The Listening Club - 28th June 2015

Hey there,

For one week only it's me, @holette, and my main man @JimMcCauley at The Listening Club controls while @kleptones plays tunes at Glastonbury.  He may be at the mother of all festivals but we've got our own spectacular in the form of the annual summer Live Vortex, celebrating your pick of the finest live performances.

Last Sunday, it was, ahem, my pick, and Marlena Shaw's album The Spice of Life, seemed to suit most people's mood. Certainly there were a few people rewinding straightaway so good to spread the love on that one.

As I write, the weather forecast for my part of the world at least, is looking soggy, but the festive spirit is strong! We've erected the Listening Club gazebo, the chai tea urn is on and I imagine Jim standing by in a black bin liner with holes cut for his arms.

I'm sadly unable to join you tonight due to a prior appointment with a yurt four miles down a forest track in Mid Wales (What? No wifi?). So thanks to @JimMcCauley for pulling your tracks together and hosting.

Hope you enjoy the selection, easy on the crowd surfing, and let's hope @kleptones survives his mini break with Motörhead and Sleaford Mods.

Download is here and the Mixcloud (which should be safe from last-minute nuking this time) is below.

See you at 8!

Listening Club: Live Vortex 3 by Jedburgh on Mixcloud

The Listening Club - 21st June 2015

Hey there,

Hope all is good with you - hustle, bustle and frenzy here in A-dam, as we prepare ourselves for Glastonbury next week - weather forecast not looking too bad for a change also, which is damn good news... But hell, Motorhead, Run The Jewels, Super Furries, Mary J Blige, FFS, Sleaford Mods, Leftfield, Sam Binga, Courtney Barnett, Lionel Ritchie and shitloads more in one place - still my favourite venue on the planet. And a Smiths tribute band. Arf. As last year, I'll be spending Thursday evening and night on-site playing tunes for my good friends running the Cornish Arms, which means lots of swearing at computers this weekend as I sort my set out. Bless @nessiest for tolerating this, It'll be well worth it (I keep assuring her)...

Also looking forward to next week's #summervortex - co-run by @holette and @JimMcCauley, bless their combined cottons... as with previous years, in celebration of the summer festival season, we're looking for the finest live performances you have - email address to send to will be on the twitter profile, looking forward to hearing them!

Back in #LC land, last week @samsmitter was in the chair and treated the ensemble to The Fall's mighty "I Am Kurious Oranj" which was grand fun, both for those who knew it, and those who didn't. Thanks to Sam for the pick, and for skimming the frisbee out to Wales where @holette is waiting with this week's intro...

"The voice, the songs, the fabulous production on this album all sound like pure class to me. It features much sampled tracks and one of the best known will be familiar to many - an instant shot of joy.  I first put a scribbled name to this artist many years ago, after skipping up to ask a DJ at the boozy Sunday end of a banging dance weekender at Pontins, Prestatyn, of all the classy places.  Great music, good company, and a table full of drinks. Sound familiar? 

 I'm sure Listening Clubbers will fill us in on some of the artists who've sampled this vocalist.  Various song writers on the album have penned other bona fide super hits. The tracks are pretty varied with influences from gospel to soul and fantastic funky arrangements.  Hands may well be in the air at some point. Hope you enjoy!"

A mighty one this, short but very sweet - you owe it to yourselves to tune in and groove! - download is here, mixcloud (leaving it till late to upload, in the hope it will still be there come 8pm) is here!!!

See you at 8!

The Listening Club - 14th June 2015

Hey all,

Back in Amsterdam again, but sadly didn't manage to get the sun in our suitcases, which is a shame as we could do with a bit right now and in forthcoming weeks... which reminds me that it's coming up to "that time of the year again". Yes, I'm off to Glastonbury in a couple of weeks, and therefore a) it's time for the third annual recorded-live-only #summervortex and b) we need a volunteer to step forward and host that week and the vortex. Let me know if you're up for it, merci merci!

Still on the admin front, looks like Mixcloud has updated it's scanning system, and pulled down a pile of old #LCs for the sin of "predominant use of tracks by the same artist". It is against their T&Cs so not much we can do, suggestions for alt. streaming welcome, Sam's already had this week's removed once, so lets hope the second attempt isn't taken down before 8pm tonight.

(NB I don't really mind personally if things don't stay up there long term apart from the vortexes, but keeping them up long enough to do one listen would be a bonus...)

So last week it was me in the chair, pouring Coldcut's "Journeys By DJ - 70 Minutes Of Madness" mix into your collected lugholes, and seemed to go down pretty well, which was rather gratifying, glad you enjoyed it. @samsmitter was the recipient of my frisbee toss, and here he is with this week's intro...

"It is perhaps a natural reaction for a music enthusiast to shudder slightly when hearing the words ‘project’ or ‘collaboration’, and find their mind wandering to David St Hubbins recording an album of his acoustic numbers with the Royal Philharmonic. This is particularly so when the collaboration involves exponents of the “high” (i.e. posh) arts. When I first heard about this album, and the accompanying stage show, I was a sceptic, and to my regret I did not abandon my prejudices and go to the theatre. But over the years its become a favourite of mine, an album I prefer to a lot of the more celebrated output by this band. For me it has a kind of cohesion as a record, which is something I always want from an album, and a groovyness that anticipates the flirtation between indie rock and dance music that was about to dominate the 5 years or so that followed it (and is perhaps an early example of it). As an only slightly relevant aside – a school music teacher once gave me and my friends the somewhat backhanded compliment that we had achieved a band sound that was “just ever so slightly out of time”, saying that it was something this band had been trying to achieve for years.

I should perhaps offer a warning that this is not particularly mellow or relaxing Sunday evening (or morning) music. It occasionally breaks the commandment “Thou shall not make monotonous repetitive music”. It does, however, reward “going with it”, and repeated listening as well. The band will be familiar from the first moment, hopefully the album will not be. I hope you don’t hate it!"

Okaydoke, direct download is here, and (if they're slow on the uptake) Mixcloud link is here (but I'd grab the download if I was you....)

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

The Listening Club - 7th June 2015

Greetings from Brighton!

Nice to be back in the old homestead again, with some half decent weather to boot. A weekend of booze, burgers and catching up with old friends really can't be beat, looking forward to erasing the hangover with a decent roast as soon as this is done.

Last week we had the fine #summervortex, which really was a splendid selection of seasonal tracks, many thanks to all who chipped in. Tracklist can be found in the comments of last wek's post as per usual...  Back to regular programming this week, and it's me with the frisbee, so I'd better go all italic...

"Ah that's better. Thinking back to the last time I picked an #LC album whilst I was away from home, I picked Negativland from the XOXO conference in Portland. So to continue a rather loose thread of picking albums that had rather a large influence on me and the music I ended up making when I'm away from home, here's another (for me) classic album, a DJ mix that's been getting a few fresh mentions online recently as it's celebrating it's 20th birthday, and is quite rightly held up as one of the very first mixes of it's kind. It definitely had a huge effect on myself at the time, demonstrating how far it was possible to stretch out in the space of 70 minutes without losing the groove.

I can't say too much else without giving the game away, although it will become pretty obvious to quite a few of you who's behind it as soon as you hit play at 8pm. It's quite a trip, Hope you enjoy it!"

Okaydoke, Download is here, and the Mixcloud is here.

Looking forward to seeing you at 8!

The Listening Club - 31st May 2015

Hello all!

Well then, insert "loading summer - season not found" gag here. Yeah, not quite feeling the season yet here in Amsterdam, the past week having been a week of rain and keeping the heating on. Forecast is looking a little better though, which is jolly good, as m'self and @nessiest will be heading over to Brighton next weekend for a sojourn, and that's one town that really blossoms in the sunshine, for sure...

Last week @rougeforever was in the chair and treated the assembled to "Close Watch", a selection of the finest work of John Cale, which went down very well, especially in these environs, as I'm just a bit of a fan, noticeably so much that the frisbee was flipped my way to follow, something that will be much fun because as previously mentioned I'm in Brighton next weekend. We shall see what transpires...

In the meanwhilst, it's time to combine our musical energies and cast forth a "decent weather, pls" spell in the shape of the #summervortex - we have 18 fine summer-scented selections from you all to present to the weather gods, so come on!

Download is here, and ye olde mixcloude can be found here.

Get the barbecue on, and we'll see you at 8pm BST (GMT+1).

The Listening Club - 24th May 2015

Greetings y'all,

As with last week, short and sweet intro as the sun's out, and this time the forecast says staying out, also there's a national holiday on Monday here in the Netherlands (Whit Monday)  so it's a tap tap tap get this sorted so we can go out and enjoy the afternoon, Bank Holiday stylee! Also next week is #vortex week, so if you have suggestions for a theme, let us know...

Last week, @saucer was in the chair, and kinda continued the stylings of the previous week with his pick of Howe Gelb's "The Coincidentalist". Many thanks to him for the pick, and for flipping the frisbee across to @rougeforever for this week, and here she is...

"Welcome to the Bank Holiday weekend.  Or Memorial Day weekend if you're of the American persuasion.

I've gone for another record I really really love.   Except there are a few songs I don't really love on it, so I took those off.   Also, I don't know about you, but I've not been in the mood for long Listeningclub choices recently, so my edit keeps it just below 50 minutes.  (You can thank me later).

This is a solo Greatest Hits album by someone who was in a very famous band.  He's the Lennon to the lead's McCartney.  He's my favourite sort of person - on one hand talented, capable and stable, but on the other hand racked with dark brooding thoughts, chaos and madness.   This makes for a great record - you'll hear his psyche opened up in the lyrics and his performances. The lead singer of the band gets all the attention, but this guy actually deserves it.   So come with me on this record.   It won't always be an easy listen, but it'll be worth your time, I can promise you.

I'd suggest you turn all the lights off, take your clothes off and open the wine.  Mind you, I'd always suggest that."

Okaydoke! Dowload is here, and the mixcloud is here.

See you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)

The Listening Club - 17th May 2015

Hey all,

Wow, suns out here, quick sort #LC and I can run and... aw shit, it's gone in again. Ah well, I'm typing now. Hope you're getting some of what makes you all happy, anyways. Not actually that bad here, tho @nessiest is still in NZ, and while the cat's away.... well, the mice sit at the computer playing with their musical things, eating beans on toast. Yes, folks, I'm that predictable.

Fortunately, ol' #listeningclub is, as usual, far from predictable - what with @akx chilling everyone last week with Lowlight's "Always & Forever - Americana 1" mixtape. Cheers to Aarni for the pick and for flipping the frisb across to @saucer for this week's pick, and here he is...

"First, I'd like to congratulate @akx on earning the “That beer was so fine I forgot @saucer was up just 8 weeks ago, and that his pick was, uh...” badge on untapped!

My 3rd time doing this and still awful at reading the room, as it were... aiming for multidimensional Venn diagram intersection perfection for each of our multivariate tastes... which remain mysterious... hurts my brain. Aua! as my German friend says.

(Dude, you say, you're _overthinking it_, but then I'm all like I'd rather try to _read_ the effing room than _empty_ it. Let's just say I keep Demdike Stare, Jelena Glazova, Klangstabil, Isolat Pattern, Government Alpha, and La Monte Young for my own time, ok? Ok.)

Boring story short, I circled through a dozen genres and came back to one of the first records I'd thought of. It's suitable counterpoint to my previous two picks. Good for putting a baby down, if the baby likes subtle, jazzy Americana, performed with heart and mastery.

The track order here is for the vinyl version and I added a little silence between sides.

Hope you enjoy."

Indeedy. get yer download here.. and the Mixcloud here.

See you at 8pm!