The Listening Club - 28th April 2019

Greetings folks, hope you're all fine.

Bit grey and grim here in Amsterdam, which is par for the course, but sadly led to a rather damp and cold Kings Day yesterday. So it goes, but pleased that we kicked off the weekend in fine style watching Piroshka (at @JimMcCauley's recommendation), and mighty fine they were too...

Last week, @wojsvenwoj was in the chair, or rather a facsimile of him was, presenting his pick of Beth Gibbons & The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra's performance of Henryk Gorecki's "Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs", which dazzled and confused the assembled in equal measures, I think. Thanks to him for the pick and for sailing the frisb across to @saucer, who is right here with tonight's intro...

There are some beautiful tensions on which this deceptively simple album is built:
    Emergent/Fractal
    Polyrhythmic/Sparse
    Silly/Clinical
    Melodic/Monotone
    Playful/Profound

The album rings of the present... and revels in nostalgia for an age yet to come.

The artist's name is a pun.

I like them. Curious what you'll think.

Snack club: whole grain crackers with gjetost.

Further reading
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcuse/
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology-mg/

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


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

The Listening Club - 21st April 2019

Greetings folks.

Glorious here in Amsterdam, hope it's of an agreeable equivalent wherever you are. A week of fine gigs (Thor & Friends on Monday hitting the sweet spot between Steve Reich and Moondog, William Tyler on Saturday simply being amazing, with bonus unexpected interpretations of  Dvořák and Fleetwood Mac) and fine weather for a change, therefore an afternoon sipping G+Ts and cleaning the outside of the house has been the order of the day. Now we have a sparkling house and a nice half-cut buzz. So, on y va...

Last week, @ohmyliver was in the chair, getting the dance up and bouncing with his pick of Shy FX's "Raggamuffin SoundTape", which hit the spot for most of the assembled. Thanks to Oli for the pick, and for sailing the frisp across to @wojsvenwoj, who is represented tonight by the following paragraphs...

"Well, there were quite a few significant and momentous occasions this week that could have been inspiration for a Listening Club pick -- Easter, Passover, Notre Dame, Al Aqsa, leaves popping on the trees on our street, me listening to too much K-pop -- but decided to step back from all that.

Instead, took a spin through some recent releases and settled on this one. While it's not exactly the usual fare for this esteemed group, a recording of this has some success in the 1990s so I imagine it might be familiar to some. This performance was recorded a few years and just released in the past few weeks. There probably isn't much more that I can say without giving it away though...so I won't."

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


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

The Listening Club - 14th April 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing fine. Bright but chilly here in Amsterdam, the weekend buoyed up by a chance visit from an old #LC'er in the shape of @dingster, which was most pleasurable, and further enhanced by a cracking show from ol' Joe Jackson on Monday night. And there's warmth on the horizon too...

Last week, @SimonLandmine was in the chair, hitting a full on curveball with his pick of Philip Jeays "The Widest Walk volume 1", which brought some mighty fine discussion by way of response from the assembled. Many thanks to Simon for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across London to @ohmyliver, who's right here with tonight's introduction...

"Well here in the UK, it’s been a tense couple of weeks, waiting for the Brexit bomb to hit.  I was going to pick an album to go with the mood of puse pricks shouting about ‘perfidious Albion on speed’ (not actually a viral campaign for a Pete Doherty side project), stockpiling of food and medicines, and the two main political parties descending into incompetent squabbling between caricatures of Tory MPs cut from political comedies of the 1980s for being too unrealistic, and a magic grandpa and his 1970s political activist re-enactment society.   I even sourced the soundtrack album to Jubilee and everything. 

But, so far, the sound and fury has signified nothing.  Whilst it may be the calm before a greater storm, it’s a calm nonetheless. So I’ve decided to go with something much less moody.  Skipped past the Horsepower Productions album from the early ‘00s I was going to use to show that despite the overslick pop excesses, there was some good stuff that came out of UK garage, and by chance listened to this which was released last month (although tracks from it have been released earlier). I then listened to it again, and again.  Medication for my anxiety and gloom with only head nodding and a bit of a grin as side effects.  Your mileage may, of course, vary. 

It’s quite short at just over 32 minutes.  But don’t let that put you off, although there’s a couple of tracks that I’d really like to be longer.  The person behind it has been around since the early 90s, producing one of Jungle’s early big hits.   In recent years he’s been running a sound system at Notting Hill Carnival which has turned in a ‘of course I’m going to head down there’ fixture for me, and this is quite like walking though Monday’s Carnival with the sun shining.  A mixture of genres, and interludes, with some surprising collaborations. It’s a celebration of a part of the sonic landscape of the city that I call home.

It’s almost a shame it wasn’t released in summer, but listening to it, it’s easy to forget it isn’t summer just yet. Just be glad you’re not having to dodge some idiot’s backpack as you’re pushing through the crowds on August bank holiday Monday, and enjoy. 

And for those wanting drinking club suggestions?  Warm Red Stripe, or rum, obviously."

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


See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 7th April 2019

Greetings folks,

A fine weekend here in Amsterdam in more ways than one, head feeling a little tender following a cracking gig last night courtesy of The Mekons... if only all bands that had been active for 43 years could play with such joy and power, truly a lovely thing to see. And now the thermometer is threating to hit 20 for the first time this year, so let's get this done and get on out...

Last week @FaberFedor was in the chair, with some fine Sunday grooves courtesy of Wax Tailor's "Tales of the Forgotten Melodies", which seemed to undulate well with the assembled. Many thanks to Faber for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across the ocean to @SimonLandmine, who's right here with tonight's intro...

"I'm not actually sure when I was introduced to this artist, but it
must have been a few years ago - though I've got a fairly good idea
who it was who did the introducing. This particular 'album' is the
artist's compilation of selections from a couple of earlier cassettes
releases and suchlike, although those have since been re-released in
their own right as well, for completists. This might give the best introduction to their work, though, as well as including a few tracks that have remained consistent fan favourites over a number of years.
It's also something of a diversion from my usual genres, no doubt to the great relief of many of you. Hope that you enjoy it, anyway.

#drinkingclub Cheap French red wine. Out of the glass. At first. But you'll probably want a bottle each. And possibly a spare to drink from in the street as you stagger home in the rain."

Reety-ho. Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is below:


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