The Listening Club - 5th September 2021

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Amsterdam is feeling pretty lively and enjoying a decent run of late-summer weather and, as everything is pretty much closed at night, the daytime is where the action is right now, I guess. So I'm tapping this out early before we jump on a boat and head off for a day-out visiting one of the Netherlands many tiny islands... and we'll be back by playtime, naturally.

Last Sunday saw us all trekking quite literally (mate) into parts unknown with the #UnseenPlacesVortex, which truly took us around the world and across the universe in 90-odd minutes. Thanks to everyone who chipped in tracks and biggest thanks to @akx for mapping the journey. 

Back in regular-programming-land, we find @nessiest holding the frisb with this to say by way of introduction to tonight's pick...

"Late summer has a special feel, the light is more golden, all the summer’s goings on are still happening but the evenings are shorter and you’re aware this isn’t going to last.

I don’t know a lot about this act, but their presence on the summer festival circuit (happening elsewhere) caught my attention and my ear.

In the absence of a personal opportunity to discover this act at one of those late summer festivals this year, what better than sharing them with the club. Hopefully this will complement your day well and help to extend that summery feeling. For the antipodeans among us it might be a promise of those golden days to come."

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

See you 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 29th August 2021

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Feeling a little tender here today after a excellently decent night out yesterday, first one for a verrrrry long time. A fine meal, our first trip to the Paradiso for almost 18 months (to see the wonderfully spacey Kikagaku Moyo), and follow-on drinks too, all much appreciated and long overdue. Hooray for near-normality!

Last Sunday we had @saucer in the chair soothing us with his pick of "The Practice of Love" by Jenny Hval, which went down very smoothly indeed with the assembled. Thanks to Mr.S for the pick, and for sailing the frisb over to @nessiest, who has an extra week to consider their options because...

...yep, end of the month, so it's vortex time again, this time a topic suggested by the very same @nessiest... it's an #UnseeenPlacesVortex. Places you've never seen? Places you've never been? Places that only exist in the imagination? No one knows, so let's find out!

Direct download is here, gdrive download here, and the stream's below:

See you 8pm BST (GMT+1) for playback.

The Listening Club - 22nd August 2021

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Yes, it is I, @kleptones, back from travels around the highlights of the lowlands, which was very enjoyable indeed, especially the bits with the super fresh and tasty seafood, my word yes...

Looking at the notes provided, I see that @zensolo was in the chair last Sunday, firing off his debut pick in the shape of "¿Tu Querias Boogaloo? ¡Toma Boogaloo!" from El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, which seemed to get the assembled shimmying and swaying in all the right ways, as well it should. Thanks extended for the pick, and for the frisb-sail across to @saucer, who's here with tonight's intro...

"I'm at a loss for words this time for introducing my pick... not because the music's especially hard to describe. Rather, because the world this week left me especially drained and confused.

How about this: Among all the antidotes to the world's ills that I auditioned this week, this one won, and I hope it works for you in a similar way."

Okaydoke. Download's here, stream's below:

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

The Listening Club - 15th August 2021

Evening/afternoon/morning [delete as applicable] all! @JimMcCauley here sitting in for @kleptones once more, preparing for a parental visit which means that at some point I'm going to have to vacuum the spare room, which Marmalade isn't going to like one bit. First though, let's get all this sorted.

Last week, then, @wojsvenwoj was doing his thing, with the eponymous debut (and indeed only) album from Sybil Vane, a long-lost slice of *checks notes* melodic grunge that seemed to hit plenty of people's sweet spots. So big ups to Woj for the pick, and for flipping the frisbaton at @zensolo, who's here for you now with his own debut.

"This beloved dance band from Puerto Rico played 'salsa' before the New York-bred hybrid of various Afro-Caribbean music traditions (and popular song forms) became known as such.

"This record in particular seems to be the follow-up to a first successful crossover effort into what used to be (?) known as 'Latin Soul': Looking up the discography I find the label put out three, from the looks of it, stylistically related releases in the same year, taking advantage of the trend.

"(Does it give too much away to pinpoint the year as 1967?)

"In case you were wondering, the Spanglish wordplay is full of politically incorrect double-entendres...

"Ashamed to say, this is the only salsa record on my hard disk! My LP's & CD's have been in refrigerated storage back in P.R. since hurricane María threatened in Sept. 2017. Hard drive crashes have erased a fair amount of earlier digitising attempts.

"Full disclosure: from tender childhood, I was more of a budding 'rockero', starting my LP collection with discs by Chubby Checker and The Ventures around my first communion at age seven, going on to become a full-bore (ouch) Beatlemaniac...

"I was something of a latecomer to the jiggy enjoyment of grooves playing all around.

"To likely misquote Captain Queeg (played by Humphrey Bogart) at his court martial, 'Well, if there's anything else you need to know, just ask me the questions and I'll do my best to answer them, one by one...' Enjoy!"

Right you are! Download's here or simply stream below.

See you at 8PM! (BST!)

The Listening Club - 8th August 2021

Happy International Cat Day! @kleptones is off on his hols, so you're stuck with me, @JimMcCauley, for a bit. Daisy cat is currently tucked up in her favourite blanket-lined Amazon box, having worn herself out this morning running around in the rain, so she's completely missing out on a surprisingly sunny afternoon. Meanwhile Marmalade is happily curled up on the spare bed, where he'll likely stay until teatime.

 

So then, last week @brainspiritus promised us a novelty album and instead delivered a Bootsy deep cut in the form of Zillatron's Lord of the Harvest, which I think we can all agree was a well cosmic groove. So thanks to @brainspiritus for the pick, and for passing the cosmic baton to @wojsvenwoj, who's taken a few minutes out of his busy International Cat Day schedule to say this: 

"Back in the 1990s, when I had more time and record stores were still a thing, I had a weekly ritual of hitting all the local record stores and combing through through their used and cut-out bins. At the time, I lived in northern New Jersey and would trawl through the rows and rows of used CDs (vinyl had seemingly breathed its last plasticine breath) in stores like Scotti's and Alwilk's and all the others I can't remember the name of looking for treasure. 

"Sometimes I would find promotional singles or advance releases by bands I collected or followed. Sometimes I would find albums I'd heard of that I wanted but didn't want to pay full price for. And sometimes I'd find a record by a band that I'd never heard of that had an interesting cover or interesting liner notes or an interesting name. Today's pick had all three...and it turned out to be a pretty good album too!" 

Well there you go. Download's here, and the stream's down there:

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

The Listening Club - 1st August 2021

Pinch and a punch to you all, hope you're doing okay. Toodling on as per usual here in Amsterdam, bit of sunshine, bit of rain, bit of pandemic, no bloody festivals (everythings been cancelled now here - one-dayers might continue, but only if there's a safe way to do them). Ah well...

Last Sunday we were deep in vortexland, with the #RelationshipAdviceVortex, which brought out some crackers for sure. Thanks to everyone for chipping in tracks, and double plus thanks to @JimMcCauley for helming and assembling.

Back in regular mode, we find @brainspiritus holding the frisb with this to say...

"Happy your time of day wherever you are coming from a cloudy Germany. Due to a bit of family business, you're getting a somewhat spontaneous pick (because "oh no, not another brainspiritus bluesrock pick") — a novelty album, I guess we should call it, from somebody who's more known for an entirely different non-bluesrock genre. 

Drinking club: no, just watch the pretty patterns your subwoofer makes in the water glass your neighbours keep their dentures in over night."

Okaydoke. Download's here, stream's below.

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

The Listening Club - 25th July 2021

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Sunshine n showers as per usual here in Amsterdam, infection numbers slowly going back down again, which is great, but does that mean anything musical's going to open up again this Summer? Probably not, as the govt & event organisers most likely will be unable to agree how to keep things open and safe yet still profitable. So all the nice suimmer things get cancelled for a second year. Le sigh sigh...

Last Sunday chez #LC we had @eastvanhalen in the chair, getting everyone down and dirty with Latin Playboys eponymous debut LP from 1993, which grooved and bamboozled the assembled in equal measures. Thanks to Steph for the pick, and for sailing the frisb over to @brainspiritus, but that'll have to wait a week because..

Yep, it's #vortex time, and, thanks to a random comment the other week, we have a #relationshipadvicevortex, as collected and assembled by @JimMcCauley. Who knows what will transpire, but let's all lie back on the couch and find out...

Direct download is here, and the stream's below:

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