Balearic Beats (The Album Vol 1)

This is it: the motherlode of the original Balearic beat. Or at least the Balearic beat as it was taken to London in 1987 and 88 by a tight team of music scene friends. This album’s main compiler Trevor Fung had been a DJ on Ibiza since 1982, while his co-conspirators Pete Tong (or “Razor” Tong as he’s credited) and Paul “Oakey” Oakenfold — both soon to become big-time industry movers and shakers — were more recent converts to the scene. Sleeve notes, meanwhile, are written by Terry Farley, then known as part of the Boys Own fanzine but himself soon to be a house music superstar. The music is a mix of wired indie (The Woodentops, Thrashing Doves), punky industrial electro grooves (Nitzer Ebb, Fini Tribe, even The Residents keeping up with the times) and breezy Mediterranean-scented pop/dance (Mandy Smith, Electra’s “Jibaro”) — to UK dance insiders familiar to the point of hoary, but actually, listening back with fresh ears, still gigantic fun.