“See a giant bird on a hotel.” So starts the first track – Pearl & The Oysters’ Treasure Island – which begins the 34-track summer odyssey that is the Meet Bernard June 2022 selection by your musical skipper, Boat Floaters.
Pop the shades on. We are setting sail for sunnier, summery times. To kick off the month, The Queen has kindly decreed a double bank holiday to celebrate something or other, and I’m at the helm, plotting our route to the next great party. (On the first Sunday in June I’ll be at Cross the Tracks in Brockwell Park – with the family (I hope I’m allowed out until Khruangbin’s set!). See you there?)
Anyway – squinting into the sun – back to this selection. Yes, it’s a bit of a twee opening choice, but it’s a builder, this month. We start off slow, washed-out and psychedelic, sun-kissed – or is it pissed? Either way, our cheeks are rouged. The first few tracks paddle around North American, Indonesian and Brazilian coastlines (heart emoji for Marc Mac) … and also feature one of Glasgow’s newly unearthed jazzy treasures, Rebecca Vasmant. If you dig Anthropology, dig deeper.
We wade out further. We Take A Ride To Heaven, courtesy of Gregory Charles Royal, and we dial up the soul, and nod at the funk. Then the flirty Margie Joseph capsizes us into a blissful funky-soul sea. But, luckily, First Choice’s Doctor Love has the remedy. With wind and amour in the sails, we are charting a solid funk course – the 12” version (10:52 minutes) of The Sequence’s Funk You Up should do what it promises.
And then we’re neck deep, our feet can't touch the ground. Into Starlight, the new one from Dave Lee and Omar – sip that glass of cold champagne wine – and on to Saturday Night Special, with that unique Jazzanova shuffle. Full submersion.
There are 21 tracks after this, but I’ll let you uncover the salty gems for yourself. Just mind those giant birds.
Thanks for your support.
Yours in music,
Ollie (Boat Floaters)