Balearic beat explained

Balearic beat

Balearic beat, also known as Balearic house, Balearic, Ibiza house or Ibizan chillout, is an eclectic blend of DJ-led dance music that emerged in the mid-1980s.[1] [2] It later became the name of a more specific style[3] of electronic dance/house music that was popular into the mid-1990s. Balearic beat was named for its popularity among European nightclub and beach rave patrons on the Balearic island of Ibiza, a popular tourist destination. Some dance music compilations referred to it as "the sound of Ibiza", even though many other, more aggressive and upbeat forms of dance music could be heard on the island, such as Balearic trance.

History

This style was popularized at Amnesia, an Ibizan nightclub, by DJ Alfredo[4] from Argentina, who had a residency there.[5] [6] DJ Alfredo, whose birth name is Alfredo Fiorito, has been credited as the "Father of the Balearic beat".[7] Alfredo played an eclectic mix of dance music with his style encompassing the indie hypno grooves of the Woodentops, the mystic rock of the Waterboys, early house, Europop and oddities from the likes of Peter Gabriel and Chris Rea. Similar music was being played at other nightclubs, including Pacha and Ku.

British DJs such as Nancy Noise,[8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] Trevor Fung,[15] [16] Danny Rampling[17] and Electra's[18] [19] Paul Oakenfold[20] [21] are commonly credited with having "popularised"[22] Balearic beat, especially in the UK,[23] with Fung said to be the originator of the term.[24] In 1987, after a holiday in Ibiza, Oakenfold, Fung and Ian St. Paul[25] [26] [27] [28] [29] returned to London, where they unsuccessfully tried to establish a nightclub called the Funhouse in the Balearic style.[30] Returning to Ibiza during the summer of 1987, Oakenfold[31] [32] [33] [34] rented a villa where he hosted a number of his DJ friends, including Danny Rampling, Johnny Walker,[35] [36] and Nicky Holloway.[37] Returning to London after the summer, Oakenfold reintroduced the Balearic style at a South London nightclub called the Project Club. The club initially attracted those who had visited Ibiza and who were familiar with the Balearic concept. Fueled by their use of Ecstasy and an emerging fashion style based on baggy clothes and bright colors, these Ibiza veterans were responsible for propagating the Balearic subculture within the evolving UK rave scene. In 1988, Oakenfold established a second outlet for Balearic beat, a Monday night event called Spectrum, which is credited with exposing the Balearic concept to a wider audience.[38] It was 1988[39] when Balearic beat was first noticed in the U.S., according to Dance Music Report magazine.[40] Jose Padilla was an Ibizan DJ best known for his residency at Café del Mar. Also Jon Sa Trinxa, a British DJ and Producer best known for the longest residency on Salinas Beach at Sa Trinxa defines his style as being Balearic Music.

Pitchfork traces back elements of Balearic beat music to the 1982 Indian album Disco Jazz, sung by Rupa Biswas and composed by Aashish Khan. According to Pitchfork, the Bengali language song "Aaj Shanibar" from Disco Jazz contains "touches of what would now be considered Balearic beat music, with its expansive and hypnotic musical interludes." However, the album was largely unknown until its rediscovery in the late 2010s.[41]

Style

Balearic beat records vary between house or Italo house and deep house influenced sounds and a slower R&B-influenced (under 119bpm) beat consisting of bass drum, snare and hi-hats (often produced with a Roland TR-909 drum machine) programmed in certain laid-back, swing-beat patterns; plus soul, Latin, African, funk and dub affectations; and production techniques borrowed from other styles of dance music that were popular at the time. Vocals were sometimes present, but much of the music was instrumental. The sounds of acoustic instruments such as guitar and piano were sometimes incorporated into Balearic beat. Having been primarily associated with a particular percussion pattern that eventually fell out of vogue, the style eventually faded from prominence and its repertoire was subsumed by the more general "chill out" and "downtempo" genres.

The style of Balearic beat is described by its inventors, as opposed to its UK followers, as the ability for the DJ to play across a broad range of styles, from early minimal New Beat to the first extended remixes of pop-songs, making Balearic DJ sets those that tend to have the sharpest turns of musical direction. While the public outside Ibiza generally describes Balearic beat as a music style, the island based community regard Balearic beat as a non-style or a healthy disrespect to style conformity and a challenge to the norm. It's a freestyle expression that seamlessly binds sporadic vinyl inspiration through technical flair on the turntables. Today, due to stylistic segregation in electronic dance music, few promoters and DJs dare to stretch the spectrum of styles that far in fear of losing identity and clients. DJ Alfredo still heralds the most diversity among Ibiza DJs, but generally the approach to mixing as well as the terminology, have been swallowed up by the Chillout scene.

Ibiza is still considered by some to have its own "sound", however, including the music of Jens Gad, co-creator of Enigma, and his new chillout-world-influenced hybrid project, Achillea, recorded in his studio in the hills overlooking Ibiza.[42] Compilations such as Global Lounge Sessions: The Balearic Sound of Ibiza, released in 2002, and Sequoia Groove's Buddha-Lounge series, continue to be released.[43] These generally feature house music and certain downtempo selections, not the old style of Balearic beat, per se. Some prefer to use the term Balearic more generally, however, to apply to all of these styles.[44]

See also

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Gilbert, Jeremy; Pearson, Ewan. Discographies: Dance Music, Culture, and the Politics of Sound. Routledge. 1999. . "The musics which fed into acid house and the developing culture were various too; the heterogeneous sounds of the 'Balearic beat' which helped define it did not constitute a discrete musical genre, but an unholy mix of, among other things, hip hop, house, Mediterranean pop and indie rock. DJs' playlists temporarily situated highly disparate musics beside one another. Musical miscegenation reunited several of the dance forms that had emerged after disco, mixing American and European dance musics. Though house music was the dominant mode, the rapid proliferation of styles and subgenres which followed in its wake, for a short time at least, kept dancefloors moving to a range of grooves."
  2. Evans, Helen. Out of Sight, Out of Mind: An Analysis of Rave culture. Wimbledon School of Art, London. 1992. "It was in the upmarket clubs of Ibiza: Pacha, Amnesia, Glory's and Manhattans, that Balearic beat was created. DJ's would mix musical forms as diverse as Public Enemy and The Woodentops, to create that eclectic, highly danceable, don't care holiday feel."
  3. Web site: the birth of balearic. 29 May 2014. 6 July 2016. 19 September 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160919065656/https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/the-birth-of-balearic. dead.
  4. News: Anderson . James . the birth of balearic . 30 September 2022 . i-D.
  5. News: The birth of rave . 30 September 2022 . . 12 August 2007 . en.
  6. Kaplan, C.D., Grund, J-P & Dzoljic, M.R. (1989) Ecstasy in Europe: reflections on the epidemiology of MDMA. Instituut voor Verslavingsonderzoek, Rotterdam.
  7. Web site: Ross. Annabel. Father of the Balearic beat DJ Alfredo Plays Australia. smh.com. 30 December 2014. Sydney Morning Herald, 31 December 2014. 21 October 2016.
  8. Web site: Nancy Noise & Leo Mas Talk . Ransom Note . 30 September 2022 . en . 19 August 2021.
  9. Web site: AN INTERVIEW WITH NANCY NOISE . The Refuge . 30 September 2022.
  10. Web site: Nancy Noise and friends at Amnesia, Ibiza, circa 1987 . No Repetitive Beats! . Tumblr . 30 September 2022.
  11. News: Acid flashback: Nancy Noise is the pioneering Balearic DJ and acid house hero . 30 September 2022 . . May 15, 2018.
  12. Web site: Laverne . Lauren . DJ Nancy Noise on her time in Ibiza . BBC Radio 6 Music . 23 August 2018 . BBC . 30 September 2022.
  13. Web site: Girou . Baptiste . Beyond Paradise: In Conversation with Nancy Noise & Craig Christon . INVERTED AUDIO . 3 March 2017 . 30 September 2022.
  14. Web site: The First Time I Ever... Nancy Noise On Amnesia . Test Pressing . 30 September 2022.
  16. Web site: Biography . DJ Trevor Fung . 30 September 2022 . en . 24 June 2014.
  17. Web site: An Oral History of the London Club That Kicked Off Rave Culture . Pump It Up Magazine . 30 September 2022 . 28 December 2017.
  18. Web site: Trailblazers Season 1.
  19. Web site: ELECTRA . Official Charts Company .
  20. Web site: Paul Oakenfold celebrates M8's decade of dance . M8 Magazine . 30 September 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200929101219/http://www.oakenfoldmixes.com/press-articles/m8-magazine-september-1998 . 29 September 2020 . September 1998 . Oakenfold Mixes.
  21. News: Spearman . Kahron . How Did Legendary DJ and Londoner Paul Oakenfold Land in Bastrop? . 30 September 2022 . Austin Chronicle.
  22. Caesar . Ed . Solomun, the D.J. Who Keeps Ibiza Dancing . 30 September 2022 . . 26 September 2022.
  23. Web site: A Second Summer Of Love . The Observer Music Monthly . . 30 September 2022 . 20 April 2008 . 808State.com.
  24. Web site: Trevor Fung Interview: "if you love music you just follow your heart". July 26, 2020.
  25. Web site: Trance encounter: Can it really be 25 years since acid house was born? . . 30 September 2022 . en . 29 June 2012.
  26. Web site: The1950smoonin . The Origins of British Dance Music, Rave & Club Culture: Part 1 . Steemit . 30 September 2022 . en . 16 January 2018.
  27. Web site: acid rain sleevenotes: Part 3 . Ransom Note . 30 September 2022 . en . 19 August 2021.
  28. Web site: Wilson . Greg . Shoom Summer Of Love . Greg Wilson . 30 September 2022.
  29. Web site: "Chaos with a capital C": How Monday became the new Saturday at London's acid house haven . . 30 September 2022.
  30. Web site: Trevor Fung · Biography . Resident Advisor.
  31. Web site: Paul Oakenfold: Bunkka . . 30 September 2022 . 1 December 2002.
  32. Web site: Interview: Oakenfold . Clash Music . 30 September 2022 . 5 August 1988.
  33. Web site: Paul Oakenfold . The Vogue . 30 September 2022 . en.
  34. Web site: NOISE: Into The Fold . . 30 September 2022 . 1 September 2005.
  35. Web site: Johnny Walker (House music producer) . . 30 September 2022 . en.
  36. Web site: Baines . Josh . 30 years on, should we still care about the second summer of love? . . 30 September 2022.
  37. Web site: Armstrong . Jeremy . Pioneering UK DJ battling cancer to travel for proton beam therapy due to fans . mirror.co.uk . 30 September 2022 . en . 14 August 2017.
  38. Reynolds, Simon. Generation Ecstasy : Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture. Routledge. 1999. .
  39. Web site: Ibiza 99: Tales From Ibiza . . bbc.co.uk . 30 September 2022.
  40. Dance Music Report. 1989-12-16. Back To Basics. Paoletta. Michael. In addition to repetitive beats and sampling, 1988 also saw the emergence of hip house, acid house, the Garage/Zanzibar styling of deep house, new Jack swing, world beat, Balearic beat, and ground beat. Some of these musical genres came and went before you could utter the word "hype" while others are enjoying success..
  41. News: How a Long-Lost Indian Disco Record Won Over Crate Diggers and Cracked the YouTube Algorithm . 15 June 2023 . . 22 January 2020.
  42. Web site: Sequoia Records Artists: Award Winning New Age Music, World Music, Meditation Music, Drum Music and Chill Out Electronica.. www.sequoiarecords.com.
  43. http://www.sequoiarecords.com/artists.php#groove Sequoia Groove Ibiza-influenced chillout compilations
  44. Lynskey . Dorian . Have Ibiza's Glory Days as a Dance Music Mecca Come to an End? . Billboard . 30 September 2022 . 26 July 2016.

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