We listen to a mystery album together on Twitter. Every week. 8pm GMT Sundays.
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Sunday, 14 June 2015

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....)