The Listening Club - 27th March 2016

Greetings folks,

Busy as bees here in Amsterdam, enjoying the holiday weekend with a duo of gigs, some off-kilter electronics last night that weirded us out completely (although redeemed by a cracking live set from Ital Tek) and tonight off to a sold-out Paradiso to see @nessiest's countrymen Fat Freddy's Drop. Also managed to flip out a new mixtape myself (plug, plug), so much to do, on with the show...

Last week, hey it was me, @kleptones in the chair, doing that weirding thing with The Residents Commercial Album, which did what it said on the tin for sure. Thanks for enduring the strange folks, folks, and all hail @emmaprice, who caught the frisbee with aplomb and will be here next week with her selection.

But first... Yes, it's the spectacularly seasonal, all-encompassing #springeastervortex! 18 fine selections representative of this time of year. Thanks for all the picks!

Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is:

The Listening Club - 27th March 2016 - Spring/Easter Vortex by listeningclub on hearthis.at

Don't forget the EuroClocks have changed so see you at 8pm BST (GMT +1)

The Listening Club - 20th March 2016

Greetings folks,

Happy official first-day-of-spring-in-this-part-of-the-world to you. Typically, after last week's blurt of sunny weather, Amsterdam responds to the "official first day" with typical grey blah. Still, one more cozy weekend in with good food and films is no problem, and there's a calendar filling up with fun for the coming months to look forward to, so no complaints, as ever.

Also it's time to don the metaphorical party hat once again and sing Happy Birthday to the good ship #LC, who turned 4 on Friday. Thanks to everyone for chipping in their album picks over the years, it's really been a hell of a lot of fun. And vortex picks too! (Speaking of which, there's another one next week, if you can bear the thought after the #cringerapvortex, so topic suggestions please!)

Last week, @cakehugga was in the chair, nu raving us into submission with her pick of Is Tropical's "Native To" from 2011. Many thanks to her for the pick, and for flipping the frisbee back to me! So...


"...Here we go again. 

Looking back over my previous picks, I seem to flip-flop between new things that have been dazzling my ears recently and older things from the left-of-center region that have left a very permanent scar on my musical psyche for one reason or another. As the last thing I picked was very new, yep, it's time to go back into history again...

Discovering this band way back when I was a teeny-tiny-thing was a pretty standard affair - seeing a video or two on a well-respected music programme of the time that tickled my curiosity, then chancing upon the corresponding album during one of my occasional visits to that London to dig through the multitudinous racks of sounds that would never make it anywhere near my small-town upbringing. 

All of which would be pretty much by-the-book if the band and album in question hadn't been so damn strange. 

The videos (which were still rather a rare commodity at the time, hence, I guess, how they managed to get them broadcast on the fuddy-duddy BBC) were grainy, low budget affairs filled with home-made sets, costumes and masks, and the music had an equivalent feel, although considerably more intentional, as if the band had decided against a more produced sound to go for something deliberately more feral and basic. On top of that there was the actual concept of the album (yes! a concept! but fear ye not, tis not a prog-style narrative), which seemed both absurd yet highly logical at the same time, and of course, a cracking bit of cover art, all of which led to an immediate purchase, and one rather boggled young mind when I got it home and put the thing on. 

The kind of artistic ideas and freedoms this bunch have made their career stock-in-trade seem a hell of a lot more commonplace and easier to achieve now than they were way back when, it's true to say. Also I must admit that I'm not a huge fan, a fair amount of their work is so far out there that I don't think anyone understands it apart from them, and I'm sure that's pointedly deliberate, but as I commented the other week on @wojsvenwoj's pick: I'm glad they exist. At the time, this record truly expanded my youthful ideas of what you could get away with, on an album, or anywhere.

I should note that I haven't listened to this from start to finish for many, many, many years either, so it'll be interesting to see if I still like it.... And interesting to see if you do, too, of course. And if you don't, well, don't worry; none of it is that long."

Right. Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is...

The Listening Club -20th March 2016 by listeningclub on hearthis.at

Hope to see you at 8pm GMT...

The Listening Club - 13th March 2016

Hey folks,

Hope you're good. Sun in blazing in thru the windows here in AMS, due to an unseasonably clear few days that has led to a flurry of outdoors activity, the digging out of sunglasses, and a customary spring cleaning session following the reveal of the winter's grot buildup. All as expected and all the better for it, I'd say.

Back in #lc land, last week @wojsvenwoj took us all for a quick lap around the strange world of The Book Of Knots' "Garden Of Fainting Stars", which went down well with quite a few of you. Many thanks to Woj for the pick, and for flipping the firsbee across to @cakehugga, and here she is with this week's intro...

"Hello Listening Clubbers,

So this week I’ve been through the usual process of narrowing my choice to 4 albums, then remembering something else I love, changing my mind and finally choosing something completely different.

Eventually I thought of this album and it made me smile. I have been thinking a lot about the past and the future recently. In the last year I’ve ended up using a walking stick for 3 months after a broken bone which took a while to heal, had abdominal surgery and moved house twice. On the plus side I got a permanent job in a brilliant school, fell in love with a lovely widower, bought a house and got engaged.

Music for me has always been a way to express what I’m going through. At the moment I am able to look forward again and I am drawn to positive upbeat music. This album makes me smile, dance and sing along.

I hope it will brighten up your Sunday night and maybe get you moving."

Okaydoke - direct download is here, and the HearThis stream is...

The Listening Club - 13th March 2016 by listeningclub on hearthis.at

Hope to see you at 8!

The Listening Club - 6th March 2016

Greetings all,

Pissing down here, and has been for some time, but despite the grot, me and @nessiest are off to Groningen for a couple of days to see the Bowie exhibition, formerly of the V&A in London, and, well, potter around a different town for a day or two, hence the early tappings...

Last week, despite attempts to erase it from the collective consciousness, it was the #cringerapvortex and well, let's never speak of it again. Such things should never be brought into existence again.

Back, thank the gods, on regular turf, thanks to @wojsvenwoj for coming thru with his pick a few days early due to the above trip, so here he is with the intro....

"In the post-apocalypse ushered in by the #CringRapVortex, I was thinking about the introduction that @cdrose_writer penned for Yorkston/Thorne/Khan's "Everything Sacred" and, at the risk of sounding corporate, the key take-away for me was comfort. And I started thinking about some of the records that I find most comforting, reminding me of good times and cozy listening. For various reasons, most of them did not seem like good candidates -- although I hasten to point out that turning the collective attention of the Listening Club to albums and artists I hold near and dear to my heart was not one of those reasons...

One band, in particular, kept coming up as I perused the collection. Formed in 1999 and active through most of the century's first decade, they are a favorite of mine who, as it turned out, I first saw perform live about in early March in 2004. The planets were aligning and one of their albums seemed like a natural choice! So, of course, I elected to go with something else, though it didn't fall far from the vine.

This week's record is by a band that could be characterized as a supergroup of sorts, I suppose. Two members are from the aforementoned favorite band. One was a long-time, though not founding, member of a legendary and influential band. The fourth is producer and engineer of some repute. This is their third record, closing a loose trilogy of sorts though these are not concept records. It's a bit heavy, a bit cinematic, and a bit epic. Dense and dark but, for me at least, a rewarding listen. And it's a good record to play guest appearance bingo with too!

Hope you enjoy..."

Direct download is here or the HearThis stream is...

The Listening Club - 6th March 2016 by listeningclub on hearthis.at

See you at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 28th February 2016

Greetings folks and happy leap year for tomorrow, hope you're doing fine. Cold but clear here in Amsterdam, coming down after a rather bonkers night of oddball electronica at the annual Sonic Acts festival. Brain feeling well and truly tenderised by the combination of bonks, beeps, bangs and beers, indeed...

Last week @JimMcCauley was running things whilst I was away in old Brighton towne, and hosted @cdrose_writer's pick of Yorkston/Thorne/Khan's "Everything Sacred", which was decreed "quite interesting" by the assembled. Many thanks to Chris for the pick and for flipping the frisbee across to @wojsvenwoj for next week...

But first, yes, bolt the doors, batten down the hatches, secure the exits and confiscate the earplugs, for there is no escape from the #cringerapvortex. We have 12 choice selections of misguided rhythmic wordplay, and frankly, that's more than plenty. Seriously, I needed some protective gauntlets to handle some of these submissions. May god have mercy on our souls.

Direct download is here, and the hearthis stream is...

The Listening Club - 28th February 2016 - Cringe Rap Vortex by listeningclub on hearthis.at

See you at 8pm GMT if you've got the bottle.

The Listening Club – 21st February 2016

Evening all! @kleptones is away in Brighton for the weekend so it is I, @JimMcCauley, as your host tonight. Do make yourselves comfortable; by all means help yourselves to nibbles and feel free to turf the cat out of that chair. He can find somewhere else to sleep, it'll be fine. Oh shit, sorry, he doesn't normally do that. Would you mind awfully not bleeding on the rug? I'll get you a plaster.

Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, last week @kleptones smacked us up good with his pick of Wand's "Golem", a cracking portion of West Coast psychedelic rock (or rockadelic psych) that went down a treat with the assembled masses. Thanks to Eric for the pick, and for skilfully aiming the frisbee at @cdrose_writer, who will be with us presently.

First, though, your reminder that next week it's the #CringeRapVortex! So get all your bad or incongruous or just plain cheesy rappings over to Eric, and may God have mercy on our souls. And with that, it's over to @cdrose_writer for tonight's pick:

"Late winter in England can be a bleak time.  For every day of crisp sunlight and glittering frost, there’s a week of temperatures lurking in low figures, pavement-coloured skies and a cold that gets into your bones.  The only sensible refuge for such days are the good things: food, drink, friends, music.

"So I hunkered down and scanned through my LC possibles list and found that apart from one (a wonderful and unjustly neglected piece of lo-fi Manc psych, maybe a bit too similar to last week’s Kleptones pick) they were all songs of love tangled, lost or impossible: I blame the weather.

"I eventually went for something that, despite a keening mournful edge, is also a record of great warmth, tenderness, wit and variety.  It’s music from three diverse sources, a collaboration between musicians who have all previously done wildly different things now working together to make something strange and new.

"I’ll stick my head out now and say that some of you may not like bits of this one, but hey – that’s the fun of The Club, I guess.  I hope, at least, it provides an escape from the bare-treed emptiness of this time of year, makes the pavement sparkle and the evening glow."

Tip top! Download is here, and the HearThis stream should be below, as long as it hasn't been nuked.

Listening Club - 21 February 2016 by Jedburgh on hearthis.at

See you at 8PM! GMT!

The Listening Club - 14th February 2016

Greetings and happy Valentine's Day, if that sort of thing floats your romantic boats... Hope you've had a satisfactory day, whatever you've been up to... Quick reminder that I am again away next weekend, so am looking for another caretaker manager, if anyone cares to volunteer. It's not a vortex week, but that will be coming soon too so dig out those suggestions...

Last week @holette was in the chair, confusing, confounding and cheering in equal measures with her pick of the Yoko Ono remix / remake / cover version / all of the above album "Yes, I Am A Witch", a fine pick for sure. Many thanks to her for that, and for flipping the frisbee across to me! So... *attaches fake moustache*

"Howdy! Didn't see this coming, so the "possible #lc picks" cupboard was a little bare, but this album has served me well over the last few months, particularly in the "blotting out everything going on around you with your headphones" department. Swans being the usual main go-to for me in that area, but fret-ye-not, faint hearts, this isn't them... 

That said, it does have a rather solid sound and some seriously rock-out psych moments (or is it psych-out rock moments?) and maybe even a touch of 70s glam, but all backed up with some surprisingly tasty songwriting. 

True, there's nothing here musically that couldn't have existed 40 or more years ago, but it's wrapped in a fine production that places it very much in there here and now. Also seems to me to be an under-represented genre in the old #lc firmament, so crank up the volume real high, crack open a vessel of whatever tickles your fancy and let's set sail...."

Direct download is here, and the HearThis stream (if there's any luck, as they've started removing stuff too, now) should be below...

The Listening Club - 14th February 2016 by listeningclub on hearthis.at

Hope to see you at 8pm!