The Listening Club - 26th January 2020

Greetings folks,

Time flying as usual... end of January already? Blimey. Still on the making plans tip, and also finally, finally, finally getting my next slice of music finished, which is most welcome, as it's taken way longer than I'd anticipated, due to one thing and another, and it's always one of the best feelings in the world when something is close to done, and the light at the end of the tunnel is enjoyably blinding... if you know what I mean :)

Last week @mrtorture was celebrating the frisb's arrival in Buenos Aires with their debut pick of Anekdoten's "Gravity" from 2003 which went down rather well indeed. Thanks to them for the selection, and for sailing the frisb across to London, where @simonlandmine is in the usual quandry...

"Picking albums for Listening Club is difficult, as many have noted.
This time around, I managed to narrow the choice to two albums. And the rip was a bit iffy on one of them, so that one will be held off
until I dig out the CD, which means you get this instead.

This is an album which I picked up after first hearing one of the tracks at a regular club night. I identified the artist in the traditional, pre-Shazam, fashion - asking the relevant resident DJ when they were done readying the next track ...

- "What's this? It's great!"
- "?"
- "WHAT'S THIS?"
- "[inaudible]"
- "SORRY, WHAT WAS THAT?"
- [scribbles]
- "CHEERS!" [thumbs-up]

And then I went out and bought it. And the exact same conversation was replicated a couple of years later, in the other direction, when I played the same track at the BiCon Ball - which was rather gratifying. Bonus points (worth nothing) for guessing which of the tracks inspired the purchase.

It's quite possible that you all know this, as I have absolutely no idea how well known it is. Whether it's familiar or new to you, I hope that you enjoy it anyway.

#DrinkingClub - It doesn't really matter, someone at the club will spill it for you. You might want a bottle of water, though."

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

See you at 8pm GMT.

The Listening Club - 19th January 2020

Greetings,

Standard intro here, wishing you all well, gently griping about the weather, light commenture and plans about upcoming gigs (John Grant! Pigs x 7! Dekmantel! Birthday shenanigans!). Pretty standard week really, but with much to look forward to...

Last week, @xpollen8 was in the chair, sharing their results of what sounds like quite an immense digitization project in the form of sounds from Ebony Rhythm Funk Campaign, Vanguards, and Funk St Workshop from his Father's studio archives. Thanks to him for the fine work, and for sailing the frisb way down to Buenos Aires, where @mrtorture is waiting to provide his debut introduction....

Hello peeps!

First time handling the Frisbee here. I decided to pick something mellow, to go down the road on this Sunday afternoon/night/whichevertimefits.

Lots of mellotrons, pouding and very present bass lines, mellow lyrics and vocal tracks. These fellows have come and gone a long way, fans tend to dislike this particular album (same old "their old stuff was better!!" excuse). Nevertheless, for me this album represents a change of pace in the right direction. They would soon reinforce this in latter releases... but this one feels a lot like where everything began.

I discovered this band and this album at a very different time in my life. In a way that time feels a lot like right now, since thanks to a group of people, I found the joys of musical discovery and rediscovery. I wanted to share this with the rest of you, since it feels like the right place to do so. Serve yourself a smooth cup of tea, or a soothing scotch, sit back and let yourself go.

Cheers!

Okay, direct download is here, and the stream is below:

See you at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 12th January 2020

Greetings folks,

Hope you're doing fine and surviving the nose-back-on-the-grindstone time of year. Still keeping up some of the fairy lights here, because they look pretty, and things are just a bit too grey and dull without 'em. Still rather sad following the news of the passing of Neil Peart, who really was one of my favourite musicians of all time. They called him The Professor, and I certainly got a lot of joy and learned a hell of a lot from listening to him play and hearing his lyrics. Although he'd been retired for a few years, he'll still be much missed, but he's left one hell of a legacy, that's for sure...

Last week, @brainspiritus was in the chair, rocking out the assembled with their pick of Gov't Mule's "High And Mighty". Thanks extended for the selection, and for sailing the frisb back across to @xpollen8, who has this to say by way of introduction...

"While the world still exists, I'd like to share a tiny bit of what I've been working on since last summer.

I'm providing more hints than usual, because only a couple of the tracks today are commercially available - the rest are unreleased and I've digitized them directly from their 15IPS 1/4" master tapes as part of an ongoing preservation and archival effort.

Almost unheard-of bands + remarkable musicianship + masterful recording and production techniques + 24 bit/192kHz digitization = something special.

Enjoy ya some Funk & R&B!"

Direct download is here, and the streams down below:


See you at 8pm GMT tonight!

The Listening Club - 5th January 2020

Greetings folks.

Happy new year? We should be so lucky, eh? Already seems like there's been more than enough unwanted craziness, and we're only five days in.... *deep breath*

Still, the annual ceremonial #festivevortex should keep us all protected and positive for a good while. Thanks to everyone for chipping in their fave raves, and thanks also for the compliments about the resulting mix, glad everyone dug it.

Back to regular programming, a few weeks ago @brainspiritus was left holding the festive frisbee, and therefore is right here with the intro to the first pick of the year...

"Happy year of the banana, everybody!

(Because as with the old banana joke, I know how to write the year 202020, I just don't know when to stop.)

I hope you all made it here in one piece, avoiding all the missiles that have been flying for one reason or another, and any hangover you may have had is slowly subsiding.

Just in case there is any remaining headache, I decided against surprise metal guitars tonight, so you're getting something from my usual corner in the big sphere of music instead (sorry, xpollen).  Today's pick is somewhat of a classic: this group has been around for twenty-five years now, and their ancestor formation for another twenty-five years before that. So dig out your tie-dye t-shirts, blame that funky-smelling smoke on residual fireworks, and let your freak flags fly with me for one hour and five minutes. (I promise there's more than two songs in that.)"

Okaydoke, direct download is here, and the stream's below:

See you at 8pm GMT tonight!