WONK001
Down to the Sea and Back Vol 1

"Perfectly captures that elusive barefoot dancing in the sand vibe" 9/10 DJ

"The moment it starts, you know you're in the hands of experts" 9/10 Til'late

CD TRACKLISTING

1. San Sebastian Strings - The Gypsy Camp
2. Fern Kinney - Baby Let Me Kiss You
3. Bilgeri - Video Life
4. Nacht Und Nebel - Beats Of Love
5. Phill & Friends Band - This Man
6. Sweet - Funk It Up (David's Song) (Special Disco version)
7. Bell X1 - Flame (Chicken Lips version)
8. Osmonds - I,I,I,
9. Al Usher - Lullaby For Robert
10. The Hollies - Draggin' My Heels
11. The Willow Band - Willowman
12. Tritons -(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Limited 180g Double Vinyl omits tracks 7 & 9 and has Danny Mekanik edit of track 2.

The first thing you need to know is there's Balearic and there's Balearic. The first one everyone with a Geography GCSE will know, of course. The second is harder to define. It's perhaps more of a state of mind among a certain type of man (you know the sort: mainly bearded, often with a paunch that says, "I know where the bar is").

Kelvin Andrews and Balearic Mike are two such men.

They've both got history, see. Kelvin Andrews has been a DJ for the cognoscenti and a maker of many remarkable records over the years and Balearic Mike has been around just as long, lately as resident expert behind the counter at Manchester's Vinyl Exchange. As collectors and conoisseurs they are pretty much unrivalled.

Between then, they are purveyors of what semiologists like to call 'Balearic music', which, 25 years ago in the record boxes of DJ Alfredo in Ibiza's Amnesia club meant everything from Simply Red and Sade to Liaisons Dangeureuses and Farley Jackmaster Funk. These days it could mean a sneaky Jamiroquai B-side or, more worryingly, a European 12-inch adorned with a bleached-blond man dressed as a Space Pirate. Or, in fact, the twelve tracks you'll find nestling snugly together here like dwarves at a Playboy orgy.

If it means anything, the Balearic state of mind is simply anything, anything at all, that sounds good on a dancefloor or, as dance music writer Frank Tope once put it, "pop music that sounds good on pills". In the hands of Mike and Kelv that means The Osmonds' I, I, I, which thanks to its Maurice Gibb production, was begging for a frisky massage and/or rediscovery. This Man by the inscrutably-named Phil & His Friend's Band remained a conundrum wrapped inside a mystery on several Daniele Baldelli mixes for a good while before the disco Enigma Code was cracked (and its price soared even more preposterously than ever). It's so good, it's worth the money - so long as you can sneak the credit card statement past your missus' gaze.

Down To The Sea is firstly about great music not necessarily rare vinyl and Al Usher's Lullaby For Robert and Chicken Lips' mix of Flame by Bell XI are both recent examples of this. Modern disco? Balearic? Who cares, they're both brilliant nuggets of dancefloor gold. Also included is the Willow Band's Willowman, about which little is known beyond Shirley & Company's Jesus Alvarez's involvement and a vague rumour of Joe Bataan's presence. What we do know for certain is it's an utterly fantastic piece of Latin-soul that lights up dancefloors on Croatian boat parties as well as knees-ups in Stoke-on-Trent.

So let Mike and Kelv take you on a journey, whether it be via the contours of the rocky outcrops of the White Isle or lost on a scarcely navigable barge somewhere on the Manchester Ship Canal. It's a voyage of discovery. A voyage, if you will, of metaphysical beards. But it's also a voyage filled with love, good times and, moreover, great music. A voyage down to the sea... (Bill Brewster, March 2010)

WONK001PROMO

Special Ltd Edition 2x Mix CD to promote the release of the full version of the "Down To The Sea And Back" Balearic compilation album. This double mix album contains tracks from the compilation album along with other rare and favourite Balearic tracks. Special handmade digipak with bizarre smokeable shrink wrap. Less than 200 available.

Creative Use 007

Creative Use is an EP series that Danny and Kelvin occasionally release featuring their and others re-edits and tweaks of dancefloor gems that they've uncovered. These are strictly limited to 500 copies per EP. This one is a promo for the 'Down to the Sea and Back, Vol.1' compilation and contains three Danny Mekanik re-edits of tracks taken from it, which are only available on this Creative Use release. Edits of San Sebastian Strings' 'The Gypsy Camp', The Osmonds 'I,I,I' and Nacht und Nebel's 'Beats of Love'. Only available as strictly limited 12" vinyl and digital download.