Lists
7 tracks that turned Love International into pure bliss on the Croatian coast
The festival enjoyed a fantastic second year
7 Leonidas & Hobbes 'Web Of Intrigue'
Jim Stanton, Horse Meat Disco at Barbarellas, Tuesday
Nick The Record, boat party, Wednesday
Though named after the unique multi-genre soundtrack developed in Ibiza by pioneers like Alfredo and Jose Padilla, you'd be hard pushed to now come across many new releases classed as 'Balearic' in the clubs of the White Isle today. Not so at Love International. Though thankfully not so comatose as to be considered 'chill out', there's a certain calmness to sessions which groove along at just the right tempo, either in warm up or in response to the surroundings or falling sun.
A highlight of such moments, aired several times, is this brand new release by Leonidas & Hobbes on Hobbes's own label. Jim Stanton primed the audience with it at Barbarellas before unleashing the aforementioned Gerd Janson & Shan bomb 'Surrender' and on the final day of the festival we hear it again, this time played by longstanding vinyl nut Nick The Record. Nick's reputation as a selector has seen him visit excited Japanese audiences every year for well over a decade, but it's in more recent memory that he's finally becoming acknowledged as a skillful selector and programmer on the European club circuit and festival scene. Not before time. His boat party selections are each expertly timed and wholly accessible, but never obvious. It's a faultless way in which to end a festival of which the same could be said.
Marc Rowlands is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Mixmag
