Low – Just make it stop (from The invisible way, Sub Pop)

Photo: Simone della Fornace www.flickr.com/softblackstar

An earlier version of this piece first appeared on WeAreNoise.

Among many beautiful moments on the new Low album, there's one song that takes the cake for me.

So far I've found it hard to get past this absolute showstopper with Mimi on lead.

It's a curious mixture, as always with Low, the beauty of the suspended-state-of-grace vocals with, in this case, a quietly sinister, thrumming guitar and an upright piano way at back of the room.

You see I'm close to the edge
I'm at the end of my rope
The rope is starting to thread
I'm trying to keep my hold

But when she reaches the refrain and about another five Mimis join in on those seven simple words, it'll be all you can do to keep your composure.

If I could just make it stop
Breaking my heart
Get out of the way

The essence of soul.

Tell you what, have a bit of the conversation-stopping 'Plastic cup' as we're at it - even though Alan's on main vocal, it's Mimi's spare, to-the-core backing contribution that steals the show for me again.

And great to hear that they're coming back to Ireland soon.

In Cork, we still talk fondly of their sell-out gig at Cyprus Avenue last July. Jaysus, it was pretty sweaty that night, but in a good way.

By the way, check back on Simone's full photoset from that gig last year on this link, they're great -

http://wearenoise.com/index.php/2012/07/low-in-pictures-cyprus-avenue-11-07-12/

This time around, they're working a few dates in around their Green Man Festival appearance next August.

19 August - Cork, IE - Cyprus Avenue
20 August - Dublin, IE - Whelan's
21 August - Belfast, UK - Empire Music Hall

Deerhunter – Back to the middle (from Monomania, 4AD)

I found it hard to get into the new Deerhunter album. I like fuzz and distortion as much as the next man but most of Monomania seemed to be wrapped in a cotton wool ball of it.

Single 'Back to the middle' though had enough zing to plough through the production, thanks to a lovely sliding guitar pattern, an inspired middle eight filled with bleepy keys and a thoroughly simple and brilliant guitar solo.

A tune that remembered the pop in psych-pop, essentially.

TEEN – Better (from the album In limbo, Carpark Records)

I have a bit of catching up to do around here so let's start with this belated mention.

TEEN are four women out of Brooklyn, three sisters and a friend, who make thrilling psych pop with attitude. (Teeny Lieberson, one of the sisters who gives the band its name, used to be in Here We Go Magic.)

Their album In limbo came out last autumn on Carpark Records, mixed and produced with the great Sonic Boom. I don’t want to bore you all with boo-hoo promo-submission stories, but this one languished in the digital pile until now.

Anyway, the lightning is finally out of the bottle.

Start with 'Better', a Velvets-style piano motif laid over gurgling bass synths and tribal drums that just keeps on going. It really is the shit.

I’ll do it better, I’ll do it better, I’ll do it better than anybody else, ha

You will believe them.

Check ‘Electric’ as well, a brilliantly garage-y bassline-with-plain-as-pie-snarebeat, that rises to a stunning crescendo with multiple vocals and an unexpected New Wave feel.

You might say it was art rock if it wasn’t so dirty.

*Since that great revelation hit me, the band have actually announced another release, the new single 'Paradise', due out in July. Here's a bit of bumpf.

While In Limbo's songs have many layers and effects, ‘Paradise’ is a more natural affair, with the band only playing what they could physically perform in a live setting. Teeny sings in a higher register here, inspired by Kate Bush and Al Green. “Our music in the past was so about interweaving melodies, creating movement by syncopation, and simple chord structures,” she says. “It felt like the next step forward would be to take a more simplistic, live approach, play lines in unison and create a different kind of conversation between the instruments.”

It's a different feel alright, away from the garage/kraut end of psych pop in the direction of sunshine pop or the Paisley Underground a little bit (maybe because of that organ and chorused guitars). Anyhow, I like it too.

Playlist 270 - June 11 2013

More from a few of my favourite current albums on the show this week (it's usually the way).

V.O. from Brussels with a beautiful jazzy drift, produced by John McEntire, who of course is one of Tortoise. And from that band's 1998 album TNT, 'Suspension bridge...' is one of the highpoints of the Tortoise canon for me.

O Emperor will win a lot of new friends with their second album Vitreous - I like it more every day. I hear shades of late 60s Beach Boys in there, although submerged under a heap of other great ideas. How better to appreciate it than next to a classic from Sunflower (1970). And Cork band Sans Chateaux draw a little on some of those vocal stylings too, quite brilliantly also.

The Last Sound's (pic) Rainbow Xplode is another fantastic (Irish) album, electronic pop music with grooves to burn and killer melodies. And anyone in need of healing drones, you need some Fuxa.

Nancy Elizabeth, love her of course. Peter Delaney, another complete one-off, and playing the Out on a Limb Records 10th birthday bash in Limerick in August.

And some hippie music to finish as a lament for the recent summer, although far beyond simple tie dyes and flower power. Bruce Haack testing the boundaries of the Moog in 1970, and Eden Ahbez defining the genre "hippie exotica" as far back as 1960.

As always, more on these pages.

June 11 2013 show w/ The Last Sound,O Emperor,Bruce Haack, Scout Niblett,Nancy Elizabeth,Eden Ahbez+ by Theundergroundofhappiness on Mixcloud

The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness

Playlist 270
Tues June 11 2013
11.00am-12.00pm
(repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm)
UCC 98.3FM
listen live on the web at http://tunein.com/radio/UCC-983-s15067/
*listen back to this show here
http://i.mixcloud.com/CC6A5Z

Playlist
Fuxa - Mary
The Last Sound – Into something
The National – Demons (playing Live at the Marquee, Cork, June 28)
Scout Niblett – My man
V.O. – A safer place
Tortoise – The Suspension Bridge at Iguazu Falls
O Emperor – Whitener (Part 1) (playing Half Moon Theatre, Cork, July 12, and other dates)
The Beach Boys – All I wanna do
Sans Chateaux – Holy Venus
Nancy Elizabeth – Shimmering song (playing Cube Cinema, Bristol, June 21)
Revere – I won’t blame you (Radio edit)
Peter Delaney – Sleep, nausea (playing Bourkes, Limerick, Aug 10)
Sideproject – Answer back (playing Cyprus Avenue, Cork, June 15 w/ Elk & Terriers)
Bruce Haack – Cherubic hymn
Eden Ahbez – Eden’s Island

*next week's show features music from Halves, Pierre Henry & All We Are among others

e-mail the show on radio@ucc.ie
or text +353 (0)86-7839800
please mark messages “uoh”

Conor O'Toole,
c/o UCC 98.3FM,
Áras na Mac Léinn,
Student Centre,
University College Cork,
Cork,
Ireland.

Playlist 269 - June 4 2013

The new album from Dublin's The Last Sound comes out this week, we started the show with their knockout single from a couple of years ago taken from it, followed by more great drones from Date Palms.

The new O Emperor album comes out soon too, it's very interesting, more from that over the next few weeks. More tasty Irish music in the shape of Cat Dowling, Floor Staff, Enemies & Sundernix.

The Collision/Detection Box Set is out in June, from that wonderful series we heard Hong Kong in the 60s and Sone Institute.

And something of a double play for Michael Rother, first drumming with Melbourne's Beaches (pictured), then in his own right with a NEU! classic from 1975. Somehow, motorik is sunny music.

June 4 2013 Show w/ O Emperor,Beaches,NEU!,Date Palms,The Last Sound,Cat Dowling,Olof Arnalds++ by Theundergroundofhappiness on Mixcloud

The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness

Playlist 269
Tues June 4 2013
11.00am-12.00pm
(repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm)
UCC 98.3FM
listen live on the web at http://tunein.com/radio/UCC-983-s15067/
*listen back to this show here
http://i.mixcloud.com/CC4kgx

Playlist
The Last Sound – Only the lonely know the glow is failing (album launch Twisted Pepper, Dublin, June 8, w/ Last Days of 1984 & DJ Montezuma)
Date Palms – Yuba reprise
O Emperor – Grandmother mountain (playing Half Moon Theatre, Cork, July 12, and other dates)
David Byrne & St Vincent – Cissus (playing Electric Picnic Festival, Stradbally, Aug 30-Sept 1)
Cat Dowling – Gospel song (playing The Pavilion, Cork, June 19)
Tangled Star – Head in the sand
Olof Arnalds – German fields (playing Green Man Festival, Aug 17)
Floor Staff – The guest
Sundernix – Sunday morning
Beaches feat. Michael Rother – Distance
NEU! – Isi
Hong Kong in the 60s – Into the forest of eyes (Collision/Detection v.4)
Sone Institute – DeathBeat (Main title sequence) (Collision/Detection v.9)
Enemies feat. Conor Adams – Executive cut

*next week's show features more music from O Emperor & The Last Sound, also Scout Niblett & Revere among others

e-mail the show on radio@ucc.ie
or text +353 (0)86-7839800
please mark messages “uoh”

Conor O'Toole,
c/o UCC 98.3FM,
Áras na Mac Léinn,
Student Centre,
University College Cork,
Cork,
Ireland.

The Last Sound: Only the Lonely Know the Glow is Failing from Osaka Records on Vimeo.

Melt Yourself Down on Jools Holland

The great Melt Yourself Down were seen in the wild last week kicking out some jams on Jools Holland.

For a band making their debut on the goggle box they made quite an impression - vocalist Kushal Gaya threatened to take out a cameraman with one of his scissor kicks a couple of times.

You can check back on the performance of first single 'We are enough' here. It's also featured on their debut s/t album which is a must hear and comes out on June 17.

Playlist 268 - May 28 2013

A lotta new music this week and some bands you may have seen on tv lately. Low & Melt Yourself Down were both on Jools Holland last week, and great they were too.

This Is The Kit (picture by Rory Coomey) played in Cork last w'end (brilliantly) and they're still on their Irish tour - their album is just re-released by Brassland of The National fame. Nancy Elizabeth remixed by Leaf labelmate Matthew Bourne, gorgeous of course.

The Last Sound new album comes out next week, another killer number from them (is it goth-electro? I'm not sure, who cares...). Colleen being intriguing and mysterious about birds, from her first album in several years. V.O. being progressive and poppy and irresistible. Scout Niblett covering TLC. And this week's obligatory Thrill Jockey loveliness from Zomes.

And of course Here Is Your Temple providing one of the great fist-in-the-air pop anthems of recent years. 'Once rich' shows no sign of getting tired any time soon.

May 28 2013 show w/ Low, Melt Yourself Down,Colleen,Zomes,The Last Sound,VO,Circus Devils++ by Theundergroundofhappiness on Mixcloud

The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness

Playlist 268
Tues May 28 2013
11.00am-12.00pm
(repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm)
UCC 98.3FM
listen live on the web at http://tunein.com/radio/UCC-983-s15067/
*listen back to this show here
http://i.mixcloud.com/CC3bNm

Playlist
Low – Plastic cup (playing Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Aug 19)
Scout Niblett – No scrubs
Here Is Your Temple – Once rich
The Last Sound – Sun forever (playing Twisted Pepper, Dublin, June 8, w/ Last Days of 1984)
Shout Out Louds – Walking in your footsteps
V.O. – Everything is bathed in light
Daughter – Human (playing Forbidden Fruit Festival, Dublin, June 1-2)
Colleen – Raven
Zomes – Cave mountain stream
Melt Yourself Down – Fix my life (playing Electrowerkz, London, June 18)
Nancy Elizabeth – Simon says dance (Matthew Bourne remix) (playing The Dalston Victoria, London, June 28)
Queens of the Stone Age – My God is the sun
Circus Devils – When the beast falls down (from the soundtrack of the film I Razor)
This Is The Kit – Easy pickings (playing Whelan’s, Dublin, May 29)

*next week's show features music from Cat Dowling, Olof Arnalds, Date Palms, Beaches & Neu among others

e-mail the show on radio@ucc.ie
or text +353 (0)86-7839800
please mark messages “uoh”

Conor O'Toole,
c/o UCC 98.3FM,
Áras na Mac Léinn,
Student Centre,
University College Cork,
Cork,
Ireland.