Balearic As A System Of Belief

Mike Wilson's Dublin based 100 Poems has already released two albums this year- Everything's Balearic When You Believe and Everything's Possible When You Balearic. Last week he released a third, Balearic As A System Of Belief. Mike shared one of the tracks with me in an unfinished form a couple of months ago but the work he's done since then and the music he's created for this third album is something else, going beyond the day- glo, downtempo, feelgood, anything goes songs from the first two and heading off in new directions. 

Mike's in love with the creative process- the empty page, the blank track- and the sense that anything is possible, the process of sitting down and starting with nothing but ending with something a little while later. Balearic As A System Of Belief covers the range of human emotion, from love and euphoria to grief and sorrow with Mike's irrepressible love of life shining through on each and every one of the seven tracks. The opener, In This Cosmos Everything Has A Place, takes the words of Sadhguru and a speech about the interconnectedness of nature, insects, worms, people and animals, the planet's survival, the solar system, the smallness of the human race, and the entire cosmos, and sets them against some widescreen acid house, throbbing and whooshing synths, piano, big drums, sirens, timpani, rattling hi hats, and a dozen more elements besides. 

The second song, Elonna, She Brings The Sun is blissed out and wide eyed, with sunshine dappled acoustic guitars, sweeping strings and ecstatic, deeply in love vocals. It's followed by Song For Claire (Your Life Is Your Life), a song dedicated to and named after a recently lost friend, Claire, and borrows Tom Waits reading Charles Bukowski's The Laughing Heart- 'Your life is your life/ Don't let it be clubbed into dank submission/ Be on the watch/ There are ways out/ There is light somewhere'. Strings and guitars, synths and horns, whispers and tears, and 'a tiny piece of acid house has gone to heaven...'

The use of sampled voices continues with the next two songs. On Come, Hear Me Now, rumbling rhythms and the hiss of hi- hat bring a different feel to the album, some darkness and moodiness thunder in- until a flute breaks in and suddenly we're off again, up in the blue skies, a guitar line singing the lead. The voice, when it arrives, is that of Mikey Dread (from Break Down The Walls in 1980), bringing the reggae toasting and Jamaican vibes. Dubmobalearicswithmybreaksman moves us from Jamaica to Los Angeles and Jim Morrison in 1969, discussing blues and folk and American music, with a skittering drum beat, chopped up sounds, and distorted guitar. 'Rock is kind of dying out', says Jim, 'soon, they might be relying heavily on electronics and machines' (an interview and sample that made an appearance coincidentally earlier this year on Jezebell's Weekend Machines EP).

From the heavy sounds of Dubmobalearicswithmybreaksman Mike changes gear again on Peace, Love And Dancing, straight ahead party music, Sly And The Family Stone style, with big analogue bottom end, clipped guitar and 70s funk horns. Balearic As A System Of Belief comes to a close with Until Next Summer, acoustic guitar and the pitter- patter of a drum machine, echo and an angelic vocal, ending with the fading sound of a lone trumpet. 

The pair of albums 100 Poems released earlier this year both had loads of highpoints, with tunes to enjoy and a feelgood vibe. This latest album moves Mike's sound on again, with a wider range of sounds and a different feel, the sonic and emotional net being cast wider and further. 

Balearic As A System Of Belief is at Bandcamp where you can pay what you want- as Mike says, 'give what you can afford, if you can't afford anything, no problem please download and enjoy this album and I wish you better times'. Any monies raised will be donated to Women's Aid and The Suzy Lamplugh Trust