R.I.P. Balearic Disco
2009 marks the death of Balearic Disco from none other than the princes of the genre, Lindstrom & Prins Thomas who release second album “II”, that slices across the beach-based discoball like two bloody streaks from a prog-wizard’s claw. On “II”, L&PT take a sip from the 7up can rumoured to be laced with LSD being passed around at Ash Ra Tempel’s “Seven Up” LP recording session – out goes the Balearic washes and extended reverberating synths, and in comes motorik neo-krautrock basslines, twinkling effects that jaggedly spiral in and out of control, and crashing soundtracks to stylised wars on imaginary worlds. The epic discotronics of Lindstrøm’s collaborations with Solale are still here, but the perfectly regimented and repeating arpeggios are replaced with organic prog-rock that sounds like Aeroplane producing Tangerine Dream in the early years.
Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas – Tirsdagsjam (Lang Versjon)
“Tirsdagsjam” doesn’t appear on the album but is featured on an upcoming 12″. Its an epic and curvaceous sci-fi love song to disco dancing, with freeform mellotrons stuttering over a hi-speed instrumental version of an outtake from Brian Eno’s “Here Come The Warm Jets” LP. At times it gets beautifully tangled up in itself but effortlessly segues into another sonic hallway with a quick key change.
12″ released April 13th, album drops May 18th on Eskimo Recordings. 2OJFG top 10 LP for sure, already added to the draft titled “Best of ‘O9″.
(above image taken from the cover of “On the Shores
of Distant Worlds” by Andrew Tomas)
George Quartz is the auteur of La Maladie Tropicale, a blog of silvery grey matter etched onto a Grecian urn unearthed in the year 3000 from the rubble of a glass citadel under a starlit night sky.
“Butterscotch” is all oozing liquid gold poured across the most beautiful of alien women, its the tri-synthesis of Tuxedomoon’s dapper vagabond malevolence, the oily black sexed soul music of Michael McDonald & James Ingram and Berlin’s plane-crash femme-fatale after her cybernetic implants, all three elements forming into a neon outlined saxophonist who walks into the wind, down a dark NY alleyway in 1981 with Basquiat lurking in the shadows drawing him with grey paint and blood.
say it ain’t so. es lebe der Strand!
Friday, April 3, 2009 1:35 amwilliam
so f***ing excited about the new lindstrom & prins thomas… YES!!!
Friday, April 3, 2009 5:16 ambcr
this lindstrom and prins thomas track is really great. it sounds like a jam. Like Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters with less technique. but the title of this post rather sucks : the trend is over we’ll have to move on to another trend ? is music fashion ? i’m sorry but i’m against that. anyway thanks for all the tracks !!
Saturday, April 4, 2009 8:35 pmbitterman
Nice post sir.
ps: the title is fine.
Sunday, April 5, 2009 6:58 amvoulesrandom
Fashion is like music.
Music is revolving.
Like everything.
Don’t be sad.
Death is a new beginning and this song is fucking brilliant.
Monday, April 6, 2009 4:02 pmFashion
Fashion and Music are so assimilated that its impossible to pull them apart – musical genres are like fashion trends whether we like it or not.
Agree with “Fashion”, its a rebirth, all genres have to evolve to stay relevant. Heres hoping the “II” LP is the first in a long line of Balearic 2.O!
Monday, April 6, 2009 8:32 pmSteve from Dunwich
Fashion & Steve from Dunwich are lost souls,
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 5:17 amseeking new music because its the “Hip Thing”
tisk, tisk
Oh, and the “Butterscotch” track is a real fucking love-making A-bomb to the body and soul… even the lost ones.
Truth
[...] official: (Balearic) disco is dead. 20JFG says so , and posts a new Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas track to prove it. For your benefit (and for the [...]
Friday, April 17, 2009 12:15 amndanger.organism :: blog :: (Balearic) disco is dead; long live the (Columbian) Wu-Tang Clan!
what a strange thing to say… was “Balearic Disco” ever alive? Did it live in a zoo or in the wilds. Does it drink coffee or tea? When is/was the funeral? Or was it cremated with little fanfare and the presence of only a few relatives. If “Progressive Trance” can still breathe from the death throes of life support then “Balearic Disco” has a chance. Quite frankly I think Lindstrom and whatever his name’s music sucks ass and I would much rather listen to Scrod Johnson’s new album. But seriously, if Balearic is even a genre, then it’s a straight gay transvestite milkman on rollerskates with a marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth.
Saturday, May 16, 2009 1:15 amKountry3astern
Butterscotch is so delicious.
Truth is full of presumptions and frankly quite insulting. They were commenting on social patterns that seem worth speculation at least.
Friday, August 7, 2009 6:43 pmLight