The Listening Club - 29th December 2013

Compliments of the season to you all, hope that you're having a satisfactory holiday session. Nothing to complain about here; despite stormy weather attempts to keep me off UK shores, I made it back in time for Xmas (eventually), followed several days later by my luggage (sigh), just in time to add a few kilos, both in luggage and in person before the return journey earlier today. Such, indeed, is the way of things...

Last week, after a little back-and-forth, @ohmyliver sent us the righteousness that was Glen Brown & King Tubby's "Termination Dub" a cracking Blood And Fire selection of classic era dub sounds, which sent the assembled into a sweetly contemplative state, as you'd expect. Thanks to Oli for the pick, and for flipping the frisbee to @cdrose_writer who will pick up the game next week...

For now, behold and observe, the 2nd annual and most excellent #festivevortex. Yep, the daddy vortex to all the other lil' vorticies est arrive! ("Festive Vortex" being the name given round these parts to the period betwixt Xmas Day and NYE, during which, for most, not much is achieved save the consumption of leftover turkey, nibbling on assorted sweet things and the watching of dodgy films).

Anyhoo, we have 28 tunes that, by your own collective good grace, are considered worthy of being referred to as the finest of the year, so, in time honoured tradition, crack open a bottle of something heady, pin back your lugholes and listen to this lot...

Direct download mp3 is here, and the Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the track titles, you have been warned) is here!

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow @listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 22nd December 2013

Ho Ho Ho etc,

Happy solstice, folks. Winter crashlands upon us all and Amsterdam's skies celebrate by opening up for 48hrs of serious rain. Glad I'm not out Xmas shopping, for sure. I'm tucked up inside doing end-of-year file backups, blasting dubious Italian Prog Rock and waiting for the pork loin in the oven to reach a state of ultimate deliciousness. Nothing much overly festive there, but whatever you're up to over the next week or two, here's hoping you have a most jolly and excellent time doing it!

(One thing you will be up to, hem hem hem, will of course be the #festivevortex next Sunday, so if you haven't already, mail me your one or two most favourite tunes of 2013 for the pot, okay?)

Last Sunday, it was me in the chair, which was a fine opportunity to offer up John Wizards eponymous debut album, one of the finest of the year, imho, and glad I was to see it get a positive reception. As I pat myself on the back, I'll hand over to the right honorable @ohmyliver, who now realises that this old "pick an album" lark isn't quite as easy as it seems...

"Yes. I have to say that I found this exceptionally hard. 

I turned down Psychic TV's pseudo compilation 'Jack The Tab' because the one track that makes me cringe (the track with sex noises in it) goes on for almost 6 minutes, and I think it's innovation exceeds it's quality. I turned down Gram Parson's Grievous Angel/GP double header combo, because if you don't like country it takes at least 3 listens to get his voice. I'd turned down Denim's "Back in Denim" because I don't like the Osmonds track, and the ballad sounds too like Primal Scream. I turned down Laurie Anderson's Big Science, because 'O Superman' stops my daughter from crying, and well, that's too useful to be overplayed.  I turned down Chain and The Gang's first album, because as a whole it's patchy, and doesn't match their live performance.  I turned down Hatcha's mighty practice hours early dubstep mix because it's over an hour long and goes a bit Redstripe and council estate skunk at about 3 am headspace. 

And finally settiled on "Heart of the Congos" by The Congos because that's quite simply the finest 'putting the baby to bed album' I've got.  I just hope the religiousness of it washes over her though. And then double checked on the list of albums, and of course, it's been done. 

So I chose an album (sort of) that I've been listening to a fair amount recently, and that I like. One discovered during a sleep deprived nappy change, but that helps."

There you go... Direct download is here, and the Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the track titles, you have been warned)  is here!

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow @listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 15th December 2013

Happy Sunday to you all,

Hope all is calm and bright where you are, all is peaceful here in the 'Dam, save for the gentle whirring of hard drives, as recovery software chews its way through a 2TB drive that recently quit on me. Looking like I'll get 90%+ of the stuff back, which is gratifying. However, I'll be spending the next day rooting for its performance soccer-mom style until everything is safely copied off. First world problems, yeh?

#festivevortex reminder time - we need your two favourite tunes of 2013, for our traditional knees-up hoe-down on Sunday 29th December, so get 'em in as soon as you can. I'll be flying back to Amsterdam on the Sunday after a few days in the UK over xmas, so the earlier you can get your picks in, the happier I will be!

Last week @matthewesdigs was in the hot seat for the first time, and treated us all to The Dirty Projectors "Bitte Orca", a fine platter and a very positive reception indeed. Thanks to Matt for the pick, and for sending the frisbee on a slightly roundabout route back to my good self. So, here I am...

"It's quite an odd time of year to pick a Listening Club album, as the music media starts to fill itself up with year end Top 10s, 50s, 100s and inevitably I discover a whole mountain of recent music that has until now passed me by and is now winking salubriously at me from my monitors. As usual, I'll most likely not be done with 2013's music until well into 2014, at which point the whole delicious cycle will begin again. 

Because jeez, it's been a good year for music. Some years feel extra special, and this is one of them. Whether comebacks from established artists, continued excellence or fine debuts, this year has delivered in spades, for me anyway.

So here's one of those fine debuts that will probably be featuring in quite a few of the aforementioned end-of-year lists. Because of that it's difficult to say any more without giving the game away, but it's no surprise this album got pounced on by the media this year. A great back-story and an opportunity to throw some lesser-heard styles into the public eye is a combination that no self-respecting muso journo can resist. And with good reason. If a debut album is a declaration of intent, I can't wait to see how these guys develop over the next few years, especially after seeing them play here in Amsterdam a while ago and sound considerably different to what's on the album. A great situation to be in!

Anyway, enough attempt at mystique? Good. Break out the cocktails and let's have it!"

Direct download is here, and the Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the track titles, you have been warned)  is here!

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow @listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 8th December 2013

Yo yo,

Hope all is fine, and my my, that new winter sweater really suits you. Yes it does. I'm feeling astonishingly ahead of the pack, tapping this out on a Friday, but as I'll be spending most of the weekend away in the wilds of the Dutch mountains, getting ahead of the game is the name of the game. Ahem.

Last week, woo, how could you forget, was the #breakupvortex and what a heart-twisting experience that was. Some seriously excellent choices, and much restorative alcohol consumed along the way to ease the pain. Thanks again to all who chipped in a track, if you missed it, scroll down and give it a play, it's well worth it.

Weekly reminder too for the #festivevortex too, get your end-of-year choices made soon folks...

Yonder back in time, you might recall, the right honourable @matthewesdigs was left clutching the frisbee for his debut selection, and here he is with the intro...

"I was introduced to this band when reading an article about Bjork in which she mentioned them as her favourite band. As a person who collects random pieces of ancient and dangerous lighting equipment I was always going to be curious. 

I had absolutely no idea who this band were or what they sounded like and at first I was foxed by lead singers vocal style. His voice certainly is expressive, and he has range alright - but vocally it's not instantly accessible music.  But you get used to the voice, and you even start to like it, and then you pick up on the lyrics - which are brilliant - and you start to sing along (badly), and why not when you have a song which includes the word arbitrary about ten times, lets face it the word 'arbitrary' isn't used nearly enough in the modern pop vernacular.  

I would try to pigeonhole this band as NY art rockers; but there is much more to them than that - yes the songs are lively and there is a sense or urgency and there is rock, but there is a folky side to this album and there are classical and choral elements, and even a nod to the dreaded world music (sorry Holette). So its more than art rock really.

I hope you enjoy this record, and if you do its one of nine albums so there is plenty more where this comes from."

Reety-ho. Direct download is here, and the Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the track titles, you have been warned)  is here!

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow @listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 1st December 2013

Greetings,

Hope everything is tickety-boo for you all. Slight change of pace here for me this weekend, as it's been IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam), so I've been popcorn-munching, beer-guzzling (hooray for alcoholic cinemas!) and watching some rather excellent factual films. One that I can heartily recommend and should appeal to all #LC-ers, especially at this time of year is "Jingle Bell Rocks!" (trailer here) which digs into the world of the Christmas music junkie! If you get a chance to see, go for it - a real seasonal feel-good treat.

Back on planet #LC, Lo! last Sunday @pamac66 came down from the mountain and delivered unto us all the Ten Commandment themed "X" by Kristeen Young, which was the cause for much comment, debate and good humour thanks to its (alleged) close similarity to several other well known female piano-bashing singer-songwritery types. A fine pick, tho, so many thanks to Paul for that, and for flipping the frisbee across to @matthewesdigs for his debut #LC pick...

...which we will return to next week, for this week it's #vortex time again, and after a suggestion from @rougeforever it's a #breakupvortex... thanks to all who picked a tune, we have 18 rather excellent and varied ruminations on failed romance, or not. Not the easiest vortex to describe this one, so get the gin & ciggies out, dim the lights and off we will go...

Google Drive download is here (replaygain is set if you have it on your player (iTunes doesn't, I know), otherwise volume will vary, apologies!), and the (volume levelled) Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the track titles, you have been warned)  is here!

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow @listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm GMT!