remnants of the balearic beats
In 1987, Trevor Fung released a compilation called “Balearic Beats (The Album Vol 1)”. It’s now relatively difficult to find the songs on this compilation via streaming service, but you can find most on Youtube.
One is The Thrashing Doves - Jesus On the Payroll. Sometimes, when I hear groundbreaking songs from an older style, I can understand right away what made them massive. This one, I’m not so sure, though one youtube commenter mentions that it melted his stereo in 87. At 100 BPM, it sounds like a honkey tonk pianist got ahold of a Casio, and the only thing I can imagine it melting is the sad little plastic keys.
Interestingly however, another Youtube commenter leaps out of the woodwork to say that he, in fact, made this song! His profile links to the Discogs entry for Bruce Forest, who has an interesting story indeed.
He spun at a club in NYC before moving to the UK in 89, where he mixed and produced hundreds of records, including some of the first Chicago house releases.
His credits are absolutely wild, and I’m going down the list of his tracks and finding banger after banger, including Alexander Robotnick - Problèmes D’amour and Dr. Mouthquake - Love on Love.
It’s experience like this that remind me of the old, ‘wild’ internet, where there were always surprises and discoveries waiting around the corner. Don’t you miss those days?
