Yes it’s true, the fact is the new (or ‘nu’) Balearica sound that has become so popular is not necessarily a reflection on the sound of Ibiza or the other Balearic Islands. The reality is all the great music is coming from Norway and Scandinavia with some other fine examples popping up in London, New York, Paris and Berlin. It’s the Balearic vibe that is being captured, with a whole section of dance music lovers going full circle, uninterested in soulless minimal techno or noisy maximal electro, beautiful melodies and proper songs with slowed down chugging disco grooves are the order of the day. And it does seem to make a lot of sense…

Fred Deakin, famed as one half of the kings of quirky chill, super group ‘Lemon Jelly’ is no stranger to the world of 116bpm horizontal grooves, in fact he’s been playing and enjoying the ‘always there but recently emerging’ Nu Balearica scene for years. As a follow up to last year’s awesome TripTych eclectic mix, Fred has curated a beautiful album for Ministry that is an authentic but more so respectful collection of 2008’s finest cosmic producers blended perfectly together. Fred (who runs the legendary Airside Design Studios), has created the stunning artwork himself with the finished packaging set to be rather special, coming in two card wallets that fold together into a reverse board card slipcase – it is as fine to touch as the music on the album.

This is no small concept album but an essential soundtrack to a very important music scene. All the key names are here, Todd Terje’s wonderful remix of Kaori Inoue shows exactly why he’s held in such high esteem whilst two tracks later one of the best remixes of the last few years is on show by his fellow countryman and good friend Prins Thomas, his take on Hatchback’s ‘White Diamond’ is close to perfection. The UK’s answer to a modern day Fleetwood Mac, A Mountain Of One completely rework Badly Drawn Boy in their trademark style whilst the exceedingly talented Al Usher (production partner of Ewan Pearson in Partial Arts) delivers the goods with ‘Here Today’ and a lovely remix for Dutch Rhythm Combo. Widely overlooked but loved by their fans, Reverso 68 (Pete Herbert & Phil Mison) have to be one of the best production partnerships from the UK and their mix of Wallis Bird and more importantly their own ‘Piece Together’ show why they deserve to be much bigger than they are. Other gem’s on this mix include Aeroplane’s spacey piano dream ‘Carremelus’, the heavy bass line and handclap-lead ‘Magical Creatures’ by The Mythical Beasts and last but not least Blackbelt Anderson’s ‘Syrup’ which is arguably the best track on Nu Balearica, fusing acid futurism with washy pads and bongo beats, this is what it’s all about.