NYE: A Mix For Dancing

New Year’s Eve- I’m not sure what we’re going to do tonight. New Year’s Eve is a strange night at the best of times (unless you’re young and in a club where all that happens is that the countdown to midnight is a brief interruption to a night of dancing). The reflective, verging on maudlin, aspects of it are too easily summoned at the moment but celebrating it feels odd too. Caught in no man’s land.

But, still, Happy New Year to everyone who comes here for the music and the words, thank you for your comments and support, it means a lot. I hope you’re having a good time tonight whether you’re choosing to do something or nothing. See you all in 2023 for more of the same. 

This is a mix I put together of tracks from 2022, made for dancing to. It’s what I’d want to hear as the clock ticked towards midnight, if happened to find myself in a sweaty basement with a good sound system and a strobe light tonight- you never know, it could happen. Sean Johnston’s work features heavily, turning up on four of the tracks. There are a couple of transitions where things are a little skewwhiff (one of them skewwhiff in a way I quite like, the beats and noises piling up messily and then clearing) and the BPMs may be a little out but I think the track selection is good enough. A bunch of dance records sequenced together for an hour and a quarter, with a slow spaced out ambient start, a dubby ending and plenty of dancers in between. Happy new year.

NYE 2022 Dance Mix

• Space Ghost: 4 AM
• Long Range Desert Group: Adjustment Notice
• Rude Audio: Big Heat
• The Summerisle Six: This Is Something (Dub Mix)
• Peak High: Was That All It Was (Hardway Bros Bleep Dub)
• David Holmes: It’s Over, If We Run Out Of Love (Hardway Bros Remix)
• Unloved: Turn Of The Screw (Erol Alkan Rework)
• The Orielles: Darkened Corners (Eyes Of Others Remix)
• Phil Kieran and Green Velvet: Enjoy The Day (Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Downtown Remix)
• Matt Gunn: Disko Drohne
• Cantoma ft. Quinn Lamont Luke: Alive (Conrad’s Vacant Lot Remix)
• 10:40: Hawaii (Big Wave Dub)

Forty Minutes Of Cantoma

Cantoma is the musical work of Phil Mison, a veteran of the Balearic scene, sunsets at the Cafe del Mar, the White Isle, beaches and tides, the whitewashed walls of Spanish houses, a week abroad, a holiday in the sun, laid back days and dancing at night. His music as Cantoma reflects all of that and more. This mix contains just under forty minutes of Cantoma and some remixes courtesy of likeminded travelling companions. The sun’s out, it’s warm for the first time in ages. 

Forty Minutes Of Cantoma

Claudio’s Theme

To The Sea

Talva Lumi (Apiento Remix)

Just Landed (Pete Herbert Remix)

The Mountain (Coyote Remix)

To The Sea (DJ Pippi and Willie Graff Remix)

To The Sea And Paris From Above

Two slices of Balearica for today with the promise of sunnier climes and better days, both tracks I would have featured here back in December if things had been different. Both have the ability to transport me somewhere else for the duration they play. First, a Coyote remix of Tonarunur. Tonarunur is from Reykjavik, Iceland, Coyote are from Nottingham. On Paris From Above they find a sweet spot that links those three cities in a laid back, dreamy manner, gently pulsing synths and a heavily echoed voice saying things I can’t quite hear. Buy it here. 

Phil Mison is Cantoma, a doyen of the Cafe del Mar and Balearic scene. I posted To The Sea back in October, a lovely accordion led groove. It’s been remixed by Italian duo Here & Now Remix, adding a lazy beat, washes of synth and pushing the topline melody to the fore. The accordion eventually shows up four minutes in and everything drifts towards the finish line. Buy it here. 

To The Sea

I’m trying to fend off the clocks going back with a photo from summer (the sea at Cleveleys, north of Blackpool) and some very laid back Balearic vibes from Cantoma. To The Sea is an accordion led four minute lilt that sounds like nothing really matters much at all. Buy it at Bandcamp. 

I would very much like it if Cantoma and Eric Cantona joined forces for a song, a Cantoma/ Cantona face off. The Ibizan sounds of Phil Mison and Eric talking about something/ anything would be a joy. 

When All This Is Over

A new Bagging Area mix for Sunday, an optimistic sounding one now that the days are getting longer and the summer seems to be just round the corner. A lot of these songs have been posted here recently individually but they sounded good together. I’m not sure there’s a huge amount of cause for optimism with the continuing, ceaseless flow of bad news, bad government and virus rates increasing but maybe it’s best to turn the news channel off for a while and unplug. It’s at Mixcloud, it won’t embed but you can find it here. 

As the voice says in the opening Coyote song, ‘when all this is over…. I plan to go north…’ 

• Coyote: Café Con Leche
• Private Agenda: Malanai Ascending (Seahawks Remix)
• Chris Coco: Rainy Season
• Rheinhard Vanbergen and Charlotte Carulaerts: Julien
• Primal Scream: Inner Flight
• Justin Deighton and Leo Zero: I Feel Edit
• Cantoma: The Mountain (Lexx Remix)
• HiFi Sean Ft. Yoko Ono: In Love With Life
• A Certain Ratio: Berlin (album version)
• Coyote: Feedback Valley
• Future Beat Alliance: Birth (Claude Young Remix)

I Feel

Some uplifting feelgood musical biscuits for Friday courtesy of some veteran DJs and producers. First, an edit of a 70s folk rock song, refitted for 2021 by Justin Deighton and Leo Zero, out on 7″ and digitally at their own 7s Clash label (with a tie in bar at Two Tribes Campfire in King’s Cross, London). I Feel is a funky/ Balearic number, acoustic guitars, a chugger of a bassline and lots of chanting- I’m getting hippy parties in the Med in the mid 1970s, unspoilt beaches, kaftans, hash, sunsets, sandals, love beads. Find it here. The B-side is a Pete Herbert dub of the edit, a more laid back version but still with that chuggy rhythm. 

Balearic overlord Phil Mison records under the name Cantoma. This Pete Herbert remix of Cantoma’s Verbana from 2018 fits perfectly with the I Feel Edit above, more music for dancing, acoustic guitars, bubbly bassline, handclaps and a soaring synth part.

This one, another Cantoma/ Pete Herbert pairing, shows the Balearic revival (if it ever really went away) was well underway back in 2014. Very laid back magic. 

Just Landed (Pete Herbert Remix)

The Mountain

This remix three pack came out in December- I missed it and only stumbled across it recently. Phil Mison’s Balearic project Cantoma make music for sunsets, for summer evenings, long shadows, the heat of the sun on your skin. ‘Music’, Phil says himself, ‘for far away places’. The exact opposite of the sub- zero, dark days of lockdown. This lockdown is hard, I think many people are finding it really difficult and even the vaccine doesn’t seem to offer a way out in the near future. Relentless, unremitting gloom in the cold darkness of a British winter. Music like Cantoma’s can take you away, even when it’s -3 outside. The three remixes of Cantoma’s song The Mountain are by Chris Coco, Lexx and, for me the pick of the bunch, Coyote. Video here if you’re on a device where the embed hasn’t embedded. 

If that doesn’t make you feel like you’re somewhere else, I don’t know what will. You can buy the EP at Bandcamp where there’s also a limited edition 10″ single, a format I’m quite fond of- the midpoint between 7″ and 12″. Here’s the Lexx remix, a balmy, dubbier affair with that snaking guitar line.