Wally Badarou

Colors Of Silence

Genre: MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT, ELECTRONIC

LP (Black Vinyl)

Boomkat Product Review:

A sought-after 2001 Yyga soundtrack by musical polymath Wally Badarou makes its first vinyl appearance.

‘Colors of Silence’ was first commissioned to score a yoga instruction DVD cooked up by Nathalie Delon, a pal of Island Records founder Chris Blackwell. Time constraints meant that Wally Baradou dialled in a suit of “quality demos”, and, thanks to little promotion, the subsequent release largely bypassed wider attention, slipping into the annals of Balearic obscurity.

The album has since been hailed by Balearic face-on-the-scene Moonboots as one of his most sought-after numbers, cherished for its broad spectrum covering airport reggae bob (‘Where Were We’), Larry Heard-alike sultry downbeats (‘Amber Whisper’), soukous shimmies (‘The Lights of Kinshasa’), solo keyboard wist (‘Pictures of You’) and a general floral waft that perfuses and colours the whole thing.

“There can be few artists more under-appreciated given their vast influence than Wally Badarou. His solo work practically defined the sound of the Balearic DJs of the 1980s, and thus the more sophisticated sound of dance culture thereafter. A synth specialist, Badarou was the long-time associate of Level 42. He was one of the Compass Point All Stars (with Sly and Robbie, Barry Reynolds, Mikey Chung and Uziah "Sticky" Thompson), the in-house recording team of Compass Point Studios responsible for a series of albums in the 1980s recorded by Grace Jones, Tom Tom Club, Mick Jagger, Black Uhuru, Gwen Guthrie, Jimmy Cliff and Gregory Isaacs. Badarou's keyboard playing could also be heard on albums by Robert Palmer, Marianne Faithfull, Herbie Hancock, M (Pop Muzik), Talking Heads, Manu Dibango and Miriam Makeba. He also produced Fela Kuti. Phew!”

LP (Black Vinyl) (13)