The Listening Club - 9th April 2017

Hey there,

Hope all is fine with you all. Yet again the weather here in Amsterdam defies expectations, currently being a glorious 20 degrees of sunball, so I think a little perch on the stoop or maybe a stroll in the park is in order once this has been tapped out. Don't forget I'm away next weekend, still looking for a volunteer to run things in my absence - if you can help, please let me know!

Last week @nessiest was in the chair, rocking out in a trippy way with her pick of "La Araña Es La Vida" by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, which was very well received by the assembled. Many thanks to her for the pick and for sailing the frisbaton across the seas to @saucer, who has this to say by way of introduction...

"@nessiest Thank you? The frisbatonmatron is always a bit like the red pill.

But, and actually, there's very little better in my life than a reason to go exploring and shopping for music. And whatever else this planet is, if the only damn good thing that came out of it was sound art (and it's not... but even if it were), what an absolutely amazing and wondrous place.

(Just the music released in the past couple of weeks. Wow. Y'all know this. I forgot, apparently, this is how it goes, stuck head down as I've been in work and in politics-bullshit-obsession for too long.)

So, thank you @nessiest. And given that all y'all are still reading I suppose I should say a word about my pick.

I usually aim for dark corners of the musical labyrinth but this time not. This band has justly received exposure from all the usual suspects and has earned a huge/devoted following over the past five years. What I love about this recent piece is its essential musicality and its gestalt. Perfect qualities for our listening club format, I hope. To my ears, it's also their best (as in fascinating yet visceral) album.

I think it's quite funny that discogs.com classifies this as "Rock."

Volume & good stereo separation (e.g. headphones) recommended. 

Hope you like it."

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



See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 2nd April 2017

Greetings,

Hope you're all good and well. Weather continues to be rather lush here in Amsterdam, with the local press doing lots of "hottest day since records began" articles, which is a little disturbing on the old global warming front, but nice on the sitting-outside-with-a-beer front. Speaking of which, yet again I have to mention I'm going to be away, this time on Easter weekend, so if anyone can help out and run this thing on Chocolate Jesus Day I'd be very grateful, please let me know!

Last week @har_shone was in the chair flipping the genres with her pick of Mexrrissey's "No Manchester" set, which went down rather well, even tolerated by the Moz-disliking section of the listening community, which is pretty good going. Thanks to Harriet for the pick, and for flipping the frisbo across to wor @nessiest, who is (literally) right here with this week's intro...

"Flashback to June 2014: a dingy venue off a narrow street on Amsterdam's seedier side. None of the summer evening light reached the stage or the 31 diehard fans plus clueless me. What I witnessed that evening was witchcraft, I'm sure. The exertion of will over an audience no matter how small the number, or maybe because of, Voodoo. It's the best word I have for it. Two hours later we emerged, sweat-soaked, minds transformed. 32 die-hard fans.

Don't worry, distilled into recorded form this should be quite safe. Dim the lights, get a drink with dark undercurrents. Keep your dancing shoes near just in case."

Righty-ho. Direct download is here, the spoiler-happy HearThis stream is below:



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

The Listening Club - 26th March 2017

Hey there,

Doing OK? Hope so. Amsterdam is still looking unseasonably fine, which is bringing everyone out to sip their beers in the sunlight a little earlier than they expected (seriously, last year spring weather didn't arrive till early May, leading to the grimmest Kings Day I've experienced thus far...). Here, chez V&E, more sping cleaning is occurring, as the bath of glorious sunlight reveals yet more grot to be removed. Smiling and cranking the tunes whilst doing it, natch....

Last week, oh how we celebrated our 5th birthday with a wonderful #birthdayvortex. Fascinating to hear which tunes turned folks ears on the mostest, for sure, but an all round super-varied selection indeed. Thanks again to everyone for chipping in their favourites!

Back to regularly-scheduled programming, @har_shone was left with the frisbaton, and following a bout of jet-setting, has this to day by way of introduction...

"Those who know me will know that I am deeply enamoured with and worshipful of a certain Mancunian singer-songwriter / awful human curmudgeon. His voice and lyrics were the beginning of my process of falling in love with music and I still circle back to his oeuvre no matter what wonderful musical tangents life takes me on (and there have been many!).

So, this album is basically a really fun, strange, and surprisingly up-beat, take on something I love. I found the album last year and went through the cycle of ‘oh hell no’, ‘oh, ok, maybe’ and eventually ‘yes please’. 

I remain deeply worried that this album is specifically designed to make me and only me happy and you will all hate it. If you DO hate it, always remember that If You Don’t Like Me, Then Don’t Look At Me."

Okaydoke. A short play this week, as there were some duplicate live tracks on the end we've agreed to trim off, but have added a bonus tune, still it wraps around half an hour. Direct download is here, and the HearThisWithSpoilers link is below...

 
See you in a bit!

The Listening Club - 19th March 2017

Greetings folks,

Hope all is well and good in your hoods. Yes'm it has indeed been five years since this here little shebang kicked off, and looking back over the list of music that has come our way over that time (here and here), I'm pretty damn impressed, to say the least. I must extend the hugest of thank you's to everyone who has come to listen, pick albums and vortex tunes, and contribute to the wounderful cassoulet of conversation, it's really been a truckload of fun.

But first, of course, we must give thanks to @akx for last week's selection of Nmesh's "Dream Sequins", which truly spaced everyone out completely, and for sailing the frisbaton across to @Har_Shone, who will be around next week with a pick, but now...

Yes, it's the #birthdayvortex! 28 seriously varied selections, mostly chosen by your good selves from the past five years of tunes, with the odd random "party-starter" thrown in for good measure. Thanks as always to everyone who flipped in a track or more!

Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is below:


Get the bubbly chilling, and we'll see you at 8pm GMT...

The Listening Club - 12th March 2017

Greetings folks,

Hope all is fine with you, spring has seriously sprung here in Amsterdam, the sun is shining, buds are budding, windows are being flung open for the first time in months and brooms and vacuums are doing their thing as winter grot is seasonably removed from its temporary resting place. All kinda fine really, although hoping its not the calm before the storm here as there's a General Election on Wednesday, and there's one very unpleasant person looming in the shadows looking to take a hefty slice of the governmental pie. Crossing my fingers firmly that the Dutch see sense and that doesn't happen, which is all I can do really...

Thanks to @JimMcCauley for remembering to run tings last week, and don't forget it's our 5th birthday party this time-ish next week, for which we will have a #birthdayvortex, so please send me your highlight tunes from the last five years of this gathering, and / or any other #LC related or (for that matter) birthday related audio goodness sometime this week please!

So, last week whilst I was knee deep in plum porter,
@emmaprice was in the chair, folking for her life with her pick of Mawkin's "The Ties That Bind", which seemed to go down rather well it seems. Thanks to Emma for the pick and for flipping the wotsitatron across to @akx, and lo, here he is....

"So I stumbled upon this album via Spotify's Discover Weekly playlists (which are steadily getting better, it seems!), and after the song (whichever it was) that was featured finished, I had to hear more... and listening to the whole album, I pretty much immediately knew I'd have to let #listeningclub hear (or experience) it.

Even if you're familiar with the genre (which I won't disclose directly, but you'll know it if you know it), I still bet you might not be familiar with the album itself. It might be kind of long at around 80 minutes, but I assure you, the trip's worth it. Quoting a particularly glowing review of the album: "You will travel everywhere and nowhere, just let the synthetic neon light guide you."

Looking forward to seeing the reactions, which I'm sure will be varied.

#drinkingclub: yes, sure, why not."

Okaydoke. Direct download is here (right-click-save-as), and the spoilerstream is below:


See you at 8pm GMT...

The Listening Club - 5 March 2017

Oh, hi! Didn't see you there. Yeah, I'm writing some stuff about this pro gaming keyboard and its amazingly short actuation distance. Got to pay the bills, isn't it. No, not much more to do today, then I can get in a few hours of the new Zelda before Listening Club. What's that? Did I? Oh shit, I did, didn't I. Balls.

Hello everyone! @JimMcCauley here, covering for @kleptones while he's off inhaling the fog on the Tyne and queuing up to get into a pub, which I totally didn't forget all about. And while I'm not forgetting things, remember that in two weeks it's our fifth birthday vortex, so get thinking about what's tickled your fancy over the last five years.

Last week @wojsvenwoj kept us all guessing for the duration of his pick, which took us through basically all the genres before being revealed as "Left Foot Dance Of The Yi" by Shanren. A fine pick, indeed, so thanks to Woj for his choice, and for bunging whatever the hell we're calling it this week at @emmaprice, who’s here with a clutch of .WMA files because apparently they were out of wax cylinders.

"Evening all,

"Hope you've had a lovely weekend, I've been off visiting the Oxford dodo with @andershanson so am nicely cultured up for the next few weeks.

"I discovered tonight's artists last year when they were the support act for a band I saw down in Brighton. Sometimes a support band can completely take you by surprise as you stand there pint in hand waiting for the main event. Within the first track (also the first track on the album) you could see the crowd starting to respond. I bought the album in the interval and it's been on regular play since then.

"Since then I've seen them play a couple more times in venues large and small & I can safely say that I adore this album but my word it's even better live.

"Don't think we'll be finding any new genres for @akx's T-shirt tonight & I know this is a genre that may not appeal to some.

"This puts me in mind of a festival on the village green, as the sun goes down and the evening comes alive.

"Drinking club is most definitely a fine cider or beverages suitable for a balmy night outside dancing under the stars.

"p.s #drinkingclub song is track 2."

And there we have it. Download is here, and the HearThis stream is just down there (click through to have everything spoilered rotten).


See you at 8PM! (GMT!)

The Listening Club - 26th February 2017

Howdy folks,

Gentling away our hangovers here in rainy Amsterdam following a couple of days of intense musical activity, courtesy of the city's Sonic Acts festival on Friday, and Osunlade's Yoruba Soul Orchestra on Saturday. Many beats and beers indeed, and so now to chill...

Don't forget I'm away next weekend, so looking for someone to manage these activities, and there's gonna be a 5th birthday vortex on 19th March, giving you plenty of time to refersh your memories and pick out some of your favourites from the last five years...

Last week we had @holette in the comfy chair, sending us smoothly sailing away with her pick of Whitney's "Light Upon The Lake", which went down very well indeed with the assembled. Thanks to her for the selection, and for sailing the frisb across the pond to @wojsvenwoj, who's here with this week's intro...

"Several years ago, a musician friend who runs a bar/performance venue in town booked this band. Not sure how he found them or how much he knew about them beforehand but when they were soundchecking, he was blown away and immediately took to Facebook and e-mail to make sure people didn't miss this show. I had nothing going on that evening so I went over and was rewarded with a superb night of music as this band melded the folk music of their home with rock and reggae and, apparently, whatever other things caught their fancy. I don't really know much about them other than that which would give too much away so, without further adieu, here is their latest record, released a couple years ago. 

Enjoy!"

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the spoiler-ready HearThis stream is below:


See you at 8pm GMT!