The Underground of Happiness

Sublime hazy memories of love from Maryland in the US...

... as if Harry Nilsson turned his mind to happier fuzzier times.

There’s very little detail to list here – a one and a half note guitar figure, a snare roll, a ride cymbal, a dream of a voice – but really the story is more to do with the atmosphere.

Languid is a word.

Sleepy maybe.

Intimate for sure.

Whichever one you like it is at arms length from the cold hard world.

A beautiful sheltered miniature.

Some genius Go Betweens on the show this week, just cos, which opens with the immortal line - "remembered your name evidently you've forgotten mine".

There's a strand of their greatness about Melbourne band Terry. Something louche something rudimentary yet thrilling.

There's a new album soon from Michael Nau who makes the most sublime blissed out narco pop with an absolute angel of a voice. It's all too lovely in a quietly devastating Bob Lind or Harry Nilsson kind of way.

Which fits very well with Mr Lee Hazlewood and one of his many wonderful songs of love and regret this one from 1971.

And new music from Dent May carving a white soul banger as if Jens Lekman jammed with Hot Chip who had lost their synths and a wonderful uplifting thing it is with dreamy guest vocals from Frankie Cosmos.

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The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com
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In a way this is the sound of the past.

The mid 1980s.

Flying Nun Records.

A hazy but thrilling jangle.

A band of women.

Insouciance.

Nostalgia can be beautiful.

But another way of looking at it (or listening to it) is that this is the sound of now.

Psychedelic pop with gauzy back of the room harmonies.

Without this the likes of Warpaint wouldn’t exist.

In the 80s they operated in a parallel world to The Pixies.

One where they used flutes.

A more democratic one, maybe.

The yang to the yin of The Chills.

That fed into all kinds of what was known as indie.

A wonderful uncaring looseness.

They also call it unselfconscious.

With some hard to pinpoint connection to The Go Betweens.

A glorious thing to sustain you in hard times.

A couple of great Thrill Jockey releases on the show this week, both duos.

House and Land are Sally Anne Morgan and Sarah Henson, both steeped in Appalachian folk music and here giving a haunting take on that tradition.

Golden Retriever are from Portland and consist of analog synthesist Matt Carlson and bass clarinetist Jonathan Sielaff. They make glorious slow moving ambient drones, this one appropriately titled 'Pelagic tremor'.

Matthew Bourne and the title track from his upcoming new album. Another brilliantly arresting spare piano piece with cello drones.

Also The Magnetic Fields singing a song to 1969 and namechecking Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin's '69 Année Erotique, which we also heard.

And Edward Williams with one of the great (neglected) soundtrack albums as given a life by Trunk Records - utterly otherworldly and deeply moving.

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The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

www.theundergroundofhappine…

Another sublime cut of ruminative piano from the upcoming new album.

In among the spare plaintive notes are the most beautiful cello swells.

Ambient ebbs and floes.

A deep register and a harmonic upper note working together.

Like a rumbling sea with its own waves crashing.

Sometimes it’s the simplest things that get you through and this is one of the best of those.

Isotach by Matthew Bourne

We played an extract from the new Kamasi Washington single a few weeks ago. It's an epic freewheeling piece in roughly three movements, featuring choir, orchestra, band, the works. This week, for your pleasure, we have the full wonderful 13 minutes.

Around that we had a selection of somewhat like minded gems.

Ennio Morricone, also genius employer of vocals in (mostly) instrumentals. Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble, influenced by Il Maestro for sure, but also dipping into some kind of deep Brazilian kosmimsche. The High Llamas, on tour in Ireland soon which is marvellous news. The Beach Boys, bringing a little baroque to contemplation of the universe and deeply moving.

And Yorkston Thorne Khan, with another sublime crossing of western and Indian styles, playful yet still full of feeling.

More on these pages.



The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com
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