The Listening Club - 3rd May 2015

Hello there and happy May Day weekend!

Hope all is fine where you are, here in A-dam work continues apace in Kleptone / Nessiest towers, the wall of wardrobes is up and filled (shitty partition walls notwithstanding), the pile of empty cardboard boxes grows towards critical mass, the internet is pumping the desired 200Mbits out of the correct hole in the wall (but still needs a boost around the outer regions) and the kitchen almost lives (ETA this time tomorrow we hope). So ends the "month of sorting"... we're getting there and enjoying it. Hoorah!

Back in #LC land, last week we dug out the only swingometer that matters and voted in the #electionvortex, a mighty fine selection of opinionated selections, to be sure. Thanks to you all for chipping in your tracks! On regular turf again this week, we find @emmaprice clutching the frisbee, and lo...

"Greetings Listening Clubbers

At 8pm tonight I shall be speeding my way across the country as I'm spending the day on our election battlebus. Will do my best to play along (mobile signal permitting) 

I've had this album in mind for quite a while as a potential Listening Club pick. With the election crazy going on I've not had a chance to angst about my pick at all which makes a change.

Picture the scene;: I'm 17 (uber shy with my head stuck in a book) and on the road of discovery music wise. My 6th form colleagues were mostly into chart pop but there were a couple of indie kids (unsurprisingly the geeks and gamers) who were up for seeking out new and exciting kinds of music. 

I think this is probably one of the first bands where I was excited about them from the first couple of singles. I was so eager for this album to come out so I could hear more from them. I can remember going into Virgin Megastore in Bromley  after school on the day it was released to get my hands on it. It was a bit of a game changer for me as a somewhat isolated teen and resulted in much singing along at home and wishing I was like the lead singer.  

Tis a short but hopefully sweet one

Quick plea to my UK compatriots. Please vote on Thursday. Unless you're a secret right wing twunt.

much love"

Direct download is here (full download link at top of page), and the mixcloud is here.

See you at 8pm BST!

The Listening Club - 26th April 2015

Greetings,

Hope all is good with y'all. A bit of a buggy day here in A-dam, as DIY irritation hits Kleptone/Nessiest Towers - Seriously, aerated concrete partition walls can fuck the fuck off right now. Apart from that mission, in areas of the new place where solid concrete rules, is jolly nice to see all our stuff go up on happy shelves, and for me, all my remaining stuff to come out of storage. Vinyl! Decks! Etc! Jolly, jolly nice to see it all again. Also the weather is lousy, which has put a bit of a damper on King's Day time, but so it goes, we will have major fun whatever happens, as you lot mostly now will understand....

Last week @mrhig was in the chair, and hit us with Arcade Fire's "Reflektor", to general thumbs up ranging from C+ to A- I think.... thanks to Matt for the pick and for flipping the frisb across to @emmaprice for next time, but first...

Yes, which side are you on folks? We are about to find out with the #electionvortex, as the UK gears up for a spring/summer of human debasement in the form of governmental electorials, here's 18 lessons that need to be learned, or not, as the case may be...

Direct download is here (full download link at top of page), and the mixcloud is here.

See you at 8pm BST!

The Listening Club - 19th April 2015

Hello hello,

Hope you're all doing fine - Still brightening up apace in Amsterdam, with King's Day just around the corner too, amazing to think it was only a year ago that you fine folks decended upon the city - helluva lot has happened in that year for sure...

Also King's Night will fall next Sunday, which means #vortex time again - still looking for a theme, so suggestions on the tweets please, will update here when a decision has been reached!

Last week our "wee drink" on the stoop ended up in a spontaneous long evening session around the bars of West Amsterdam (dangerous thing to do on a Sunday night, hemhem), so both myself and @nessiest missed @mutster101's pick of the soundtrack to Wim Wender's film "Until The End Of The World" but it looks like Wim's collection of famous friends kept everyone amused (agree with the consensus also, don't bother watching the film, it's rather tedious!). Thanks to Gareth for the pick and for spinning the frisbee across to @mrhig for this week's pick, and here he is with the blurb...

"There are two sides to everything. No one thing is just that one thing.

Take life. Take death. One can't exist without the other. Neither mean a thing on their own. Both are required to make sense of things. You need to have lived for death to have meaning. You need to die for life to have a point.

Why fear one but not the other?

There are places where death is… not embraced, but celebrated, yes. Many areas of the world believe that at times the lines between the geography of life and death are paper thin, but some places don't see that as a bad or scary thing. If we aren't so scared of death; if we keep death in sight and in mind more often; then those that have gone to the other side aren't so far away - and, when it comes to our allotted time, we won't be so scared of joining them because they'll have always been with us.

Some are more than happy to stay on the side we're accustomed to, not to reach out and fully explore our reflection. I can understand that. For instance, tonight's selection is a record of two sides. It's a long one based on my personal barometer for what a record length should be. I'm often only really comfortable with an album being up to about 45 minutes long; this one goes well over an hour.

If you choose to turn back when this, the first side, is done, not to part the veil and look on what is ahead of us, I won't blame you. None of us will blame you. Seeing things from the other side can be scary, raw, perhaps dangerous. I'll give you a warning when we're meeting the point of no return.

But if you choose to hold on, to stay for the whole thing, I think you'll appreciate it. We can see the whole picture together. Both sides of the argument. Embrace what is beyond, see that there's little difference between there and here. You've nothing, really, to be afraid of. They've been among us all along. You'll join them one day.

But not today. Today, we celebrate."

Indeed. Direct download is here, and the mixcloud is...

The Listening Club - 19th April 2015 by Madame_Holette on Mixcloud

See you at 8PM BST!

The Listening Club - 12th April 2015

Hello hello,

Well yes, goddamit that warm shiny ball in the sky is out and proud and we're on the stoop sipping on Gin and Juice (@nessiest) and an IPA (me) and enjoying our first afternoon outside our new abode. Greeting neighbours, observing local cats and directing lost tourists. Very nice indeed.

In #LC land, last week @JimMcCauley was back in the chair, and dosed us all with obscure 90s UK indie-spin-off melodifereceness in the shape of Sing-Sing's "The Joy Of Sing-Sing", which smoothed out the bumps in the Sunday evening fabric quite nicely indeed. Thanks to Jim for the pick, and for flipping the frisbee across to @mutster101 for this week's pick. And here he is with the pre-match...

"There's all sorts of things I could tell you about my pick. I could tell you it's a movie soundtrack. I could tell you about the pretentious conceit behind it. I could tell you that you've almost certainly heard all of the artists involved, though you're unlikely to have heard all of these songs. I could tell you about how conflicted I was about including the title track, for reasons which will probably become apparent when you hear it. I could even tell you that the film itself is utter bollocks.

But really there's only one thing to say, because I want to make sure I get it in first:

Oh, GARETH!"

Reety-ho. Direct download is here, and the mixcloud is here (sorry no embed, I'm in a hurry...)

See you at 8PM BST!

The Listening Club - 5th April 2015

Greetings and happy buns and eggs day.

Spring has most definitely sprung here in Amsterdam, sun streaming in through the windows, inside still the huff puff of painting and moving stuff around in our new place, but now we're fully in, so no trekking home at the end of the night required, and now we have hot and cold running internets, #listeningclub is all well and good also.

Last week was indeed a victim of that huff-puffery - rare that we need to have a late start, apologies for that, but rather surprisingly, given it's slow start, the #walkofshamevortex more than made up for it. A seriously fine selection of moods indeed, from the deeply shamefull to beyond shameless. Many thanks to you all for your selections...

Back in the normal #LC zone, and t'other week @JimMcCauley was left holding the frisbee, and here he is with this week's intro...

"Blimey, it's nearly three years since my first Listening Club pick. I agonised over that one for days; this one's been a fair bit easier because after months of comfortable loafing, the work's suddenly picked up and I haven't had time to agonise over a mystery LP. However, it has something in common with my first pick insomuch as it's another case of someone who used to be in a (reasonably) well-known band that split, and this is their subsequent band.

Also, I discovered my original first pick for tonight through this person; love it to bits, but in the past couple of weeks it's suddenly become really popular (plus someone else mentioned it as a potential pick) so I thought I'd go for something a lot less obvious. It's nothing challenging; dreamy indie pop with plenty of influences and some pretty sharp production, which took a little while to grow on me but quickly became a firm favourite.

Now if you don't mind I have work to be getting on with; catch you later!"

Reety-ho. Direct download is here (link at the top of the page)

Listening Club - 5 April 2015 by Jedburgh on Mixcloud

See you at 8pm BST!

The Listening Club - 29th March 2015

Hey ho,

Yep, cutting it close to the wire this week, been a huff puff couple of weekends, cleaning and decorating the new place that myself and @nessiest are moving into - only 10 mins walk from my current place for those of you that know it - yay!

So, typing this with paint splattered fingers, last week @cakehugga did the honours in style with Chilly Gonzalez's soundtrack to the film "Ivory Tower", and very nice indeed it was too. Thanks to Gemma for the pick and for flipping the frisbee across to the venerable @JimMcCauley for next week...

But now, I think one of the trickiest vortexes for a while, but one that should quite obviously follow the #sexyvortexy, yes it's the #walkofshamevortex... or is it the #walkofshamelessvortex ? We have 20 fine examples to help you figure that one out...

Direct download is here (link at the top of the page), and the Mixcloud's here (bit fucking late sorry)

Oh and we're on British Summer Time, so see you in a few minutes!

Bye :)

The Listening Club - 22nd March 2015

Hey hey, guess who's back... yep, feeling rather tanned, and reasonably well rested, which took some doing as Marrakech is a pretty hectic place... and just in time to say hey Happy Birthday Listening Club! - Yep, three years ago this little social endeavour kicked off, so big yay all round for another year of cracking music!

Speaking of which, it's that #vortex time again next week, so if you have any ideas, chip them in tonight, okay?

Last week @saucer was in the hot seat, and provided a contentious dose with Mykki Blanco presents Gay Dog Food - some bopped, some didn't, some did "theoretically", and much debate was caused, which was grand. Thanks to @saucer for the pick and for skimming the frisbee out to a slightly unsuspecting @cakehugga, who's here with the prematch...

"Hello!

I was a bit surprised to be thrown the Listening Club frisbee this week. For once I had no idea which album to choose.

This year has been pretty hectic so far, and I haven’t had time to discover much new music. So I went on a bit of a trip down memory lane and dug out some old CDs. There were a few contenders which nearly made it but they just didn’t seem right. Then I remembered this gem.

This album is a musical soundtrack to a hilarious, unexpected delight of a film.

I have used some of the instrumental tracks from the album when teaching dance classes to kids, as the music takes you on a journey of the imagination – I always get a bit lost in some of the tracks.

Other tracks have the most biting, bitter lyrics – there are some very choice turns of phrases that leave me laughing.  Then there are the joyous tracks that make me want to dance – always a good sign in my book.

Anyway I hope that you enjoy the journey as much as I do.

Gemma (@CakeHugga)."

Okaydoke. Direct download is here (link at the top of the page), and the Mixcloud's embedded below, with a direct link underneath just in case you can't see it (Nice idea, Jim).

The Listening Club - 22nd March 2015 by Madame_Holette on Mixcloud

See you at 8PM!