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)