The Listening Club - 16th August 2015

Greetings!

Hope all is fine with yourselves - Standard European summer continues apace here in A-dam, which means, yes, quickly alternating lovely sunshine and torrential storms, although admittedly right now it's betwixt and between the two, keeping us indoors sipping coffee and peering out at soggy tourists who in turn are peering down at soggy maps, wondering where the hell their AirBnB has gone. Par for the course, indeed...

Over on Planet #LC, last week @FaberFedor did his usual head-spinning selection trick, bringing out the bluegrass with selections from The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" from 1972. A serious level of hoedowning was achieved for sure. Thanks to Faber for the pick, and for flipping the frisbee back across the atlantic to @mrhig, who's here with this week's intro...

"As the years get further away in the rear view, it's easy to romanticise the decades gone by as more glamorous than they really were to live through at the time. It's only natural sometimes to look at how things are today and reminisce at how much better we had it way back when. 

Gain enough distance from the past though, and eventually a different view begins to open up. How things really were. This is often a lot darker and more horrific than we claimed to remember it. Taking a look in UK news in the last five years at anything about the past would confirm that.

Our artist tonight has a view of the past that is more or less entirely fictional, but that doesn't make it any less valid.

I first came to find this artist when their music was used on a 1990s UK comedy series. I've been a fan ever since. In common with a lot of the music I enjoy, they have a slightly fantasised look at how the past used to be. Those halcyon days when air travel was impossibly glamourous, when the future held nothing but promise, and automation would ensure none of us had dull jobs anymore and could all focus on lofty ideals, and none of us would be lonely or in need of companionship…

We get the future we deserve, not the one we long for.

For a bit of fun, as you listen tonight, attempt to work out where this artist comes from. Your mileage may vary but I think they come across as quite prismatic in their possible nationality. In addition this may be the first example of its particular genre for Listening Club (or it may not - I'm not all-knowing). Enjoy! Luxuriate.

Serving suggestion - something on the rocks, something with a bit of fizz, or maybe a martini. Go louche."

Right then. Direct download is here, and the mixcloud, if they're feeling charitable, will be here.

See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)