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.

Love Forgotten

 

Steve Jones and Sally Rodgers aka A Man Called Adam released a few days ago a compilation of unreleased and reworked material. The album sounds like a mixtape from their 30 decade of work. I always liked their combination of electronic sounds from balearic to tribal. One of the forgotten ones is a collaboration with Jose Padilla who died a few weeks ago and on the the other AMCA worked together with African Singer Brenda Fassie, a song with a township jive and jangly guitars Johnny Marr could have played. Two fine pieces to start into the weekend.

Jose Padilla 1955 - 2020

 

Yesterday the sad news arrived that Jose Padilla died last weekend at the consequences of bowel cancer. Padilla got famous when he was DJ-ing in the mid 90's in Ibiza's Cafe Del Mar. He was maybe the first one that played soft flowing electronic sounds while the visitors of the bar was watching the sunset. His compilations of the so called chill-out sound were often played in pubs and bars during the end of the last century and he was part of the Ibiza sound. His musical taste was documented on the first compilations when he brought  Andrew Weatherall and A Man Called Adam to a major audience.

Rest easy Jose.

Jose Padilla - Agua