Listening Club - 20th May 2012

Hello once again,

Writing this up a day early, as I'm off on the razz tonight, and want to get it promptly to you, unhindered by whatever state I happen to find myself in come Sunday morning. To post today or to rely on my phone tomorrow though, I don't know. I'll think about it whilst I run through the scores on the doors...

So last week @dorianrodgers came amongst you all with the decidedly outré choice of Sudden Sway's "76 Kids Forever". Were the #LC ready for an album-length 80s soap opera dwelling on the changing attitudes and fortunes of a bunch of small-town Englanders? For the most part the answer was "yes", although a rather muted "yes", to be honest. It certainly got the chat flowing though, and fitted the LC bill to a tee, so thanks to Dorian for the pick.

Not only did Dorian make a fine album choice, he also nominated @Jayesofine to go into the hot seat this week, making her the first two-times nominated selector, and forcing her to take time out from planning her upcoming wedding to write this!...

"Picture the scene…

It’s the Nineties, a young woman walks the streets of a small town in East Anglia, streets of boredom, streets of charity shops, dog shit and discarded McDonalds wrappers. 

She’s searching, searching for something new to listen too, something to lose herself in. Escapism is all there is in this town, be it drink, drugs, or losing yourself in the soundscapes available at the local independent record shops. (remember when you had more than one?)

Mix tapes were the currency that kept you free, traded over full ashtrays and half-drunk cups of coffee in friends kitchens, usually kitchens of the disco variety as if there were any other kind. But the mix tapes were predominantly old songs, not that there is anything wrong with the old songs, but she wanted new songs, songs that smelt of a brighter future. 

But then out of nowhere a new CD/Magazine arrived, ‘Volume’  its name, the size of a CD it was packed with new bands, new music, rare songs, remixes and interviews. A chink of light shone into her life, leaving her feeling more confident than ever.

Through this magazine her CD collection grows and thanks to a 6 page interview and 1 track she discovers an album that still gets regularly played today and that is the overly flowery write up of how my selection for tonight’s listening club was discovered.

It’s another WTF is that album. It’s a fairly mellow affair containing aspects of dub, techno, sampling, rock and spoken world but mixed into a hypnotic whole. 

It’s also the first album to Listening Club by a woman and it has something to say.

All I ask from you Listening Club is that at 8pm tonight could you turn the lights out please?"

Download is here (direct dropbox link), or the album can be streamed online here (via Mixcloud)

Start time, as always, is 8pm BST (GMT+1), search #listeningclub and follow @listeningclub to see what's going on. I'm going to post this up now, so I've one less thing to remember! See you Sunday...