The Listening Club - 26th January 2020

Greetings folks,

Time flying as usual... end of January already? Blimey. Still on the making plans tip, and also finally, finally, finally getting my next slice of music finished, which is most welcome, as it's taken way longer than I'd anticipated, due to one thing and another, and it's always one of the best feelings in the world when something is close to done, and the light at the end of the tunnel is enjoyably blinding... if you know what I mean :)

Last week @mrtorture was celebrating the frisb's arrival in Buenos Aires with their debut pick of Anekdoten's "Gravity" from 2003 which went down rather well indeed. Thanks to them for the selection, and for sailing the frisb across to London, where @simonlandmine is in the usual quandry...

"Picking albums for Listening Club is difficult, as many have noted.
This time around, I managed to narrow the choice to two albums. And the rip was a bit iffy on one of them, so that one will be held off
until I dig out the CD, which means you get this instead.

This is an album which I picked up after first hearing one of the tracks at a regular club night. I identified the artist in the traditional, pre-Shazam, fashion - asking the relevant resident DJ when they were done readying the next track ...

- "What's this? It's great!"
- "?"
- "WHAT'S THIS?"
- "[inaudible]"
- "SORRY, WHAT WAS THAT?"
- [scribbles]
- "CHEERS!" [thumbs-up]

And then I went out and bought it. And the exact same conversation was replicated a couple of years later, in the other direction, when I played the same track at the BiCon Ball - which was rather gratifying. Bonus points (worth nothing) for guessing which of the tracks inspired the purchase.

It's quite possible that you all know this, as I have absolutely no idea how well known it is. Whether it's familiar or new to you, I hope that you enjoy it anyway.

#DrinkingClub - It doesn't really matter, someone at the club will spill it for you. You might want a bottle of water, though."

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

See you at 8pm GMT.

The Listening Club - 19th January 2020

Greetings,

Standard intro here, wishing you all well, gently griping about the weather, light commenture and plans about upcoming gigs (John Grant! Pigs x 7! Dekmantel! Birthday shenanigans!). Pretty standard week really, but with much to look forward to...

Last week, @xpollen8 was in the chair, sharing their results of what sounds like quite an immense digitization project in the form of sounds from Ebony Rhythm Funk Campaign, Vanguards, and Funk St Workshop from his Father's studio archives. Thanks to him for the fine work, and for sailing the frisb way down to Buenos Aires, where @mrtorture is waiting to provide his debut introduction....

Hello peeps!

First time handling the Frisbee here. I decided to pick something mellow, to go down the road on this Sunday afternoon/night/whichevertimefits.

Lots of mellotrons, pouding and very present bass lines, mellow lyrics and vocal tracks. These fellows have come and gone a long way, fans tend to dislike this particular album (same old "their old stuff was better!!" excuse). Nevertheless, for me this album represents a change of pace in the right direction. They would soon reinforce this in latter releases... but this one feels a lot like where everything began.

I discovered this band and this album at a very different time in my life. In a way that time feels a lot like right now, since thanks to a group of people, I found the joys of musical discovery and rediscovery. I wanted to share this with the rest of you, since it feels like the right place to do so. Serve yourself a smooth cup of tea, or a soothing scotch, sit back and let yourself go.

Cheers!

Okay, direct download is here, and the stream is below:

See you at 8pm GMT!

The Listening Club - 12th January 2020

Greetings folks,

Hope you're doing fine and surviving the nose-back-on-the-grindstone time of year. Still keeping up some of the fairy lights here, because they look pretty, and things are just a bit too grey and dull without 'em. Still rather sad following the news of the passing of Neil Peart, who really was one of my favourite musicians of all time. They called him The Professor, and I certainly got a lot of joy and learned a hell of a lot from listening to him play and hearing his lyrics. Although he'd been retired for a few years, he'll still be much missed, but he's left one hell of a legacy, that's for sure...

Last week, @brainspiritus was in the chair, rocking out the assembled with their pick of Gov't Mule's "High And Mighty". Thanks extended for the selection, and for sailing the frisb back across to @xpollen8, who has this to say by way of introduction...

"While the world still exists, I'd like to share a tiny bit of what I've been working on since last summer.

I'm providing more hints than usual, because only a couple of the tracks today are commercially available - the rest are unreleased and I've digitized them directly from their 15IPS 1/4" master tapes as part of an ongoing preservation and archival effort.

Almost unheard-of bands + remarkable musicianship + masterful recording and production techniques + 24 bit/192kHz digitization = something special.

Enjoy ya some Funk & R&B!"

Direct download is here, and the streams down below:


See you at 8pm GMT tonight!

The Listening Club - 5th January 2020

Greetings folks.

Happy new year? We should be so lucky, eh? Already seems like there's been more than enough unwanted craziness, and we're only five days in.... *deep breath*

Still, the annual ceremonial #festivevortex should keep us all protected and positive for a good while. Thanks to everyone for chipping in their fave raves, and thanks also for the compliments about the resulting mix, glad everyone dug it.

Back to regular programming, a few weeks ago @brainspiritus was left holding the festive frisbee, and therefore is right here with the intro to the first pick of the year...

"Happy year of the banana, everybody!

(Because as with the old banana joke, I know how to write the year 202020, I just don't know when to stop.)

I hope you all made it here in one piece, avoiding all the missiles that have been flying for one reason or another, and any hangover you may have had is slowly subsiding.

Just in case there is any remaining headache, I decided against surprise metal guitars tonight, so you're getting something from my usual corner in the big sphere of music instead (sorry, xpollen).  Today's pick is somewhat of a classic: this group has been around for twenty-five years now, and their ancestor formation for another twenty-five years before that. So dig out your tie-dye t-shirts, blame that funky-smelling smoke on residual fireworks, and let your freak flags fly with me for one hour and five minutes. (I promise there's more than two songs in that.)"

Okaydoke, direct download is here, and the stream's below:

See you at 8pm GMT tonight!

The Listening Club - 29th December 2019

Greetings and seasonal compliments to you all.

Hope you've all been indulging in a little (or a lot) of what you fancy over the ascribed period. Here in Amsterdam it's been a gentle time, fine food and drink has been consumed and a most welcome and much needed annual decompression has been had. Although I'm not really one for New Year's resolutions, personally the last year has proved to be an annoyance and a disappointment in quite a few ways (can't win 'em all), so it's been good to have the headspace to consider some course corrections for the year (and indeed the decade) ahead. As far as the decade goes, I cannot complain on the whole, the choices I've made have proved to be good ones, so here's hoping that good fortune continues for the next ten years and more.... for everyone. *raises glass to you all*

Week before last, in regular #LC land, @faberfedor was in the chair, taking us back to his formative years with his pick of Santana's "Santana III", which percussed the assembled quite successfully. Thanks to Faber for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across to @brainspiritus, who has a good length of time to consider their options because first...

Yes, it's the 2019 #festivevortex. A cracking 24 tune selection, all over the shop as usual, but with one or two common threads running through, as you will hear. Thanks to all who chipped in a tune or two!

Direct download is here (backup link here if needed), and the stream is below.


Charge your glasses, and see you at 8pm GMT tonight!

The Listening Club - 15th December 2019

Greetings folks.

Well, that was depressing. Plenty I could say on the subject, but this is not the place for it. Suffice to say that deciding on the spur of the moment to go see Madness the night of the election was a really fucking good idea, providing a well needed dance (even if hearing this did reduce me to tears). All things considered, I'm looking forward to drawing a line under this year soon, for sure.

In administrative #LC mode, as we're heading up to the festive season, I'd like to propose taking a little break next Sunday for festive prep and travel, and return on the 29th for the customary #FestiveVortex - Yes, as always, I'd like a couple of your favourite tunes of 2019, we'll jumble them all together, crack open a few bottles, and dance the year into submission. So get thinking, folks...

Last Sunday, @holette was in the chair, delivering an early xmas cracker in the shape of "Joia!" by Carwyn Ellis and Rio 18, which got everyone grooving beautifully. Thanks to Sarah for the pick, and for sailing the frisb back across the ocean to @FaberFedor, who is right here with tonight's intro...

"On the first day of Mr. B.'s music class, he would give a test to see how much music we knew. He would play about 30 seconds of a song and we were to write down the song title, the artist and/or genre. I got about 50% on the test. I found it incongruous that he expected 13-year-olds in a small Western PA coal/steel town to have heard of Debussy and be able to tell the difference between Beethoven and Mozart. And who the hell is John Cage?

But there was one song where the drumming enthralled me. I had to have that song! I went out looking for that weekend and found it, naturally, at George's Song Shop. This is one of the first
three albums I ever bought; the first was "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and the other one was "School's Out". This is still one of my faves.

This album hit #1. The artist didn't have another #1 album until 30 years later.

A coupla' months ago, my town held its first "Diversity Fair" and I was quite chuffed to hear two songs off this album being played live. 

So, in the long and hallowed #listeningclub tradition of seasonally inappropriate albuns started last week by @holette, I give you this week's pick."

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

See you at 8pm GMT tonight!

The Listening Club - 8th December 2019

Greetings folks,

Hope all is good. Another grey week here in Amsterdam as per usual, but we gained a wonderful flash of musical colour on Thursday night courtesy of !!! (or Chk Chk Chk, as their parents call them), who seriously produced the Fraggle Rock vibes, allowing us to dance our cares away quite successfully for an hour or so. Sometimes dancing really is the best revenge.

Goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, those in the UK, or from thereabouts, you know what you have to do on Thursday. Please, for the sake of the country's future, vote as tactically as you can, and encourage those around you to do the same... we cannot let these absolute cunts stay in power any longer.

Right then, last week @xpollen8 was in the chair, bringing us Bob Wiseman's 1995 album "Accidentally Acquired Beliefs", to a glowing positive response. Thanks to him for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across to a power-cut-hit house in deepest Snowdonia, where @holette tapped this out in morse code by way of introduction to tonight's pick:

"Here in the UK, this seemed an appropriate week to celebrate music that embraces internationalism, marginal cultures, music without borders. 

The album came out this year and the artist/producer link up was brokered by Chrissie Hynde of all people. This multi instrumentalist artist tours and plays on records with many more mainstream artists. This is one of his own projects, partly recorded with musicians and a producer in Brazil. It's a beautiful curiosity. 

There's a real warmth and charm to the music. I  don't have a translation for the lyrics but I read that loosely they address "non explicit anti Brexit / anti Bolsonaro" themes. 

Whatever the actual words mean,  there's a sense of joy and positivity and some amazing musicianship.  So here's wishing you a little bit of joy in the season of goodwill."

Download's here, stream's below:

See you at 8pm GMT.