While the global pandemic may have put a damper on our adventures in clubbing, music still has the power to transport us to places unknown. For now, the greatest club on earth may exist in our imagination – Discoteca Imaginaria. Each episode takes listeners to the scenes, clubs, regions and technology that have shaped our sonic history.

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It’s the summer of 1987 and a group of DJs from London visit the Spanish Island of Ibiza, then a remote vacation getaway for mostly hippies and queers. Long before becoming the internationally acclaimed dance music destination of today, the island had only just opened its first afterhours club, Amnesia. Thanks in no small part to its newly appointed resident DJ Alfredo, Amnesia showed this group of friends a completely new kind of dancefloor culture. DJ Alfredo’s eclectic mix of songs, played to a mixed crowd dancing in an open-air space, inspired Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway, Paul Oakenfold and Johnny Walker to bring back to London what would become known as Balearic. Rather than a specific genre, Balearic is an understanding that any record can be made to work on a dancefloor if it provides the right feeling.

Further Reading:

• What is Balearic? by Bill Brewster (DJHistory, 2022)
• The Birth of Balearic by James Anderson (i-D Magazine, 2014)
• Guide to Balearic Beat: A Brief History (Masterclass, 2021)