The Listening Club - 4th June 2017

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing as well as can be, as per. We're feeling culturally fulfilled here following a couple of days down in Maastricht, enjoying fine weather and artistic delights courtesy of Stanley Donwood and Raymond Pettibon. A very chill and enjoyable time indeed. Speaking of excursions, don't forget I'm off to Glastonbury in three weeks time, so looking for a temporary custodian here for Sunday 25th June. Let me know if you can help!

In the land of #LC, last week @wojsvenwoj was in the chair, dazzling the assembled with a pick of "Love Waves" by Veda Hille, which went down rather well indeed. Many thanks to him for the pick and for flipping the frisb across to @CakeHugga, who is here with this week's intro...

"So the last few weeks have been a little crazy to say the least. The Manchester bomb (where 22 innocent people were killed and 116 injured) after attending a gig at the Manchester Arena has played large on my psyche.

I first moved to Manchester 20 years ago as a fresh-faced student - excited for the possibilities of this city and for myself.

Music was always a draw for me – I lived for gigs and live music and found plenty of venues (big and small) in this city. I loved the buzz, the meeting of like-minded people, the shared beautiful experiences.

One of my fears after the bomb is that people will be scared to go to gigs and there will be a generation of kids who don’t get to experience the highs of a crowd of hundreds or thousands all singing along at the top of their voices, the shared magical energy.

I wanted to choose an album this week by a band I’ve seen live in Manchester as this city has given me so many fantastic gig memories. It was hard to whittle the bands down to a shortlist. I’d almost decided on another album when I remembered this band and the fabulous experience of seeing them live.

They are undoubtedly musically talented but I really remember the visual beauty of the gig – 4 of them wearing what I can only describe as space age kimonos. I have never experienced anything quite like this gig and it shines bright in my memory.

This band have eclectic influences, their sound veering between 70s horror soundtrack to upbeat sing-a-long choruses.

This is a band formed in Manchester and I hope that the youngsters of Manchester (and everywhere else) don’t give into those who want to stop us living bold, bright, lives full of shared experiences and connections with others.

I hope it will lead to toe tapping, head nodding and slipper shuffling wherever you are listening. 

Enjoy!"

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the stream-of-spoilers is below:


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