The Listening Club - 24th February 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all well and good. A second sunny weekend in a row here in Amsterdam, which is stirring both the residents and the local fauna into life a little earlier in the year than expected. So let's get this done now, so we can pop out for a stroll and a bite, eh?

Last week in the land of #LC, @brainspiritus was in the chair, delivering their debut pick in the shape of Mardi.bb's career-spanning "Pentalogy", which got the assembled grooving quite successfully. Many thanks extended for the pick, and for sailing the frisb back across to London, where @har_shone is waiting to give this introduction...

"I struggled to pick this week for no reason other than the fact that every album i am loving right now i discovered from you lot either in the Vortex or as part of regularly scheduled programming and I didn't want to recycle other people's picks! But then I remembered this.

I was given this album around the time it came out and promptly didn't listen to it for months and months (maybe a year? Maybe more? Who knows, time is a flat circle or something). Then at the end of last year I was getting very bored of cycling through the same playlist and stumbled across it again. On first listen, it had my favourite combination of deeply depressing themes but sometimes matched with incongruously upbeat music (sometimes, other times it's just deliciously angry). I like it and I hope you do too! It was a pretty big success when it came out so I expect a lot of you have heard it already but it bears repeating in my opinion!"

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the HearBeSpoilers stream is below:


See you tonight at 8pm GMT.

The Listening Club - 17th February 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope all is good with you. A spot of reasonable weather here in Amsterdam, so throwing open the windows for a bit of an air out, and a slightly-earlier-than-usual session of clearing up the winter debris from around the outdoor-growing-things-area (it's not really a garden) has been the order of the day. And very nice too, perfect Sunday activities.

In the land of #LC, last week @xpollen8 was in the chair, getting obscure as all that with his pick of Wolfgang Tschegg's "Finder" (and some bonus tracks), which went down pretty well, so it seemed. Many thanks to David for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across to @brainspiritus, who has this to say by way of introduction to their debut pick...

"Happy springtime, everyone! At least in this corner of the back bar that I imagine #listeningclub to be, it is finally warm enough to not freeze the cymbals off a brass band anymore and put a spring in your step instead.

To celebrate, we have #zuhörclub again, with a German group that never gained much popularity beyond Germany and France, and a retrospective 2007 re-issue of parts of a five-album project. I was in two minds (or actually four of five) on what to pick, this being my first time, but a quick anonymous twitter poll suggested that I should probably go all out, which in my case means all odd, so prepare your drinks (#drinkingclub might be a Cuba Libre) and join us for music of the "various other/huh?" genre. I promise it's not Gregorian monks covering ABBA songs."

Okaydoke. Direct download is here (right-click save as) and the HearThis stream is below:


See you at 8pm GMT...

The Listening Club - 10th February 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope all is well and good for you all. Grim outside here as per bloody usual, tho we're still buzzing from a fine Snapped Ankles show on Thursday kicking off their european tour, and a lovely bunch they seem to be too.

Last week in #LC environs, it was me, @kleptones, in the chair, assaulting your eardrums with Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs latest opus, "King Of Cowards", which quite a few of you seemed to tolerate positively, which is nice. All that remained for me was to sail the frisb across to @xpollen8, who has this to say by way of introduction to tonight's pick...

"This week's artist has released one proper album (recorded in a church), a CDR 10 years later, and after a 15 year break, new material shared on soundcloud last year (recorded by the same guy as did the debut).

I was originally just going to share the CDR, but it only clocks in at 30 minutes, so what you'll hear is a DIY career-spanning maxi-EP: 2 tracks from the debut (I did promise bassoon), followed by the full CDR, and one recent piece at the end.

Mostly in German, the lyrics are lost on me, but the simple melodies and interesting instrumentation always brighten my day."

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


See you at 8pm GMT tonight!

The Listening Club - 3rd February 2019

Greetings,

Hope all is fine for you all. Sun managed to get out here for the day, which was a very pleasant reminder of brighter times. Plenty of plans on the go too, festivals and gigs being booked and so forth, and the mighty Snapped Ankles to look forward to this coming Thursday. And I got another slice of k-music wrapped up too. So not doing too bad at all, really.

Last week chez #LC, that @JimMcCauley was in the chair, reminding us of All-Back-To-Mine sessions from days gone by with his pick of Eat Static's "Crash And Burn". Thanks to Jim for the bangs and beeps, and for flipping the frisbee straight over to me, so... let's ctrl-I.

"Working in a large office can sometimes be a trying thing, if, like me, you've only done it sporadically over the years. I'm far more used to working alongside the gentle sounds of birds chirping, scooters revving and kids playing outside the window than collegues jabbering on for ages about how outragous it was that Paddington 2 didn't get any Oscar nominations, or comparing their relative historical bouts of crippling acid reflux... and then there's the Dutch equivalent, which, even though I can't understand much of it ("Precis!") seems to need to be done at twice the necessary conversational volume for dramatic effect. Le sigh.

Thus, it's at certain times, when I absolutely need to blot out 100% of the surrounding jibber-jabber and concentrate fully on the work that I'm so desperately trying to finish, there's only certain kinds of music that hit the spot. Something that is completely enveloping and full-frequency, yet can be turned up to a more-than significant level in the old headbins without shredding the ears with crunchy overcompressed vocal athleticisms. Doubly brilliant if said music also contains a hearty dollop of "Fuck you" to help spur me on.

This, then, is my current go-to record for these situations. An artiste I know at least one or two of you are familiar with. Hope you enjoy.

#DrinkingClub = Treble strength office coffee, neat whiskey, or both."

Direct download is here, and the HearBeSpoilers stream is below:


Hope to see you at 8pm GMT.