The Listening Club - 12th December 2021

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. In a pretty grumbly mood here, to be honest, as we're faced with a semi-lockdown-curfewish christmas, which is dampening the enthusiasm somewhat, just crossing fingers things don't get any worse, sure you're all doing the same right now...

Looking to the calendar, we'll be taking 26th December off here, returning on 2nd January with ye customary #festivevortex, comprising of y'all's favourite tunes of the last 12 months, so get thinking...

Last Sunday it was me, @kleptones, in the chair, sending out a short and sweet dose of soulful chill in the shape of The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble's "This Is A Mindfulness Drill - A re-imaginging of Richard Youngs' 'Sapphie'", which seemed to go down very well, which was nice. All that remained was to sail the frisb over to @iamwahl, who's here with tonight's intro...

"Like so much of my music listening / collecting this album came to me in a round about way. I first heard a track or two on the radio and, as the artist seemed to be a favourite of the network I regularly listen to, the music kept coming around for a time. Although I liked what I heard, it wasn’t my “usual” and I wasn’t enough enamoured to seek out the album. A decade, give or take, passed and the album popped up while perusing the bins at one of the places I frequent when looking for albums of seasons past. Somehow the time seemed right to invest in a more fulsome listening of the artist’s work. The album delivered a very satisfying, smooth, and soothing groove that has sustained over repeated visits. 

So wrap yourself up, snuggle down and get cozy; set aside anything that might harsh the vibe; then let yourself drift away….

For #DrinkingClub I’d suggest whatever you turn to when looking to drive away the chill of a winter’s day and get your hygge on…."

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

See you 8pm GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 5th December 2021

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Cold and wet here in Amsterdam, as you'd expect, but as we're still stuck in a not-lockdown-not-curfew-honest-but-everything-fun-is-shut situation, it matters little, as there's not much to do anyway. Hoping that there will be some change to that before xmas, but it's doubtful. Already Le Guess Who back in November is seeming like a happy little mirage in my memory, sigh. So, to hibernate, mull wine and cross-fingers, eh?

Last Sunday saw the assembled looking to happier times with the construction of our first-ever-can-you-believe-it #christmasvortex, which jollied the assembled like a fat dollop of cream on a steaming pudding, for sure. Thanks to everyone who chipped in tracks, and to @JimMcCauley for wrapping the gift. Back to regular programming, we see, hey, it's me, @kleptones with the frisb, so let's get italic..

"I had plenty of possibilities to choose from this week, for a change. Tempted to submit y'all to the recently-departed Alvin Lucier's classic "I Am Sitting In A Room", but that might be a bit harsh for the uninitiated. Also was tempted to celebrate the recent Fab Four film thing with Laibach's fine cover version of the whole "Let It Be" album, but that got me thinking, so instead, here's a different kind of cover album, one from this year, yet sadly absent in the year-end best of lists so far (with one notable exception)... which is a real shame as it deserves it...

I first saw these guys...*googles*... blimey, 12 years ago at Glastonbury, where they blew the roof off the tent with a stunningly energetic mid-afternoon performance. This album, however, shows a different, far softer, more emotional side to them that is new to me, but very welcome indeed, especially after a year that promised so much, but seems to have delivered little, this could be seen as the perfect meditative balm. Hope you enjoy. (and bonus points if you recognise any of the guest voices...)

#Drinkingclub? Hmmn.... something strong, dark and long, I'd say.

Download's here, stream's below.

See you 8pm BST.

The Listening Club - 28th November 2021

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay and keeping safe. Feeling cozy and replete here in Amsterdam after a rather fine Sunday lunch out, which is about all we can manage right now thanks to a gov't extension to our sort-of-lockdown-thing, so now nothing's allowed to happen after 5pm. Great, eh? It does seem to be having an effect though, as our curve is flattening, but hey, now we have a few planefuls of Omicron to deal with also. What a life, eh?

Last Sunday we had @akx in the chair, welcoming in the frosty season with his pick of Nils Frahm's "Wintermusik", which soothed the assembled quite successfully. Thanks to Aarni for the pick and for sailing the frisb over to me, @kleptones. Fortunately I have an extra week to ponder my pick, as first...

Yep, end of the month, so it's vortex time again, and this time, it's a i-cant-believe-we've-never-had-this-before #christmasvortex (not to be confused with the best-of-year #festivevortex, which will be happening this time next month!), so, as lovingly gathered and assembled by @JimMcCauley, here's a selection of christmas songs, or is it songs about christmas? Or a bit of both? Let's find out...

Download's here, stream's below.

See you 8pm GMT tonight!

The Listening Club - 21st November 2021

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Yep, @kleptones here, back from Le Guess Who with plenty of stories to tell, as you'd expect. Thought I'd experienced most everything a festival could throw up by way of chaos elements, but having a last minute government-panic-partial-lockdown kick in halfway through? Yeah, that's a new one. Enormous respect to the festival organizers, who shuffled artists, venues and staff with barely a few hours notice to get a new timetable together that was both punter-agreeable and lockdown-legal. It certainly made for a unique weekend, more early rises than late nights, though we still got our fill of quality music, food and drink, caught up with some friends, and even got to see "The French Dispatch" thanks to the nonsensical partial-lockdown rules that meant cinema was allowed late even when gigs were not! Yeah, fucking bonkers, but as the Netherlands covid numbers have now risen to their highest level ever and beyond (thank you anti-vax fuckers), I can understand the govenments problem, even if I can't understand their solution. Same the world over it seems, at the moment, innit?...

Anyhoo, back in the #LC bubble last Sunday, @SimonLandmine was getting all singer-songwritery with his pick of Thea Gilmore's "The Counterweight", which seemed to work out well for those attending, from what I can see, which was nice. Also nice to see @akx holding the frosted frisbee with this to say by way of introduction to tonight's pick...

"We just got our first few flakes of snow this morning - that reminded me of my favorite beverage-in-hand-sitting-by-the-window-looking-at-snow-quietly-falling wintermusik EP. (Depending on your location and time of day, you may need to imagine the snow.)

#drinkingclub: something warming, or a good whiskey or bourbon."

Download's here (gdrive) or here (direct), stream's below:

See you 8pm GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 14th November 2021

Hello, boys and girls! Yep, @JimMcCauley here, doing the admin for @kleptones before heading off to panto rehearsals this evening. You won't be seeing much of me until mid-December; it's all coming together nicely, though, and tickets are on sale now. Exciting! (Oh yes it is, etc.)

Last week, then, and it was @samquitter on duty with some actual modern music in the form of Lynks, and Smash Hits, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, which I completely missed but I'm catching up with now, and yeah, I can dig this, which seems to match the general reaction from last week. So thanks to Sam for the pick and for flinging the frisbaton at @SimonLandmine, who emailed me at 5AM with the following:

"Well, I did say last time that I'd probably pick a singer-songwriter again this time ... and so I have (after some prevarication trying to decide between others on my shortlist). If I'd given myself more time to think, rather than spending time trying to sort out stuff for last night's DJ set, maybe you'd have got something else. Or maybe not. 

"Anyhow, this is an album from a few years ago by an artist that I think I've dropped into a vortex in the past, but frankly they deserved more than just the one track. I heard of them via a compilation, then a friend mentioned them, and I looked for more of their stuff. This was the first album of theirs that I bought at time of release (rather than catching up some time later). Since this, they've released a couple more, gone on hiatus for a while, and have recently released their final album (for now) under this name, together with a new album under a new recording identity. I've seen them live a few times, and they've been excellent every time. I do very much like their songs. 

"Drinking club? I don't know, what have you got handy?" 

Well there you go. Direct download's right here, or stream below.

Have a good one in my absence; kick-off's at 8PM (GMT) as per. Laters!

The Listening Club - 7th November 2021

Greetings,

Hope you're all doing good in your 'hoods. Plenty hoods here in Amsterdam as we slog through another week of colder and wetter, as you'd expect. Still, we're off to Le Guess Who? next weekend for a better soundtracked form of cold and wet, so at least there's that. Speaking of which, I still need someone to take charge here next Sunday, so if you can help out, please let me know!

This time last week we we're all hiding behind the sofa as the #EvenScarierVortex played out, and mighty scary in a diverse kinda way it was. Thanks to everyone for chipping in tracks and to @akx for doing the grabbing and glueing, it was a blast! Back to regular programming, we see @samquitter holding the frisbee, with this to say by way of introduction to tonight's pick...

"How do you do, fellow kids? Look I know you guys look to me to find out who the latest beat combos are and what the kids are listening to, so I didn't want to let you down. Yes, this week's pick includes music from this very actual year, 2021. (Not strictly all of it, because I went for the two-EPs-by-same-artist format which I believe is within the rules.)

Earlier in this summer I went to Latitude with the family, and while it didn't quite live up to its reputation as the world's most middle-class festival, it wasn't the usual crowd, with a disproportionate number of both under-20s and over-50s. 

This being the first live music anyone there had seen for the best part of 18 months, the excitement was palpable, particularly for the first few acts, who generally could not believe their luck to a) be playing at all, and b) have amazingly enthusiastic audiences going wild from the start of the sets. 

This act came on the main stage as an early lunchtime act and seemed astonished and delighted - particularly given the distinctly un-rocky nature of the music - to have a massive mosh-pit of kids (including my own offspring) in front of them, many of whom had been too young to mosh pre-pandemic and now found themselves set free after being kept in their homes for over a year. It was a genuinely wonderful sight. And I liked the music too, which provided an amusing soundtrack to our journey home as well. 

Hope you enjoy it. Sam X "

Okaydoke. Download est ici, and stream's below:

See you 8pm GMT tonight!

The Listening Club - 31st October 2021

Scary greetings to you, if that's your sort of thing. Yep, it's the day of spook, which doesn't mean much in these parts, it has to be said, apart from a few fancy dress parties here and there. Just as well really, as it's been pissing down all day, so any hopeful trick or treaters are going to be very soggy indeed, even before we get the hose out to remove them from the premises (joke, probably). 

Last Sunday we had @unmannedfuture in the chair, spacing everyone out with their choice of "Stateless" by Dirty Beaches from back in 2014. Many thanks to them for the pick, and for sailing the frisb over to @samquitter, who has an extra week to ponder because...

Yep, #vortex time again, and on a day like today, it can only be an #evenscariervortex. Another helping of spooky and scary sounds from your minds, as gathered and assembled by @akx... 

Download is direct here, or gdrive here, stream's below...

AND THE CLOCKS HAVE CHANGED. So it's 8pm GMT, see you then!