Posted by Budgie at January 9, 2006 07:41 PM

Man, It's cold. I wish I was back on holiday.

That's the trouble with going away over Xmas and New Year to a warmer climate, you feel the cold even more when you come back.

I'm sitting here typing this with the sound of the wind and the rain hitting my window and I'm trying to keep my own spirits up by listening to some of the tracks that I've spent the past few weeks on holiday listening too. Nice warm tracks. Nice summer tracks.

Think warm thoughts, listen to warm music and I shall be warm again. That's the theory anyway...

Find below a few tracks from my annual Balearic Beat inspired holiday CD's. Alas I never made it to my usual haunt of Ibiza this year, but I can't complain seeing as it was forfeited in favour of Australia...

Track : WARP 69 - "NATURAL HIGH (GLOBAL COMMUNICATION MIX)"

One of the finest ambient records ever made. Back in the day the Global Communication boys (Tom Middleton & Mark Pritchard) were pretty much untouchable and here this mellow, jazz tinged number shows why. It's taken from their "Remotion" album which compiled the best of their reworks from the early 90's (expect to pay quite a bit of money to get your hands on this now rare gem). This track has "Cafe Del Mar" stamped all over it. A fine and blissful summer evening of a tune.

And while on the subject of Global Communication. the lads have teamed up again under this guise for the next in the series of Fabric Live mix albums. "Fabric26 - Global Communication" is out on the 16th of January.

Track : ARTHUR RUSSELL - "THAT'S US / WILD COMBINATION"

It's an unwritten blog rule that at some point you must feature a track by The Fall and a track by leftfield NY dance legend Arthur Russell. I've covered The Fall, so now it's Arthur's turn. I'm not going to cover any ground about his legacy and influence, you can read all about him in the link below, instead I'm just going to mention that this is as far away from anything he did under any of his experimental disco guises. It's my favourite Arthur Russell track as it's a simple, very 80's pop song featuring his soft vocal beautifully complimented with Jennifer "Up Where We Belong" Warnes on backing vocals.

Track : GRACE JONES - "UNLIMITED CAPACITY FOR LOVE"

Still in the 80's... Grace Jones always freaked me out as a kid. Her image was just too striking and bold for me. As I got older, and thanks to an old girlfriend who was a fan, I was able to see beyond the look and get into her music. I couldn't believe the amount of great songs and killer cover versions hiding in her back catalogue. "Unlimited Capacity For Love" is one such song that needs an airing every once in a while. Taken from her '82 "Living My Life" album, this is Grace Jones in her full Island stride with Chris Blackwell producing and legendary reggae rhythm section Sly & Robbie backing her up. I'm a sucker for the synths on this one and the great middle section where the guitar sounds like a vocoder...

Track : SUNDAY BRUNCH - "MIDSUMMER NIGHT"

A bit more up to date now. Swedes Jesper Dahlbäck & Sebastian Ahrenberg (aka Seba) team up as Sunday Brunch to deliver an incredibly polished, summery, deep house track. The production is great. The first half is all great keys backed with a mid tempo beat and some great effects and then for the latter half Seba's sister comes in and delivers a vocal while the track just shifts up a gear ever so slightly. A perfect holiday record.

Go Visit : Global Communication
Go Visit : Bio of Arthur Russell @ Jahsonic
Go Visit : Grace Jones
Go Visit : Info on Jesper Dahlbäck and Seba @ Discogs

Go Buy : Global Communication - Remotion
Go Buy : Arthur Russell - Calling Out Of Context
Go Buy : Grace Jones - Private Life (The Compass Point Years)
Go Buy : Various Artists - Sunday Best 3

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum.

Ta,
Budgie.