The Listening Club - 27th December 2020

Greetings folks,

Hope you have managed some sort of (possibly restriction-limited) festivity wherever you are. Herein behold the last #listeningclub post of 2020, which I hope to look back on in my twilight years as the turning point towards new, fairer, safer and happier days. Mind you, hope didn't get us very far this year, so I'm off outside for a quick round of applause to make sure...

...right, now I've done my bit for humanity, last week @ohmyliver was in the chair, getting his stocking on the good foot with his pick of James Brown's "Funky Christmas", which definitely fulfilled, nay, exceeded expectations on both fronts. Thanks to Oli for the pick, and for sailing the frisb over to @zbendr, who has an extra week to consider their choice, as...

...yeah, it's that time again folks. The 2020 #festivevortex. 29 tracks from the widest corners of the bubbleworld, lovingly wedged together by yours truly. Enourmo-thanks to everyone that chipped in tunes, sorry if I ruined any of them.

Download's here, and the stream is below:

See you at 8pm GMT, bring booze, lots of it, and Class A's if you got 'em. Might as well.

The Listening Club - 20th December 2020

Greetings and Ho Ho Hum to you all.

Well, 2020 keeps it up to the very end, doesn't it? As new strains lock down big chunks of the UK even further (including the one my mum lives in, sadly), borders get shut down again, and Dutch numbers keep rising, I'm at a loss to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Still, at least I managed to get my shit together to resurrect #LockdownRadio, hopefully there will be a few more of these over the festive period and beyond...

Thanks to everyone who chipped in a vote to decide, pretty overwhelmingly, that the #FestiveVortex will be next Sunday 27th December, so please send me a couple of your favourite tunes of 2020 each as soon as you can, and we shall celebrate our collective tastes in fine style next Sunday.

Last Sunday chez #LC, it was me, @kleptones, in the chair, treating you all to Gil Scott-Heron's "We're New Again - A Re-Imagining by Makaya McCraven", which seemed to go down very well indeed. All that remained was to disinfect the frisb and sail it across to South London, where @ohmyliver is waiting with tonight's intro...

"Ahh, the Listening Club pick.   So close to Christmas, it has to be a Christmas album. 

But which one.   As soon as I got the pick, I knew which album.   Got everything ready that evening. 

But then, doubt crept in, like a lazy metaphor into an ill-thought out bit of writing. Should I go for that one?  Should I go for the Beach Boys’ Christmas album?  I mean ‘Little Saint Nick’ is a banger as the young folk might say.   What about the Motown stable’s only slightly saccharine Christmas Albums?  What about Atlantic’s ‘68 Christmas record, I mean ‘Backdoor Santa is a great gritty funk track, and only raises eyebrows slightly when it’s snuck on Spotify Office Christmas playlists? 

I even did a poll on that Twitter. 

I was going to pick Natty Christmas by Jacob Miller.   A fantastic late ‘70s Roots Reggae album reworking a number of well known Christmas songs into something more ital.  An in parts dubwise selection of tracks, replete with exhortations to be gifted not your standard Christmas dinner herbs. It’s got a lot of charm, and if you like roots reggae you’ll not be disappointed.

I was going to pick Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift For You.   The man’s a murderous shit.  Having said that, this is THE Christmas Record, in no small part down to the skill of Darleen Love, The Ronnettes, and co.  The best Christmas album ever made so far.  Amazing pop renditions of the Christmas songs everyone knows with a sort of otherworldly Mall sheen to them.  An idealised Christmas seen on a glossy TV screen.  A framework to hang your own memories of Christmas, both good and bad, onto.  The album which takes me back to being a kid, and my father playing it.  The album that I sing along with my daughter.. 

But in the end, I went with this.   It’s a compilation of tracks from 3 Christmas albums by this artist. You’ll know who it is within the first minute of playback. It’s not as pop, it’s more angry than other Christmas songs.   But this is what we need. America might well be facing a fascist coup, and Britain is slipping into a sort of petty, venal, dystopia thought up over a boozy afternoon by Alan Moore, Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris.   A more ‘we aint going to forget, you f*ckers’ Christmas mood. "

Okaydoke. Download's here, and the stream's below:

See you 8pm GMT, and here's wishing you all a safe and peaceful holiday season - see you in the vortex!

The Listening Club - 13th December 2020

Greetings folks,

Hope you & yours are doing okay. Grey and wet as per usual in Amsterdam, with the infection numbers spiking up again following last week's Sinterklaas celebration (who'd have thought it, eh?). People really don't seem to care much any more about staying locked down, I guess they're all going "hey, we got a vaccine coming, it doesn't matter any more", but that really doesn't help everyone that's going to get sick in the meantime. Kinda weird that the more normal and regular folks insist on carrying on like nothings wrong, refusing to make even the smallest changes to their regular habits, whereas folks that live (or have lived) more on the cultural and societal edges understand the signs better and know instincivly when it's time to hunker down and wait it out. Or that's how it seems from here anyway... 

Worth noting that we're coming up to the end of the year, which, of course means #festivevortex - looking at the calendar, we could do it on the 27th December, or if too many folks are busy, we can leave it until after the new year (3rd January) - I'll stick a poll up on twitter tonight to see, but either way, as usual, I need a couple of your favourite new tunes released during 2020, if you have 'em, to blend into a fine vortex mix, so get thinking, and mail 'em in!

Last Sunday in #LC-Land, @faberfedor was in the chair, sending us back to more halcyon days with his pick of Genesis' "A Trick Of The Tail", which charmed and baffled the assembled in equal measures, as would probably be expected. Thanks to Sir Faber for the pick, and for sailing the frisb back over here to Me, @kleptones, so...

"Not much I can say about this album that won't give it away (although if you know the artist you'll recognise their voice immediately). It's definitely a "me" kind of record, as it's a re-interpretation of an existing work of one of my all-time favourites, someone who really understood what was going on around them, socially and politically, and suffered both the euphoric joys and mental anguish that such knowledge and awareness can bring. Having said that, this is a far more personal piece than some of their more well-known stuff, but no less powerful for it.

Taking on even a small slice of this artist's legacy is a tall order, but the musicians involved have done a beautiful job, and to anyone hearing this person for the first time and enjoying it, I'd suggest digging into their large and varied back catalogue. There's a lot of awesome music & words there, and this is a fine addition to their legacy.

(Oh, and it's another short one, only 37 minutes - wish it was longer!)

Hope you enjoy."

Download's here, and the stream's below:

See you at 8pm GMT.

The Listening Club - 6th December 2020

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing fine and keeping safe. Everything's twinkly in Amsterdam, as the Dutch festive season gathers momentum (it is huge, starting with the arrival of Sinterklaas on the dutch shores in Mid-November, then a couple of weeks of small present giving, hitting its first peak yesterday with Saint Nicholas Day, and after that you have the more globally-familiar Xmas in a couple of weeks - kids have got it made here!). It's a bit overkill, but all the windows festooned with (tasteful, natch) lights along the streets and canals are indeed very pretty, and everyone's in a good mood, even if social distancing seems to have gone out the window (our infection numbers are going back up, grr). Swings & roundabouts, as usual.

Last Sunday chez #LC, @wojsvenwoj was in the chair, throwing down some rave goth pop sensibilities with his pick of Night Club's "Die Die Lullabye", which got the assembled doing the bat shuffle quite successfully. Thanks to Woj for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across to @faberfedor, who's here with tonight's intro...

"I'm not even going to try to be coy about this artist. You know them. You love them. At least in their first incarnation. In their final incarnation, *JonStewart* eh...maybe not so much.*JonStewart*

This is one of my favorite albums, although I haven't listened to it in years. I understand it did well on the other side of the pond but I honestly don't know anyone on this side who is aware of it. Although it is quite similar to previous albums with their lush instrumentation and inventive lyrical ideas, (and the decidely British sensiblities) this particular one seems...brighter? Pop-ier? 

A month or so ago I asked Google Home to play it and have done so several times since. I always end up walking around with all manner of ear worms for the next week or two. I hope it does the same for you."

Okaydoke. Download's here, and stream's below:

See you 8pm GMT.