Thanks so much to everyone who came down on Thursday. It was a really beautiful night - lovely weather, great vibes and some of the wildest (and oldest!) sounds we’ve heard at a Really Strange Record Club yet. Scroll down for a full account of everything we listened to, and do ping any questions or corrections over to hello@reallystrangerecord.club.
The next event is on Thursday 9th July, 7:30-10:30pm at Dreamhouse Records. Get the date in your diary now and see you there!
Here’s a little reminder that we’re just over a week away from the next meet-up of the Really Strange Record Club. Join us on Thursday 21st May, 7:30pm-10:30pm, as always at the wonderful Dreamhouse Records on Francis Road, and we’ll hang out, hear some new sounds from across the globe, and share the treasures hiding in our record collections.
Quite a lot of news to get to, but I’ll put the biggest / most important announcement up top - the next meet-up of the Really Strange Record Club will take place on Thursday 21st May 2026, 7:30-10:30pm, as usual at the wonderful Dreamhouse Records on Francis Road in Leyton. Put the date in your diary right now and we’ll see you there.
Thanks to everyone who came down to our event last week - I think it was our biggest crowd yet, including a couple of spectacular RSRC debuts from new friends (and I hope future regulars). As usual, we heard an incredible mix of sounds from all eras and across the globe; and if you’re curious to hear what you missed out on you can find out RIGHT NOW on our…
A capacity crowd braved weirdly strong winds to descend on Dreamhouse Records for the very first Really Strange Record Club of 2026. We had some amazing debut appearances, immaculate vibes throughout and of course some incredible musical discoveries. If you have any questions or corrections to the list below, please do email me!
I opened the evening with some selections to mark the arrival of spring, before veering off into early Actress and neon new age.
As with last year, December’s session had a non-compulsory Christmas theme, which we’d more or less abandoned by the end of the first hour.
I opened things up with some Christmas-adjacent cuts from the Yellow Magic Orchestra extended family, along with an 8-bit IDM take on a festive staple and then a selection from 2025’s best accordion record.
David Sylvian / Ryuichi Sakamoto - Forbidden Colours (from Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence OST)
Saitone - Sleigh Ride (from Holy 8 Bit Night)
Yukihiro Takahashi - Open The Door (from We Will You A Merry Christmas)
Walt McClements - On A Painted Ocean
Nick brought us an outsider Christmas gem and a truly transportive slab of French drone-rock.
September’s RSRC might have been one of the most wide-ranging meet-ups yet, taking in everything from deconstructed hip-hop and deep-cut machine funk to soap opera themes and even a record by a Welsh wrestler. For reasons of both legibility and efficiency, I’m experimenting with a slightly less verbose format for these write-ups - comments and corrections welcome!
I topped and tailed the night with some obscure machine funk from Lou Reed’s 80s rhythm section and the euphoric alt-pop of Kate NV.
I opened proceedings with Hochono House by the legendary Haruomi Hosono - a playful self-cover album in which Hosono revisits his late-70s songs with a minimal electronic palette. I followed with selections from El-Mir’s incredible Malik Adouane compilation, showcasing his hi-energy raï jams in a Eurodance style.
Matt switched gears with three tracks from The Foreign Department by Astrel K.
Tom A took us into an electronic space with The Hour I Want by A Special Occasion, Mind in Camden from Enchante, a classic bit of longform deep house from DJ Sprinkles & Mark Fell and a slab of intricate protest d’n’b, Here comes a fucking startup campus by Mark.
I opened this blockbuster session with some selections from Wrong Way Up, the collaborative album between Brian Eno and John Cale from 1990. I’ve always loved the contrarianism of these two titans of experimental art producing a plasticky synthpop album - but have a look at Pitchfork’s deep dive to see how demented the creation of this smooth, airy record actually was.
Rich followed with the Pan Machine album by the Ebony Steel Band, Kraftwerk classics reimagined by a full steel drum band; a reminder that you can recontextualise the Kraftwerk back catalogue in an almost infinite number of ways and those melodies still shine through.
