José Padilla has been a constant inspiration for all of us here at DJSD. His ability to use a wide range of styles of music to tell a sonic story that expands hours at a time was a pure gift. The key architect of "Balearic beat", Padilla popularized the upbeat form of electronic dance music through his live DJ sets and the releases of the infamous Café del Mar compilation series. This chill, soulful, yet groovy, and optimistic vibe feels like a breath of fresh air in 2020 when many have a weight of a thousand tons on the shoulders.
Unfortunately, on October 18th, it came the sudden news that José Padilla had passed away at the age of 64 in Ibiza. This saddens us all. It is only days after the arrival of the news, we start to think about how we can pay tribute to Padilla.Back in 2003, Velizar in the mix was the resident DJ at Midway, New York. The spirit at the time called for freestyle expressions, which reflected itself in New York's club culture. After a long night of techno and house, Velizar would often entertain the inner cycle with an early morning sunrise set. It was an intimate, personal, and meandering after party, and very much in the spirit of the Balearic Beat. As put by Mixmag in July 1990, "What the 'Balearic concept' has taught us is that it doesn't matter what genre the track falls into, as long as the beat 'n' groove move the feet and what's on top of 'em is pleasing to the ear." It was a pure expression.
We dug into our archives and found one recording from those early morning sessions, titled Immersion. It feels appropriate to re-introduce it as our way to pay respect to José Padilla, the Godfather of Chillout. His style of music has made the idea of sunset and sunrise such beautiful memories for people. We hope that Immersion will remind all of us of his legacy and what beautifully crafted music story can bring to us.
R.I.P. José Padilla.
The TracklistEugenia Manolidou - Hymn To The Moon
Pressure Drop – Elusive
Rodrieg Ensemble - Bacio
Lustral - Everytime (A Man Called Adam's Mix)
Pink Martini - La soledad
Kayah & Goran Bregovic - Tabakiera
Grace Jones - Strange
Todor Kolev - Golemi I Malki
Erica Jennings - It's A Lovely Day
José Padilla - Bosaxi (Touched Mix)
Zohar - Byzantine
Nina Simone - Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair (Jaffa Remix)
