's The Chillout Tent set in June 2020, with police helicopters flying overhead. TIP.

Review: A deluxe reissue now available of the acclaimed 2001 album by Australian hip hop fusion act The Avalanche' Since I Left You featuring the hit single of the same name. This four disc version features several modern reworks of tracks from the LP, with notable appearances from Leon Vynehall and the late MF DOOM on the remix of 'Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life' and 'A Different Feeling' receiving the Carl Craig Paperclip People remix among many others.

Review: Gary Irwin's musical journey since 1990 has been long and varied, with spells as an in-house engineer at various studios being combined with occasional releases, mostly of a Balearic flavour, as the Vendetta Suite. The Kempe Stone Portal is his first album and draws on a vast archive of tracks built up over 20 years. Musically, it's subtly diverse in the best possible way, with Irwin delivering colourful, atmospheric and emotive cuts that variously draw influence from ambient, new wave, synth-pop, new age, mid-80s AOR, library music, post-punk, dub, shoegaze and much more besides. That it all not only hangs together but also makes perfect sonic sense is testament to Irwin's skill as a composer, musician and producer. Well worth a listen.

Review: "One of the best decisions I ever made was click on a YouTube video that played the song 'Halving the Compass'," says one commenter of this album on Bandcamp. And that is the sort of effect Helios's music has on you - it is both calm but adventurous, an album of musical wanderlust with blissful piano and beautiful sustained drones layered up over heaver rhythmical elements. The while thing hypnosis with its spherical feel - you're trapped in endless loops that never fully resolve but somehow don't leave you tense, just utterly soothed.

Review: Mark Barrott's kickstart's International Feel back into action with this new release by Charlie Charlie. Consisting of Stockholm-based musicians Gabriella Borbely (aka Bella Boo) and Jens Resch (Chords), their musical project is said to have begun on a beach in Southern California - and you can certainly hear that influence on the tracks featured on the Save Us EP. The title track featuring vocalist Mapei is a low-slung serving of balearic pop that altogether makes for the perfect summertime groove. Over on the flip is the saucer-eyed chill-out number 'Charly' mixing acid, vocoder and breezy synths into the most evocative and neon-lit experience you'll hear this year

Review: Andres y Xavi serve up their fantastic first album and take us to a perfect idyllic spot somewhere by the sea. These grown up Balearic sounds combine everything great about warm, sunny music - rolling dub rhythms, exotic percussive sounds and lush, yearning melodies. They work to accompany a lazy afternoon spent laying horizontal or an early evening dance at sunset. The musicians ship is second to none, with killer acoustic riffs, right drum work and smart samples all making up this most colourful and charismatic of downtempo albums.

Review: DJ duo Earthly Measures became known after their open minded event series in London, and then started a label. It has been a fine one to date with lush worldly sounds and downtempo Balearic fusions. This new one is another boon from Mente Organica, the Colombia born producer and multi-instrumentalist. The eight talks here offer a colourful, vivid and vital trip through songs that are both primed for dancing in the open air, but also those which are deeply introspective. Electronica combines with 60s psychedelic rock vocals to great effect on standout cut 'Eagle.'

Review: Dutch artist Sander van Dijck is the man behind the San Holo, and someone who is known for joining the dots between electronic and indie music. He does that again here on a bumper 20 track album that explores analogue sounds, soft vocals and some mature alt-rock sojourns. It is a grown up album and fine follow up to his romantic 2018 debut Album1 with some of the same lush chord work but more sophisticated structures. Richly emotional but never sentimental, the artist says it is largely an album that address the feelings one has in the aftermath of a relationship.

Review: Two years ago, the fabulously named DJ F16 Falcon debuted with a seven-inch single that pulled dub in twisted new directions. There's a similarly oddball feel to the up-and=coming French producer's first mini-album, a seven-track selection in which pitched-down, dancehall-influenced rhythms and mutant dub grooves are cannily combined with vibrant, Pilotwings style Balearic synths and other ear-pleasing, retro-futurist sounds. Our picks include sleazy opener 'You Make Me Feel So Good', the Tolouse Low Trax-goes-synth-funk eccentricity of 'Love Blow Dem 40', the feverish downtempo creepiness of '1Tension' and the deliciously immersive, loved-up bliss of 'Would You Like To'.