The Listening Club - 26th January 2014

Hallo chums! @JimMcCauley here, doing the honours this week while Eric's off on his hols. So instead of Amsterdam this week's edition's coming to you from the Beautiful Georgian City of Bath (TM), where the sun's finally, hesitantly, putting his hat on. I've been nursing a gentle hangover after sampling a fair old bit of single malt at an excellent and completely inauthentic Burns' Night supper. I was the only one there to show up in a (pretty fabulous) kilt and the haggis was vegan. I'm still not entirely sure what a neep is.

Last week @samsmitter did his Listening Club duty and treated us to Love's "Four Sail", a later and lesser-known offering from Arthur Lee and his merry men. The late 60s vibe went proved a stone groove hit and provoked actual talk of face-painting. Steady, now. So thanks to Sam for the pick and his well-aimed fling of the frisbee at @jonnydapigg, who'll be taking charge of things round here for his selection next week.

For now, though, it's the Cooking Vortex! You've deliberated, cogitated and digested, and come up with quite a splendidly diverse running buffet of musical delicacies. It's been a treat to assemble; thanks to everyone who sent a track!

Direct MP3 download is here, or if you prefer some hot Mixcloud action you can get it right here (usual caveat about Mixcloud telling you at least some of the song titles applies).

Search #listeningclub to join the conversation, and follow @listeningclub for the admin.

See you tonight at 8PM GMT!

The Listening Club - 19th January 2014

Greets and Saluts to you all, hope all is fine!

All jolly here in the 'Dam, with the sound of manifold plans being drawn up. First off I'm referring to the planned #Dambusters LC meetup which looks like occurring at the end of April here in Amsterdam (Kings Day weekend, lordy, that's going to be something...). Looking forward to meeting, greeting and so forth with as many of you as can make it over - seriously, move mountains for a long weekend if you can folks, it's the best time to do it - a splendid time is guaranteed for all, as they say!

And secondyfold, and more important for the short term, I'm away on hols in South Africa from the end of the coming week, which will mean I'll be off radar for the next two weeks. I might have net access for a chunk of my away time, but that may not prove the case - until I get there I don't know, and I certainly don't want to rely on it, so we really need a temporary manager to step forward and run 'tings. Also next week will be (thanks to @cakehugga's great suggestion) the #cookingvortex (yep, songs about foods and cooking and the general like please!), so whoever takes over will need the technical smarts to gather up the tunes and assemble the vortex! Please step forward if you recokon you could do it, sure we'd all be massively grateful!

(Also we could have 2 temp managers, one for each week - I'll give them admin access to this here blog too natch...)

Any, and furthermore, hoo, last week @holette was in the hot seat, and delivered unto us all the excellent Cate Le Bon's "Mug Museum", and a mighty fine collection it was too. Thanks to her for the pick, and for flipping the frisbee to the cassoulet-lacking @samsmitter by way of compensation. So here's Sam...

"This is an album I rejected on a previous frisbee-catch about a year ago ... but once I had made my decision I listened to the album on headphones on my walk to work, minus the anxiety that goes with trialling a Listening Club selection, and it sounded great, so I regretted rejecting it. 

When I listen to this while walking around it makes me feel like I’m in a Wes Anderson film or something. I love albums that have an overall feel or atmosphere as a record (sometimes used to break down into “Side 1” and “Side 2” atmosphere), and this definitely has that, despite the slightly odd record company-related story behind its recording and release. 

Disclaimer: if you don’t like guitars you won’t like this record! Hope you enjoy it."

Aces! Direct download mp3 is here (warning - looks like iTunes might show the cover art, apparently!), and the Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the track titles, you have been warned) is here!

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow @listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 12th January 2014

Happy continued new year to you all.

Yes, brr a bit, although not quite as brr as almost exactly a year ago, when I arrived in Amsterdam to be greeted with a seriously impressive coupla months of snow and shivers. Milder now, yes, and milder I hope it remains, but still enjoying the opportunities of the season, open fires, heartwarming stews, fine wines and whiskies, and other (ahem) tried and tested methods of keeping warm. And I have a holiday to look forward to also in a couple of weeks, which may likely be in an internet-free zone, and thus raise some interesting questions regarding #LC management... anyone fancy caretaker-managing for a week or two? Let me know if so... could prove necessary!

(Speaking of necessary things, two weeks hence will also be a #vortex time, so start pitching ideas please folks...)

Anyhoo, last week @cdrose_writer was in the chair, and started the year in fine style by twanging us all into submission with The Legendary Tigerman's guest-packed bonanza "Femina". Big thanks to Chris for the selection, and for sending forward the redoubtable @holette for this week's pick. And here she is...

"A bit witchy.  That’s how I’ve always thought of this artist.  In a good way.  I’ve seen her live and she wore a wizardy cape which confirmed my thinking.  Apparently female wizards are called witches.  Go figure.  

So a bewitching, slightly wonky world is what this artist conjures up to me.  This is the most recent album which I’ve not listened to much as yet but it shares the distinctive song writing, voice and melodies of previous work.  I like how this artist creates different atmospheres from dark to light.  So if the poppier ones to start don’t get you indie dancing don’t worry, it’ll all go off kilter, noisy or hauntingly strange at some point.  You might have heard this artist dueting with others. There’s some obvious musical references in there …but they’re good ‘uns."

Mmmkay. Direct download mp3 is here, and the Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the track titles, you have been warned) is here!

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow @listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 5th January 2014

Happy new calendar period, everyone!

Hope you're doing fine, post-whatever it is you got up to. All is good here in The Dam, everything still in one piece despite the locals attempts to blow it all sky high... see, the few days before New Years is the only time it's legal to buy fireworks here, and NYE is the only day it's legal to let them off, so.... well you can guess what happens. Much boom. So explosive. Plenty dangerous. Yay fun.

So, with 2013 about to shatter into a million flying pieces, what better wave-goodbye could there have been last Sunday than the #festivevortex to soundtrack the destruction? 28 choice selections from the past year were offered up, and a fine, diverse, rather drunken time was had. Big thanks to all who chipped in a track or two!

Now, casting yer minds back, you may well remember @cdrose_writer was left holding the frisbee pre-vortex, and so here he is with the first pick of 2014...

"I came across this record completely by accident, when searching for cover versions of one my favourite songs, knew nothing about the artist, but as soon as I saw it, knew I had to have it.  There are fifteen songs, some originals, some covers, each one featuring a different female singer (hence the album title, I guess...) – some of the singers are known to me, others not: see how many you can spot!  Even though it’s stylistically compact, each song does differ quite a lot, so if you don’t like the one that’s on, hang around and something different will be up in a few minutes..."

Righty-ho. Direct download mp3 is here, and the Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the track titles, you have been warned) is here!

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow @listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 29th December 2013

Compliments of the season to you all, hope that you're having a satisfactory holiday session. Nothing to complain about here; despite stormy weather attempts to keep me off UK shores, I made it back in time for Xmas (eventually), followed several days later by my luggage (sigh), just in time to add a few kilos, both in luggage and in person before the return journey earlier today. Such, indeed, is the way of things...

Last week, after a little back-and-forth, @ohmyliver sent us the righteousness that was Glen Brown & King Tubby's "Termination Dub" a cracking Blood And Fire selection of classic era dub sounds, which sent the assembled into a sweetly contemplative state, as you'd expect. Thanks to Oli for the pick, and for flipping the frisbee to @cdrose_writer who will pick up the game next week...

For now, behold and observe, the 2nd annual and most excellent #festivevortex. Yep, the daddy vortex to all the other lil' vorticies est arrive! ("Festive Vortex" being the name given round these parts to the period betwixt Xmas Day and NYE, during which, for most, not much is achieved save the consumption of leftover turkey, nibbling on assorted sweet things and the watching of dodgy films).

Anyhoo, we have 28 tunes that, by your own collective good grace, are considered worthy of being referred to as the finest of the year, so, in time honoured tradition, crack open a bottle of something heady, pin back your lugholes and listen to this lot...

Direct download mp3 is here, and the Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the track titles, you have been warned) is here!

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow @listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 22nd December 2013

Ho Ho Ho etc,

Happy solstice, folks. Winter crashlands upon us all and Amsterdam's skies celebrate by opening up for 48hrs of serious rain. Glad I'm not out Xmas shopping, for sure. I'm tucked up inside doing end-of-year file backups, blasting dubious Italian Prog Rock and waiting for the pork loin in the oven to reach a state of ultimate deliciousness. Nothing much overly festive there, but whatever you're up to over the next week or two, here's hoping you have a most jolly and excellent time doing it!

(One thing you will be up to, hem hem hem, will of course be the #festivevortex next Sunday, so if you haven't already, mail me your one or two most favourite tunes of 2013 for the pot, okay?)

Last Sunday, it was me in the chair, which was a fine opportunity to offer up John Wizards eponymous debut album, one of the finest of the year, imho, and glad I was to see it get a positive reception. As I pat myself on the back, I'll hand over to the right honorable @ohmyliver, who now realises that this old "pick an album" lark isn't quite as easy as it seems...

"Yes. I have to say that I found this exceptionally hard. 

I turned down Psychic TV's pseudo compilation 'Jack The Tab' because the one track that makes me cringe (the track with sex noises in it) goes on for almost 6 minutes, and I think it's innovation exceeds it's quality. I turned down Gram Parson's Grievous Angel/GP double header combo, because if you don't like country it takes at least 3 listens to get his voice. I'd turned down Denim's "Back in Denim" because I don't like the Osmonds track, and the ballad sounds too like Primal Scream. I turned down Laurie Anderson's Big Science, because 'O Superman' stops my daughter from crying, and well, that's too useful to be overplayed.  I turned down Chain and The Gang's first album, because as a whole it's patchy, and doesn't match their live performance.  I turned down Hatcha's mighty practice hours early dubstep mix because it's over an hour long and goes a bit Redstripe and council estate skunk at about 3 am headspace. 

And finally settiled on "Heart of the Congos" by The Congos because that's quite simply the finest 'putting the baby to bed album' I've got.  I just hope the religiousness of it washes over her though. And then double checked on the list of albums, and of course, it's been done. 

So I chose an album (sort of) that I've been listening to a fair amount recently, and that I like. One discovered during a sleep deprived nappy change, but that helps."

There you go... Direct download is here, and the Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the track titles, you have been warned)  is here!

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow @listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 15th December 2013

Happy Sunday to you all,

Hope all is calm and bright where you are, all is peaceful here in the 'Dam, save for the gentle whirring of hard drives, as recovery software chews its way through a 2TB drive that recently quit on me. Looking like I'll get 90%+ of the stuff back, which is gratifying. However, I'll be spending the next day rooting for its performance soccer-mom style until everything is safely copied off. First world problems, yeh?

#festivevortex reminder time - we need your two favourite tunes of 2013, for our traditional knees-up hoe-down on Sunday 29th December, so get 'em in as soon as you can. I'll be flying back to Amsterdam on the Sunday after a few days in the UK over xmas, so the earlier you can get your picks in, the happier I will be!

Last week @matthewesdigs was in the hot seat for the first time, and treated us all to The Dirty Projectors "Bitte Orca", a fine platter and a very positive reception indeed. Thanks to Matt for the pick, and for sending the frisbee on a slightly roundabout route back to my good self. So, here I am...

"It's quite an odd time of year to pick a Listening Club album, as the music media starts to fill itself up with year end Top 10s, 50s, 100s and inevitably I discover a whole mountain of recent music that has until now passed me by and is now winking salubriously at me from my monitors. As usual, I'll most likely not be done with 2013's music until well into 2014, at which point the whole delicious cycle will begin again. 

Because jeez, it's been a good year for music. Some years feel extra special, and this is one of them. Whether comebacks from established artists, continued excellence or fine debuts, this year has delivered in spades, for me anyway.

So here's one of those fine debuts that will probably be featuring in quite a few of the aforementioned end-of-year lists. Because of that it's difficult to say any more without giving the game away, but it's no surprise this album got pounced on by the media this year. A great back-story and an opportunity to throw some lesser-heard styles into the public eye is a combination that no self-respecting muso journo can resist. And with good reason. If a debut album is a declaration of intent, I can't wait to see how these guys develop over the next few years, especially after seeing them play here in Amsterdam a while ago and sound considerably different to what's on the album. A great situation to be in!

Anyway, enough attempt at mystique? Good. Break out the cocktails and let's have it!"

Direct download is here, and the Mixcloud stream (which may reveal the track titles, you have been warned)  is here!

Search #listeningclub to see what's going on, and follow @listeningclub for the admin.

Hope to see you tonight at 8pm GMT!