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Get a History Lesson in Balearic with Leo Mas' Absolutely Essential Guest Mix

The scene's godfather brings the good in support of his brand new compilation on Music for Dreams.

In recent months we've blessed you with great mixes from acts associated with Kenneth Bager's brilliantly blissful Balearic label Music for Dreams. Kenneth himself rolled through with this gem, and he was followed by Manchester main man Moonboots, who turned in a predictably eclectic set. This time around we've decided to go back to the scene's roots by hooking up with a pioneering DJ who, along with his old sparring partner and mate Alfredo, pretty much invented the whole thing. That man is Leo Mas.

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Mas was a resident at Amnesia, the original Ibizan superclub, during the 80s. As any fule kno, 1987 saw Danny Rampling and the lads bombard the island, then head back to London to kickstart the whole Balearic revolution. As likely to play something by Cerrone as he was Sade, Mas' lengthy warm-up sets at the legendary club passed into, well, legend, and he cemented his placed as a DJ's DJ.

Later this month Leo Mas Presents Mediterraneo drops on Bager's label. Comprised of 12 of Mas' favourite Mediterranean records, largely plucked from his home country of Italy, it's an absolutely essential purchase for the Balearic fan in your life. As a treat for you all, we asked Mas to put together a little mix for us. We also had a chat with him. Listen and read below.

THUMP: Now, Leo, you're obviously a total Balearic icon and legend. How does it feel to be described as such?
Haha, I can't say I'm not honored to be described this way. It makes me think that what I seeded gave fruits. I was witness and protagonist of the birth a musical movement and a way of life that still influences DJs and people, and at the time you can't predict that that will happen. And I think that I was lucky to live that Ibiza experience, from the summer of 1985 through to 1990, experiencing unforgettable moments that changed my life. Saying that I am the same as I ever was: an anarchic hippy punk rebel.

You've been there since the very beginning so if anyone can do this it's you: if my mum wants to know what Baelaric is, what do I tell her? And what one record do I play?
Me, Alfredo and the other Ibiza's DJs read the "Balearic beat" term on the sleeve of the compilation Balearic Beat - The Album Vol. 1 compiled by Paul Oakenfold and Trevor Fung that came out in September of 1988 on the London label FFRR. On the back of the cover Terry Farley from the Boy's Own fanzine explained to us the meaning of Balearic beat, speaking about the tracks on the compilation and the attitudes and the look of the people that went to Amnesia club in Ibiza, providing a mix of bliss and love ("loads of hugs and kisses"), and how all this influenced and radically changed some English DJs like Paul Oakenfold, Nancy Noise, Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway, Trevor Fung. They went on to start nights in London like Shoom, Future, and Trip, in an attempt to recreate the sound, the mood, and the way of life they'd experienced at Amnesia in the summers of 1987 (the start of the revolution) and 1988 (which was the second summer of love).

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We can say that London DJs and English journalists gave a name to the stuff played by Alfredo and me at Amnesia. We played every single night of the summer for eight hours. I started at midnight in total freedom: ambient, soundtracks, Spanish guitars, soul, funk, cool jazz, electro, dub reggae, afrobeat, hip-hop, dark wave, indie rock, synth pop. All this stuff for a couple of hours (on the Test Pressing website it's possible listen to my warm-up mixes from '85 to '88, every year in three different parts), and when the club was full I started make the people dance, first with downtempo stuff and then going up until 116/118 bpm range, taking in different genres, playing records not only from US and UK but from all Europe, Italy, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland. Then around 4am Alfredo took over and played until the end, with a mix of Chicago and Detroit, hip-house, indie, electronic, synth-pop, funk, stuff around 118/130 bpm, with the last 40 minutes going down around 100/110 bpm.

So you could say to your mum that Balearic is everything that Alfredo Fiorito, and Leo Mas and some other Ibizan DJs played in the second half of the 80s. It was a state of mine, as well as a style of music. If you wanted to present her with a list of classic records, you could go with the following: "Jibaro" by Elkin & Nelson, William Pitt's "City Lights", "Josephine" by Chris Rea, The Residents' "Kaw-Liga", "Black Out" by Enzo Avitabile, "Driving Away From Home" by It's Immaterial, "Ain't Nobody" by Chaka Khan, "Jesus on the Payroll" by the Thrashing Doves. I think the most representative track would be "Jibaro". I remember in the summer of 1987 Paul Oakenfold coming up to the consoll and asking what that record was, and he asked several times until the title was clear, then he went on to make a cover with his project Electra.

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Photos via Test Pressing

And what's the most overplayed balearic jam that even my mum'll be all "NOT THIS ONE AGAIN!" about?
I was never bored listening to what we played in Ibiza in those years, I can say that I never liked and I never played the more poppy/commercial stuff, but it wasn't Amnesia stuff. Amnesia, was the most underground club on the island, but we played also pop music. But it had to have quality.

What's more important: dreams or reality?
Dreams: they make reality a better thing to live.

How did the Music for Dreams hook up come about?
Kenneth's been an Ibiza regular since the early Eighties, he knows Ibiza in all its forms, and all the clubs, Pacha, Ku, Amnesia, Glory's. When I played at Amnesia he was very reserved, I entered in the DJ booth at midnight and came out in the morning and my friends where the people I found there in front of me. We met for the first time in London at the party for the 25th anniversary of Shoom, in December 2012. Danny Rampling invited Alfredo and me to play that night. After releases on Aficionado and Is It Balearic? he invited me to play in Copenaghen, where we started our collaboration with his beautiful label Music For Dreams.

When he asked me to do this compilation of Italian music, it was a pleasure and I had great fun searching for obscure tracks, especially coming across obscure tracks that I listened to when I was a teenager, like Aktuala's Dejanira and Ivano Fossati & Oscar Prudente's "Gil (Voglia di Terra)", something else from the end of the Seventies, Gianni Bella's "Dolce Luna," which is a sophisticated disco suite, Chrisma's "U (I Dig You)," a cover of Odyssey's "Who" produced by Niko Papathanassiou, Vangelis' brother, or a record came out only on 7 inch, La Bellini' "Satan In Love,". Then I choose some early Eighties productions like Loredana Bertè's "Number One," from her American album, funnily called Made In Italy. I also wanted to pay homage to my favourite pornstar, Moana Pozzi, so I included her song "L'ultima Notte", a quality track from this classy and clever woman who sadly died too young, in mysterious circumstances. It ends with a anthem of freedom for the whole world, "Bella Ciao". In this instance it's in the guise of an afrobeat version by the NYC collective Underground System.

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Kenneth is like a brother to me, and I really think his label is one of the best Balearic imprints going. As well as this compilation, we've got a lot of projects in the works!

Where's the best place in the world to listen to this amazing mix you've done for us?
Well, if you're in Ibiza I would say at Cala Conte or straight to Es Vedrà or Hostal La Torre at sunset, tracks like the ones by Ivano Fossati & Oscar Prudente, Aktuala or Giorgio Li Calzi ft. Marconi Union would be magical and poetic there. If you're in Milan or Copenhagen or London at the same sunset hour but in a bar or pub in a happy hour, I would recommend listening to Chrisma or Loredana Bertè or La Bellini, but even Gianni Bella, Moana Pozzi or Underground System, is a good way to enjoy your favourite drink with your friends or your girlfriend and be ready for a great night. And I think this mix would even be right in the car driving alone in the city traffic or in a highway going from one city to another. We can say there isn't a best place, everyone can listen to this mix or the full Mediterraneo compilation everywhere!

Leo Mas Presents Mediterraneo is out on vinyl and digital on March 25th via Music for Dreams.

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