I`ve been listening to a lot of old records lately. Prompted by two things really. The first was a visit to a bar in Kohinata called Café Round. The owner is a genuine music nut – trying to update and keep the old jazz café (or Kissa) tradition alive. Classic LP covers adorn the walls and a quality blue note soundtrack accompanied my red curry, but when I mentioned the Café Del Mar, he rushed to show me a load of obscure Innovative Communications releases. Round is tiny and so packed between tower blocks you`d be lucky to see the sky, let alone a sunset. Nonetheless, the broken but friendly conversation – there was a lot of smiling and bowing going on both sides – ended with me offering to put together a series of compilations together for the bar. I`m gonna call them“Tokyo-To Kissa†(To=city, Kissa=café). As a consequence, I`ve spent the last two months digging through the Café Del Mar archives, with the much needed assistance of the right honorable Moonboots (results can be found at www.jellycast.com, search “one40fivestoreâ€).
Next up I was asked by my friends at www.keyboardmasher.com to put together a “Balearic Top 7†– as part of their celebration of twenty years of Ibizian-influenced dance culture. Balearic? There seems to be a lot of nostalgia knocking about at the moment. I`ve got a feeling there`s going to be a big twenty years on revival. Reckon there`s a book and documentary on the way. The revival will no doubt last five minutes but this could well be my chance to establish a niche.
I`ve obsessively collected the tunes from Alfredo`s box for around eighteen years now. I often wonder why. At first I thought it was something to do with trying to hold on to memories. For me tunes are like photographs – they all bring back stories. Stories or secrets. A large record collection doesn’t cause offence them same way an album of old lovers does. I also reckon it`s got something thing to do with credibility. As if by owning all the original records it would prove that I was there. I know that`s sad but I can`t help it. Often I`ve collected two copies – in case one gets damaged and those memories get lost. Maybe I`ve got some kind of OCD.
No one in Tokyo is going to have those records. Listening to them all again it`s easy to understand why. I mean I think it is true that Alfredo was mixing up the records he did – indie rock with pop with emerging house – largely because these were the only records he could get his hands on. If he could have played a House-only set he probably would have. Like the DJs in a dodgy Corfu 180-30s disco, he would have to keep chucking “Rock The Casbah†on simply because he`d run out of records. Often these records are only redeemed by memory. Memories that recently have only made me miss both my friends and my youth – 6000 miles away and a good fifteen years ago, respectively. <
And while I can honestly say that I love this music – and would die defending it – there is also something worrying about hanging on to the 80s. There should be no rose tinted spectacles. The 80s in the UK were dire. Personally, the Balearic scene provided an escape – and for me – a sense of community – family even – that the government were doing their best to destroy. It gave me a feeling that I belonged, that I couldn’t find anywhere else. We were all experiencing something for the first time. Together. There was a feeling that we could change things. Together. Then the coke came in and it became just another night out. The world changed. The way the optimism caved in and disappeared left me with a feeling of disappointment that still remains. Something a diet of Marmite and bananas can`t cure.
It could well be that I`m tired – and maybe my circumstances (different country, different language, different (no) job) don’t help – but I can`t keep looking backwards – life after all is “just a fever†and not to be wasted continually reflecting. I might be “pop-tatted†out – for now. I gonna take a break from old music for a while – “Got no time for memories†– “Keep on moving†– Do some selling on ebay instead.
That said, if I ever make a record I`d like it to be as good as this one.