The Listening Club - 17th March 2024

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing good. More spring signs across the city as blossom appears here and there, and a general spread of buds on the wisteria and lilac has appeared around the outside of the house, which is very welcome. Also with the seasonal change comes the occasional flurry of lost-looking tourists squinting at their phone-maps and trying to figure out where the hell they are. All as it should be really,

Last Sunday @EastVanHalen was in the chair, spinning soulful Egyptian sounds in the shape of Al Massrieen's "Modern Music", a compilation of 70s & 80s tracks put out in 2017 by the esteemed Habibi Funk label, which got everyone grooving most effectively, I'd say. Many thanks to Steph for the pick and for sailing the frisb across to, me @kleptones, so it's time to go all italic for tonight's intro...

"...right then. 

I deliberately left tonight's pick to the last minute, as I knew we were heading out to see Underworld last night, which would definitely influence what I wanted to pick tonight. And so, unsurprisingly after having had my senses seriously pummeled for a few hours, tonight's pick is a somewhat gentler contrast to help soothe those jangled senses, and the inevitable hangover, natch.

I'm surprised I've never picked this artist before (had to go and check the list to be sure) as their music has been a regular listen ever since I first discovered them over 15 years ago, but there you go. 

I think also this is the first time someone has picked a solo instrumental album for #LC, but I'll probably be proved wrong by someone. I'm sure there are similar musicians dotted around the world (you may know of one or two), but in this instance the discovery happened to be a reasonably local person (from Hastings, not far from my old home in Brighton), which allowed me the opportunity to see them perform close-to-home several times in appropriately intimate environments.

As usual I'm reluctant to say much more, other than to warn that this is a rather deep and spacious listen, so feel free to get comfortable in advance - you may even nod off, which is fine - I'm really not expecting the hashtag chat to be super lively either, although as always, you never know..

The album dates from 2007, but it's a little short, so I've attached a bonus track from their following album at the end, partially to extend the mood, and partially because the track in question is really beautiful, so consider it a pre-attched after-party tune.

Hope you enjoy!"

Okidoke, download's here, stream's below:

See you at 20:00 GMT tonight!