The Listening Club - 26th July 2015

Hey everyone,

Hope you're doing fine - Slow going here in Amsterdam, as a wave of supremely grotty rainstorms batter the lowlands into submission, meanwhile a set of titanic-sized hangovers sit around the house following a highly experimental evening of gin & tonic making. Ouch and oh dear...

Last week in #lc land, @tibieryo was back in the saddle, and pulled one right out of left field with Yamantaka//Sonic Titan's stomping album "YT/ST" (available from Bandcamp here!). Many thanks to Joe for the pick, and for flipping the frisbee across to @thejayarr for next week's pick...

But first, tis #vortex time!, which after a little discussion, allow us to dim the lights for a #lastdancevortex... or is it more of a #lasttunevortex ? Either way, it's the end of the night in club #lc, over and over again... join us to find out what exactly that entails.

Direct download is here, and the mixcloud is here.

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

The Listening Club - 19th July 2015

Greetings,

Happy Sunday Y'all - Hope you're doing good. Pleased to have the new homestead finally ready for guests here in Amsterdam this weekend, with My Own Mum being the inaugural guest, we'll see if we can tempt her with a little bit of #lc action later... Speaking of which, it's #vortex time again next week: I seem to recall a flurry of possible suggestions for themes over the past couple of weeks, so we'll have a chat about it tonight and decide then, yeh?

Last week @AndersHanson was in the chair, and took, I think, maybe the most daring #lc pick one can take, selecting something by his favourite band Delays, namely their debut album from 2004, "Faded Seaside Glamour" which seemed to go down rather well, I'm sure much to his relief. Many thanks to Anders for going for it, and for flipping back the baton to @tibieryo, who is right here with this week's intro...

"I heard about this band when they were longlisted for the Polaris Prize. I read the band name, and I thought "That's the stupidest fucking band name I have ever read."

I googled them out of sheer morbid curiosity and found their Bandcamp. Their genre was a 27-word paragraph. And I thought, "that is the most useless, pretentious, and self-consciously 'arty' thing I have ever read, and it's dumb."

Figuring it was a Sunday morning and I felt like going further down the rabbit hole cos I had nothing else to do, I pressed play on the first song on their first album. Within minutes, I had a new favourite band.

I make a habit of saying that there has been no progressive, innovative, or "new" music with a guitar as a lead voice since 1980. And very frequently, I have my head up my ass about something.

Here are a band, an album, and a genre of music I had my head up my ass about. The only downside is that their fans don't know how to pogo."

Okidoke. Direct download is here, and, if the gods are willing, come the hour, the mixcloud will still be here.

The Listening Club - 12th July 2015

Hey there,

Good to see you, hope the season is proving complementary to your fine selves and needs. Life goes on here in A-dam sensibly today, tidying, sorting and setting up the spare room for impending family and friends visits, after a rather delicious Friday drinking @nessiest's mighty fine melon & raspberry daiquiris in the sun whilst watching drunk Dutchies negotiate the watery highways, and a rather mellow Saturday dealing with the related hangover thereof. All par very much for the course, as you'd expect. Yay summer!

Back on planet #LC, @eastvanhalen was in the chair last week and hit quite an impressive home run with a collection of Mandrill's finest work, "Fencewalk: The Anthology". Many thanks to her for the pick and for sending the frisbee back across the atlantic to @AndersHanson, who is right here with this week's pre-match...

"Finally I've done it! This band has been on my shortlist other times I've made a Listening Club pick but either it just didn't feel the right time or I couldn't decide which album to pick. Finally I’ve gone with it.

This is without doubt my favourite band. I discovered them ten years ago when they released their first single and I've just loved everything about them. I love that I was living just five miles from where they grew up at the time I heard their first single. I love the title and the imagery of this album's artwork. I love that they've underachieved commercially even though you often hear their songs on TV. I love their floppy blonde haired pop cuteness yet also indy edge. I love that their lead singer talked about his depression at the time I was going through the same thing. And love that someone I fell in love with at the time this album came out was coincidentally also one of their small number of fans. Of course, I also love their catchy songs and their relaxed melodies but that should be obvious.

There’s so many other great songs of theirs I wish I could play, but in the end I went with their first album which is how I first discovered them and at last year's tenth anniversary tour they simply played it from beginning to end at each gig. Enjoy!"

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and, in shallah, come the hour, the mixcloud will still be here.

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

The Listening Club - 5th July 2015

Greetings all,

@kleptones back again after traditional Glastonbury hoo-ha with @nessiest and @emmaprice - as usual much fun and unsanitary insanity in the fields, too many highlights to mention but as usual wishing I could clone myself a hundredfold to take it all in - there's just waay too much to do... I know, first world problem deluxe.

Back on planet #lc, @jimmccauley and @holette teamed up to help this year's #livevortex which sounded mighty fine indeed - thanks to all who chipped in a tune or two. Way back on the other side of the fence, @eastvanhalen was found to be "with frisbee", and here she is...

"Hey everybody:

As is traditional, I threw out all the entries I had in the hopper, judging them too angsty/shouty/proggy for the lush and gorgeous summer we're having here in Vancouver.

Instead, here is a band I only first heard about a week ago. It's a disc from an anthology (!), with the songs dating mainly from the mid 1970s. The tracks run from booty-shaking R&B to salsa to balladeering in a way that, to me, has a real New York City feel. This is music for sun and hot pavement and drinks on the fire escape and sweaty dancing. Get something cold to drink and enjoy."

Righty ho! Direct download is here, and if we're feeling lucky, the mixcloud might well still be here...

Hope to see you at 8pm BST (GMT+1)

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)!