The Listening Club - 28th June 2020

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Sunshine and showers here as usual, though a bit more of the former than the latter, which is fine by me. Been interesting watching all the Glastonbury remeniscing going on online from nearby shores, definitely making me pine for tent, tunes and booze for sure. Roll on next year...

Last Sunday, @SimonLandmine was in the chair, hitting the 90s vibe right between the eyes with his pick of the soundtrack for "Strange Days", which brought a varied reaction, as befits a varied album, I'd say. Thanks to Simon for the pick, and for sailing the frisb over here to the Netherlands, where it bounced off @nessiest and landed at my feet. So it goes...

"Most of the time when picking for #LC I'm pretty much certain from the start what I'm going to play and stick to it. This time I've changed my mind more than a few times, which says a lot about the changing state of the world and my own brain, I guess. So I've gone from considering a couple of vintage selections (will save for another time) and a possible 2.5hr Theo Parrish BLM brain dump (worth a listen, but too long and strange for here and now I think) to end up with this.

Possibly influenced by the weekend's festival reminiscences,  and in traditional #LC stylee, I've plumped for a brand new album by a well established artist that I've yet to listen to. So let's give it a spin and see if it's any kop..."

#drinkingclub = bourbon, i'd say, or maybe even a mint julep."

Download's here, stream's below.

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

The Listening Club - 21st June 2020

Greetings and Happy Summer Solstice to you all.

Yeah, well, usually for me, this time of year (if the ticket faries have been nice) is all about checking weather forecasts, clashfinding lineups and buying tent pegs, but this year? Well, at least it's half over now, eh?

Last week @brainspiritus was in the chair, funking up a storm with their timely pick of Brother Ali's 2012 album "Mourning In America And Dreaming in Color" (give or take a track), which went down a treat with the assembled. Thanks to them for the selection, and for sailing the frisb across to London, where @SimonLandmine has this to say by way of introduction to tonight's pick...

"And here we are again, with another pick from me. Somewhat different from my last selection. This one actually includes guitars. As well as a range of other instruments.

Listening again to the opening bars, I realised that there are two albums that it might resolve into from that point (and the other option was indeed also on my list of possible choices), but the Shrödinger situation should be answered a little further in. I won't say too much more about this one, as the more I say, the greater the chance of my just blurting out what it is, but there are some elements of current circumstances that reminded me of it. It's a favourite of mine for a couple of reasons, and contains several tracks I really enjoy, and I couldn't keep pushing it down my selection list any longer. Hopefully, those of you who recognise it do so because you like it, and hopefully at least some of you who didn't know it will also like it.

(And look on the bright side - I could have picked "The Nail File - The Best of Jimmy Nail" (and yes, that is what it's called), because for some reason I'm not entirely clear on, I appear to own that too -
although I've not gone so far as to rip it.)

#DrinkingClub - Something to toast an event with."

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


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

The Listening Club - 14th June 2020

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Sunshine and showers here in Amsterdam, so a bit of "gardening" and a bit of PC maintenance as appropriate.

Last week in #LC land, @mrtorture was in the chair, gently rocking out with Simon Fuga's "After Chaban", which went down rather well, it seems. Thanks to Senor T for the pick, and for sailing the frisb north again to @brainspiritus, who is right here with tonight's intro...

"Good time of day, dear friends of #ListeningClub, from a very rainy Germany.

Today's pick is curious, easy and difficult at the same time.

It's easy, because I can't have this on my shortlist now, and not pick it now, and then ever pick it later.

It's difficult, because it's a genre we don't see here very often, and it's so often steeped deeply in sexism and glorified violence to the extent that the genre and its ill standing have become eponymous. (Yes, this is an elaborate bad cryptic pun.) But that's not all there is to it, and it's not how it started either, and I guess this album is close to the roots in its style and intent.

It's also hard – if there was a genre "hard listening", this would probably be in it, and it has the black-and-white sticker to prove it, and wears it proudly. It might feel uncannily on point currently, but it was just as relevant in 2012 when it came out, and before that, and will be for quite some time.

Oh, and you're probably on some sort of watchlist now."

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



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

The Listening Club - 7th June 2020

Greetings folks.

Hope you're all doing okay. And well done, people of Bristol. About fucking time that thing went in the sea.

Last week in #LC-land, @xpollen8 was in the chair, wrestling with a DAT player to bring us a slice of his archives in the shape of a sound-desk recording of Frank Orrall and Poi Dog Pondering live in San Francisco in 1996, which was a nice slice of live in these gigless times. Many thanks to Del for the pick, and for sailing the frisb down south to @mrtorture, who's right here with tonight's intro...

"Alright folks. This week's choice kind of had me flooded. I had a list of choices that I prepped up back... in January. I cleaned it up and came back with nothing.

So I went all over it again, and went along with... a choice I could've used my last time handling the frisbaton. Fun times.

In any case, these fine folk define themselves as some sort of "street jazz". But don't worry, it's not jazz per-se. It has rock, it has funk, and maybe some jazz intertwined. Their music has been used as background music for radio shows, movies and even documentaries. They just blend so well in all of these landscapes. I believe this album was recorded in one or two takes.

Never had much of a success and propmtly broke up not long ago. Here's to hoping you like 'em as much as I do.

As for a #DrinkingClub choice... anything that may help you chill and lay back. (it's up to you, if a Bourbon is good for chilling, go for it!)"

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


See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)