Playlist 173 - Apr 26 2011

The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

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

Playlist 173
Tues Apr 26th 2011
11.00am-12.00pm
(repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm)
Cork Campus Radio, 98.3FM
listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr
*listen back to this show at
https://rapidshare.com/files/459281930/UOH_Podcast_Apr_26_2011.mp3

Playlist
Wires Under Tension - Irreversible machines
Grimes - intor/flowers (playing Whelan's Upstairs, Dublin, Aug 3 w/ Catscars, re-scheduled from May 15)
Thursten Moore - Benediction
Patrick Kelleher - This sporting life
Justice - Civilization (radio edit)
Gablé - Too fat to fart to fight (playing Great Escape Festival, Brighton, May 12)
Connan Mockasin - Megumi the Milkyway above (playing Tripod, Dublin, May 15, w/ Warpaint)
The Doomed Bird of Providence - The wild beast of Goat Island (playing Wilmington Arms, London, June 15)
Josh T. Pearson - Drive her out (playing Crane Lane Theatre, May 1 *6pm)
William D. Drake - Super altar
Ben Butler & Mousepad - Formed 4 fantasy
Friendly Fires - Live those days tonight (radio edit) (playing Oxegen Festival, July 8-10)
Metronomy - Everything goes my way (playing Oxegen Festival, July 8-10)
Kurt Vile - Baby's arms

*next week's show features music from Van Dyke Parks, Clare & the Reasons, Julia Kent and Owensie 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 Cork Campus Radio,
Áras na Mac Léinn,
Student Centre,
University College Cork,
Cork,
Ireland.

Flock of Dimes

Here's a new one on me, solo project from Jenn Wassner of Baltimore's Wye Oak. Wonderful lilting vocal over a concrete purée (it's all about the babyfood at the moment...) of guitar chords and piano arpeggios. Souper duper.

Prison Bride by Flock of Dimes

Fleet Foxes - Grown ocean (Sub Pop)

Fleet Foxes - Grown ocean (Sub Pop, from the album Helplessness blues)

Among the many comments about beards and vocal harmonies, what is sometimes overlooked about Fleet Foxes is their fine grasp of the dynamics of a pop song - when to rise, when to fall, a timely key change to shift the mood, an instrumental flourish to spice an arrangement. The second track to see the light of day from their upcoming second album showcases all these qualities (the trilling flute is my own favourite moment). And it's a tune you'll want to sing along to. Oh yeah, and the vocal harmonies (beards) are irresistible and sound like they've arrived from another time.

Playing The Marquee, Cork, June 26

World's End Girlfriend - Les enfants du Paradis (Erased Tapes)

World's End Girlfriend - Les enfants du Paradis (Erased Tapes, from the album Seven idiots)

Beautiful and challenging 7 minute opus from the Japanese composer's new album. Comparisons to Cornelius are inevitable and WEG does skim across genres like a stone over water (pointedly, another track on the album is titled Teen age Ziggy). Amidst various classical and IDM references though, the overriding impression of this epic instrumental is of the golden ages of pop music, with Bacharach-like string sweeps and 80's power pop, punch-the-air choruses. There are also cameos straight out of the Hard Rock Café. Nothing but glorious and uplifting pop music, all round.

World's End Girlfriend – Les Enfants Du Paradis by erasedtapes

*Check out too the great accompanying video, directed by Yohei Saita, featuring a wonderful solo dance interpretation.

Connan Mockasin - Forever dolphin love (Because Music)

Connan Mockasin - Forever dolphin love (Full length original) (Because Music, single)

A genuinely mind-bending and envelope-pushing addition to the canon of surreal New Zealand pop. Atonal piano string arpeggios, followed by the fusion of several high-pitched synth drones, before falling away to be replaced by jam-room bass and drums introducing some lovely woozy guitars. That's just the prelude. At that point the tune kicks in with underwater atmospherics around a chillout drumbeat and high tone bass sound. Plus the vocal has an outer space character as befitting a lyric about inter-species amour. It sounds ridiculous on paper but believe me it's completely convincing in the flesh. It's intriguing, slightly haunting and makes you want to press play again and again.
(Stay around for the full 10-minutes of very strange theatre below.)



*As for the rest of the album, experimentation is never for its own sake or at the expense of catchy hooks. For example, the sublime trumpet outro of It's choade my dear, the woozy bossa nova guitar of Faking jazz together. Or take a cruise to the south seas in the shape of Quadropuss Island, with a house band consisting of xylophone, tremolo guitar and shakers. It's all quite strange and very, very wonderful.

Tune-Yards - whokill (4AD)

Tune-Yards - whokill (4AD)

After recording her debut, Bird-Brains, using a dictaphone and freeware, album number two sees Merrill Garbus making full use of a studio, in terms of scope and sound. Unlike that album, there's a lot less ukulele in sight (one exception is Wolly wolly gong with its spooky fairytale quality, a kind of hip-hop lullaby). The other main difference is a more prominent dub influence running throughout - a prime example is Powa with its lovely loping tempo and heavily reverbed vocals. The single Gangsta has a great caustic energy (brass and strident vocals); check out the street funk of My country, with a memorable fuzz synth line, freewheeling brass section and playground chant na-na-na-na-na outro. However, if you have no other contact with this album, you must at least hear the transcendant moment during Doorstep when a bevvy of layered Merrill's (all sha-la-la's and whoa-oo-whoa's) contrive to produce an intimate atmosphere straight off a Chiffons' record. Although coming across at first like a lover's plea, the song deals with a race riot fatality in her adopted Californian home (a theme which also crops up on Riotriot) - "a policeman shot my baby as he crossed over my doorstep". (It also has an insanely catchy, spiralling bassline.) This ability to wear social/political themes lightly and wrap them in audacious pop arrangements is a particularly winning one - independent without being isolationist, pop-smart without being throwaway. Overall, the studio setting succeeds in giving the knock-out vocals and musical textures plenty of room to breathe without losing a certain delicate touch. Merrill, the studio experiment has paid off handsomely. One of the albums of the year.

Below is an interview with Merrill from Feb 2010, when she last played in Ireland. She's a great character and she likes her pints of stout.



Playing Whelan's, Dublin, June 17

Hotels Interview

The interview (phone) with Blake Madden from Seattle band Hotels is available to download now in full (23m45s, 70MB approx) - we had played a short extract on this week's show. The conversation ranged over film music, casinos, manipulating mood in pop music, John Barry, being based in Seattle, playing bass while singing, surf guitar, and of course the excellent new Hotels album On the casino floor. These were my thoughts on that album, from a few weeks ago.

Hotels - On the casino floor (Hidden Shoal)
A concept album of sorts from the Seattle band with a madly ambitious premise, too good not to quote from the press blurb. The plot concerns a "secret agent, his former mentor and current arch-nemesis, and a nefarious prince's plan to destroy Earth during the grand opening of the universe's only outer space casino complex" (!). This would be good enough in itself but happily the musical chops match the scale of the ambition, with elements of surf-rock and post-punk, a dollop of film soundtracks, as well as a hint of decadent and very welcome lounge. You may already have had the great pleasure of hearing first single The bat watusi, a wonderful Dick Dale-style bassline strapped onto a louche vocal with ray-gun synths in pursuit. A shimmering suite of tunes overall, which eschew standard verse-chorus structures but still retain a firm grasp of pop dynamics (for example, the delirious crescendo of From the west, the glorious wall of sound of the title track, the John Barry-like uplift of Sleep in fame). And at the centre, Blake Madden's sonorous croon. Highly recommended.

*I have to mention also that the hummable bass intro of Trouble at the consulate reminds me very much of early Go-Betweens (I'm thinking Springhill Fair era) and my religion obliges me to show love to anything with a hint of Grant McLennan.

**Watch out for an interview with Blake Madden coming up soon - it turns out he prefers the term "soundtrack to an imaginary film" to "concept album". That works for me.

To be precise, he suggested we think of the album as a soundtrack to an (imaginary) remake of Casino Royale - an intriguing prospect. Blake also made a particularly interesting point about instrumental music, making a case for its rehabilitation from the "niche" of film soundtracks or avant garde fringes. He reminded of the time (not that long ago) when instrumental music was all over the pop charts and the lack of a singer was not deemed a major impediment, citing surf group The Ventures as a main example (we had Walk don't run on the show in honour of the mention - the likes of The Shadows and Dick Dale also spring to mind). I'll drink to that. So here's to instrumental music and here's Blake, enjoy.

Playlist 172 - Apr 19 2011

The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

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

Playlist 172
Tues Apr 19th 2011
11.00am-12.00pm
(repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm)
Cork Campus Radio, 98.3FM
listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr
*listen back to this show at
https://rapidshare.com/files/458199828/UOH_Podcast_Apr_19_2011.mp3

Playlist
Low - Try to sleep (playing Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona, May 26-28)
Left with Pictures - Constantly (playing Two Thousand Trees Festival, July 16)
Antonymes - Endlessly
Tune-Yards - Doorstep (playing Whelan's, Dublin, June 17)
*d'load i'view with Merrill Garbus from Feb 2010 here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/354243779/Tune_Yards_UOH_Interview_Podcast.mp3


Toro y Moi - New beat
NLF3 - Shadows my friends (playing Great Escape Festival, Brighton, May 12)

Hotels Interview Part I
Hotels - From the west
Hotels Interview Part II
Hotels - The bat watusi
Hotels Interview Part III
The Ventures - Walk don't run

*d'load full i'view with Blake Madden (Hotels) here:
http://conorot.podomatic.com/entry/2011-04-18T05_46_26-07_00

Dutch Uncles - Dolli (playing Sound City Festival, Liverpool, May 19)
Crystal Stilts - Silver sun
*d'load i'view from May 2009 here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/243401241/Crystal_Stilts_UOH_Interview_Podcast.mp3

Metronomy - The look (playing Glastonbury Festival, June 24)

*next week's show features music from Connan Mockasin, Grimes, Thursten Moore and Wires Under Tension 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 Cork Campus Radio,
Áras na Mac Léinn,
Student Centre,
University College Cork,
Cork,
Ireland.

HibOO d'Live : Tune-Yards "Doorstep" from Le-HibOO.com on Vimeo.

Playlist 162 - Feb 8 2011

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

 

Playlist 162

Tues Feb 8th 2011
11.00am-12.00pm

(repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm)
Cork Campus Radio, 98.3FM
listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr

*listen back to this show at

http://rapidshare.com/files/446853426/UOH_Podcast_Feb_8_2011.mp3

 

Playlist 

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness blues (playing Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona, May 26-28)

The Unthanks - Lucky Gilchrist (playing School of Music, Cork, Apr 10)

Gruff Rhys - Sensations in the dark

Grant Hart - 2541 (live) (playing The Pavilion, Cork, Mar 31)

Mogwai - Mexican Grand Prix (playing Radisson Hotel, Galway, Feb 14)

Hotels - The bat watusi

A Lazarus Soul - We start fires

Ben Ottewell - Blackbird (playing Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Feb 26)

Toro y Moi - Still sound

Codes in the Clouds - Look back, look up

Thomas Truax - January egg race dream

Gary Wilson - Electric Endicott

 

*next week's show features music from Vessels, Halves, Agnes Obel and Carried by Waves 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 Cork Campus Radio,
Áras na Mac Léinn,
Student Centre,
University College Cork,
Cork,
Ireland. 

Patrick Kelleher/School Tour split cassette double EP (CF Records)

Been enjoying this new split release cassette (that's right) lately on
Cass/Flick Records. The first half has unearthly, megaphone vocals, sparse drum machines and at least one piece of movie dialogue. The second half swings between dancing tunes, with very pleasing, building synth arrangements, and ambient drones (including seagulls). Overall, you could say goth-electro - as a description, it's grossly inadequate but I'm a sucker for labels. Have a listen to one of the Patrick Kelleher tracks here.

This Room by Patrick Kelleher

And the entire School Tour side is for listening here.

School Tour/Patrick Kelleher Split by School Tour

My favourite track from the EP, The last exit west, is included in there as a free download you'll notice. I had it in my picks for last month, as follows:

School Tour - The last exit west (Cass/Flick, from a split release cassette with Patrick Kelleher)
Fascinating goth-electro workout from the Dublin artist, culminating in a great distressed synth riff. The voice sounds a little bit like Gary Numan in a flotation tank. The track finishes with massed church organs. These things are good.

In case you didn't know, these people are also involved in a collective called Children Under Hoof. They released a great mini-album last year which you can download for free here.



Here's what I made of it at the time:

Children Under Hoof - A collar can become a noose (self-released) (mini-album)

Terrific and enticing taster, ahead of upcoming full-length release, from Irish collective. Many shades of krautrock are accommodated, from ambient smears to jam-room improv, motorik grooves to field recordings and tape manipulations. Live-sounding drums lend a pleasingly organic atmosphere to proceedings. Entropy begins with birdsong, before a chugging pulse appears on top of a tribal rhythm, shadowed by clouds of mid-range synths. A male-voice recitation of some airborne hallucination emerges from the mist, surrounded by whirling whoops and rattles, until rest arrives. It's quite beautiful.

And you'll also find them cropping up on this blog, Pascal's Country Sounds. They do things like put together mixtapes and they're into film music. At least two reasons I like them.

Nils Frahm and Anne Muller - 7 fingers (Erased Tapes)

Erased Tapes is a label I'm very fond of and well worth keeping an eye on. This was a release of theirs from last month.

Nils Frahm & Anne Muller - 7 fingers (Erased Tapes)

A triumphant collaboration between the pianist/composer and his fellow-German cellist. These are luminous soundscapes ranging from post-classical pieces with an ambient undertow (Teeth), to full-on electronic workouts with glitches and squiggles (7 fingers, sounding quite like something Radiohead might have had a hand in). Check also the emotional tug in the busy, Nymanesque strings of Let my key be C; the minimalist, and very German, electronica of Show your teeth, with violins adding synthesised swells; the cinematic chamber piece Because this must be/Augmentation (which includes Italian movie dialogue for good measure); and the haunting musique concrete of Journey for a traveller. Frahm's production is sublime the whole way through. Another gem on the Erased Tapes label.

Emphemetry - A lullaby hum for tired streets (Time Travel Opps)

Another beauty from last month's list.

Emphemetry - A lullaby hum for tired streets (Time Travel Opps)

A beautiful album alternating between ambient instrumentals and heartfelt folk songs with avant-garde leanings, from Derby's Richard Birkin. He describes the album himself as a "time travel fancy" and it comes across a bit like a love poem to his home city. After Catalunya is a sleepy wash of rumbles and drones punctuated with guitar harmonics. The sound of traffic in the rain opens Every other second day, a drunken keyboard waltz with distorted vocal takes over, before a low-key trumpet duet to finish. Five fields has a gorgeous fingerpicked guitar pattern with string accompaniment. Emilelodie is an elegant and arresting piano instrumental eventually submerged under an intriguing wave of static (the piece fits easily into the post-classical camp and in fact Nils Frahm crops up here on production and mixing duties). The overall effect is to put a sense of wonder back into the everyday. Everybody needs time travel like this. Beguiling.
*By the way, you can name your price for the album on the link below. I suggest you do so; the eight-page, hand-sewn booklet is also a thing of beauty.

http://emphemetry.bandcamp.com/album/a-lullaby-hum-for-tired-streets

Playlist 171 - Apr 12 2011

The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

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

Playlist 171
Tues Apr 12th 2011
11.00am-12.00pm
(repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm)
Cork Campus Radio, 98.3FM
listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr
*listen back to this show at
http://rapidshare.com/files/457071633/UOH_Podcast_Apr_12_2011.mp3

Playlist
Agnes Obel - Riverside (playing Sugar Club, Dublin, Apr 16)
The Phoenix Foundation - Flock of hearts (playing Forbidden Fruit Festival, Dublin, June 4)
Connan Mockasin - Forever dolphin love (radio edit) (playing Tripod, Dublin, May 15, w/ Warpaint)
Warpaint - Undertow (radio edit) (playing Tripod, Dublin, May 15, w/ Connan Mockasin)
The Go! Team - Apollo throwdown
Land Lovers - The conema bell (playing Crawdaddy, Dublin, Apr 30, w/ Wave Pictures)
Damon & Naomi - Shadow boxing (playing Cube Cinema, Bristol, May 14)
Steve Mason - All come down (playing Button Factory, Dublin, Apr 16)
Deerhunter - Memory boy (playing Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona, May 26-28)
The Doomed Bird of Providence - On a moonlit, ragged sea
Edward Williams - Japanese macaques: Warm baths in a snowscape (from the soundtrack of the tv series Life on Earth)
High Llamas - Fly baby, fly (playing Southbank Center, London, May 22)
Colourmusic - You for leaving me
Trumpets of Death - The press gang
Bill Callahan - Baby's breath (playing Academy, Dublin, May 5)

*next week's show features music from Tune-Yards, Left with Pictures, Low, Antonymes among others, as well as an interview with Blake Madden from Seattle band Hotels

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

Conor O'Toole,
c/o Cork Campus Radio,
Áras na Mac Léinn,
Student Centre,
University College Cork,
Cork,
Ireland.

Josh T. Pearson - Woman, when I've raised hell

Another one of March's favourites in the UOH cabin.

Josh T. Pearson - Woman, when I've raised hell (Mute, from the album Last of the country gentlemen)

Thoroughly outstanding centrepiece from the Texan's, ex-Lift to Experience frontman's, new album. From the gripping opening line, "Woman, when I've raised hell, you're gonna know it", you will be captivated by the wonderfully slurred delivery for the full 7 minutes. That's without mentioning the heartrending violin backing of Warren Ellis (and others) and the completely convincing dirty realist imagery - "Don't make me rule this home with the back of my hand", "Let me quietly drink myself to sleep". In a way, it's amazing how much drama can be wrought out of a sparse acoustic guitar, a vocal and some strings. I've listened to it about 20 times and it still sounds new every time. However you cut it, it's a compelling masterpiece.



Playing Crane Lane Theatre, Cork, May 1st, and other dates

The Doomed Bird of Providence

An album that's been consuming my brain over the last few days is the new Doomed Bird of Providence, Will ever pray, on the Front & Follow label. It's a set of songs drawing on historical accounts of the early days of colonial Australia. Think dirges, dark waltzes, folk music with a tragic underbelly, and a deep foundation of accordion and droning strings holding it up. I'll have more to say on the album at the end of the month once I've digested it all (it's fairly dense, on first listen). If you've been into anything Black Heart Procession or The Dirty Three have done, you'll love it I'd say. Here's a sample.

The Doomed Bird of Providence - Fedicia Exine by frontandfollow

Grimes - Halfaxa (Lo Recordings)

Just to double up a little bit, I'm posting a few of the March monthly picks in their own right. This is one record (CD in fact) on heavy rotation around at UOH HQ lately. Check it out.

Grimes - Halfaxa (Lo Recordings)
Meet Claire Boucher from Montreal, who has produced a fascinating, impossible-to-pigeonhole album. The constant features are haunting vocals - layered, filtered, and antique sounding, calling to mind Liz Frasier or Kate Bush in places - and sparse drum machine+synth backing. The overall effect is of a wide-ranging and completely "other" soundworld. From the de-constructed R 'n B ballad Heartbeats, to the ghostly-lament-masquerading-as-dance-pop of sagrad, the deliriously shoegazey Devon, and the ukulele stomp of Favriel. Be prepared for a trip. An album to treasure.

Grimes performs at Gorilla Vs Bear / Mexican Summer party, SXSW '11 from BlearyEyedBrooklyn.com on Vimeo.

Playing Whelan's Upstairs, Dublin, May 15th

New Future Islands

Just came across this on Pascals Country Sounds. Worth sharing I thought. Class band.

Future Islands - Untitled new song from Lloyd Hammarlund on Vimeo.

Playlist 170 - Apr 5 2011

The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

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

Playlist 170
Tues Apr 5th 2011
11.00am-12.00pm
(repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm)
Cork Campus Radio, 98.3FM
listen live on the web at http://www.blogger.com/www.ucc.ie/ccr
*listen back to this show at
http://rapidshare.com/files/455996827/UOH_Podcast_Apr_5_2011.mp3

Playlist
Cloud Control - Meditation song #2 (playing Academy, Dublin, Apr 7)
Grimes - Favriel (playing Whelan's Upstairs, Dublin, May 15)
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Bats in the attic
Boa Morte - Luminous plankton
Emphemetry - Emilelodie
Left with Pictures - This light (playing Vortex Jazz Club, Dalston, London, Apr 19)
Bibio - Wake up!
Hotels - The bat watusi
Eat Lights; Become Lights - They transmit
Mi Ami- Hard up (playing Crane Lane Theatre, Cork, Apr 17, *6pm)
Extra Life - Elegy (Cartoon piano)
*d'load i'view with Charlie Looker from May 2009 here -
http://rapidshare.com/files/273048690/Extra_Life_UOH_Interview_Podcast.mp3

Josh T. Pearson - Thou art loosed (playing Crane Lane Theatre, Cork, May 1)
Sarabeth Tucek - State that I am in (playing Union Chapel, London, May 10)
Kitty, Daisy & Lewis - Ooo wee (playing Crane Lane Theatre, Cork, May 4)

*next week's show features music from High Llamas, Damon & Naomi, Agnes Obel, Connan Mockasin, The Phoenix Foundation and Steve Mason 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 Cork Campus Radio,
Áras na Mac Léinn,
Student Centre,
University College Cork,
Cork,
Ireland.

March 2011 Music Picks

Greetings from the Underground of the known pop universe. We have a fair bit of time-travelling this month, taking in Texas, Derby, Montreal, New York, California, Berlin, Seattle, Dublin, North Wales and Cork. Time travel is good. Let the UOH be your travel agent...
All albums, unless otherwise noted.

Josh T. Pearson - Woman, when I've raised hell (Mute, from the album Last of the country gentlemen)
Thoroughly outstanding centrepiece from the Texan's, ex-Lift to Experience frontman's, new album. From the gripping opening line, "Woman, when I've raised hell, you're gonna know it", you will be captivated by the wonderfully slurred delivery for the full 7 minutes. That's without mentioning the heartrending violin backing of Warren Ellis (and others) and the completely convincing dirty realist imagery - "Don't make me rule this home with the back of my hand", "Let me quietly drink myself to sleep". In a way, it's amazing how much drama can be wrought out of a sparse acoustic guitar, a vocal and some strings. I've listened to it about 20 times and it still sounds new every time. However you cut it, it's a compelling masterpiece.
Behind the scenes video:
http://www.joshtpearson.co.uk/movin-pictures/

Playing Crane Lane Theatre, Cork, May 1st, and other dates


Grimes - Halfaxa (Lo Recordings)
Meet Claire Boucher from Montreal, who has produced a fascinating, impossible-to-pigeonhole album. The constant features are haunting vocals - layered, filtered, and antique sounding, calling to mind Liz Frasier or Kate Bush in places - and sparse drum machine+synth backing. The overall effect is of a wide-ranging and completely "other" soundworld. From the de-constructed R 'n B ballad Heartbeats, to the ghostly-lament-masquerading-as-dance-pop of sagrad, the deliriously shoegazey Devon, and the ukulele stomp of Favriel. Be prepared for a trip. An album to treasure.

Grimes performs at Gorilla Vs Bear / Mexican Summer party, SXSW '11 from BlearyEyedBrooklyn.com on Vimeo.

Playing Whelan's Upstairs, Dublin, May 15th

Radiohead - Little by little (XL)
Stand-out track from the King of limbs album, joining the dots between two-step and post-rock. A shuffling, rattling rhythm sets about being unsettling, with math-rock guitars floating above it. Hard to know exactly what the song's about, although the line "I'm such a tease, you're such a flirt" suggests Thom Yorke has (re)discovered his sensual side. Intriguing.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Heart in your heartbreak (Fortuna Pop, from the album Belong)
Perfect slice of sunshine, shoegaze pop (sungaze anyone?), from the New Yorkers' second album. The soundtrack of your summer, if you're lucky.

Tune-Yards - Gangsta (4AD, from the album whokill)
Another thumping tune from the upcoming second album (I believe "sophomore" is the term) from Merrill Garbus, complete with pounding jam-room drumming, sirens, distorted vocals, brass honking and the trademark Garbus wail. Essential. On release April 18th.

*Interview with Merrill Garbus from Feb 2010 -
http://rapidshare.com/files/354243779/Tune_Yards_UOH_Interview_Podcast.mp3



Damon & Naomi - Walking backwards (Broken Horse, from the album False beats and true hearts)
Gorgeous return from the ex-Galaxie 500 rhythm section. A bank of acoustic guitars flank fuzz guitar, female "aws" and muted trumpet. Dreamy isn't the word. In other quite amazing news, the duo have unveiled a "video" for another track from their upcoming album, a single image provided by none other than Chris Marker (if this is a new name to you, there's some more info at this link -
http://theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com/2011/03/damon-naomi-chris-marker.html). Check it out, right now.

Free d'load:
http://www.damonandnaomi.com/

Damon & Naomi with Chris Marker - And You Are There from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo.

Nils Frahm & Anne Muller - 7 fingers (Erased Tapes)
A triumphant collaboration between the pianist/composer and his fellow-German cellist. These are luminous soundscapes ranging from post-classical pieces with an ambient undertow (Teeth), to full-on electronic workouts with glitches and squiggles (7 fingers, sounding quite like something Radiohead might have had a hand in). Check also the emotional tug in the busy, Nymanesque strings of Let my key be C; the minimalist, and very German, electronica of Show your teeth, with violins adding synthesised swells; the cinematic chamber piece Because this must be/Augmentation (which includes Italian movie dialogue for good measure); and the haunting musique concrete of Journey for a traveller. Frahm's production is sublime the whole way through. Another gem on the Erased Tapes label.

Emphemetry - A lullaby hum for tired streets (Time Travel Opps)
A beautiful album alternating between ambient instrumentals and heartfelt folk songs with avant-garde leanings, from Derby's Richard Birkin. He describes the album himself as a "time travel fancy" and it comes across a bit like a love poem to his home city. After Catalunya is a sleepy wash of rumbles and drones punctuated with guitar harmonics. The sound of traffic in the rain opens Every other second day, a drunken keyboard waltz with distorted vocal takes over, before a low-key trumpet duet to finish. Five fields has a gorgeous fingerpicked guitar pattern with string accompaniment. Emilelodie is an elegant and arresting piano instrumental eventually submerged under an intriguing wave of static (the piece fits easily into the post-classical camp and in fact Nils Frahm crops up here on production and mixing duties). The overall effect is to put a sense of wonder back into the everyday. Everybody needs time travel like this. Beguiling.
*By the way, you can name your price for the album on the link below. I suggest you do so; the eight-page, hand-sewn booklet is also a thing of beauty.

http://emphemetry.bandcamp.com/album/a-lullaby-hum-for-tired-streets

Erland & the Carnival - I wish, I wish (Full Time Hobby, from the album Nightingale)
My favourite track on E&TC's fine second album. Circling sparkles of electronics give way to a bass-prominent arrangement not far from Burt Bacharach/Jimmy Webb territory (we like that), a self-deprecating vocal and some fantastic teeth-whistling to finish. A woozy, psychedelic, almost supernatural, atmosphere takes hold, which adds depth to the modern folk setting - "til apples grow on an orange tree".

*Check also Emmeline, track 3 on the album with its unexpected, and highly successful, use of the opening arpeggio pattern from Bernard Herrmann's main title from the soundtrack of the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo. Up with that kind of thing.

Hotels - On the casino floor (Hidden Shoal)
A concept album of sorts from the Seattle band with a madly ambitious premise, too good not to quote from the press blurb. The plot concerns a "secret agent, his former mentor and current arch-nemesis, and a nefarious prince's plan to destroy Earth during the grand opening of the universe's only outer space casino complex" (!). This would be good enough in itself but happily the musical chops match the scale of the ambition, with elements of surf-rock and post-punk, a dollop of film soundtracks, as well as a hint of decadent and very welcome lounge. You may already have had the great pleasure of hearing first single The bat watusi, a wonderful Dick Dale-style bassline strapped onto a louche vocal with ray-gun synths in pursuit. A shimmering suite of tunes overall, which eschew standard verse-chorus structures but still retain a firm grasp of pop dynamics (for example, the delirious crescendo of From the west, the glorious wall of sound of the title track, the John Barry-like uplift of Sleep in fame). And at the centre, Blake Madden's sonorous croon. Highly recommended.

*I have to mention also that the hummable bass intro of Trouble at the consulate reminds me very much of early Go-Betweens (I'm thinking Springhill Fair era) and my religion obliges me to show love to anything with a hint of Grant McLennan.

**Watch out for an interview with Blake Madden coming up soon - it turns out he prefers the term "soundtrack to an imaginary film" to "concept album". That works for me.

Toro y Moi - Underneath the pine (Carpark)
Another triumph from the North Carolina wunderkind Chazwick Bundick, which does a great job of bridging the gap between R 'n B and indie (I wouldn't get sidetracked with "chillwave", personally). Among the highlights are the beautiful bouncy organ of Still sound; the soaring double vocal of How I know; the flanged guitar, handclaps (R 'n B could do with more of those if you ask me) and keytar riff of New beat; the soft samba of Before I'm done; and the lovely, reverbed "summer day" feel of Go with you which finishes with a fantastic "ooh-aw" vocal, Star Trek-style (plus the organ intro reminds me of the theme from The Odd Couple, which is also in its favour). Throughout, Bundick's dreamy vocals tie everything together. You'll get hooked.

Rich Bennett - Wild ride (Hidden Shoal, from the album On Holiday)
New single from Bennett's excellent 2010 album. A driving synth squiggle leads the way, with airy, male-female voices on top, until the wig-out ending. Sounds a bit like what might have happened if The Beach Boys had gone to visit Munich, instead of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Free d'load: http://hiddenshoal.com/promo/Rich_Bennett-Wild_Ride.mp3

School Tour - The last exit west (Cass/Flick, from a split release cassette with Patrick Kelleher)
Fascinating goth-electro workout from the Dublin artist, culminating in a great distressed synth riff. The voice sounds a little bit like Gary Numan in a flotation tank. The track finishes with massed church organs. These things are good.

Robin Pecknold with Ed Droste - I'm losing myself (Fron an untitled free EP)
Fleet Foxes and Grizzly Bear frontmen duet on this straightforwardly beautiful tune, which has a distinct air of Simon & Garfunkel about it. Those Grizzly Foxes...

Get it free: http://stereogum.com/653402/download-a-free-robin-pecknold-ep-feat-ed-droste/mp3s/

Antonymes - Endlessly (Hidden Shoal, single)
Sublime piece of abstract neo-classical music from north Wales, based around piano with rumbling atmospherics.

Free d'load: http://hiddenshoal.com/promo/Antonymes-Endlessly.mp3

Antonymes - 'Endlessly' from Hidden Shoal Recordings on Vimeo.

Sin Fang - Because of the blood (Morr Music, from the album Summer echoes)
Spectral folk music with a pop heart from the Icelander, which Belle & Sebastian fans will find plenty about to admire. Worth it for the "bom-bom-bom" backing vocals alone. (I must say I also have a soft spot for the home-made beards in the video.)



Marques Toliver - Deep in my heart (Bella Union, from the Butterflies are not free EP)
Superior R 'n B vocal backed with plucked violins and an unexpected two-step rhythm (the old two-step is everywhere this month).

Free d'load: http://soundcloud.com/marquestoliver/deep-in-my-heart


Crystal Stilts - Through the floor (Fortuna Pop, from the upcoming album In love with oblivion)
First single from the New Yorkers' new album which seems like a bit of a departure from their first. There are handclaps, pumped-up piano chords and vocal oohs in the background, making for an unexpected 70's MOR atmosphere (not a bad thing, I'm saying). Still, there's enough of a garage rock heart with wonderful slacker vocals to sound like the special band they were on their debut.

*Interview from May 2009 -
http://rapidshare.com/files/243401241/Crystal_Stilts_UOH_Interview_Podcast.mp3


Colourmusic - You for leaving me (Memphis Industries, from the album My _____ is pink)
Gospel backing singers (brilliantly described in the blurb as "agnostic gospel"), a great art-rock lead vocal, the dirtiest fuzz guitars, pounding drums and a tender piano coda. A strange but highly successful cross between BRMC and the kosmische of Clinic. (By the way, the _____ is pronounced "blank" and you have to love that.)

The High Llamas - Fly baby, fly (Drag City, from the album Talahomi)
Beautifully warm, string and brass/reed-laden nostalgia from Sean O'Hagan (he's from Cork, you know) and friends. There are also vintage synths, tricky guitar shifts and dreamy melodies. Happy days all round.