Music For Dreams from downtempo power couple Kelvin Andrews & Balearic Mike

One of the finest compilations I’ve heard this year, and certainly the winner of this year’s Longest Compilation Name Award, the third installment of Down To… collects a set of obscure tunes that are united only by their rarity and by whatever indescribable, indefinable quality that qualifies them as “Balearic.” Luckily for you, there’s not enough room in our reviews section for me to get into what makes a piece of music “Balearic” or not, and if you actually want an answer to that question, you could just listen to this album. Across genres as disparate and mismatched as new wave, bossa nova, Greek folk, low tempo house chug and dub-disco, most of it from artists I’d not heard of, the tracks are generally hazy, laid back and ever-so-slightly narcotic in mood, sometimes pretty, sometimes odd, with occasional musical diversions into moments of intensity and with a smattering of low tempo dancefloor killers.

In the dancefloor category, although obviously you can dance to Greek folk music, I’d include Le Couleur’s 2016 deep and shiny synth-pop chugger “Underage,” the Idjut version of Len’s “Steal My Sunshine” with its sequenced synth bassline that constantly slips slightly in and out of kilter with the jazz brush beat, and the killer horn section and high-level percussion of futuroid jazzer “Unify/Rip Up” from Pressure Drop. Other great stuff you’ve probably not heard before include ’80s big production synthetic soul “Electro Eyes” by Lee Ryda, mid-’70s Cali-psychedelia from Francisco, and “Dying By Wits,” a jazzy stroller from The Emperor Machine.

⚪️ Down To The Sea & Back Volume Tres Tracklisting

V/A: Down To The Sea & Back Volume Tres: The Continuing Journey of the Balearic Beat, Compiled by Balearic Mike & Kelvin
Andrews (Music For Dreams / 12" Vinyl + CD + Digital)
1 Josete Ordonez - Objetos Perdidos (Dagobert Böhm Version)
2 Robert Williams - I believe You're The One
3 Lee Ryda - Electro Eyes
4 Francisco - Heal Yourself
5 Vidderna - Villfarelser
6 Meo - Cikuana
7 The Emperor Machine - Dying By Wits (Original Mix)
8 Tri Atma - Yummy Moon (Long Version)
9 Pressure Drop - Unify /Rip up instrumental)
10 Ad Vissar & Daniel Sahuleka - Giddyap A Gogo
11 Len - Steal My Sunshine (Version Idjut)
12 Sunshine Jones - Fall In Love Not in Line (Extended Vocal Version)
13 Car Crash Set - Fall From Grace
14 Mcraft - She Sells Sanctuary

⚪️ Disclosure Statement

This record was not submitted as a promo.