The Listening Club - 29th January 2023

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing good, it's been another reasonably clear, dry week here in Amsterdam, which is welcome, even if I haven't been out much in it, hehe. Staying indoors, makin' new mixes and radio shows and spring / summer plans has been more the order of the day. Hup ho.

Last Sunday we had @AqiDraco in the chair with their debut pick of "Black Widow" by In This Moment, which seemed to rock the assembled posse quite satisfactorily, I'd say. Many thanks to Aqi for the pick and for sailing the frisb over to @saucer who has an extra week to ponder, because...

Yep, end-of-the-month means vortex time, and we find ourselves celebrating the Lunar New Year with a fine #rabbitvortex. @akx has been collecting the carrots from y'all, so here comes his (rabbit) stew...

Download is here: gdrive or direct, and the stream's below:

See you 20:00 GMT for playback.

The Listening Club - 22nd January 2023

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing good. Mainly clear but cold here in Amsterdam, good to have respite from the grey for a change. Apart from that not much else to report, it's quiet, and we should be grateful for that.

...and oh yeah, next Sunday will be the first #Vortex of the year, so we'll be canvassing for themes during tonight's playback, if you have any ideas, let us know in the chat... 

Last Sunday we had @soundclamp@mastodon.xyz in the chair, kicking off the '23 #LC season with his pick of Atsushi Tsuyama's "Henry The Human Horse", which charmed and bamboozled the assembled in equal measures, as is often the way round here. Thanks to Dan for the pick, and for sailing the frisb across to @AqiDraco@universeodon.com for their debut pick, and they're right here with the intro...

"It all started with a song. I had selected a song from this band for a playlist (wolf theme, let’s see if you can guess which one it is) years ago but never really checked out their other songs until a couple weeks ago when I started looking for albums for #ListeningClub. So, they are pretty new to me, it’s a bit harder than I usually listen too, apart from my 80s heroic metal or the occasional NIN, TOOL, or A Perfect Circle. It highlights a female singer in this genre. It’ll be interesting to hear what genre you assign this band. This music can evoke pretty strong emotions depending on one’s mood and can also help release emotions in form of loud singing along and head banging. 

The band is still active and touring across America in 2023. 

Drink Choice: Try a RAMMSTEIN liquor - Vodka, Rum, or Tequila. Whichever way suits your taste buds today. 

Non-alcoholic drink choice: The recently discovered yummy Raffaello Milk Shake. How to make it here)

Right then. Download's here, and the stream is below:

See you 20:00 GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 15th January 2023

Hey folks,

Hope you're all doing okay. Wet as hell here in Amsterdam, seems like it's not stopped raining all week, so hunkering down indoors with something warm (cat) and tasty (beer) has been the order of the day, and maybe a little inevitable browsing of holiday websites too... le sigh.

Last Sunday, o my folks we did partake of the 2022 #FestiveVortex and, what do you know, it was another mighty fine mess of tunes. Thanks to everyone who chipped in one or two, it seems harder every year to blend the range, but, shucks, it always seems to work! (phew). 

Looking back to last year, we see @soundclamp holdling the frisbee and readying themselves for tonight's debut pick with this to say by way of introduction...

"It’s the mid-1990s and Japanese noizu (ノイズ) has captured the imagination of Westerners across a variety of underground music scenes. Today’s pick is the debut solo LP of this multi-instrumentalist who was already enjoying the fruits of being in a now famous Japanese psychedelic freak-out group. Mixing traditional Japanese folk music with a flair for psych-fueled jamming, punctuated by weirdo howling at the moon interludes, makes for a rather unique, yet compelling, listen. It's as if someone spilled a bit of their Bloody Mary on your chocolate peanut butter cup. But you know you love it."

Right then, download is here, stream is below:

See you 8pm GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 8th January 2023

Salutations and Happy New Year to you all.

Hope you had a pleasurable mid-winter holiday season type thing, whatever you got up to. Here it was customary good food, drink and gentle merriment with closest and dearest, minimal problems or complaints for a change, and feeling all the better for it. Yay.

Way back before all that, @woj was in the chair, delivering the last #LC of the year, in the shape of Shirley Hurt's eponymous debut album, which went down pretty well as I recall. Thanks to Woj for the pick and for sailing the frisb over to @soundclamp, who has had a good long time to ponder his pick, and even more so because...

Yeah, #FestiveVortex innit? It definitely has been quite an unsettled year for many, and I think the wider-than-ever spread of tunes represents that. Quite a bit of comfort listening maybe, but that can be pretty extreme in itself, as I well kno, and you will hear. Many thanks to everyone who chipped in tracks!

Direct download is here, stream is below:

See you 20:00 GMT for playback. Bring a bottle and some snacks!

The Listening Club - 18th December 2022

Hey folks,

Hope you're all doing fine. Last regular #LC of 2022 tonight, which has turned out to be a little more tumultuous a year than most of us would have liked, I'd say. We return on Sunday 8th January with the customary #festivevortex, which requires one of two of your favourite tunes of 2022 to be sent this way (dropbox details to follow), so get your thinking caps on...

All that remains for me is to wish you all a highly enjoyable holiday season, whatever you decide to get up to, and to thank you for sticking around here to participate in our sessions this year (and especially to @saucer, @akx and @JimMcCauley for #vortex work), it's really been a lot of fun, and it would not be the same without you, natch.

Last Sunday it was m'self @kleptones in the chair, blending past and present with Nancy Mounir's "Nozhet El Nofous", which I'm pleased to report went down pretty good with the assembled. All that remained was to flip the frisb over to @woj, who has this to say about tonight's pick...

"The end of the year approaches and all that comes with it: holidays, the longest night of the year (or the shortest as the case may be), and, of course, year-end lists. As a result, this past week, I've been going back and forth between picking something festive, picking something from my favo(u)rite albums of 2022, and picking something off someone else's best-of-2022 list. After the requisite hemming and hawing, settled on the third option as (1) one person's festive is another person's depressive and (2) I still haven't listened to everything that came out in 2022 that I've been meaning to listen to so don't really know what my faves of the year are yet. Plus, having done this sort of pick before, it's actually pretty fun to do!So, after trawling through a few non-corporate magazines and blogs lists, I selected this album purely based on the blurb that this particular blogger wrote to describe it. Except to spot-check the audio, I've not listened to it and don't even know if I like it, nevermind if it is actually good or not! But I hope it is because the description is promising:

"It seems like each year you can count on just a small handful of incredible albums by artists you've never heard of before to emerge, seemingly from out of nowhere (actually it's usually Canada), vivid and fully formed, familiar and warm, destined to become lifelong favorites. The stunning debut full-length from Toronto's [REDACTED] is officially one of those rare gems for 2022. It's one of the most beautiful and affecting things you'll hear this year, as [REDACTED] imbues these timeless, heartbreakingly poignant songs with a graceful levity that only enhances the record's entrancing emotional pull."

I think it might have been the, "actually it's usually Canada," which tipped the scales for me.

So, sit back and ring out 2022's Listening Club with a mystery album that's a mystery to us all! I'll be listening along in a car somewhere between Newark and New Haven so won't be chatty today but will check in after I get home for sure..."

Right then, download's here, stream's below:

See you at 8pm GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 11th December 2022

Hey folks,

Hope you're all doing good. Pretty chilly now here in Amsterdam, although staying very dry, so we're not quite into the slippery slidey zone, although the Dutch are all cleaning and sharpening their skates in anticipation, as is the custom at times like this...

Last Sunday we had @EmmaPrice in the chair, throwing a mighty beatdown in the shape of PVA's debut album "Blush", which got the assembled grooving quite happily indeed. Thanks to Emma for the pick and for throwing the frisb over to me, @kleptones, so I guess it's time I went all italic for the intro....

"...and there we go. 

Tonight's pick was nearly something else, but then I looked at the running time and realised it was more of an EP than an album, so I went with this instead, even though it turns out this is not much over half an hour either, so there you go. It's still potent stuff.

Can't really say much that won't give it away, suffice to say that this artist was playing this year's Le Guess Who (is he banging on about that again? yes he is...) but scheduling clashes meant that we didn't get to see them, and now, having caught up with this album post-festival, I'm regretting that decision seriously. So it goes. 

This may be a short album, but it's quite a deep one, so make yourselves comfortable, open a bottle of something full-bodied, and dive in.

Hope you enjoy!"

Download's here, stream's below:

See you 20:00 GMT tonight.

The Listening Club - 4th December 2022

Greetings folks,

Hope you're all doing good. Sudden drop in temps meaning a cold but clear week here in Amsterdam, which alongside the early festive street and house decorations has resulted in a very seasonal vibe. Despite the chill, it's been a good couple of weeks gig activity (forgot to mention last week in the platform-change hoo-ha), taking in Stereolab, The Cure and (most recently on Friday) HackeDePicciotto (Alexander Hacke from Einsturzende Neubauten and his wife Danielle de Picciotto), all excellent, and a solid end to the autumn gig season. Hooray for live music!

Speaking of seasons, it's worth noting this year is one of those in which both Xmas Day and New Years Day fall on a Sunday, so as we did in 2016, #LC will be closed for those two weeks, returning for the traditional end-of-year best-of #festivevortex on 8th January 2023.

Last Sunday we were celebrating our new home with a #HellophantVortex, which covered a considerable number of bases of elephantine greeting - and three folks picked the same tune, which I'm pretty sure has never happened before - many thanks to everyone for chipping tunes, and to @saucer for the fine work collecting and collating.

Looking back to regular programming we find @EmmaPrice holding the frisb with this to say by way of introduction to tonight's pick...

"Greetings all,

Tis a privilege to open up the musical offerings in our new home. Unlike many previous offerings I knew I was picking this album the moment I caught the frisbaton. It's not an album I know well myself yet as it is brand spanking new, but I have been listening to this artist quite a lot this year after I stumbled across them as a support act in the company of a fellow #listeningclubber. An apt reminder that Listening Club has been responsible for new discoveries, new friendships and an awful lot of fun & puns.

So, raise your glasses as we toast the Frisbaton's safe arrival - To our new home, and to all of you.

If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen making cocktails strong enough to strip the paint off a tank."

Okaydoke. Download's here, stream's below:

See you 20:00 GMT tonight.