Balearica Island has the kinda beat that goes RATATA (NSC 227)

[Morty]

Re: Balearica Island is all about (the) Hype (NSC 191)

After great results with hardstyle, the last results were less entertaining. Low scores for both Surga and Jay Filler's remix of Here Comes The Hotstepper. I've had several great results in spinoffs lately tho, so I'm not complaining, and Surga remains one of the best moments I've ever had as a raver. I guess you had to be there.

Let's go back to the 90's. And this time it's actually not the remixed 90's. The plan was originally to send this next entry in NSC 178, but first Break My Stride went viral on TikTok, and then I decided to send Amaranthe first, and then 2020 happened, so this has gotten postponed for many reasons. But NOW is finally the time for this to shine for !

Hype was a Norwegian eurodance act in the late 90s, and they had a hit with "Hands Up", which made it to eurodance compilations in other parts of Europe as well, but Hype was a one hit wonder. Our next entry should have been far more famous imo, I think it's great, but for some reason, it only made it to one compilation, and that one was only released in Norway. It did get a single release tho, but it never reached the popularity of Hands Up, which I think is a shame, because in my opinion, this one is better.

The entry for NSC 191 is Hype - You Don't Know What I Want:

I don't know what I want either, but a good result would be nice. Keeping my expectations low tho, as always. Corona and 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor got very different results, but maybe I can hope for something in the middle? We shall see. Also, just like Surga, this entry is also 4 minutes shorter than the previous entry.

On a side note, Hype singer Linda Johansen is best known for some very different work, and I was surprised when I found out she was the singer of Hype. All I'll say about that is that the NSC 87 entry is a hint, and the artwork on the album "Provocative" sort of gives it away too. She's enjoying success in the skin care business now tho, so it's a woman with many talents that will represent in NSC 191.

 

[theditz83]

Not you making an early play for my Morty

 

[Fearnavigatr]

Hey Morty, any chance all those lovely Facebook posts you've made about your past entries could be collected in one easy-to-find-and-read document somewhere?

 

[Morty]

Hey Morty, any chance all those lovely Facebook posts you've made about your past entries could be collected in one easy-to-find-and-read document somewhere?

Good question... I'm not sure there's an easy way to do it. I can do a Balearica search on my profile, and I can probably find all the posts that way (in random order), but I can't see an easy way to collect them all. Facebook has kinda killed off the "Notes" section too, so I wouldn't really know where to put it. However, apart from the first couple of entries (that came before the forum switch in 2009), everything is in this thread, and I've always gone more into detail here. The Facebook posts are a lot shorter, and it's mostly just a way for me to share the music I like with people, and add some content to my page, because I don't really post a lot. Awesome to hear that you like them tho.

 

[Fearnavigatr]

Well should you ever be bored enough to compile them on Google Docs or something, know that there's an interested audience.

I can search your profile too (and I have, whenever something popped up on my playlist that made me curious about your retrospective), so no problem as such.

 

[Morty]

Re: Balearica Island overdrives Germany (NSC 192)

Hype got a lot of points, if you combine the regular and reju points, so despite being pretty far from qualifying (but very near if I had reju voted), it was a decent result. Scooter got a surprisingly good result in the recent Congrats with the 2020 anthem "FCK 2020". A new points record for Congrats entries, beating Katy B's result in Congrats 7 with 2 points, but finishing one position lower than Monoir did last Congrats. Very happy with the result.

My next entry is a remix I really wanted to send a few months ago, but I had a plan, and decided to stick with it. I had postponed Hype long enough. I've been a fan of Rammstein for about two decades. I've been a fan of trance even longer. So when a (at the time) brand new remix by Mexican Ellez Ria of Rammstein's "Deutschland" suddenly popped up in a trance livestream, it was a perfect match, even tho most Rammstein fans might feel like this is messing with holy ground or something. Metal fans and covers or remixes of metal songs usually don't get along very well, altho Rammstein is pretty industrial, so it might be ok. But for me, this is a perfect mix, and it's very well put together. It should also be noted tho, Rammstein's very own Richard Z. Kruspe has also made a remix of Deutschland, and they actually played that one during the 2019 tour instead of the regular version. And if there had been a studio version of that remix on YouTube, instead of just live footage from concerts, I would have sent that one instead in 2019. But that didn't happen, so it'll be Ellez Ria's Overdrive Mix instead.

Also, this is actually relevant. Last summer, Rammstein was supposed to play in Trondheim for the first time ever. For obvious reasons, that didn't happen, and the tour was postponed to this summer instead. For obvious reasons, that's not gonna happen either. But it gets worse. The 2020 venue Granåsen is being rebuilt to prepare for the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in 2025, but they found an alternative for this year, a horse racing track at Leangen. But that area will be transformed into apartments, and I think the construction will start soon. And with no other alternatives available, this all means that there are no available venues in Trondheim for a band of Rammstein's size in 2022. It's a disgrace tbh, and it means I once again have to travel to Oslo to see them. It'll be my 4th time seeing Rammstein, all of them in Oslo, and I was really looking forward to finally seeing them in Trondheim. Especially Granåsen, I saw Metallica there in 2019, and it was amazing. But, at least I know the show will be awesome, and unlike the Rammstein show at Ullevaal in 2019, where I was stuck kinda far back in the crowd, I've got myself a Feuerzone ticket for the show at Bjerke next year. It's gonna be hot!

But, there's more. Eurovision is coming up, and there are actually several songs I like a lot this year, so I wanted to take part in this year's NSC ESC. I didn't pick Deutschland for this tho (was never an option tbh), instead I got my first choice, Finland's Blind Channel - Dark Side. Blind Channel is a band that has (as so many others) been on my list of potential NSC artists for a while already, because they have some pretty good songs. Dark Side is a song I really like because it reminds me of one of my favorite bands, Hollywood Undead. They've made a lot of songs with dark lyrics, and even tho I strongly dislike gangsta rap and hiphop, I think the combination of rap and rock/metal is awesome. When done with the right type(s) of music, rapping can be pretty f*cking awesome. Blind Channel is still a bit different tho, and it will be interesting to see how they do in Rotterdam, but first, let's see how things go in Natia.

 

[Morty]

Re: Balearica Island is their own assassin (NSC 193)

The result the Ellez Ria remix of Rammstein got was a big disappointment. I guess the combination of Rammstein and trance wasn't a big hit around here. Not shocked by that tho, but still disappointing to finish that low. Oh well.

Staying in Germany, this next entry has also been on my list for a while, altho with no specific plans of sending it. Until now. Au/Ra is no stranger to the NSC, she has represented Roseland and Sundfør already. York (or the Stenzel brothers) has however not been involved in NSC before from what I can tell, altho I know Torsten especially has been involved in a LOT of projects over the years, so it's hard to be completely sure. Will look more into that later. This bootleg remix of Au/Ra's "Assassin" also seems to be Torsten's work, and it's a bit of a family project. Au/Ra is Torsten's daughter. And since I've never heard about a parent making a remix of their kid's song before (at least on a professional level, even tho this is a bootleg), I figured it was a cool enough story to include it in NSC history. So the NSC 193 entry is Au/Ra - Assassin (York Bootleg).

Spinoff news:
Better result for Blind Channel in the NSC ESC than I had in the main contest with the Rammstein remix. I was torn between Dark Side and Shum (and I had a few others on my shortlist too), and looking at the results, I made the wrong choice. Shum finished 2nd, Dark Side finished 19th. Hope Blind Channel can do better than that in Rotterdam, first goal will be qualifying for the final.

For the NSC World Tour, I was considering a song named after the Brazilian Santa Catarina state, but I know very well how psytrance is received here, so I quickly decided to try something else instead (don't worry tho, I will send more psytrance again). I'm a big fan of NASCAR, so when Roger Shah (aka Sunlounger) released a track named after Daytona with his new 80s synthtrance alias Jukebox 80s, I was sold, and this is the perfect opportunity to send this song. Daytona International Speedway lies in Daytona Beach, on the east coast of Florida, between Orlando and Jacksonville, and is where the NASCAR season kicks off every year. The Daytona 500 is THE race in NASCAR, and it would be awesome to go there once. We'll see if that ever happens tho, the US still has some serious issues going on, and is pretty far down on my list of countries I want to visit, but who knows what the future holds.

The video has nothing to do with Daytona for some reason, other than featuring cars (which is what Daytona is all about for me). The drifting BMW is Bulgarian, and the rest is filmed around Balearica Island.

 

[Morty]

Re: Balearica Island goes to work (NSC 194)

I was a bit late for the semi results show, and missed the first part of the results, where Assassin apparently qualified. Then it turned out those results were fake, and in the real results, it was another DNQ. Good thing I missed the first part tbh, otherwise I would have been really pissed, instead of just a bit annoyed. Heads will roll regardless. 14th is still not a horrible result, it's actually my best result since Eminem and Dido in NSC 185. So with that in mind, I can't be too frustrated, despite failing to qualify yet again.

Also, going a bit deeper, I found out Torsten Stenzel was actually a co-producer of the 43 entry, Ayla Part II, and a co-writer of the Shamitri 23 entry, EliZe - Automatic. He was also deeply involved on the Tarja Turunen album "My Winter Storm", where Magna Grecia 13 was included. Guess he wasn't a complete stranger to the NSC after all then, but it's been a long time since his work was last featured in this contest.

And speaking of work, that leads us to our next entry. While listening to the NSC 192 entries, I kept seeing Trampsta videos on the right side of the screen (YouTube recommendations), and eventually got curious. Expected hiphop for some reason, but what I found was not hiphop. What I found was Brazilian made psy, and I loved it. YouTube knows me well. And tbh, what Google and Facebook doesn't know about me isn't really worth knowing. Anyway, I'm going with a song that has a slightly different sound, compared to the other songs Trampsta has made. There are still some psy vibes in it, but this seem a bit more club friendly, and is getting heavy rotation at the clubs around Balearica Island. The song is "Work", a remix/cover of Masters At Work's 20 year old hit "Work", where he kept Denise Belfon's lyrics, and together with a selection of afro dance videos, I think it's working very well.

I'm convinced this will be another DNQ tho, and I can only hope to avoid the bottom 5.

In the NSC World Tour, Roger Shah aka Jukebox 80s finished 14th. Hoped to finish top half at least, and thanks to the rather surprising 12 points from Hypjø, it wasn't actually that far off. So a decent result.

After taking part in 8 consecutive spinoffs, I didn't take part in the NSC ESC Karaoke Special. I can't sing, and I didn't want to be the cause of a widespread hearing loss among the NSC community.

 

[Morty]

Re: Balearica Island is the real me (NSC 195 - 150th entry) (+ KBK history)

Ok, this is going to be a long post, but I hope you're all up for it.

Previous result:
The hope was that Work would avoid the bottom 5 in the semi, and after an initial 3 way tie for 21st, Work eventually ended 22nd, just above the bottom 5. So mission complete. When adding the reju points, it wasn't an awful result at all, even if it would have been nice to be a little closer to qualifying. But I still think it's an awesome track.

Next entry:
And speaking of awesome tracks, that leads me to the next entry. A while ago, I was searching around for mashups, in case a Mashup spinoff would be voted thru (which didn't happen), and I suddenly remembered an old video remixer called DJ Veryrelentless, and found an old remix I hadn't heard in ages. I was a bit of an Ayumi Hamasaki fan in my college days, I thought her videos were awesome, and when I found out there were remix albums of her songs out there as well (Ayu Trance 1, 2, 3 and 4), it was a near perfect match. I sent Above & Beyond's remix of "M" (Noizeland 13) to AATW Japan many years ago, and it got a decent result. I have also been a big fan of the German duo Megara and DJ Lee (Nils Karsten and Michael-Lee Bock) for 2 decades. They've had an awesome hard trance sound, and they made loads of great remixes in the 00's. They've been less active on the remixing lately tho, but I recently discovered that after 20 years, they're still making music. And they still sound pretty awesome. But for this edition of NSC, the entry for NSC 195 - and also our 150th entry to the main contest - is Ayumi Hamasaki - Real Me (Megara vs DJ Lee Remix):

Will this be another DNQ? Probably. And at this point, I'm kinda going for the DNQ streak record anyway. Stay tuned after NSC 195 btw, I want to celebrate reaching 150 entries, and I want YOU to be a part of it.

Previous spinoff:
In other news, there's been a spinoff, the colorful Rainbow Rumble. I went thru my history, and I've had a few songs over the years that could have been in this spinoff. Blue Fear (NSC 47), Golden Axe (NSC 72), Le Bateau Blanc (NSC 79), Magenta (NSC 89), Aguas Blancas (NSC 128), Move Move Move (The Red Tribe) (NSC 129), Hot Pink (NSC 132), and The Orange Theme (Melodic Picture Spinoff, and I believe the title is a reference to the fruit, and not the color, after doing some research on "A Clockwork Orange", so I sent it to the right spinoff).

There are many songs I could have sent to this spinoff. I could have taken the opportunity to steal a former NSC entry, just like I did with Darude - Sandstorm in AATW Finland, like Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee) (Saint Joe & Southgulfia 10), or maybe Lost Witness - 7 Colours (Arjastan 37), but I went with the one that made me suggest the spinoff, Primacy Funk feat. Torkild K. Gundersen - Mørkeblå (K.B.K.). Prepare for local football history.

Local football:
KBK (Kristiansund BK) is the top football club from Kristiansund. Those who were around in NSC 145 might know that I've been a Vålerenga fan for a long time. One of the reasons I ended up supporting a team that's not in any way local to me, is that Nordmøre (the region @Kimrt 's home town Kristiansund and my home town Aure - seen in my NSC 176 entry - belong to) didn't have any top teams. Clausenengen FK (CFK, and also Ole Gunnar Solskjær's home club) reached the national second level in 1972-74, and then in single seasons in 1989 and 1999, while Kristiansund FK (KFK) did the same in 1980-82 and 1990-91. There's been ups and downs, but as you can tell, Kristiansund never managed to get a stable top team. And because of that, I ended up finding the Oslo club Vålerenga for various reasons. The main reason being a cover of Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping" made for the 1997 cup final. But if I had been a kid today, I most likely wouldn't have found Vålerenga, because I wouldn't have been looking.

KBK history:
And the reason for that starts in 2003. The rivals KFK and CFK put their heads together, and Kristiansund BK (KBK) was born, as an attempt to get the local forces to work in the same direction, instead of against eachother. KFK played at 4th level, and finished in the bottom half, CFK played at 3rd level, but finished dead last, and was relegated to 4th level. So KBK made their debut at 4th level in 2004. They got promoted to 3rd level after winning the league in 2005. They then won that league in 2012, after getting better results every single season, and was promoted to 2nd level. When CFK did the same in 1998, 14 year old me thought it was cool, but the results in 1999 were poor, the media interest in that league was pretty low, and CFK was last in the league the entire season, losing 21 of the 26 matches. KBK at second level in 2013 was a different story, and this is when I started paying serious attention to them. The media interest in the second level has improved over the years, so it's easier now to follow a team there than it was in the 90s and early 00s. KBK was actually fighting for promotion to the top league on the first try, but poor results at the end of the season ruined that. But they once again got better and better results every year, lost in the promotion playoffs the next 2 seasons, and in 2016, they finally got promoted to the top level. And oh my god, what a feeling that was! My ride with Vålerenga has been bumpy, and I've seen Vålerenga get both relegated to second level and promoted back to top level, but the promotion with KBK was on a whole different level. A club from the small windy region I come from had finally reached the top! And they've done very well there as well, still getting better results almost every season, and a few weeks ago, they were top of the league for the first time ever. Still early in the season, but I don't care, KBK was at the top. Can they qualify to play in Europe soon? We'll see, but at this point, I can't rule anything out, and they were actually pretty close last season. It's been an incredible journey so far.

So, I obviously needed KBK included in my history, but I haven't really clicked with any of the KBK supporter songs. Until 2019, when local EDM producer Primacy Funk made a great KBK song, with Torkild K. Gundersen on the vocals. Dark blue is the color of KBK, and the song is named after the KBK color, making it a perfect entry for the Rainbow Rumble spinoff.

And it got a better result than I expected. 8th meant top half, and there was quite a few high pointers too.

Next spinoff:
As for the current spinoff, Copycats, I'm staying out of it. I think it's hard enough to make my own votes, pretending to be someone else would be impossible, and probably end up being insulting to whoever I attempted to copy as well. Will have to wait and see what I'll do with the next spinoff after that, I think it might happen during my summer holiday trip to the southern parts of Norway, and I think NSC 196 will be more than enough to keep up with, but I'll see how the schedule works out.

Did you make it all the way to the end? Well done if you did!

And again, I'll be back with the 150 entries celebration after NSC 195.

 

[Kimrt]

Thank you for the mention. I am so sorry for not giving you more points. It kinda grew ;;

 

[Morty]

Thank you for the mention. I am so sorry for not giving you more points. It kinda grew ;;

No worries, I felt bad only giving you 1 point in the World Tour as well, so it evens out. Happy to hear that it's growing tho.

 

[theditz83]

Omg that ayumi remix takes me back

 

[Morty]

Re: Balearica Island celebrates 150 NSC entries (celebration style poll included)

I definitely underestimated the power of Ayumi, and the DNQ streak record lives on. The Megara vs DJ Lee remix of Real Me not only managed to qualify to the final, but it also got a top half finish in the final. Best result in a long time, so thank you again to everyone who voted for it, both in the semi and in the final.

Ok then, since I feel reaching 150 entries requires some sort of celebration, I wanna do just that. Even if the timing has turned out to be not so great, as I'm currently on holiday. Not counting my 9 PQ'd entries, only 31 of the remaining 141 entries managed to qualify to a final, and I want to shine some extra spotlight on these. I could shine some extra light on those that finished in the semi bottom 5 instead, but there's just too many of them, and their results tell me they probably won't be that interesting to listen to again for most people. So I'll do the other end of the scale instead. For those interested in the entire musical history of , there's the Balearica Island YouTube playlist that also includes the spinoff entries. Now, the question is, how should I do this celebration? There are 3 different ways I can do this, and they are:

1. Following Natiaclub, a BeatSense LL. I'll play thru the 31 songs in a ranked order, maybe throw in a few other entries, and we have a chat about anything.
2. Following the Adamsburg 100 entries celebration, an ESC vote (or in this case BIC - Balearica Island Celebration vote) to pick the best of the best.
3. Nothing fancy, I just post them all in this thread, 5 or 10 songs at a time.

I've set up a poll for those who are interested in joining me in this celebration. If there's very little interest in the other two, I'll do option 3. Not entirely sure when to do the celebration tho, but we'll figure something out. The original idea was to do this now, between NSC 195 and 196, but I've been away from home for a couple of weeks now, and I'll rather wait until I get back home.

The entry for NSC 196 will be kept secret until the start of the semi. I wanna be mysterious for a change.

 

[dogmeat]

Beatsense party! Although Im on holiday too :\

 

[Morty]

Beatsense party! Although Im on holiday too :\

Don't worry, I'll try to find a time that works for as many as possible, if people want that option. It definitely won't be this week. Maybe near the end of next week?

 

[Ana Raquel]

Team beatsense as well, I just can't guarantee joining depending on the day most likely will though!

 

[Morty]

Just a couple more days until the end of the vote. I'm thinking that whatever happens, it'll be next weekend, as I'm going to be a bit busy this coming week. For those who can't join the BeatSense when/if it happens, the songs will also be posted here afterwards.

 

[Steffan]

@Morty I so hope you win! This mix is amazing! I love that Billie song and to mix it with something as legendary as Oxia - Domino is just

 

[Morty]

Re: Balearica Island has been mashed up by Martians (NSC 196)

When I announced "Real Me", I mentioned searching around for mashups. But sometimes, it's not me finding the mashups, but the mashups finding me, and there was one that popped up recently (because I follow DJs From Mars on Facebook) that I couldn't really postpone any longer, in case someone wanted to send one of the originals (Billie Eilish probably being more likely to be sent than Oxia, but you never know around here ). If the covers and remixes rule hadn't been reverted, I'd probably have saved this for a mashup spinoff, but who knows when/if that would happen. So now's the time, and the mashup in question is one of the MANY masterpieces made by DJs From Mars. These guys aliens have mashup skills that are out of this world.

One of the tracks in the mashup is a track I've considered sending before. Minimal techno isn't something I listen to a lot, and I have actually left clubs that play it, because I find it pretty hard to dance to. I can listen to it at home, and have given pretty high points to minimal techno and deep house in NSC, but when I go clubbing, it's not what I want to listen to. But no rule without exceptions, and there are a few tracks that I think are pretty awesome. Oxia's "Domino" from 2006 is one of them, probably because it's a bit more melodic than most minimal tracks, and as pointed out by @Steffan, it's legendary. And in this mashup, DJs From Mars have used the melody from Domino that I really like, and put it together with Billie Eilish's vocals from "Therefore I Am", and also spicing up the whole package a bit with their own style. The NSC 196 entry for is the DJs From Mars Techno Bootleg "Billie Eilish vs Oxia - Therefore I Am Domino"

No idea what to expect with this entry, it would of course be amazing to qualify to two finals in a row, but for starters, I'm hoping for a top 20 result in the semi. That would be an above average result for me. Also, DJs From Mars have nothing to do with my NSC 78 artist, Your Favorite Martian. They're just from the same planet.

For spinoffs, I decided to skip another spinoff, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I didn't really have time, mostly because I've had plans for my entire 4 weeks summer holiday, including this week. Second, I was worried I'd be stuck with a year in the 60s or 70s, and that would have been difficult. Wasn't that worried about country, I can appreciate a challenge into an unknown world of music, but that was until I saw someone had suggested the Vatican City. Will hopefully be back for the next spinoff tho.

As for the 150 entries celebration, it's great to see that there's interest in the BeatSense option. Guess I'll need to figure out how hosting rooms there works. But we also need to find a time that works for as many as possible. Will give priority to the 4 of you who voted for it in the poll, but it will be open for everyone to attend.

So, @Fearnavigatr @dogmeat @Veronika @Ana Raquel - when works for you? Friday evening is the absolute earliest I can do... If all goes smooth, it'll take around 2,5 hours. There's one here in a pretty different timezone, and one who's currently hosting an epic edition of the NSC, can we find something that works out?

 

[dogmeat]

Anytime early September would work best for me.