Listening Club - 14th April 2013

Greets and groetjes to you all.

Well it looks like spring has finally sprung here - the windows are open, the birds are chirping, the radio is on, and the only thing missing is the sounds and aromas of sputtering bacon in the breakfast pan. Bacon, bacon, bacon, so hard to find in the Netherlands. Ham? No problem - 150 varieties in the average supermarket from processed pink to priciest parma. Bacon though? Nee. Nee, nee, nee, nee and a weird look for even suggesting it. Why would you want to cook your own ham slices, they cry? We have already saved you the bother! Seriously, this is weird, like waking up one morning and finding out suddenly no-one knows what underpants are. Some kind of demented sociological experiment? Who knows, but after this is typed out I'm off into town on a mission. Next week: Sausages. ("But sir, why would you want to cook your own sausages?" etc...)

Anyways, back to the matter at hand, last week @monkeytypes sent us back to a dank, patchouli and armpit-scented section of the 1990s with his pick of Senser's "Stacked Up". Many thanks to him for the pick and for flipping the frisbee over to... er, me. So, um, over to me:

"Ooh, look, mum, I'm in italics! Now, I always seem to get picked for LC when there's some sort of restriction at work. Last time, if you recall, I was off on my travels and patched myself in via some friendly wifi from the parking lot next to XOXO in Portland. This time, though the wifi and location are fine, I've had only my laptop, one lil' external drive of tunes and a teeny portable speaker for the last couple of months (situation being resolved next weekend, I'm delighted to say), so my listening has been rather limited and tinny...

So, not being able to dig back, I've decided to keep to the here and now - I auditioned quite a few possible new releases, but most of them left me wanting, then this landed in the playlist and a warm fuzzy glow emerged from my tiny speakers. 

I bought the first ever single from this artist after seeing the (rather ace) video on MTV's "120 Minutes". It was a great tune, but had "one hit wonder" carved through it like so many similar acts of the era cluttering up the 99p new release bins I frequented. 

However, rarely for an act in this day and age, they've kept plugging away (this is the 10th studio album) and (imho) have just got better and better, finessing an instantly-identifiable sound and vibe, and growing quite a mighty, if subtle, fanbase (e.g. A couple of years ago I was in a car with four other random friends and a compilation by this artist came on the stereo - everyone astonished each other by singing along to pretty much every track... "Oh, you know this too, huh?").

So this is the new one. Sounds familiar, but lyrically, surprisingly upbeat, and for me, while adapting to a baconless life in a new country, "new, yet familiar and surprisingly upbeat" is a damn good thing to find.

So here it is. Hope you like."

Dropbox download is here, Mixcloud stream is here.

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Hope to see you tonight at 8pm BST/EST (GMT+1)!