The Listening Club - 2nd November 2014

Hello there,

Jeeps, another 20-odd degree weekend in Amsterdam? Hottest November day since 1984 (and before that 1948) say the bods. Yay to that. Sadly daylight saving has pushed the sun away an hour earlier, so back inside earlier to tap away at this...

Last week, holy mackerel fillets, was the #exquisitecorpsevortex, which will provide anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists with fuel for years to come, figuring out exactly how those connections got made. An overall travel vibe for sure, but even in some of the selections that didn't have a perambulating precursor. Hive mind at play, or pure chance? We'll never know... Big fun regardless, huge thanks to you all for your participation!

Back in regular mode, kinda, @mrhig is currently on holiday in the US 'o' A, but has sent forth a missive... here he is.

"Set phasers to glum!

I promised myself after choosing several men in a row for my Listening Club picks when I have been passed the frisbee previously that the next time I got an opportunity to choose something to play for everyone, I would pick a woman, or a female-fronted band. After all, I listen to a lot of music that fits into that category too and it doesn't seem fair for men to get all the attention.

Since then it seems that the last few listening club picks have been of women, but that's no reason to renege on my own flimsily-imposed selection criteria.

This artist is so infamous for the following characteristic that it probably almost counts as a spoiler to even mention it, but the woman I have gone for is known (perhaps unfairly) for shoe-gazing, for inward-looking, and for writing many songs that seem to be about failed or failing relationships or a life gone irrecoverably wrong with no light at the end of the tunnel.

No, it's not Taylor Swift.

So it seemed fitting to choose an album by this artist the very title of which was conceived as a "Screw You" to people who want you to be cheery. Sometimes life isn't cheery. Sometimes the right thing to do isn't to plaster an artificial frozen rictus onto your face to make other people feel comfortable.

I think the following album is a good reflection of some of what this artist is capable; superb lyrics, evocative themes and beautiful melodies. She also has a way with writing the odd short, succinct song which nevertheless is complete in and of itself. If you think this whole album is a dreary downer, we may have been listening to different things. 

There's something American about this series of vignettes of characters' lives, too, which suits my current position and location as we're vacationing in California at the moment. Enjoy!"

Right then. Direct download is here and the Mixcloud ("Surprise Ruiner of the year 2013") link is here.

The Listening Club - 26th October 2014

Greetings to you all,

Hope you're doing fine. A gentle weekend here in Amsterdam for a change, partially due to a cancelled gig, but a good opportunity to recharge batteries, make plans, and pop down the road for a few random Belgian beers. All well and good.

Meanwhile, last week, @andershanson was in the chair, sending out "Feel It Break" by Austra, to a warm response from the assembled. Many thanks to Anders for the pick, and for flipping the frisbee across to @mrhig for next week's selection.

But now.... wowzers, it's time to reveal the wonders of the #exquisitecorpsevortex! Yes, 16 tracks, each connected to the one before by one of our selectors to create one mighty Frankenstein's monster of a hive-mind mixtape (see this post for the full explanation of how it came together, too lazy to type it all out again). This is about as wide-ranging a selection as we've ever had, not surprisingly, but does it flow? Hang on to your pants, folks, we're about to find out...

Direct download is here and the Mixcloud (let's see how many of these it recognises, eh?) link is here.

Clocks have changed here in Europeland, so see you at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 19th October 2014

Hello hello,

Fine weekend here in Amsterdam, hope you're all doing okay - Yesterday's freakish warmth (22°C) and sun brought out pretty much everyone in town and provided a lovely backdrop to the Stedelijk Museum's Alvin Lucier festival - a bucket list achievement for me to see the man himself (a very well preserved 83) perform "I Am Sitting In A Room", which blew my tiny mind when I discovered it on late night radio as an early teen. Meanwhile the rest of the city has been throbbing to a 4-4 pulse, as the annual Amsterdam Dance Event goes off all around, and the city's hipster quotient consequently goes through the roof for a few days.

Thanks to everyone who volunteered for the #exquisitecorpsevortex experiment - we're six tunes in, and ten more to go, so if you can turn your choices around as quick as possible it would be very much appreciated! I've avoided listening to what's coming in, but going by the names and reasons for choice, this is going to be quite an impressive beast when it's completed - can't wait to play it all back next Sunday!

Last week, @JonnyDaPigg was in the chair, and hit everyone with Kate Tempest's "Everybody Down" to almost overwhelmingly positive effect - many thanks to Jonny for the pick, and for pushing @AndersHanson back into the front line for this week - and here he is with the pre-match...

"Just two months after my debut pick for Listening Club, the baton has been handed to me yet again.  After rummaging through my albums (if rummaging is something that's possible to do in iTunes) I ended up settling on the album that was the runner-up the first time round.

This band I discovered once again through an iTunes free single, but after my first listen it was forgotten and just languished in the dusty recesses of my laptop before I rediscovered it late last year when I then played it obsessively for several weeks, found the full album and then listened to that obsessively too.  

It's a bit electronic, a bit dreamy, very synthy, with a bit of pop, some theatrical vocals and with some dark moody beats thrown in.  With every listen I discover something new."

Direct download is here and the Mixcloud (doomy gloomy song title warning) link is here.

See you at 8pm BST!

The Listening Club - 12th October 2014

Hey there,

@kleptones here, back again after wringing the last few drops out of the Summer in Brighton - Seriously, sun-kissed drinks on the beach in October? Veh nice. Mind you, B-town is now pretty much under water following a few days of hyper-torrential rain so looks like we got out of there just in time, Snowy, eh?

Couple of admin notes to, er, note - I'm away now last two weekends in November - Jim's not around for the first one either so as usual we need caretaker-managers to run the 23rd Nov and the whatever-it-ends-up-being vortex on the 30th Nov. So don't be shy, step up and help a brother out!

Speaking of vortexy things, I had another one of those kerrazy kleptone koncepts (no acronyms please) occur to me the other day, which I'd like to propose either for this or future times - An "Exquisite Corpse" Vortex (appropriate for Halloween? Maybe...)

Kind of inspired by @akx asking if he could submit his own mixtape the other week, I thought, well, "What if we all made a mixtape together? but twisted in a way that only #LC can do?"

So here's the proposal - Everyone that wants to participate lets me know, I put you all in a list, starting with me (cos I'm da boss, innit). I start by picking a tune, I send that tune to the next person on the list, they listen, and pick a tune that is linked to the previous one somehow, either in style, meaning, artist, whatever, etc.... and send it back to me the next day with the reason. I send that tune to the next person sans reason, they pick a tune to go with that one, etc.. etc... so we end up (hopefully) with an exquisite corpse of a mix, that might make some sense, or might go off on a million tangents.... you get me?

Anyhoo, pitching this now so folks have time to think and respond... if everyone's in favour I'll start collecting names for the list tonight - would love it if as many of you as possible can join in, even if you won't be around for the playback (26th Oct) - only proviso is that folks need to be able to respond in 24hrs, so we have time to get through it all without me having to do any hassling.

Okay. Last week, in my absence, Jim was running things, and @akx was in the chair, picking out Crystal Fighters "Star Of Love", which got some highly positive responses from you all. Big thanks to Aarni for the selection, and for flipping the frisbee across to @jonnydapigg for this week, and here he is...

"Rights then, not gonna say a massive amount here other than this would have been my last pick had the pesky world cup not been a distraction. 

This is one of those rare albums in my collection that wasn't a recommendation (I actually saw track five randomly on soundcloud and caned it). I draw comparisons to another album in my collection as the flow/style has a similar feel, be interesting if anyone else makes the same.

Hope you all enjoy,"

Reety ho, Direct download is here and the Mixcloud (doomy gloomy song title warning) link is here.

See you at 8pm BST!

The Listening Club - 5th October 2014

Greetings and salutations!

@JimMcCauley here for the last time until, well, next time @kleptones goes off on his travels, I imagine. Summer's giving it a last hurrah here in Bath and I've pretty much shaken off the last of my hangover from my Friday night leaving drinks; much alcohol consumed and shit talked, and I spent most of yesterday feeling completely dreadful yet pleasingly short on remorse. (Cheeky aside: need a freelance writer? Get in touch!)

Last week! Oh yes, last week. Whether it was songs you love by bands you hate, or just the one song you like by a particular band, last week's #sylbbyhvortex was a troll-tastic assortment of tunes that provoked plenty of internet rage and the very real threat of the lot of us leaving in a huff. All the best of friends again in the showers afterwards, though, so well done, all.

(We should get thinking about this month's vortex, now; are we going to do something Halloween-related or is last year's Scary as Fuck Vortex too much to top? Have a bit of a ponder.)

And so to @akx with this week's selection. Take it away, Aarni!

"Hello, hello!

So! I originally had a couple options lined up for this week's pick, but then I started second-guessing myself and picked a couple more for a shortlist (after my thought of making a mixtape was shot down – on good grounds, too, mind). Then I began having trouble deciding which of those to pick, so I ended up just choosing this one, which was my first option to begin with. So it goes.

So yeah, (shortly – I'm not good with this blurb thing) about this particular pick! I came across this album some months back and more or less immediately figured "yeah, this might be interesting to play for the LC massive", so here we are.

Oh, and it's not avant-garde black metal, sorry @samsmitter."

Right right! Direct download is here, Mixcloud (and we all know about Mixcloud and song titles by now, don't we?) link is here.

See you at 8PM! BST! (And if you want to ensure you start bang on time, this is a good place to synchronise watches.)

The Listening Club - 28th September 2014

Greetings folks,

Well I'm back again, following another mighty dose of Kate Bush and a gentle couple of days on family tech-support duties sorting out a new laptop for my mum. One more flyaway for me next weekend and I'm done for a bit, which will probably be welcome news to Jim, who has been doing a sterling job keeping this ticking over in my absence...

Last week @samsmitter was in the hot seat, and sent forth a cracking selection of highlights from the Lee Scratch Perry box set "Arkology". A mightier set of tunes you'd be hard pushed to find, I must say. Many thanks to Sam for the selection, and for flipping the frisbee to @akx for next week...

...but first, behold the "Songs You Like By Bands You Hate" Vortex! (or #sylbbyhvortex, if you like) Yes, we have 16 songs that occupy a rather unique and lonely place in your collective collections - and some real surprises too, I'm pleased to say...

So get grabbing... Download is here (link  at top middle of page) and the Mixcloud stream (song titles, spoilers, etc.) is here!

See you at 8pm BST!

The Listening Club - 21st September 2014

Hallo, chums!

It's @JimMcCauley here again because @kleptones is off for another helping of Kate Bush, damn him. Me, I'm making the most of a splendidly sunny day in Bath by getting some washing done and wondering whether I should mow the lawn now or save it for later in the week when I become unemployed (or rather, self-employed; back to the life of a freelance writer for me). Exciting times!

Last week @mutster101 stepped up to the decks and spun Lissie's 2010 debut, "Catching a Tiger", which went down nicely with the #listeningclub masses. Thanks to him for the pick, and for aiming the frisbee squarely at @samsmitter, who will address you presently.

Before that, next week's #vortex that I just remembered about! As suggested by @Holette, it's the Songs You Love By Bands You Hate vortex, which hashtags nicely down to #sylbbyhvortex. Get your thinking implements out and bung a pick (or two, bearing last month's rather short vortex in mind) to Eric during the week. And now here's Sam with this week's pick:

"This is a compilation (not mine, this is not another mix tape!) showcasing a truly legendary producer and former champion domino player. The actual full compilation is a 3-CD set, all of which is great stuff and very interesting, but I have trimmed it down to respectable sub-one-hour listening club size. That was a tough job, but I did it for you guys.

The music here sounds so fresh and innovative to me that it is hard to believe it was made at the time it was made, on the equipment it was made on. But it was. The producer also wrote most of the songs here, although the artists and singers are a mixture. This is a genre I have picked before (quite a while back now), but I’m not sure that anyone else has, and when I met up with some LC people it was generally agreed we could do with a bit more of this sort of thing. So, I hope it hits a Sunday sweet spot for you .. Sam x"

Mega. Download is here and the Mixcloud stream (song titles, spoilers, etc.) is here!

See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)!

(And if anyone fancies a bit of an after-party, what say we freshen up our drinks after Sam's pick and have a 10th anniversary listen to Mr K's "A Night at the Hip-Hopera" at 9PM? Yeah? Yeah! In the unlikely event of you not already having it; grab it here.)