The Listening Club - 27th January 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope all is good with you all. Same grey wetness as usual here in Amsterdam, occasionally getting frosty and white, but not up to "can't go to work" levels sadly. Happy to get out and break the year's gig duck with a fine show by Neil & Liam Finn on Friday. With wife on bass and other son on drums, definitely a family affair, and a very warm vibe, as you'd expect...

Last week here in #LC land, @SimonLandmine was in the chair, sending us back to the mid-90s with his pick of The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy's "Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury", which went down a treat with both those who knew it and those who didn't. Many thanks to Simon for the pick, and for sailing the frisb over to @JimMcCauley, who's right here with tonight's intro...

"2003 was a bit of a lost weekend year for me, consisting of a lot of weekends when a group of us would descend on a friend's house in Wales for all-night sessions of loud electronic music, mad projected visuals and substances. So many substances. By the end of the year I was pretty broken, but we had some amazing times along the way, and after a very long interlude it's been a lot of fun recently to get the band back together every now and then, albeit in a slightly more sedate middle-aged way.

Tonight's pick is something that would generally come on in the early hours, at the point where we might get our second wind or just start the gentle drift towards the dawn ritual of beer, spliffs and Chill Out. It's a heady mix of styles that could send you either way, and it'll always remind me of the friend who'd put it on, never missing the opportunity to regale us with the story of how he was present when the band came up with its name.

#drinkingclub: the tin of Stella you left on the side an hour or three ago that hopefully no-one's used as an ashtray in the meantime.

Enjoy!"

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the HearMayBeSpoilers stream is below:


See you at 8pm GMT.

The Listening Club - 20th January 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope you're doing fine. Still cold and grey chez Amsters, and looks like my wish last week for some snow is going to be fulfilled very soon, and again and again for the next two weeks. I should keep my trap shut really... *goes off to dig his wellies out of the shed*

Last week in the land of L & C, @EmmaPrice was in the chair, with a slice of veteran techno action courtesy of Orbital's "Monsters Exist", which beeped for some and booped for others, as was its wont. Many thanks to Emma for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across London to @SimonLandmine, who's right here with tonight's introduction...

"Having been served the tasty frisbaguette by @emmaprice last week, I had the usual dithering over which album to pick this time. There were a couple of folk-ish options on the shortlist, but I decided to pick something from another genre this time, and maybe return to folk in the future, if again thrown the frisbinsertpunhere.

This is an album I originally acquired because one of the tracks (a mildly rewritten cover) turned into a bit of a club hit (for certain values of club, and certain values of hit), so when I saw the full
album in my local independent music store, I picked it up. Some of the references date it, but for the fact that quite a few of the subjects remain unfortunately relevant today. I don't know how many people will have encountered it before - it could be that it was only popular in the clubs I went to, or it might be that, four bars in, or less, everyone will exclaim "Oh, it's this!" and look over their shoulder to where their own copy sits.

#drinkingclub: No idea, to be honest - recommendations after listening?"

Direct download is here, and the HearBeSpoilers stream is below:


See you at 8pm GMT tonight!

The Listening Club - 13th January 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope you're doing fine. Not much to report from grey, soggy Amsterdam as we dig deep into the post-festive grims, not even a sprinkling of snow to liven things up. Ah well, plenty of time to plan ahead to sunnier times as usual...

Last week chez #LC, @SamQuitter was in the chair, on a legendary tip with his pick of Marianne Faithfull's "Before The Poison" from 2005, containing major contributions from P.J. Harvey, Nick Cave (avec Les Bad Seeds, natch) and Damon Albarn amongst others. Many thanks to Sam for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across to @EmmaPrice, who has this to say...

"Greetings from London, I hope you're all having a splendid 2019 so far. First pick in a while from me and as ever I experienced the joys of pre pick tension when deliberating what to select for you this evening.

2018 was a pretty toxic year politically and it's definitely bleeding into music and art in lots of fantastic ways which are reflected in this album. Maybe in 2020 we'll be listening to tales of foraging for mars bars in the giant car park of Kent using vegan sausage rolls as missiles. At this point I'm ruling nothing out.

I'm not entirely sure what I feel about this album yet. It's definitely more instantly accessible to me than their previous album which i'd waited a long time for. It has grown on me in the past couple of months and I definitely need to spend more time with it. I hope you enjoy.

I'm off to stock up on survivalist rations (books, cider and extra cynicism)

#drinkingclub is whatever you can get your hands on."

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the HearMayBeSpoilers stream is below:


See you at 8pm GMT tonight!

The Listening Club - 6th January 2019

Greetings and a very Happy New Year to you all.

Hope you all had a more-than-decent festivity, and yes, here's hoping that there's at least a little bit more sense seen around the world in the next twelve months... slim chance, I admit, but one thing last year has shown is that you never know... On home turf it's very much back to normal in Amsterdam, as the streets pile up with discarded xmas trees and flat-screen TV boxes and the January grey takes hold once more. But still, at least spring is on the horizon, so round we go again...

This time last week, we were deep in the midst of the 2018 #festivevortex, which proved to be another cracker - many thanks to all who chipped in a couple of tracks, it's always great to hear what's been floasting your boats. So now we return to regularly scheduled deprogramming, and here's @SamQuitter, who, having made us the single exception to his twitter exit, has this to say by way of introduction to his selection for tonight...

"My pick this week comes into a special sub-category which I'm pretty fond of, which is that of an older, perhaps somewhat neglected artist collaborating with modern artists and/or producers to produce something special and unique. In the eighties I enjoyed the singles that the Smiths and Pet Shop Boys made with Sandie Shaw and Dusty Springfield, then the great album that Pet Shop Boys made with Liza Minnelli. The best of the sub-genre for me is maybe the Johnny Cash 'American Recordings' albums made with Rick Rubin et al. 

This one is a collaboration from the early 2000's between a great distinctive voice and some equally great modern (well, modern to me anyway) artists. As usual it took me about 10 years after release for me to discover it. I have no idea whether this is something everyone else is already very familiar with or not. Its quite easy to spot the collaborators on each track, which adds to the enjoyment for me. As usual, I hope you like it, or failing that, have some fun disliking it."

Right then. Direct download is here, and the HearMayBeSpoilers stream is below:


See you at 8pm GMT tonight!