The Listening Club - 30th October 2022

Happy Samhain and all that to you.

Hope you're all doing good. Unseasonably warm here in Amsterdam, but very overcast, which makes for some rather odd daytime activities. Looks cold out, but it ain't. Still keeping up the gig calendar with a cinema viewing of the (excellent) King Crimson documentary, and a gentle bounce around to Soweto's finest, BCUC (the huge burger I'd just consumed prohibited anything more, doh), in between the seemingly gargantuan annual task of listening through this years Le Guess Who line up... but hey, good to be keeping busy, fo sho.

Last Sunday we had that @simonlandmine in the chair, pausing his Whitby packing to deliver "Yggdrasil" from Wardruna, which went down pretty well with most assembled folks, despite its definite marmiteyness. Thanks to Simon for the pick, and for sailing the frisb over to @faberfedor who has an extra week to consider because...

Yep, #vortex time, and to celebrate the changing of the clocks n all that, a #timevortex it is, as gathered and assembled by @akx. Download is here, or here, and the stream is below:

So... see you at 8pm (20:00) GMT tonight!

The Listening Club - 23rd October 2022

Greetings folks, 

Hope you're all doing okay. Yep @kleptones back from a last minute weekend away in Paris with @nessiest to see the wondrous Angelique Kidjo perform her version of Talking Heads' "Remain In Light" album, which you may remember I picked for a Sunday listen a couple of years back. She doesn't often do a full show around the album, so in lieu of a closer one, Paris it was, which was grand, as there's plenty else to keep you occupied in the city of lights, and plenty of fine food and wine to consume whilst you're doing so... 

Anyhoo, next week is end of the month, which means #vortex time, so get your thinkiing caps on for a theme as per the usual. Also advance notice that imma gonna be away again (Sun 13th Nov) as it's Le Guess Who time again, so anyone that can fill in - please come forward if you can, it doesn't take long, and as it seems evident that @JimMcCauley is really fuckin' busy right now, I'd rather not we rely on his good nature all the time, eh?

Anyways, that very same @JimMcCauley was doing that very same favour last Sunday, which saw @zbendr flip his schedule to bring everyone Naima Bock’s “Giant Palm”, which seemed to go down well, if the tweets are anything to go by. After that the frisb sailed half way around the world to @simonlandmine, who's here with tonight's intro:

"I was initially undecided which end of my shortlist to go with this time, but what with my last pick having been at the rocky end, the conversation about slower music last week, and the time of year (the rapid approach of Gothmas), this seemed suitable.

I've missed a couple of opportunities to see this act live, but I can't recall now exactly how they came to my attention around the time they released their first album - it certainly wasn't from any prior knowledge of the band two of the members were previously in. After a

bit of due diligence, I've picked up all of their albums to date. Since I got this, their second release, they've attracted slightly more general attention and, depending on your viewing habits, you may

recognise some of the tracks - although given the musical awareness you all have, I'll probably find more than half of you have the album already. They are also now on a major label, which may mean more chances for me to miss seeing them live, which it seems is quite the experience.

This does seem like an album to listen to while the nights draw in, probably with the lights down very low."

Right then. Download's here, stream's below:

See you 8pm BST (GMT+1) for the last time this year, clocks go back NEXT WEEK.

The Listening Club – 16th October 2022

Ahoy there, listening chums! @kleptones (along with @nessiest) is away in Paris this weekend, so I (@JimMcCauley, natch) have found a window in my ludicrously packed schedule to do the thing. Getting it out of the way nice and early so that I can research and start writing an article for tomorrow, before heading off to one rehearsal (The Railway Children, Rondo Theatre, Bath, 24-26 November) then maybe catching the last hour of another (Beauty and the Beast, Rondo Theatre, Bath, 12-15 January). All of which means I won't be joining you this evening, but frankly that's how it's mostly going to be for the next three months.

*scrolls back through TweetDeck #listeningclub column* So apparently last week @ohmyliver was on duty and treated everyone to The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend, which, it would appear, went down very well with the assembled as well as triggering memories of drinking Thunderbird. So thanks to Oli for the pick, and for eventually hitting @zbendr with the frisbaton. Look, here he is now!

"Don't wallow, luxuriate!

This record came to me recently at a changing/pivoting time of my life. Was I down? Relieved? Unburdened? Seeing clearly?

Yes.

The record goes and ebbs and flows and pushes and pulls at your feelings, but it never toys with your emotions. It's all at once familiar and unusually unique: it's like a few things but unlike most things.

Give it a chance and see if it puts a little dent in you…?

The FLAC is only CD-resolution, as I couldn't source a high-resolution/high-sample rate version. But it sounds noice in headphones and phat stax alike."

All righty, then. Ben's provided a FLAC download here, but if that's a bit much for you, I've done an MP3 version that you can grab here. Alternatively, stream below.

I won't see you at 8PM (BST), but enjoy! (And don't break anything.)

The Listening Club - 9th October 2022

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing good. Cool but bright weekend here in Amsterdam, which is nice, he says, standing in a sunny window sipping coffee and watching a variety of tourists wandering off the beaten track and getting lost. No gig to go to tonight, which makes a change after three Sunday gigs in a row, but I'll be making up for it next weekend with a gig excursion to foreign climes, therefore I'll be needing someone to run things here, please let me know if you can help, thanks!

Last Sunday saw @saucer in the chair, slicing off the first "disc" of the new Stereolab complation, "Pulse Of The Early Brain", which included their collaborations with Nurse With Wound (which pleases me considerably, as I've always hoped NWW would end up here somehow by a process of collective osmosis). As expected it delighted and boggled in equal measures, so thanks to Murray for the pick and for sailing the frisb over to @ohmyliver, who's here with tonight's intro...

"Sometimes albums come to you like they're fated.  Like the universe is saying ‘this should be your soundtrack for now’.  I had rinsed a track from this last year, but never got around to listening to the rest of it until a few weeks ago.  

The album’s title is tragically ironic. It’s full of rhythm and blues, funky, replete with funk tropes like the sort of utterances that a buttoned-up cat like myself can only make if I stub my toe really badly. It also has an obvious nod towards late 60s heavy rock. It grooves, but in places it also moves.  There seems to be a pretty dark backstory to it as well, going by an interview with one of the musicians who worked on it that I recently watched on YouTube.

This album has been sampled by a veritable who's-who of ‘80s and ‘90s Hip Hop. From Public Enemy, to A Tribe Called Quest, to The Sugar Hill Gang, to Eric B and Rakim, to Double Dee and Steinski, to The Wu Tang Clan, etc etc. Also the call and response spoken, vocals  on one of the tracks is clearly a precursor to hip-hop. 

The artist was famed for gigging constantly for years, but only released a handful of singles, and this album, in the years they were active. It’s got a fairly well known producer, who you might be able to name by the fx/production/percussion on some of the tracks.  Both the producer, and band, were part of a close knit scene of influential Chicago soul musicians/groups

There’s a good chance that people might know the album, but it’s a mostly great album which hasn’t been picked before, so I’m taking that risk.

Drinking recommendations for those who do, is a specific brand of fortified wine, popular in the late 80s/early 90s with British students, goths, punks, and assorted people whose cash-strapped need to get drunk outstripped the needs of their taste buds."

Right then, download's here, stream's below:

See you 8pm BST (GMT+1 while stocks last!)

The Listening Club - 2nd October 2022

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing good. Amsterdam is settling into early autumn as previously reported, but despite forecasts to the contrary (and event cancellations resulting), it's dry, mild and sunny right now, which is jolly nice, as we're off out soon for a bite to eat and then entertainment in the shape of Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets, so there you go.

Quick note that due to another addition to the gigging calendar, I'll not be around on Sunday 16th October, so if anyone is available to do this here shebang, please let me know, otherwise it'll be awful quiet...

Last Sunday, we were wringing out the last of the mourning whine with our #royalvortex, which definitely covered the full range of regal interpretations. Many thanks to all who chipped in tunes, and to @saucer for wrangling and assembling. The very same @saucer is now also here clutching the frisbaton with this to say by way of introduction to tonight's pick...

"Once again, the challenge of the hot seat for LC sent me down a hundred musical rabbit holes, which is so, so fun. Again I'm reminded that our kind (humans) produce an incredible amount of beautiful audio art, each piece of it an act of resistance against fascism/dullness/amorality/stupidity.

The first two tracks on this record come from a pairing of artists you might not expect to even be aware of each other, let alone collaborate to create something so wonderfully of a piece. The other tracks have less odd provenance but are apparently not available for streaming or download... outside of this taster for Listening Club. I hope you enjoy.

Suggested pairing: chocolate."

Right then, download's here, stream's below:

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