The Listening Club - 12th April 2026

Hey there listening chums! It's @JimMcCauley here, keeping @kleptones' seat warm while he's away in, I think, Paris, where I once very briefly met Lou Reed. Here in Bath it's very much staying-in weather, but I was out last night seeing two of my previous LC picks in one go: Jane Weaver and, in her band, Serafina Steer on harp. A fun evening but the audience was a little thin, perhaps because Tori Amos was playing in the same building and I'd imagine there's quite a fan crossover there.

Anyway, to business. Last week I was otherwise engaged and missed @soundclamp's pick of 'Swollen' by Hetch Hetchy, an album with more R.E.M. connections than you can shake a shiny happy stick at. It certainly seemed to go down well with the assembled, so thanks to Dan for the pick and for a well-flung frisbaton in the direction of @vinomadic, who is waiting eagerly to address you all:

"Double bubble, toil and trouble??

Have a lot on my plate, but it seems so does every other Mother's son and daughter and arbitrarily, socially gendered, non-binary child...!

Made a quick decision to snatch the Frizz-Bat(R)on in mid-air as I 'browsingly' stumbled across an impulsive choice that might help us shake that funky thing a bit off our burden bags...funnily enough-- as the original selection, the artist's first recorded outing at age 19, clocked in at a scant 22 minutes, thought I'd make it a two-fer (just as I did last time at bat!) adding the 4th album-- a rather well-known, notorious outing in this act's varied & generous output...

Fairly recognisable from the git-go, dare say. Been trying to write a bit more since Sunday night, but all that stuff on my plate keeps messing with my attention, calling me away... <sigh>

I trust there will be good conversation & digital craic over the internet waves on Sunday, cheers!"

Splendiferous. Grab yourself a download here, or stream below.

Catch you at 8PM BST!

The Listening Club - 5th April 2026

Greetings folks,

Hope you're doing okay. Happy Easter, Bunnies, Eggs, Chocolate, Post-Equinox or Whatever Day to you and yours, if that's your sort of thing, no worries if not. It's still bright and sunny but cool and breezy here in Amsterdam, so the stooping has been restricted to a quick perch with a cup of tea mid-afternoon. Soon come, though.

Second reminder that I'm away next Sunday, and am still looking for someone to fill the #LC shoes for that day, so let me know if you're up for helping out, please!

Last Sunday, as was last-of month, we celebrated in style with a #NameDroppersVortex, paying tribute to those who pay tribute, and thanks to everyone who chipped in a fine range of tunes, a grand selection of bases were covered indeed, and double thanks to @saucer for managing to blend the disparate eras and sounds into a fine end-result. Looking back we find @soundclamp with the frisb, so over to them for today's intro...

"Released in 1990, this band hails from Athens, Georgia and this is their only full-length album. Volunteering the local college radio station exposed me to all sorts of hidden nuggets. If I am remembering correctly, people pigeon-holed them as punk country or cowpunk depending on what part of the States you’re from. In reality they drew inspiration from goth, dream pop, and folk music, delivering a heady concoction. There is a fun, as in — I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S NOT BUTTER -- reveal at the end!

Drinking Club recommendation: Some kind of stiff brandy for these times."

Right then. Download's here, stream's below:

See you 20:00 BST (GMT+1) later today.

The Listening Club - 29th March 2026

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Still mostly sunny yet cold as balls here in Amsterdam, there's even been a little sleety snow, which will hopefully not affect the lovely collection of buds gathering around Chez-K. Not much else to report other than to mention that I will be absent in a couple of weeks time, Sunday 12th April to be exact, therefore will be requiring a guest host for the #LC - If you can help out, give me a shout, please! 

Last Sunday it was me, @kleptones in the chair, rattling everyone's collected cages with The All-Seeing I's "Pickled Eggs & Sherbet", which seemed to put many of the assembled in a good mood, which was the intention! All that remained was for me to flip the frisb across the Atlantic to @soundclamp, who has an extra week to ponder because...

...yes, end-of-month means #vortex, and this time a #NameDroppersVortex was agreed, this being folks paying tribute to other folks in song (including themselves, such ego!) @Saucer has gathered up the collected donations and lovingly stitched them together into a fine tapestry, which you can dowload here, or stream below...

See you 20:00 BST (GMT+1) - Yes, the clocks have finally moved forward in this neck of the woods.

The Listening Club - 22nd March 2026

Greetings folks,

Hope you're doing okay. A quiet week here in Amsterdam, still nice and sunny, but sadly not bringing the temperatures to match, so stooping season will have to wait a little longer, as the tulips keep pushing themselves out of the earth, we watch the buds appear on the lilac and wisteria, and sip on the last of the seasonal winter bock beers (always buy too many, but they're so very tasty).

Note that it's nearly the end of the month, so we're looking for a #vortex theme for next Sunday, so bring your ideas and shout 'em out later on... thanks in advance!

Last Sunday saw @ThatNewSound in the chair, sending everyone an emotional curveball in the shape of Apparat's new album "A Hum Of Maybe", which seemed to go down well with most of the assembled. Thanks extended for the pick, and for sailing the frisb over to me, @kleptones, so it's time for me to go into character... 

*quickly dives behind curtain*

 ... 

*curtain rises*

"What a time we're living in, O my brothers and sisters, what a time, when not a day goes by without another slice of your personal freedom being surgically removed or another wholly unneccesary war starting, truly one cannot be blamed for turning on the wireless and choosing to indulge in some carefree, light-hearted pop music to soothe the spirits and remind yourselves of those simpler days of yesteryear.

Pop music, eh? Not something I often pick for Listening Club, some might say, but, in my defence, it's all pop music to me, mate. But hey now, here comes some actual English pop music, featuring some actual English pop stars (here and there) and a couple of Top 20 hits (in the UK, natch). Despite that, this album never made it past No.45 for a week in the (UK) charts and has now been tagged by some as a "cult classic", although the actual size of that cult, I'm not quite sure. It certainly did pass me by at the time, and even though I purchased several of those aforementioned singles (at least one of which you may well recognise), I didn't think a whole album by this artiste would be worth a punt, so I gave it a wide berth. Fortunately, for some reason this album got itself re-issued last year and fell into my world-famous "In-Tray" and well, reader, I must now consider myself seriously corrected... and like I said at the start, right now we need the occasional decent distraction from all the shite, and, imho, this is as good as you'll get, I reckon. From me, anyway. So I hope you agree!

Drinking club: Pint of Best for me and a Strawberry Daiquiri for the lady."

Right then, download's here, stream's below:

See you 20:00 GMT later on. (Our clocks change next Sunday, btw) 

The Listening Club - 15th March 2026

Greetings,

Hope you're doing good on this fine Ides of March. Singular or plural, I do not know, *searches* um, singular apparently, even though it's plural in nature it refers to a single day, which is today, so there you go. Been a sunny week here in Amsterdam, although still chilly, but spots of window-opening and general "getting ready for the warmer days" activity has been spotted around the neighbourhood, which is grand. The area's birds and cats are also appearing from their hibernatory / migratory zones, which is sure to lead to the expected high jinks in the coming months for sure.

In the land of #LC, last Sunday saw @ogili in the chair, sending people on a fine trip with their pick of Lausse The Cat's "The Mocking Stars", which got the assembled grooving and pondering in those equal measures that we love so much. Thanks to Oli for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across to @ThatNewSound who's here with today's intro...

"This is the first time I've picked something that I'm almost certain at least a few of you will have heard, or at least be tangentially aware of. I picked it because the title track found its way into my lap and immediately resonated with me. If you don't recognise this sound it may be because you're more familiar with this artists earlier work, which is quite different, or maybe you know their side project, which is also kinda different. Either way, whilst this is a fairly melancholy album I hope you feel the first hints of impending summer that I felt during my first listen.

Apparently this album is the result of a writing challenge coming off the back of several years of writers block and in reviews it has been described as echoing Colour of Spring era Talk Talk, which is high praise indeed. I hear it, though, and I think the production is wonderful and eclectic and I would feel immense pride to have made something like this.

Drinking club should go for a Mezcal old fashioned with a dash of kümmel"

Right then, download's here and the stream's below:

Hope to see you at 20:00 GMT - Clocks changed last week in some areas, so check your local timezones to be sure of tuning in at the right time!

The Listening Club - 8th March 2025

Howdy folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Bright and dry here in Amsterdam, still a bit shivery, but the buds are growing fast on the lilac outside, which is a good first indication that spring is on its way, bang on schedule for a change. We're feeling replenished on that front anyways, having spent a few days in slightly warmer Roman climes, enjoying some ancient history (can't really avoid it) and tasty local produce (ditto), which was very much apprciated indeed.

Speaking of changing seasons, Daylight Saving has come into effect for some folks today, so if that's you, watch out when setting your tune-in alarms for the next couple of weeks, mkay?

Last Sunday we had @JimMcCauley in the chair, delivering a quality obscurity in the shape of Dr Calculus' "Designer Beatnik" from 1986, which certainly got the assembled grooving and scratching their heads simultaneously, which is quite an achievement. Thanks to Jim for the pick, and for sailing the frisb over to @ogili, who's here with today's intro...

"Not going to lie, I only discovered this artist, and album a couple of days ago.  

Which is good, because I really wanted to pick something from what’s known as ‘UK Underground’. A  left field, experimental, British take on Urban music starting to strut its way into the global overground, again proving that it takes everything being a bit shit for British youth to make great music.  I've been amused by the thick scouse drawl and scally swagger over minimal, brutalist, synthscapes of EsDeeKid starting to take off in America, a country which collectively can’t cope with a British accent which isn’t bone-china posh or gor-blimey cock-er-ney.  Warmed to Dexter In the Newsagent’s recent ‘girl in her bedroom with a guitar’ style alt-R&B mixtape which deals with the death of her father and the anxiety of youth rather than the genre’s normal champagne sheen. Heard great things about ‘Black British Music’ by Jim Legxacy.  But Esdeekid’s album is only 20 minutes long, Dexter In The Newsagent’s mixtape isn’t available to buy digitally yet, and ‘Black British Music’ is still on my ‘must get round to listen to this’ list. 

Having said that, I’m not sure this is technically ‘‘UK Underground’ but it’s definitely British, laid back and experimental, jazz hop. 

So get some respite from the shitstorm engulfing the world with this theatrical concept album released late last year. A story about coming to terms with being lost which weaves though lush jazzy soundscapes by the self-styled Prince of Cats, Lord of The Bins. His first release after a hiatus of 7 years after a very well received concept e.p/mini-album.

You want drinks suggestions?  A saucer of warm milk infused with catnip and/or indica, Redstripe, or even a small glass of something from a bottle labeled ‘drink me’, would pair well."

Right then, download's here, stream's below:

See you 20:00 GMT, regardless of what timezone you find yourself in today.

The Listening Club - 1st March 2026

Greetings folks, hope you're doing okay - pinch and a punch of deja vu and all that. 

28-day months are weird. Glad there's only one of them. We need that bit of off-centre in our calendar, imho, just to keep us alert. Anyway, it's been another soggy week in Amsterdam, what a surprise, but the temperature is going up, so there's that, meaning hype cat's mood is improving by the day as he gets more quality mousing in, and we've got a last minute skip out of the country planned for a few days that will hopefully remain dry and warm, so can't really complain too much, really. 

Also not complaining about last week's mighty fine #CatsAndDogsVortex, which seemed pretty evenly split between canine/feline subject matter and weather-related topics. So thanks to everyone for chipping in tunes and @akx for the fine mixdown. Back to regular programming, we find @JimMcCauley with the frisb and this to say by way of introduction to tonight's pick....

"I didn't read the NME or Melody Maker or even Sounds as a teenager. When I did bother with the music press it was Smash Hits, during its imperial 1980s phase. The fact that it was on the whole marketed at teenage girls is an irony that's not lost on me but hey, I just loved its whole vibe, although I quickly learned that it wasn't something to be seen reading at boys' rugby-and-cadets grammar school.

So, one of my top social follows these days is Rob Manuel's excellent Random Smash Hits bot, which serves up a random page every hour or so complete with a link to the entire issue on the Internet Archive. And it was thanks to one of these issues that I happened upon tonight's album a couple of weeks ago.

Basically there was an interview with one of those second division pop stars who persisted while never making much impact; like, I knew the name but none of his songs. So I looked him up on Wikipedia and found mention of an album that seemed very much up my street, the selling point to me that it was described as an inspiration for one of my favourite albums of all time.

A collaboration with a trombonist who'd quit a briefly popular band after getting sick of playing their big hit song, this album was made in response to discovering a London nightclub where people were taking drugs and dancing all night to crazy electronic music. The morning after one trip to this club, the two of them decided they were going to do something about it, and this is the result.

It died on its arse. At least two years ahead of its time but sounding very much of its time in terms of instrumentation, it's an anachronistic, experimental pop curio created for a scene that didn't really exist when it was released. Naturally it's right up my street; enjoy!"

Right then. Download's here, stream's below:

See you 20:00 later today.