The Syd & Rex Soundtrack

Before there were swim trunks, before there was a brand, before there was even a name — there was a mixtape. A C90 cassette, recorded off the radio in a rented villa somewhere between San Antonio and Santa Eulalia. That tape became the unofficial soundtrack to a summer that never really ended.

Syd & Rex was born from the Balearic Beat — that eclectic, sun-drenched collision of funk, soul, new wave, and house music that defined Ibiza in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It wasn't a genre. It was a feeling. The feeling of driving a rented Seat Ibiza down a dirt track at golden hour, windows down, with something you'd never heard before coming through the speakers. Something that made you think: this is exactly where I'm supposed to be.

That feeling is what we've tried to bottle in our Spotify collection. Not a playlist. A library. 46 mixes, each one designed for a specific moment in the Ibiza experience — from the moment your plane touches down to the quiet drive back to the airport.

The Journey: Arrivals to Departures

We built the collection around a simple idea: the arc of an Ibiza trip. Every trip has a rhythm. You arrive buzzing with energy. You settle into the pace of the island. You find your sunset spot. And eventually, reluctantly, you leave. Each mix series captures a different chapter of that journey.

Arrivals Mix

The energy of touching down. Up-tempo Balearic classics. Club energy. Re-Light My Fire territory.

Beach Mix

Sand between your toes. Midday heat. The kind of music that makes you close your eyes and smile.

Poolside Chill Mix

Villa mornings. Cold drink in hand. Nowhere to be. The soundtrack to doing absolutely nothing, perfectly.

Yacht Mix

Set sail for Formentera. A little Southern California, a little Balearic Yacht Rock. Laid-back and cruising.

Villa Mix

Pre-dinner. Terrace. The golden hour when the day shifts gear and the evening begins to unfold.

Sunset Classics

The sun goes down. Theme from Hill St Blues. State of Independence. The songs that define the magic hour.

Departures Mix

The drive to the airport. Chilled, reflective, bittersweet. Englishman in New York. The Way It Is. Josephine.

Each series runs five volumes deep. That's 35 mixes, each around 60 minutes. Enough music to soundtrack an entire week on the island without hearing the same track twice.

Sunset from La Torre — the kind of moment these mixes were made for

Press Play: Sunset Classics Vol. 1

If you only listen to one mix, make it this one. This is the sound of Cafe del Mar in 1991. The sound of the Sunset Strip at golden hour. The sound of a thousand sunsets distilled into 60 minutes.

▶ Listen on Spotify

La Torre — if you know, you know

The Heritage Tapes

Beyond the branded mixes, we've assembled something we're particularly proud of: a collection of 10 Heritage Tapes, each one a time capsule from a specific club, in a specific year, during the golden era of Ibiza.

These aren't playlists. They're archaeological digs. Each tape reconstructs the sound of a legendary night — the records that were actually played, in the order they might have been played, at the clubs that defined the island's musical identity.

• AMNESIA 1989Tape 01
• AMNESIA 1986Tape 02
• CAFE DEL MAR 1991Sunset Tape 03
• CAFE DEL MAR 1990Sunset Tape 04
• PACHA 1988Tape 05
• PACHA 1989Tape 06
• KU 1988Sunset Tape 07
• IBIZA 1989Acid Transition Tape 08
• IBIZA RETURN 1987Tape 09
• SPACE 1991Terrace Tape 10

If you were there, these tapes will take you back. If you weren't, they'll make you wish you had been. Either way, you'll understand why a swim trunks brand cares this much about music: because the music is the brand. It always has been.

In this digital world there are numerous digital versions of actual live recordings from Ku, Amnesia and others from the legends like DJ Alfredo, Jose Padilla and Pippi. Head to the Balearic "Treasure Trove" that is Test Pressing to listen to those recordings in all their eclectic glory.

Pete Gooding, poolside at Pikes — teapot in hand, not a care in the world

How to Listen

The entire collection lives on our Spotify profile. Follow us there, and you'll get notified whenever we add a new volume or unearth another Heritage Tape.

Our suggestion: start with the Arrivals Mix Vol. 1 the moment your plane touches down. Work your way through the Beach, Poolside, and Villa mixes as the week unfolds. Save the Sunset Classics for that one evening when the sky turns impossible colours over Es Vedra. And when it's time to go, put on the Departures Mix for the drive to the airport.

It won't make leaving any easier. But it will remind you why you'll be back.

The Brothers Grim uniform (and attitude) — Balearic as Fuck. Always.