The Listening Club - 22nd June 2025

Hello Listening Clubbers

It's Holette sitting in this week to send you a warm welcome “croeso cynnes” from the mountains of North Wales. Big thanks to @spiny for their cool debut pick last week of Up A Tree by Looper. We chatted about Scottish accents, made jokes about the Velvet Underground and spotted samples, so, a great use of time on a Sunday IMHO.

Big thanks to my co-host @saucer for handling tonight’s technicals as we hand over to, well, me, for this week’s selection.

“As some of our number ponder which combination of spangly tops, Aztec ponchos and 24 hour party/hiking shoes to pack for their Somerset camping trip, I thought I’d pick a suitably summery confection.

“I heard a shimmering pop psyche track by this band last year and was inspired to explore more. I found an album that starts in one mood and progresses into something more unexpected. This duo features a leading percussionist and multi instrumentalist so listen out for some nuanced rhythms and textures underneath the floaty vocals.

“As always, interested to hear the variety of reactions from you’s lot.”

Drinking club: Mine’s an Aperol Spritz. Iechyd da/cheers!

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

See you 20:00 BST (GMT+1) tonight.

P.S. Next week it’s the last Sunday of the month, so today let’s talk vortex themes.

The Listening Club - 15th June 2025

 Hello there!

This is Corin here (nom-de-plume @corin_ja) standing in for @kleptones as he's away on his regular summer-time hollibobs. Hoping everyone is in good form? It's been a hot'n'humid week here in southeast London, UK, interrupted only by a couple of welcome thunderstorms overnight. Not enough rain for the flower pots but at least the electricity clears the air for a short while.

It was @AqiDrago's turn in the chair last week, who regaled us with her choice of the VAST album (yes, it was a double-disc but that's the name of the band) Turquoise & Crimson from 2006, which certainly kept the Club engaged and entertained, it seems, for the whole running time. Thanks indeed to Aqi Drago for the pick, and thanks also for hurling the frisbaton of selection responsibility over to @Spiny who was this to say about their debut at the helm:

"Slightly overwhelmed to be asked to do this, but here goes ...

I've been thinking about what I'd offer up to listeningclub for literally years, it needs to be good, 

but not so good that everyone knows it, but not so obscure that its just bad.

So for my first time here i've chosen an album I got many years ago as it was a 'side project' of a 

band I love, they have done at least five albums under this name, with the last release being in 2023, this however, is the very 

first one. It has some marvelous stories. I hope that it is new to at least some of you and that I haven't 

unwittingly chosen something that everyone knows :)"

Sounds intriguing. Download here and streaming link is below:

See you at 20:00 BST (GMT +1) tonight.

The Listening Club - 8th June 2025

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Mixed bag of a week here in Amsterdam, plenty of showers keeping the tourists hydrated as they zip about helplessly from place to place. Everything's looking and smelling nice and clean though, so there's that... Not so much of a concern personally as we're busy sorting and pre-packing, as I will be away for the next three Sundays, and am still looking for help running things here in my absence - if you can help, please reach out asap, thanks!

Last Sunday we had @AccordionBruce in the chair for his debut selection, for which, after some consideration, he decided to live up to his name with his pick of Accordion Tribe's 1998 eponymous debut album, which definitely opened the assembled's ears in positive ways, for sure. Thanks to Bruce for the pick, and for sailing the frisb over to @AqiDrago, who's right here with tonight's intro...

"There are going to be some bigger changes happening in my life in the near future. For better or for worse, this chapter is coming to an end and another chapter is about to begin. It does come with uncertainty, discomfort and a dash of sadness. What better then to turn to comfort music from the past that I sought solace from in turbulent times. 

This is an artist whose albums I listened to up and down. One of the few I have listened to all of their music and loved it. I think their last single was out in 2018, I do hope they will create more music. 

Their music never gained popular international traction. Their material is all original and made by one person only. When they were 13, they were profiled as a promising guitarist in Guitar Player Magazine. I believe they are worth discovering and I’m happy to share their music with you all. 

As a drinking club suggestion choose something nostalgic."

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

See you 20:00 BST (GMT+1) tonight.

The Listening Club - 1st June 2025

Greetings, pinch and a punch and all that.

Hope you're doing okay. Good weather abounds here in Amsterdam, which is grand, as Summer finally beckons us, which means knuckling down and finishing the to-do list of spring cleaning that has yet to be done, in order to get on with making a right summer mess, of course. It is the way. Speaking of which, advance notice that I will be away for not one, not two, but three consecutive Sundays in June - 15th, 22nd and 29th, so if you feel like giving us an administative hand for one or more of those Sundays, please let me know, I'd appreciate it.

Last Sunday, as is end of month, a #DayTripToVortexOnSea was agreed, and with @saucer at the wheel, a mighty fine time was had by all. Thanks to everyone for chipping in tunes, and the aforementioned gent for the fine audio routemap. Moving back to regularly-scheduled programming, we find @AccordionBruce holding the frisb with this to say by way of introduction to his debut pick...

"My first time picking, so hard to choose. 

Then accordionist started dying this past few weeks, so that led me to put non-squeezebox choices on the shelf. 

Bravely I offer perhaps my favourite from more than 5,000 accordion albums I own. This one helped kickstart the squeezebox obsession that got me into an almost 20 year radio “career”, a book, and otherwise spending an inordinate amount of time listening to other people playing this instrument. Still remains solidly not only one of my favorites, but one I recommend to people when I want to open their ears to the instrument a bit.

It's among the top “I didn’t know accordions could sound like that” records I know of. All acoustic, with no wild electronics on this one (those I have to save for other accordion records). It seems like a brave pick, it’s kind of long, we’re entering the CD era so they had 75 minutes to fill up, and did. There's lots of short pieces going from one flavour to another, so if one piece is annoying don’t worry it won’t last long. Feel free to put it on and do dishes or something. Turn it up and wait for somebody to walk by and say, “What are you listening to?” Great record for playing loud with the top down for the neighbourhood to hear.

There’s more than one accordionist/composer, so the texture gets rich and varied. If you look at the waveform you can see it's very healthy, and demonstrates the dynamic range of the instrument, with its ability to play quite loudly and very quietly.

Games to play: 

a. How many accordions are there (varies on different pieces)? 

b. Try to guess how many different composers there are in the group.

c. Where are the players from? What kind of instruments are they playing? (There’s I think one non-accordion in there.)

It’s a live recording taken from a series of shows. You can hear the performers having a good time, making a few mistakes, goofing a bit, and the audiences' response. Wish I could have been there.

There’s a film documentary about this tour that’s worth seeing. Just a joy."

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

See you 20:00 BST (GMT+1)