Along The Rusty Ribbon

Sally Rodgers and Steve Jones of A Man Called Adam have put together a mix for Caught By The River, forty minutes of music and found sounds inspired by walking along the Teesside coastline, a place where land, beach, the North Sea and post- industrial Britain rub up against each other. Field recordings of the sea, ambient music, Nordic folk songs, some downtempo dance music and a bit of classic northern indie from New Order in 1983. Sally's words and mix are at Caught By The River and Along The Rusty Ribbon is at Mixcloud too, a really evocative and immersive way to spend three quarters of an hour. 

Sally At The Disco

Last year A Man Called Adam returned from the Balearic wilderness with their excellent Farmarama album. Various songs have been remixed, reworked and dubbed out, by Sally and Steve themselves and by others including Prins Thomas. Covid and lockdown put paid to the original plans for release but now the entire package is out, eighteen remixes and dubs plus a fifty minute mixtape pulling them all together. The full release is at Bandcamp. The Prins Thomas remix is characteristically inventive and sprightly, a snaking guitar line, some analogue synths, Sally's part spoken, part sung vocal and a complex, twisting rhythm. 

The PV Lash Up of the same song, Paul Valery At The Disco, is a giddy floorfiller, a thumping house drumbeat and wonderfully silly keyboard part guaranteed to have you both dancing and smiling. 

Earlier this year Sally recorded a vocal for a new song written by Balearic militants Leo Mas and Fabrice. This Unspoken Love had summer written all over it- now in the darker days of autumn it's still working its magic. The dub version, also available at Bandcamp, a a dark, insistent house chugger pointing its face towards the night skies. 

Questo Amore Segreto

I haven't had the time or the inclination this week to put together an Isolation Mix. The end of the school year brought a lot of jobs to do and working from home has eaten up a lot of time. Instead I offer you a brand new song from some Balearic legends and a long mix from one of them from 2016.

Leo Mas and Fabrice are a pair of Italian DJs and producers who found their way to Ibiza in the 80s and have been quietly making gentle waves ever since, playing records at Amnesia from '85 onward and making Italo/Balearic records when the mood takes them. They have recently hooked up with Sally Rodgers, one half of A Man Called Adam, for a single called This Unspoken Love. The song opens up like a lost Pet Shop Boys classic before heading into cosmic disco territory, analogue synths and a pulsing bass and warm drum pads pushing it into the night sky. Perfect for that start of the summer holiday feeling.



In 2016 Leo Mas assembled an eighty minute mix for Proper Magazine, titled Fine Dust. Ambient, chilled out sounds, waves of synth and long chords, Mediterranean songs, beach tunes, drifting soundscapes, the full shebang- free download too.

Proper · Leo Mas : Fine Dust

Monday's Long Song

Back in the long song for Monday thing after two weeks off, this time with a Balearic groover from 1996 courtesy of the combined talents of Sally Rodgers from a dream team of A Man Called Adam, Faze Action and The Idjut Boys. This starts off with pipes and waves lapping on the shore and then picks up the pace, plenty of percussion, Sally's vocals and little flourishes of Spanish guitar. There are a bewildering number of different mixes and versions of this, all worth investigation. This one is very nice indeed and likely to slow your circulation somewhat in the run up to Christmas.

Dust Of Life (Swoop Edit)