The Listening Club - 1st June 2014

Pinch and a punch to you all,

June already? Crikers. Feeling good here, if a little tender following yesterday's festival season kickoff at Het Lente Kabinet, quite a no frills affair, very much seemed like the majority of the budget had gone on the performers rather than the production, which is an interesting approach, even if a few more signposts would have helped - there's no point giving names to stages if you can't tell which one is which, is there? - Theo Parrish, DJ EZ and, yes, the mighty Addison Groove (click for a clip!) won the day for me, a fine day's bopping for sure.

Speaking of festivals, major advance warning that I'm going to be at Glastonbury come the end of the month, so am looking for a replacement compiler & host for the June #vortex - let me know if you fancy helping out!

Last week, I managed to avoid a small measure of embarrassment by nipping off to see Prince (who was spectacular, natch) whilst the rest of you chuckled at my pick for the #firstLPvortex. Well, what can I say, blame it on the folly of youth (probably the only time I'd do that...) - at least I was honest :-D Happily the rest of you had considerably better taste at early ages, so provided a fine cross section of youthful desire. Thanks to all for chipping in!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming, @mrhig is back in the hot seat, so here he is with this week's pre-match...

"It could be any city, but I've always thought of it as New York.

All it takes is a change in the weather for the worse, for you to lose your sense of direction, for street signs to be unhelpfully nowhere to be seen, and you could find yourself among them, living their lives. They burn bright, like mayflies, because no future means living life to the full. And that means dance and drink and trouble.

This is the quintessential United States experience; the American dream. The melting pot, in the flesh. They haven't made it yet; they shuffled through Ellis Island and were immediately shoved and cramped into the dark places, the back alleys, the lower east sides, the tenements. Life is cheap but so, so vibrant.

Everyone is out to get something. No-one is to be trusted, least of all authority figures.

Do you think you could cope with this life, knowing there was no way out of it, that you couldn't go back to your comfy brownstone after the end of just one day, that this was it, from now on forward? Are you really cut out for this life?

Maybe better to watch from a distance. Dream that this could be you if you just quit that job, that you could blaze like they do. Watch from a passing train, glimpse it only briefly."

Well then... Download is here and the Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the song titles, you have been warned)  is here!

See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)!