Juno Recommends Downtempo / Balearic June 2018

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: Taken from last year's maxi EP under his off-piste Oeil Cube guise, I Cube's supersized "XXXX" gets the treatment from Red Light Records' Abel on this special 45". Taking its already smouldering slow-n-low vibe and giving it even more a hypnotic deep plunge, it's a respectful twist that loses none of the original's Balearic charm. Flip for "Etire En Avant" an immaculate slice of previously unreleased loopy magic that was recorded straight to tape in 96 but still sounds like it's 2096. Cool as ever.

Review: Emotional Rescue unearth yet another pearl of curiosity from the mists of the 80s here, kicking off a series looking at the work of guitarist Carl Weingarten. This album is a fine place to start, as Weingarten teams up with Walter Whitney for an engrossing exploration of ambient synth work merged with careful use of slide guitar and more besides. It's very much of its time, originally released on Multiphase in 1985, and it's as charming and naive as it is accomplished. There's a new age sweetness to the harmonic composition, but the sound palette is deceptively deep, not least thanks to Weingarten's multifaceted approaches to his instrument. Dreaming In Colours sets a promising tone for what the rest of the series holds.

Review: Benjamin Smith and Paul "Mudd" Murphy rarely disappoint, as those who copped 2016 album Gorthleck will confirm. "Janet 50" marks the experienced duo's first new material since (though we have it on good authority that a fresh full-length is also on the way). The track is typical of their work, with sumptuous, jazzy guitars, deep space effects and rich electric piano parts reclining over a blazed, Balearic disco groove. It's a sublime piece of music, all told, which is arguably made even better by B-side remixer I:Cube. The Parisian veteran thrillingly re-casts the track as a spacey, synthesizer-heavy treat rich in bleep techno inspired bass, Kelley Polar synths, gentle acid lines and Ben Smith's brilliant guitar improvisations. In other words, it's out-of-this-world good.

Review: For Record Store Day 2018, UK downbeat legends Zero 7 present an exclusive collectors box set. The package contains seven 7"s, containing 14 tracks picked by Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker themselves. Featuring their acclaimed collaborations with Sia, Sophie Barker, Mozez, Jose Gonzalez and Martha Tilston among others. This is the first time some of these tracks have been made available on such format. Four tracks are taken from 2001's Simple Things LP, a further three are taken from their 2004 album When It Falls, four from The Garden (2006) and the final two come from the 2009 album Yeah Ghost. Artwork is by the band's original design collaborator (Julian House) and the sleeves are colour coded - placed into a cruciform overwrap sleeve with heavyweight vinyl.

Review: Ned Doheny's particular strain of blue-eyed soul seems perfectly suited to the idea of the remix. So much so that Be With Records has teamed him up with producer Mudd for what feels like a match made in heaven. The latter has taken Doheny's classic "Think Like A Lover" and translated it into Balearic format - a gentle, cautious strain of disco that does nothing in the way of outshining the original. In fact, we believe it to be the perfect companion and a sort of collaborative revisioning. Both the vocal remix, and the more explorative instrumental cut. Lovely stuff!

Review: Since the mid 1980s, there's been much discussion - in beard-stroking circles, at least - of the Balearic credentials of Scottish synth-poppers Tears For Fears. The band seems to have finally cottoned on to this, commissioning White Isle resident and International Feel boss Mark Barrott to provide fresh reworks of "Head Over Heels" in honour of Record Store Day. Happily, he's done a terrific job, particularly on the epic A-side "Sketches From A Sunrise Spiritual Meditation". Built around layered, ultra-positive synthesizer arpeggios and a saucer-eyed ambient sensibility, it brilliantly ebbs and flows throughout. The flipside "Flying Wings of Love Re-Interpretation" is almost as blissful and every bit as loved-up.

Review: Sth. Notional was a short-lived project that manifested in one album back in 1992, originally released on Japanese label Zero Corporation. Yawn Yawn Yawn focused primarily on various Balearic-friendly mixes of the title track and some other scattered pieces, and now they've received a much-needed spruce up from Archeo Recordings. The "Dream... Another Reality" versions of "Yawn Yawn Yawn" are laid back to the extreme, revolving around delicate instrumentation and occasional threads of speech and singing. There's a mellow beat behind the "G-Tar Cannyon Mix," and the "Thankful Mix" brings a weightier groove to the table. With the other tracks adding to this utterly smooth, early 90s shake, and spread across three discs, this is the holy grail reissue collectors have been waiting for.

Review: Treasures From The Temple was designed as a companion piece to Thievery Corporation's 2017 album The Temple of I & I, a set famously recorded at Geejam Studios in Port Antonio, Jamaica. It contains a mixture of previously unheard material originally slated for inclusion on its predecessor and all new remixes of album tracks. As you'd expect, the mood is dub-wise, soulful and humid throughout, with skanking dub cuts and soulful reggae jams nestling side by side with more up-tempo dancefloor workouts (see the dubby deep house beauty of "Guidance" and the breakbeat-driven bustle of "Music To Make You Stagger"). Most of the finest reworks come from TC, whose revisions mostly join the dots between digital dub and "Sleng Teng" style ragged riddims.

Review: Out 2 is a project from Jeremy Campbell and R. Zanzibar, who have previously worked together on albums for L.I.E.S. and Lectric Sands under different aliases. They sound right at home on Emotional Response, channeling the influence of 1980s New York dancefloor hybridization into six original tracks and their counterpart dub versions. It's an impeccable tribute to the forefathers of new / no / minimal wave with the right kind of funk rubbed in the groove and ample space in the mix for all the live dubbing the style demands. "Moving" is a surefire death disco party starter, "Dancing" hovers in a beyond the grave island boogie reverie and "Some Air's Red There" heads out into exotically enhanced territory without losing that NYC grit. It's a marvelous record, with the dub versions adding new dimensions to the music rather than simply repeating the same tricks sans vocals.

Review: Sth. Notional was a one-off project originally released on Japanese label Zero Corporation back in 1992. Yawn Yawn Yawn focused primarily on various Balearic-friendly mixes of the title track and some other scattered pieces, and now they've received a much-needed spruce up from Archeo Recordings. This edition in particular comes on blue vinyl, in limited quantities for the fast-fingered collectors. The "Dream... Another Reality" versions of "Yawn Yawn Yawn" are laid back to the extreme, revolving around delicate instrumentation and occasional threads of speech and singing. There's a mellow beat behind the "G-Tar Cannyon Mix," and the "Thankful Mix" brings a weightier groove to the table. With the other tracks adding to this utterly smooth, early 90s shake, and spread across three discs, this is the holy grail reissue collectors have been waiting for.

Review: To celebrate this year's Record Store Day jamboree, Scandolearic pop sort Kai Gundelach decided to get a couple of his tracks remixed. The results are rather impressive. On the A-side, fellow Norwegian Prins Thomas gives his interpretation of recent Baltus album track "Games", effortlessly joining the dots between breezy, sun-kissed pop, glassy-eyed Balearic and rubbery dub disco. On the reverse, Studio band member Dan Lissvik provides his spin on 2017 single "Garden". His take veers closer to shimmering, synthesizer-fuelled dream pop, with Gundleach's heart-aching vocals and jazzy guitar solos rising above a suitably warm, baggy and loved-up backing track.

Review: Landers and Dalholt are becoming increasingly associated to the Music For Dreams imprint, out of Denmark, and we have to say that their particular strain of electronica is very much in line with our current tastes for all things Balearic and downtempo. The pair land on our charts with their debut LP, a magnificent ride across intergalactic soundscapes that seem to mesh and blend with each other seamlessly, the sounds entering a balance of their own. All that being said, the starry-eyed melodies and atmospherics that loom large over this piece of work do find their way into more energetic, more dance-centric moments that make this a truly complete album from these two relatively young producers. Much more to come from them, surely.

Review: Tropical Drums of Deutschland is an intriguing proposition. Put together by Jan Schulte, whose Wolf Muller project draws influence from exotic new age music and gentle global drum rhythms, the compilation focuses on "tropical" music made in and around Germany, most during the mid to late 1980s. It's a fascinating listen, but far more introspective and melancholic than you might expect. Of course, there are percussive tracks that feel dancefloor-friendly - see Argile's "Tagtraum Eines Eleganten", and Sanza's beguiling, drums-and-vocals workout "Sounouh" - but for the most part the material selected by Schulte (and, on a couple of occasions, re-edited) tends towards the horizontal. This is not meant as a criticism; if anything, it makes the collection a much more beguiling listen.

Review: The latest missive in the evocative and open-minded Late Night Tales series comes from Agnes Obel, a Danish singer/songwriter whose fragile, pastoral songs seemingly join the dots between traditional folk music, neo-classical and early music. Fittingly, Obel's selections, while more diverse than many may have expected - see the soulful reggae throb of Nora Dean, the creepy jazz of Yello's "Great Mission" and the whispered synth-pop shuffle of Lena Platanos - are every bit as atmospheric and ethereal as her own work. It helps that she's included several of her own compositions, alongside inspired cuts that touch on Berlin School ambient, hazy easy listening, neo-classical, psychedelia, lo-fi art rock and, of course, folk.