Estelle

 

In the mid 80's one of the most hip places in Europe was a café located on the seafront in Sant Antoni de Portmany in the Cala des Moro bay on Ibiza. It became famous because the local DJ José Padilla regularly played a set at sunset, which consisted mainly of relaxed numbers by mostly unknown artists at the time. The term chill-out music was born and later solidified under the name Balearic ambient. 

So what could be more obvious than to publish compilations of these songs? In 1994, the first Café del Mar compilation was released, which included Sabres of Paradise, Underworld, Penguine Cafe Orchestra and A Man Called Adam. To mark the 30th anniversary, AMCA has now released various remixes of Estelle in the last few days. A song that is still a highlight thanks to its instrumentation with flute, interspersed word fragments and its Latin American arrangement.

Monday's Long Song

 

During the last years I posted long songs but seldom really long songs. It took a long time until I was remembered that in 1994 a song was released who also deserves this predicate. Before there were Two Lone Swordsmen there were Andrew Weatherall with The Sabres Of Paradise who produced the epic first album by One Dove and remixed everything from Björk to New Order. One of them was James. Jam J was an improbable single from their underrated album Wah Wah. The Sabres remixed this album track in a wobble-esque style into a 33 minute long sprawling epic of a remix broken up into four movements. The beat never stops and it seems more a DJ-set than a remix. If you are into dubby techno or ambient dub you shouldn't miss this gem.