Balearic/Downtempo charts

Review: It is time to succumb to the sounds of the Magic Wand label once more and this eighth sonic spell is another one that will leave you happily helpless. It finds the Coyote lads step away from their fine work on Is It Balearic? to cook up two top edits. First up they offer 'Lonely' - a broody, steamy and shimmering tropical Balearic workout and then comes the organic and lazy drums of 'Western Revolution' with an iconic gravelly vocal. There are folk-tinged Americana sounds on 'Love Home' and laid-back disco licks on the seductive 'Luca' to make this a summer party essential.

Review: "Salmon Spungcake" was one of the last things Claremont 56 super-group Bison recorded before the sad passing of two of its' founder members, Holger Czukay and Ursula Kloss in the summer of 2017. Two years on from its initial release, Bison members Ben Smith and Paul 'Mudd' Murphy (also label boss) have decided to get it remixed, with original producer Conrad McDonnell (he of Idjut Boys fame) providing two suitably heavy dub disco interpretations, making this the band's first release since the passing of Czukay and Kloss. Check first the spacey A-side hypnotism of the "Zip It Shrimpy Mix", where melancholic chords and spaced-out vocal snippets wrap around a particularly percussive dub disco groove. Arguably even better is the stripped-back, bass-heavy and reverb-rich "I Think I've Got Gout Mix", which sounds like it was tailor-made to manipulate mangled minds at four in the morning.

Review: Blair French is a brilliant groove-smith who has turned out plenty of classics on the likes of Claremont 65, Rocksteady Disco and Razor-N-Tape. After a recent new limited 12" in April he makes a quick return with this a-side gem, 'The Bird Watcher.' It's a loose and worldwide disco sound with organic perc and languid bass next to wild bird calls and hypnotic flute leads.
Eddie Logix's 'Sunshine, Sunblock' then brings a dubbed out vibe with more jungle sound effects and naturalistic atmospheres.

Review: Since taking up music production following a career-ending football injury, 20-something Leeds lad Reuben Vaun Smith has delivered two tropical-tinged, Balearic-inspired albums for Soundway. On his third full-length (his first for long-serving Californian label Ubiquity Records), the Yorkshireman refocuses a little more on the dancefloor, offering up a range of attractive cuts that combine his love of mid-tempo, dubbed-out disco with African, Latin and Middle Eastern vocals, rhythms and instrumentation - as well as a heavy dose of psychedelic sounds and trippy effects. It's a smart shift that's undoubtedly paid dividends, with our picks of a very strong bunch including 'Beams', the dreamy 'Mali' (a track inspired by that country's vibrant musical culture), and the life-affirming dancefloor shuffle of 'The Waxing Gibbous Moon'.