The Listening Club - 28th January 2024

@emmaprice here once again with the renegade master coming live from Amsterdam. As promised in last week's #listeningclub I shall be going on a hipster baiting Soapbar mission during my soujourn here.

Speaking of last week @iamwahl was in the chair and treated us to Don't Call Me Buckwheat by Garland Jeffreys which seemed to go down rather well with the assembled throng.  

The Frisbaton was deftly caught by @erimichkea who has another week to ponder their choice as tonight we're delving into the world of Albert Camus with our 'In the Depths of Winter, I Finally Learned that Within Me There Lay an Invincible Summer' Vortex. As always huge thanks to @saucer for compiling and creating tonight's #Vortex

#ITDOWIFLTWMTLAIS #nowthatswhatIcallahashtag

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

The Listening Club - 21st January 2024

Greetings fellow lovers of the tune. @emmaprice here sitting in for our tunemeister while he's off to sunnier climes. Last week I was in the hotseat and treated you all to Funke & The Two Tone Baby and his 2023 release Reacclimate which seemed to go down rather well.

The frisbaton was deftly caught by @iamwahl who is here with this introduction

While this isn’t my most favourite album by this artist, like every other of their albums I possess, it remains in the stack of recordings I regularly return to for repeated listens. There was a break in their career and, I must confess, I lost contact with them when there was nothing forthcoming for many years. Partly as a result of this, I didn’t discover this album until well after its initial release (yes, it was another thrift-store find), which in turn was more than a decade after the most recent of this artist’s recordings that I had originally fallen in love with. This may not be the most recognizable of this performer’s output (although in some locations it may be) but it is representative of the breadth of their creativity and articulate voice. This is personal. There is an angry bite here, that delivers a mouthful of sweetness. As Emma Goldman said, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution”—come on down to the barricades, raise your fist, and swivel those hips….

As it is (for some) #DryJanuary I’ll leave #DrinkingClub up to each participant’s whims…

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

The Listening Club - 14th January 2024

Hey folks, 

Hope you're all doing good - Pretty standard grey / wet here, with a little touch of clear / cold occasionally, but we're pretty much bedded into winter, which seems like a perfect time to head off to a different part of the world or two, which is what we're about to do - first decent trip away for a good few years, thanks to pandemics and other real world concerns, so we're seriously looking forward to it. Major thanks to @EmmaPrice & @Saucer who have offered to take over management here whilst we're away - never know though, we might be tuning in from a distance if we get a chance, will have to wait and see... either way, see you in a month or so!

Last Sunday, we marked the changing of the years in customary #LC style with the 2023 #FestiveVortex, 33 slices of super-varied sounds, the mixing of which always causes no end of furrowed brows for me, so thanks for the post-playback props, it's always very much appreciated!

Looking back into '23, we see the aforementioned @EmmaPrice was left holding the frisbee, so over to her for the first #LC intro of '24...

"Evening all, hope 2024 is treating you well so far.

You know when you start getting to know someone better and realise you've found a musical sibling who reacts in the same way you do to the music that's within your soul. Someone who reminds you why you love a certain track or the way someone makes a guitar sing. It opens the door to the very heart of who you are and what's important in your world. I've had that experience recently and it's intoxicatingly glorious. My first gig with this person was this artist in an intimate London venue late last year and it was one of my gigs of the year. I've not done the final tally yet but my band count for last year is 150+ so you can understand why I'm so excited to share tonight's artist with you.

When the frisbaton landed I instantly knew I was picking this album. It was such a refreshing change to not have pickers angst/doing the whole shortlisting process.

This artist was a Boomtown Festival discovery thanks to a late night chat backstage with someone I met in a mosh pit due to his most excellent band shirt. Once I'd recovered from going to bed at 10am on the final day I started listening to this artists work and was immediately hooked. This album came out in October and has been on pretty constant rotation for me since. Only reason I didn't put a track into the best of 2023 vortex was not spoilering tonight.

Drinking Club is something yellow - White wine/beer/cider all count by my reckoning :)"

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

See you 20:00 GMT tonight!

The Listening Club - 7th January 2024

Greetings folks, and Happy New Year to you all.

Hope you've had an enjoyable one, whatever you've been up to. Been a gentle time here in Amsterdam, eating, drinking and conversing as befits the season - not much partying, but we're saving that for later this month when we vacate the premises for a few weeks (from Sun 21st Jan for 4 Sundays!) . Thanks to those of you who have offered services to keep this ship running in my absence - I will be in touch on M-don in the next few days to discuss the details - and still open to more offers of help if you're so incluned, please let me know.

Way back in time, we saw @Woj on frisbee duty, playing his traditional end-of-year game of "I wonder what that's like?! with "Data" by Tainy, which definitely got the assembled bopping in an early-xmas-party-where's-the-punch sort of way. Thanks extended for the pick and for sailing the frisb over to @EmmaPrice, who has had a serious amount of time to consider her pick, and still a week more to go, because...

...Yeah, it's that time again, when the best new sounds that passed through your ears in the preceding year gather together in one place to duke it out, it's the 2023 Festive Vortex - This year a bumper crop of 33 selections, from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again, encased in just over two hours of playtime (looks like we're going to have to restrict submissions a bit in future, eh?, especially if folks insist on picking such long tunes, hemhem!).

Anyway, much like 2023 itself, it is what is was, so download here, stream below:

See you at 20:00 GMT Tonight. Bring leftovers!