The Listening Club - 31st March 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope all is good. We're back in Amsterdam, after our pre-brexit-but-not-really-what-the-fucks-going-on-there-eh sojourn back to the UK, arriving back in time to catch Zurich's finest The Young Gods play a storming set on Wednesday. And now there's a bit of spring in the air, so let's get on with it...

Last Sunday, @akx was holding the reigns, delivering a mighty fine #getshitdonevortex, which I think delivered on all fronts. Thanks to all who chipped in a tune or two! Back before that, @faberfedor was holding the frisb, so over to him for tonight's intro...

"About ten years ago, I asked one of my young colleagues "What non hip-hop stuff are you kids listening to today." He turned me on to this artist and genre.  In turn, I turned him on to The Classics: Jimi, Clapton in his God days, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Bach,
and Sor.

This genre has become one of my favorites. The "found sounds" aspect to this album has been a favorite of mine for a _long_ time.

Like my previous entry, I suspect many will know this album. Apparently it won some kind of awards when it first came out on the other side of the pond.

#drinkingclub suggestion: I dunno. Absinthe?"

Okaydoke, direct download is here, and the HearBeSpoilers stream is below:


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

The Listening Club - 24th March 2019

Hi folks,

Eric here, still busy in England, but providing a quick editor's update on last week, whence we had @akx on the wheels of steel with his pick of The Artful Dodger's "It's All About The Stragglers". Thanks to Aarni for the pick, and for asailing the frisb across to @FaberFedor for next week's selection, but first, it's back over to the aforementioned @akx...

Hello hello hello!

It's been a while since our last one, but it's vortex time again! It's me, Aarni (@akx) here in the blog chair, having been the vortex master for this edition (oof, my first time doing a vortex that isn't video!), and what an edition it is!

As you might be aware, our theme for this time was #GETSHITDONEVORTEX, i.e. songs to get things done to. Despite a slightly bleak-looking start for submissions, we ended up with a more than healthy 25 tracks, and clocking in at nearly two hours (even with yours truly attempting an edit or two where possible and suitable, and having to dropcurate out a tune or two) it's a bit of a chonker.

Considering I'm writing this from the Oak Barrel pub at Helsinki airport with an hour to departure, the final mix just being uploaded to the cloud, I can say I got shit done getting it done, though.

Anyway – you're not here for me blabbering along, you're here for some music, so:

• Google Drive download link this way! (204 MB)
• Streaming on Mixcloud (which may reveal the tracklist) over here!
• And just in case, backup direct S3 download link (expires in 24 hours) this way (204 MB).

See you at 8 PM GMT!

The Listening Club - 17th March 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope you're doing fine. Unexpectedly reporting from pre-brexit Britain this week (and next), having popped over to give my Mum a helping hand, as she's a little bit poorly. Kinda weird being back here following the hoopla in the news this week, must be said...

Also, (hey, I fuckin' remembered this time!), time to pat ourselves on the back, as it is our 7th Birthday! Huge thanks to everyone for their tunes and support as always, delighted to be part of this continuing weirdness with you all.

But wait, did I hear someone say #vortextime? Yes! If you weren't following the discussion last week, it has been decreed time for a #vortex... a #getshitdonevortex no less. So what we need from you before next Sunday is a couple of your favourite "get shit done" tracks, you know the ones we mean. @akx has volunteered to steer the vortex ship this time, so please email your tracks to him here (or you can send them to me and I'll forward them). So get thinking and sending, toot sweet!

Last week chez #LC, @miss_s_b used her debut pick for a timely Flinty tribute, courtesy of The Prodigy's "Fat Of The Land", which predictably hit the spot for the UK posse, and got a pretty fulsome thumbs-up from the ROTW gang too, whether they already knew it or not. Big thanks extended to da miss for da pick, and also for sailing the frisb over to Finland, where @akx managed to put down his #vortex-assembly training manual long enough to write this...

"Oh man.

It's hard to follow up after last week's belter, but I decided to go with the fuck-it attitude evident from that pick... but in a different way. This is honestly an album I've had on my pick shortlist several times, because it kinda means a lot to me, in maybe a kitschy, weird way -- like, I suppose my foray into electronic music (which is why I'm here now, I guess?!) really began with the music video to the second track of this album... and I'm pretty sure most if not all of the #LC regulars (and probably others, if you've listened to the radio about, uh, 17 years ago or so (has it really been that long?!)) have heard that one if probably not the rest of the album (which, in another way, segues nicely with last week's pick!).

I do agree not all of the tunes have maybe aged as gracefully as others, but there's still a certain lovely crispness and fullness in the production that _hasn't_ aged at all. The genre itself, or at least aspects of it, has seen something of a renaissance in the last couple of years, which has been refreshing, fantastic, bombastic, oh you'll recognize this reference around 40 minutes in to the album... anyway, I digress and I really shouldn't be overanalyzing things for you folks.

Still, play any one of these tunes at a club and you'll be damn sure to find me on the dance floor.

Looking forward to see what you think."

Right then. Direct download is here, and the HearBeSpoilers stream is below:


See you tonight at 8pm GMT.

The Listening Club - 10th March 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope all is well and good with you all. Still grey and wet here chez Amsters, and the day job is stressing me out far more than I really would care for at the moment, but the small green buds that have started appearing here and there are giving joy in their usual way. A fine set of sounds in the week ahead too with Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares and Lisa Gerrard on Tuesday, and an Iration Steppas / The Bug double header on Saturday to look forward to, so not all bad...

Last Sunday @wojsvenwoj was in the chair getting well perky with his pick of "The Glass Intact" from Sarge, which got pretty much everyone bopping in a Bronze Stylee. Thanks to Woj for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across the ocean to @miss_s_b, who has this to say by way of introduction to their debut selection...

"Hello Listening Club: be gentle with me, it’s my first time.

I had a bunch of potential candidates in mind for this, but after events earlier in the week, there could only really be one choice: it comes from 1997.

1997 was my year out between school and uni, but rather than having a traditional posh bugger gap yah, I spent it working and building up some money. And going to gigs. Lots and lots of gigs. Somehow, though, tonight’s band was one that I never managed to get around to seeing. I regret that immensely.

This album was the soundtrack to that summer for me, and I suspect several of us here.

#drinkingclub: Fireball cinnamon whisky feels appropriate to me."

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the HearMayWellBeSpoilers stream is below:


See you at 8pm GMT tonight for playback.

The Listening Club - 3rd March 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope all is good. Back to grey and wet here in Amsterdam, and I'm feeling under the weather too, sadly, so let's get this done toot sweet whilst I have the energy...

Last week @Har_Shone was in the chair, serving up Nadine Shah's "Holiday Destination", which had a mixed bag of reactions, but quite a few in favour, which is good. Thanks to Harriet for the pick, and for sailing the frisbaton across the ocean to @Wojsvenwoj, who has this to say by way of introduction to tonight's selection...

"I was looking back over things I had selected in the past for Listening Club and realized that even though they were all from my collection, they weren't necessarily representative of what I listen to most of the time. So, decided to go "wojcore" this week. 

Now, that could still mean a lot of things -- one of Robyn Hitchcock's lesser known records (Happy Birthday to Mssr. Hitchcock, by the way) for example or some trip-hop by an obscure Canadian -- but decided to leave it firmly in the indie/power pop realm. 

So, here's a pick from latter 90s that often kept me awake while commuting between Connecticut and New Jersey.

And yeah, pretty sure they would have totally played at The Bronze."

Right then, direct download is here, and the HearBeSpoilers stream is below:


See you tonight at 8pm GMT.

The Listening Club - 24th February 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all well and good. A second sunny weekend in a row here in Amsterdam, which is stirring both the residents and the local fauna into life a little earlier in the year than expected. So let's get this done now, so we can pop out for a stroll and a bite, eh?

Last week in the land of #LC, @brainspiritus was in the chair, delivering their debut pick in the shape of Mardi.bb's career-spanning "Pentalogy", which got the assembled grooving quite successfully. Many thanks extended for the pick, and for sailing the frisb back across to London, where @har_shone is waiting to give this introduction...

"I struggled to pick this week for no reason other than the fact that every album i am loving right now i discovered from you lot either in the Vortex or as part of regularly scheduled programming and I didn't want to recycle other people's picks! But then I remembered this.

I was given this album around the time it came out and promptly didn't listen to it for months and months (maybe a year? Maybe more? Who knows, time is a flat circle or something). Then at the end of last year I was getting very bored of cycling through the same playlist and stumbled across it again. On first listen, it had my favourite combination of deeply depressing themes but sometimes matched with incongruously upbeat music (sometimes, other times it's just deliciously angry). I like it and I hope you do too! It was a pretty big success when it came out so I expect a lot of you have heard it already but it bears repeating in my opinion!"

Okaydoke. Direct download is here, and the HearBeSpoilers stream is below:


See you tonight at 8pm GMT.

The Listening Club - 17th February 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope all is good with you. A spot of reasonable weather here in Amsterdam, so throwing open the windows for a bit of an air out, and a slightly-earlier-than-usual session of clearing up the winter debris from around the outdoor-growing-things-area (it's not really a garden) has been the order of the day. And very nice too, perfect Sunday activities.

In the land of #LC, last week @xpollen8 was in the chair, getting obscure as all that with his pick of Wolfgang Tschegg's "Finder" (and some bonus tracks), which went down pretty well, so it seemed. Many thanks to David for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across to @brainspiritus, who has this to say by way of introduction to their debut pick...

"Happy springtime, everyone! At least in this corner of the back bar that I imagine #listeningclub to be, it is finally warm enough to not freeze the cymbals off a brass band anymore and put a spring in your step instead.

To celebrate, we have #zuhörclub again, with a German group that never gained much popularity beyond Germany and France, and a retrospective 2007 re-issue of parts of a five-album project. I was in two minds (or actually four of five) on what to pick, this being my first time, but a quick anonymous twitter poll suggested that I should probably go all out, which in my case means all odd, so prepare your drinks (#drinkingclub might be a Cuba Libre) and join us for music of the "various other/huh?" genre. I promise it's not Gregorian monks covering ABBA songs."

Okaydoke. Direct download is here (right-click save as) and the HearThis stream is below:


See you at 8pm GMT...