The Listening Club - 4th September 2016

Hey there,

Hope all is fine, looks like we've reached that time of the year when our pittance of a summer starts to recede, and suddenly any sign of heat or sun results in a frantic dash outside to play. Well, it does here anyway.... *looks out the window hopefully*

Last week, @andershanson was in the chair, and treated us all to his debut play of Temples' "Sun Structures", which he and most everyone else seemed to enjoy muchly. Thanks to Anders for the pick and for flipping the frisbaton across to that @JimMcCauley, who's here to explain away his pick...

"It's an embarrassing time to be British. It must be a little more embarrassing to be American and faced with the very real possibility of President Trump in a couple of months, but there's still time to avert that particular catastrophe.

Brexit, though, is a national embarrassment on a scale of I don't know what, and if it wasn't bad enough waking up the morning after the referendum, we now have to put up with the spectacle of 'Brexit means Brexit' and the government boldly stumbling towards disaster on the grounds that it's what the people want. There just isn't enough facepalm.

It's so bad that it makes me miss the heady, hubristic days of Cool Britannia. I mean, we all know how well that went in the end, but for a while it was a fun popular delusion to be a part of and I think this album, celebrating a peculiarly tenacious national icon, sums up the era nicely. So get out your non-ironic Union Jacks and let's party like it's 1997!

"#drinkingclub: Oh, you'll figure it out. Have a cocktail shaker ready."

Right. Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is....


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

The Listening Club - 28th August 2016

Hey folks,

Yep, we're back, after a couple of weeks of tents n beers n steaks n mates n tunes n sun n drizzle, but feeling all the better for it. A fine and dandy time indeed. Huge thanks to Jim for holding things down in my absence! Amsterdam, for its troubles, has been keeping the warm on, so it's been a weekend of cheerfully strolling the city and pruning the green things. Not bad at all.

Last week whilst I was working my way through 90 welsh ales, @cakehugga was in the chair, selecting Field Mouse's "Episodic", which went down well, from what I can see. Many thanks to her for the pick and for flipping the frisb to @andershanson, who despite some vortex confusion, is here with this week's intro...

"Having had it in my head that today was a vortex I'd done nothing to choose an album until I had doubts about it being a vortex week and then realised yesterday that it was indeed my turn to pick. So this album hasn't gone through the usual agonised week-long internal debate that I normally have to put up with.

Perusing my music collection and with nothing leaping out at me as a good pick - it's a downside of me usually buying single songs not whole albums - I decided to go with something completely new. So this will also be the first time I've heard this album in full and so there's very little I can actually tell you about it.

I heard a track from one of this band's EPs only three days ago whilst sat in my favourite bar in Sheffield. Unfortunately the song that I heard then isn't actually on this, their one and only (although another is due soon) album, but it did lead me to discover more of their music. Vocally it is a fairly typical pick from me, but the sound isn't so much although it does veer in to that territory every so often.

I shall look forward to exploring this at the same time as the rest of you."

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is...

See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 21st August 2016

Evening all! @JimMcCauley here again for another week; normal @kleptones service should be resumed next Sunday. It's a hectic day for me, bashing out a bunch of articles about mechanical keyboards (the glamorous life of the freelance writer, eh) that I need to get done before we head off for a few days at a very nice B&B in Snowdonia.

Last week saw @emmaprice at the controls with her pick, The Avalanches' extraordinarily long-awaited Wildflower. Was it worth the wait? The general consensus was, yeah, kind of; it might lack the impact of Since I Left You (which of course was Emma's very first Listening Club pick), but its laid-back summery vibe's hard to resist and it's a definite grower.

So thanks to Emma for the pick, and for ably aiming the frisbee at @CakeHugga, who will address you now.

"Hello Listening Clubbers! Hope all is good with you this week. I’ve been enjoying my summer holidays and coping with the chaos caused by having building work done. Also, I’ve suddenly developed an interest in sports with the wall to wall coverage of the Olympics.

"All my previous Listening Club picks have been old favourites – albums I already knew and loved and wanted to share. I’ve gone for a new approach this week. I started looking for some new music and stumbled across a recommendation for the album I’ve chosen. The style of music reminds me of my teenage listening choices but it is a brand new album, released this year.

"I guess that as well as starting a new chapter of my life having got married 3 weeks ago, I’m starting to be able to look forward to new experiences and new discoveries. It’s a nervous but also very exciting time in my life.

"Anyway, this album caught my attention and I look forward to giving it a proper listen with the rest of you on Sunday. It reminds me of a lot of other bands I love. I hope you enjoy."

Awesome! Direct download is here, and all things being equal the HearThis stream should be below.

See you at 8PM, BST buddies! (And everyone else.)

The Listening Club - 14th August 2016

Afternoon all! @JimMcCauley here again, as @kleptones and @nessiest are off on a Welsh odyssey for the next couple of weeks. Lovely day here in Bath, and I'm inside attempting to make a start on a bunch of work I need to get done this week before going away for a few days, but actually I just keep getting sucked back into No Man's Sky.

@saucer was in the driver's seat last week with his pick, Dean and Britta's 13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests, which nailed the Sunday evening vibe and went down very nicely indeed with the assembled. So, mad props to Murray for the pick and for his tireless flinging of the Frisbee, which was finally caught by @emmaprice, who's very much here now…

"When @saucer kindly lobbed the Frisbee in my direction last weekend I knew exactly what I was going to pick. It's Sunday morning and I'm just having the traditional last minute crisis of confidence. Currently playing the album again and going with my instincts on this one.

"I don't know this album that well yet amd I'm still trying to work out exactly how I feel about it, so am really looking forward to hearing what you think of it.

"For #drinkingclub tonight I shall be having Pimms, which will nicely round off my weekend of live cricket and watching us win even more medals at cycling very fast at the Olympics."

Scuba dooper! Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is probably below.

See you at 8PM BST!

The Listening Club - 7th August 2016

Greetings folks,

Hope all is relatively dandy with yourselves. Good times ahoy here in Amsterdam, as it's Pride weekend, so the city is festooned with rainbows and carpeted with heart-shaped confetti, which, yes, is absolutely as it should be. Back in the homestead thoughts are turning to future holiday times, as we're away for the next couple of weeks, therefore needing a temporary player-manager for this here #LC, gimme a shout soon if you can help, thanks!

Last week we vortexed it up for the first time in a good while in fine style with the #endofdaysvortex, which was mighty fun indeed, big thanks to everyone who chipped in a track or two! Back to regular programming this week with @saucer in the chair, and here he is with this week's intro...

"First a quick nod and thanks from me to @rougeforever for the best vortex theme ever. YODO.

Through the roller coaster of excitement, curiosity, discovery, confusion, and terror that is the picking process here, and through an even more-wild safari through genreland, my theme for today evolved from apocalypse-prequel to apocalypse-kitsch to apocalypse-antidote to... happy birthday. For yesterday was the birthday of someone of biblical proportions in music I care about, who died long before Bowie made it cool to do so, early this year.

(What's the Emoji for "I sincerely hope I'm not misreading the room with my outré humor, but please do know: absolutely no disrespect in mind at all!"?)

Props and possible frisbaton for first person to cite this album's *connection* to the birthday person, without giving away the person/artist/album of course. 

I fear 2016 and this decade are getting worse before they get better. So let's celebrate birthdays and each other, and enjoy some music while we can."

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream, if it feels so inclined, is....


See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 31st July 2016

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing fine. Hit and miss sunshine outside in Amsterdam, which could be worse, but that @nessiest is back in the hood after her adventures, so there's an extra ray of sunshine indoors again, brightening the place up considerably. (Aww, etc...)

Back in #LC land, last week it was me, @kleptones, in the chair, taking you off on a trip courtesy of Brad Mehldau & Mark Guiliana's 2014 album "Taming The Dragon", which went down very well indeed, I'm relieved to say. Thanks for listening, and thanks to @saucer for catching the old frisbaton for next week...

...But now, rather aptly, it's time for the #endofdaysvortex - a selection of fine portents of doom and gloom from times gone past, and warnings for the present? We shall see...

Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream, if it feels like working, is...


See you at 8, bring something strong to imbibe... you may well need it.

EK

The Listening Club - 24th July 2016

Howdy folks,

Hope you're all well and good. Amsterdam is looking fine and dandy, basking in a week of rather glorious weather, slowing the pace of the city down to a gentle thrum as many denizens spend the weekend dining al fresco, passing round those odd little tubs of cheese cubes and sausage slices, and generally lazing about, myself no exception, although a beer on the stoop is not half as much fun without that there @nessiest, who is currently back in kiwiland for a while. Speaking of to-ing and fro-ing, don't forget I'm after a caretaker manager here for 14th & 21st August, whilst we do a bit of travelling and Green Man festivalling. Let me know if you can help out, ta.

Also a reminder that we have an #endofdaysvortex coming up next week, thanks to @rougeforever for the suggestion, so please send me your finest end-of-the-world style picks for next Sunday's frolics, please!

Last week, @holette was in the chair, bringing us a dose of cutting-edge spaced-outness in the shape of the Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve debut album "The Soft Bounce", and mighty fine it was too. Many thanks to Sarah for the pick and for flipping the frisbaton across to me... *dons fake goatee beard & tache*...

"Right then. It was tempting to pick my own, just about finished new DJ mix, but subjecting the ol' LC to three-and-a-half-hours of (admittedly rather excellently arranged, hemhem) jungle and footwork might just have been testing the patience of some of the regulars 'pon a Sunday eve. So it's fortunate that I chanced upon this album a couple of weeks back, and immediately filed it in the "could be fun for #lc" pile.

Looking back on my previous picks, I do seem to have a habit of picking interesting collaborations and this one is no exception. Two very talented folks, the first of which I've been listening to for a good long while and finally got a chance to see live this year with his regular band (front row, no less), which was a very awesome evening indeed, although it sounded rather different to this album. The other person is new to me, although he seems to be making big waves in musical circles, as they apparently say, particularly as his ace playing is very evident on the final David Bowie album.

Does that give anything away? No? Good. Two talented guys with bunch of gear, in a room, doing their thing. Didn't sound like anything I was expecting, looking forward to seeing what you make of it."

Direct download is here, and the ol' HearThis stream is...


See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)