DJ Bio
Balearic Mike – Biography
Although loved and respected within a fifty mile radius of the record storage depot he calls a home, Balearic Mike is one of the world’s unsung DJ heroes.
His doggedly independent eclecticism, a restless archaeological thirst for lost treasure, and a keen desire to mine new music that suits his broadminded genre-surfing post-modern Balearic brief put him up there with a lonely few – those who are not scared to cross reference, off road and experiment with the crucial narrative that is at the core of any musical journey worth paying attention to.
There is an intuitive intelligence in the choosing of the component parts of his set and an empathetic logic to the way he puts things together. It’s these qualities that make his selections here significant and ensure that this compilation (‘Down to the Sea and Back Vol.1’) is something more than the usual showing off the humble spectator has come to expect of the now tired beast that is the DJ compilation.
Mike is the son a humble Grampian Haggis farmer who came to Manchester with nothing more than the rights to the family tartan and a few unwelcome Scottish pound notes in his Sporran (they are, for the record, legal tender). His flowing locks attracted the interest of local ladies but the life of a mere lover and part time gigolo would never have been enough for Mike. He settled down to work at the local Vinyl Exchange record shop, but it soon became clear to the counter hawks, collectors and local know-it-alls that here was someone with a musical mind of his own. He secured guest spots at several significant local club nights. In a town where the level of skill and knowledge is such that it is hard to make any kind of musical mark, Mike became known for his individuality and fell in with a gang of fully bearded Balearic bucaneers who encouraged him to explore further.
While others have been swayed by fashion and the desire to be popular, Mike has stuck to his principles. Elegant, playful, future-facing and open minded mixes have been made freely available online. It’s these that have started to secure Mike the international reputation he so rightly deserves. His bank balance, telephone bill, email archive and air miles show that he leaves no stone unturned in his pursuit of new music. He shows no signs of becoming cynical or jaded as most DJ’s inevitably do.
There’s a wonderful innocence to the way in which he talks about and absorbs music. Mike has come along long way from that Haggis farm, but this is surely just the start of what will be a long and significant journey.
John McReady, April 2010
Kelvin Andrews – Biography
The tale of most music fans generally goes something like this: discover the rich, intoxicating properties of music as a fresh-faced, energetic teen; maybe form a band or do a little DJing; keep the passion burning through your 20s, even into your 30s if you’re lucky; and then, stasis. Life takes over, priorities are shifted…
This is nothing to be ashamed about. It’s a familiar scenario. But to the dedicated few, once music has seduced you, cast its warm, loving grip around your willing body, that’s it. A pact has been struck. You’re in it for life. Kelvin Andrews is one such lifer. It’s there in his glittering array of musical pursuits to date: producer, remixer, songwriter and musician. But nowhere is it better exemplified than in the activity that characterises Kelvin best – DJing.
“I’m definitely a DJ first and foremost,” he admits with refreshing candour over an afternoon pint (or three) in a pub around the corner from his studio (which he shares with his brother Danny) in Stafford. “I get twitchy if I’m not playing on a Saturday night. I have to go dancing or something.”
Because Kelvin Andrews will never see 40 again, some people might say these words should be coming from the lips of someone half his age. These people are wrong. Kelvin knows that DJing, that pure art (and be under no illusion, DJing, proper DJing – that astonishing feeling of conducting an entire crowd, matching their emotions, taking them to places they’d only dreamed of – is an art form) of playing music is a transcendental thing.
That it also happens to be a bloody great laugh into the bargain, can take you all over the world, can precipitate friendships that last a lifetime, introduce you to beautiful women and give you a bob or two, is but a bonus. Kelvin Andrews’ modus operandi is still guided by a love and respect for the music.
But then he’s been fortunate to live through a number of magical musical moments. That fertile post-punk period of the late 70s and early 80s was manna from heaven for the inquisitive and open-minded Kelvin. Electro, hip hop and early house all fed into his first DJ sets at an underground club called, appropriately enough, The Basement.
Like so many of his generation, acid house changed everything. Not only did it change the musical landscape, blowing the likes of rare groove out of the water, it crystallised a new energy and a new spirit among DJs. Beat mixing, in the manner practised by the legendary Ron Hardy at Chicago’s infamous Music Box – and whose tapes Kelvin would devour, came to the fore. This, utilised with the idea of playing music from across the board (which would find its ultimate expression in the post Ibiza Balearic network that sprang up across the UK), meant that a collectivist zeal lay at the heart of Kelvin’s approach to DJing. It’s an aesthetic that remains to this day.
“That’s where my spirit is,” he explains, “and it’s totally informed by what Ron Hardy was doing. The idea that you can play for four or five hours, and play Brian Eno and Phuture next to Matthew Dear next to disco and funk. That’s what appeals to me. It’s what I do best.”
Today, most DJs are described with a prefix. ‘Oh, he’s a breaks DJ’, or ‘He plays techno’. Kelvin has always just been a DJ. It was this fortitude that made Kelvin’s name at Golden in the early 90s, and then through his residency at the Bomb in Nottingham.
If you’ve been to any forward-thinking club in the UK, hell, even the world, in the last 20 years it’s likely that Kelvin will have spun there. In the UK alone, his guest slots at clubs and nights as magnetic and powerful as Heavenly Social, Back 2 Basics, Slam, Fabric, The End, Electric Chair and Venus are testament to such a fact.
And today, the energy and enthusiasm is still there. He may have 25-30 years of records to draw on, but there’s still new music to explore, discover and be bowled over by. Listen to the man wax lyrical about the Italian DJ Daniele Baldelli for instance – he borders on the evangelical.
“This guy is mind-blowing. He created the cosmic scene (which has been given a new lease of life by the likes of Prins Thomas, Hans Peter Lindstrom and Todd Terje today), which remains really inventive.”
This sound – with its nods to disco, funk, slo-mo rock – is where Kelvin’s head is at right now. Its roots might be retro, but with modern production techniques and linking things up with old forgotten tunes and the latest releases from Lindstrom, Thomas and co, it sounds remarkably fresh. Some jokingly call it music for beardies. In truth, it’s music made by lifers for fellow lifers, regardless of age or facial hair. It’s just another facet of the Balearic story.
“Everything links up,” he decides. “That’s what experience brings you. You see how Italo Disco and Belgian New Beat connect. Things come back. That’s why I admire DJs such as Harvey, Andy Weatherall and François Kevorkian – they have that maverick approach.”
And the ambitions aren’t receding either. He wants to keep on playing, build his own space where he can put on parties, get an amazing soundsystem, get a new residency.
“Everything comes from DJing,” he admits. “Everything.”
It’s all about being a lifer.
Jim Butler, February 2010
