The Listening Club - 31st July 2016

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing fine. Hit and miss sunshine outside in Amsterdam, which could be worse, but that @nessiest is back in the hood after her adventures, so there's an extra ray of sunshine indoors again, brightening the place up considerably. (Aww, etc...)

Back in #LC land, last week it was me, @kleptones, in the chair, taking you off on a trip courtesy of Brad Mehldau & Mark Guiliana's 2014 album "Taming The Dragon", which went down very well indeed, I'm relieved to say. Thanks for listening, and thanks to @saucer for catching the old frisbaton for next week...

...But now, rather aptly, it's time for the #endofdaysvortex - a selection of fine portents of doom and gloom from times gone past, and warnings for the present? We shall see...

Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream, if it feels like working, is...


See you at 8, bring something strong to imbibe... you may well need it.

EK

The Listening Club - 24th July 2016

Howdy folks,

Hope you're all well and good. Amsterdam is looking fine and dandy, basking in a week of rather glorious weather, slowing the pace of the city down to a gentle thrum as many denizens spend the weekend dining al fresco, passing round those odd little tubs of cheese cubes and sausage slices, and generally lazing about, myself no exception, although a beer on the stoop is not half as much fun without that there @nessiest, who is currently back in kiwiland for a while. Speaking of to-ing and fro-ing, don't forget I'm after a caretaker manager here for 14th & 21st August, whilst we do a bit of travelling and Green Man festivalling. Let me know if you can help out, ta.

Also a reminder that we have an #endofdaysvortex coming up next week, thanks to @rougeforever for the suggestion, so please send me your finest end-of-the-world style picks for next Sunday's frolics, please!

Last week, @holette was in the chair, bringing us a dose of cutting-edge spaced-outness in the shape of the Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve debut album "The Soft Bounce", and mighty fine it was too. Many thanks to Sarah for the pick and for flipping the frisbaton across to me... *dons fake goatee beard & tache*...

"Right then. It was tempting to pick my own, just about finished new DJ mix, but subjecting the ol' LC to three-and-a-half-hours of (admittedly rather excellently arranged, hemhem) jungle and footwork might just have been testing the patience of some of the regulars 'pon a Sunday eve. So it's fortunate that I chanced upon this album a couple of weeks back, and immediately filed it in the "could be fun for #lc" pile.

Looking back on my previous picks, I do seem to have a habit of picking interesting collaborations and this one is no exception. Two very talented folks, the first of which I've been listening to for a good long while and finally got a chance to see live this year with his regular band (front row, no less), which was a very awesome evening indeed, although it sounded rather different to this album. The other person is new to me, although he seems to be making big waves in musical circles, as they apparently say, particularly as his ace playing is very evident on the final David Bowie album.

Does that give anything away? No? Good. Two talented guys with bunch of gear, in a room, doing their thing. Didn't sound like anything I was expecting, looking forward to seeing what you make of it."

Direct download is here, and the ol' HearThis stream is...


See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 17th July 2016

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay, despite quite a few segments of the world seemingly slowly going to hell. Seriously, what is it with this year? Dredging my memory, the last time I remember such an ominous feeling was way back in 1990/91, time of the Gulf War and in the UK, the attempted introduction of draconian tax laws and the worst rioting I've been personally witness to. Sadly, I have a feeling that it's going to get worse before it gets better, but in the meantime, natch, praise be for the tunes that provide us with solace, encouragement, wisdom and solidarity. A reliable resource in unreliable times, indeed.

So, speaking of which, last week @mrhig was in the chair, and sent us far out into la la land with his pick of Joanna Newsom's "Divers", which charmed the faithful and not-so-faithful in equal measures. Many thanks to Matt for the pick, and for sailing the frisbaton over the Shropshire hills to @holette, who is here with this week's intro...

"'60s psychedelia goes acid house' the review said.  I'll have a bit of that I thought.  This is brand new. I've listened to it once. I'm a little bit in love with it already.

What the world needs now, is love, sweet love."

Indeedy. Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is...


See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 10th July 2016

Good day to you all,

Yet again tapping things out early, as we have guests in the house, @Nessiest is packing to scarper to her homeland for a couple of weeks, and the weather forecast is predicting scorchio, so there's not a moment to waste!

Advance advance notice, also, that Imma gonna be away again for not one weekend but two in a month or so! 14th & 21st of August to be precise, so as usual, if you can help out with sorting this here thing out, give me a shout.

Last week, @JonnyDaPigg got everyone bouncing whilst keeping them guessing with his pick of The Mad Capsule Markets "OSC-DIS". Big thanks to Jonny for the pick, and for flipping the baton across to @MrHig, who's sent this missive across by way of introduction...

"In the beginning was the word.

In 2003 we came to New York for the first time. The East Village was our playground and Alt Coffee and Computers, next to Tompkins Square Park, was our watering hole. Internet cafes were a thing back then.

(Later that year, if I'm right about the time we visited, New York suffered a blackout and places like Tompkins Square Park became gathering places).

In 2005 we came back to New York (this time staying in Union Square) and got married. (I think by now Alt Coffee and Computers was long gone.) It was going to be in Tompkins Square Park but we changed venues. It was unseasonably hot for September, the city in the grip of a heatwave and the humidity clinging to you like a shroud.

We were there in 2008 on the night Obama was elected. We stayed in an upmarket apartment block in Clinton. Clinton used to be called Hell's Kitchen and was dragging itself out of the run-down area it used to be, when nothing was going for it but the docks.

In 2010 we came back for our fifth year anniversary and returned to the housing complex and fountain where we got married. They were showing Ghostbusters up on a big screen in the park. It rained a little but we didn't mind.

(You used to be able to visit quite a few of the Ghostbusters filming locations around Manhattan. We had to visit one, the Municipal Building, to obtain our marriage certificate. I'm not sure the firehouse is in use anymore.)

We visited last year, this time choosing the Lower East Side of Manhattan for our abode. The area has completely changed since we first visited. There's a buzz of excitement. What used to be a lot of clothing stores (before that, tenement blocks for immigrants) has been gentrified and hipsterized.

Manhattan used to be called Mannahatta, back when the Native Americans owned the place.

All these moments are slivers of time, the cities of New York from each trapped in amber. We can visit them whenever we like, in our memories. The City of New York now, today is no more or less real than all the other cities of New York we visited, nor the cities before we were alive, nor the cities of New York to come. A bunch of spins of the planet and there'll be nothing of us, the only constancy the birdsong the accompanies us as if psychopomps on our endless march.

In the end was the word, and the word was 'In the Beginning...'.

Drinking suggestion - Bellini, Umeshu Soda, or Poire Williams."

Right. Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is...

See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 3rd July 2016

Greetings and salutations!

Phew, back into Amsterdam with an aching crash after a particularly tough Glastonbury (world events notwithstanding, grr). partying done under muddy duress, but successfully, peaking with a truly spectacular Sunday showdown LCD Soundsystem set down the front with @nessiest and @emmaprice. Even if we couldn't quite dance ourselves clean, we gave it our very best shots, that's for sure. Back on firmer ground this weekend yesterday at Pitch festival, watching Soulwax's slightly shaky return to the live arena after a good few years, and cracking sets from DJs Shadow & Paypal winning the day. As the weather forecast seems to be continuing on the agreeable tip, an afternoon at Amsterdam Roots Festival looks likely today. Summer in full swing at last!

Many thanks to @JimMcCauley and @akx for finding time to fix things up last week, sorry for the lack of comms, Glastonbury net access is minimal-to-non-existent at the best of times, a sliver of 3G being chased by 200,000 people, so thought it better to let you get on with it, and you did. Thanks for that. Also looks like @akx's pick of Anathallo's "Floating World" went down a treat too. And it seems @jonnydapigg ended up with the frisbaton, so here he is with this week's intro...

"Right then, really don't have a lot to say this week, lack of concentration (the sheer amount of counting and screaming I can hear at 8am this lovely sunny Sunday morning is immense and I've already been handed a bus, a sports car and a mop head and had to delete the hand slapped additions of a one year old to this text). I've had to forgo the usual Listening Club Top Trumps that goes with my selections as more things went wrong this week adding to the festering cesspit that is 2016 meaning a lack of time and motivation. So I've gone with an album that just takes me back to a gig which was pretty much at the start of my adult life. It's a bit nuts but fucking awesome. Apologies for low bitrate, will explain later.

Enjoy

Jonny"

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is...


See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)