Rachael Dadd – Balloon (Broken Sound Music, from the album Bite the mountain)

Rachael Dadd – Balloon (Broken Sound Music, from the album Bite the mountain)

Beautiful, exultant folk tune centered around a ukulele strum which gathers sparkles of what sounds like thumb piano, with lovely clarinet flurries. Reminiscient of Sufjan Stevens although less formal, more down-home. A tantalising foretaste of the Bristolian's upcoming album, most of which was recorded during a 2-month trip around Japan, which is the kind of back story that also gets me going.

The other album track heard by UOH, Sticking in pins, favours strings, ukulele, brushed snare and massed vocals, to equally uplifting effect.

Have a listen to this, another great tune from last year’s Elephee EP.



And another track from Bite the mountain that just came to light.



You can follow Rachael’s travels (including encounters with haybails and Japanese gobo seeds) on her blog here –

http://rachaeldadd.blogspot.com/

Bill Ryder-Jones – A leave taking (from the A leave taking Soundtrack EP, Double 6)

Bill Ryder-Jones – A leave taking (from the A leave taking Soundtrack EP, Double 6)

The Coral cropped up recently in relation to Neville Skelly and here they are again, kind of. Bill Ryder-Jones was the original guitarist in the band, before striking out on his own a few years ago. Here's a quote from him worth copying -

‘When I left the band I wasn't playing much music at all but in 2009 a friend got in touch asking if I would write something for this short he was making, which I did. It's pretty much the only thing I wrote that year but the process opened another world up to me. We thought it'd be nice to give it away to the people who have been interested in what I've been doing on my own and also to hint at the future a little bit. My album, which is a soundtrack inspired by a novel, is pretty much a progression from the things learnt when writing for Leave Taking.’

And apparently, this is the novel.

As he says above, this 4-track EP is available for free, just go here and give your e-mail -

http://www.dominorecordco.com/billryderjones

Don't just get it cos it's free though. The title track is a completely intoxicating piece of music - I've played it about ten times in a row already and I'm not finished yet. It's a plangent piano instrumental with deep, deep, droning cello accompaniment, which gives it a maritime feel, and a lone violin. Beautiful, but heartbreaking. For recent comparisons, I can only think of Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat or maybe Olafur Arnalds. That's privileged company. Here's the video, made by Adeline Mai. It perfectly captures the watery weightlessness of the tune.



There's also a taster here for the forthcoming album, which is due to be announced soon. If you can get past the frustration of the medley of clips involved, it sounds absolutely fascinating.

Efterklang in Cork

As you know, Efterklang are playing in Cork this coming weekend, at the Savoy Theatre, Saturday night July 30th. And by the sounds of this, from the Efterklang website, it will be very special.

"Efterklang+Daniel Bjarnason & Their Messing Orchestra is a special 17 piece band that debuted at the Cross Linx festival tour in February earlier this year. It is the 7-piece Efterklang live band with Daniel James (of Canon Blue) on guitar, Heather Broderick on piano and Peter Broderick on vibes and steel drum. And then we have the brilliant Icelandic composer Daniel Bjarnason on Rhodes and then you add a saxophone quartet, a brass quartet and a classic percussionist. This all turns into Efterklang + Daniel Bjarnason & Their Messing Orchestra. We will be playing Efterklang songs with arrangements for the Messing Orchestra by Daniel Bjarnason."

Sounds fantastic on paper, says you, and here's a taste or two of what it might sound like in the flesh (also from the Efterklang website).





And here's a fan's eye view from that Cross Linx Festival in Rotterdam earlier in the year.



This event is all part of The Reich Effect Festival, which is organised by Cork Opera House to celebrate 75 years of Steve Reich, and has one almighty lineup. Up the Rebels.

Playlist 186 - July 26 2011

The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

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

Playlist 186
Tues July 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/3436609654/UOH_Podcast_July_26_2011.mp3

Playlist
Metronomy - Everything goes my way (playing Royal Albert Hall, London, Oct 3)
Joan As Police Woman - Chemmie (playing Electric Picnic Festival, Stradbally, Sept 2-4)
Patrick Cleandenim - Crazy in the night
Josh Ottum - Green in the sun
Luke Temple - More than muscle
Cloud Control - Gold canary (playing The Academy, Dublin, Oct 7)
Franki Valli & the Four Seasons - The night (Munster Soul, Northern Soul Clubnight, The Phoenix, Cork, Aug 20)
The Feelies - Should be gone
Grimes - Favriel (playing Whelan's, Dublin, Aug 3)
Thomas Truax - A gold star for Miss July
Rozi Plain - Humans
Iron and Wine - Me and Lazarus (playing Green Man Festival, Brecon Beacons, Aug 21)
Jack Beauregard - You drew the line
Science Fiction Dance Party - Just walking on the moon
Science Fiction Dance Party - Visitors of A.D. 2022
Science Fiction Dance Party - Man out of a test tube

*the next show is on Sept 6th, following the summer break

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.

St Vincent - First song off new album

Rejoice! The first track is now available from the upcoming third St Vincent album, Strange Mercy. The album comes out in September on 4AD. You can get your digital hands on Surgeon now in exchange for your e-mail address at

http://strangemercy.com/

It features lots of woozy synths and what sound like cut-and-paste guitars, as well as the memorable opening line, "I spent the summer on my back". It also sounds like Annie Clark has been listening to some dirty funk music since the last album.

You can view some fairly strange video teasers on that site too, including one where Ms Clark, as well as several other beautiful women, deliver some of the most polite, delicious, crushing rejections ever to camera. It's disconcerting and intriguing at the same time, quite like her music actually.

And to get us even more in the mood for the new album, here's the video for Laughing with a mouth of blood from her last album Actor. It showcases her irreverent brand of feminism and her wonderful guitar playing, wrapped in a swooning string arrangement.



This is also great, her vocal on Beck's INXS project from last year. One vocal take apparently. By the way, that's Sergio Dias of Os Mutantes playing bass - very cool.



And just in case you have the impression she's a bit one-dimensional, check out this scorching live guitar performance on a cover of John Lennon's Beatle song Dig a pony. What a woman.

Ryan Francesconi + Cian Nugent in Cork

You could have been in Eastern Europe at times. If you stared up at the
renovated church ceiling, you could have been back in time by a couple of hundred years, such was the antique quality of the music*. This was Ryan Francesconi playing at Triskel Christchurch in Cork last Friday, a sublime match-up of artist and venue, if ever there was one. Before saying any more about the gig, here's a few lines from a review of his current album that caught my eye.

"Skirting any obvious models, this is an attempt to establish his own
original voice on the instrument ... These are polished and meditative
pieces, given to frequent pauses and moody moments. On the title track
Francesconi can flight out sparkling ornaments that recall Toumani
Diabate's kora ... The music is sophisticated, but there's an escape
from the urban, a sort of West Coast Buddhist romanticism. That's not
meant as a snide comment - this is a beautiful album, carried off
with poetic aplomb." Clive Bell, The Wire

This is the tune mentioned there, which finished the Triskel gig, the title track of his current album Parables on Drag City.



Roughly half the gig was solo, for the other half Ryan was joined by a violin player. I didn't catch the name of Ryan's colleague at the time (the introduction was lost in the high Christchurch dome), but she played great, supple, agile melodies. You wouldn't call it accompaniment as such, it was as if they were duetting, giving and taking the lead role. But I spotted this web advert for an Australian gig of Ryan's a few months back.

"Ryan will play one set of solo guitar compositions. For a second set,
of pieces inspired by Balkan traditional music, he will be joined by
Mirabai Peart (also of Joanna Newsom's touring band) on violin."

This clip from the Joanna Newsom performance "under canvas" in Marlay Park in Dublin the other day confirms the presence onstage of Ryan and Mirabai.



Some thoughts about the gig. It was a wonderful experience, somewhere in the bounds of world music, with a distinct feeling of time travel to it. The tunes unfurled themselves like cats stretching out in the sun (thank you Stewart Lee), but were quite capable also of turning into frantic creatures (cats?) with bursts of notes skipping up and down Balkan scales. Ryan mentioned Balkan and Greek music himself in introducing a couple of numbers. He told one story about a trip he took with Mirabai last year to the island of Lesbos, which is Greek but faces very close to Turkey. He talked about arriving there on spec off the ferry, finding a place to stay, exploring the island, meeting local musicians on the street and playing along with them. It painted a picture of music as a means of communication, of travel and companionship, a way of transporting yourself and of connecting with other people. It also showed a deep understanding and appreciation of the source, origin of the music he plays, which added a lot to the overall performance.

Although an obviously outstanding musician, he wore the impressive technique very lightly, playing with what seemed like little effort. This wasn't in any way showy, it was more like a humility, as if he saw himself as a channel for the music. Something in that Wire quote rings true - "West Coast Buddhist romanticism". (Ryan was born in California, and lives in Seattle now.) There was something idealistic in his demeanour, almost hippy-ish you might say (that photo on top does feature Stonehenge, after all). At the risk of reaching a bit, it was as if he's a solid believer in the universal power of music to make bridges between people. You get this impression from Irish trad musicians (among others) in sessions sometimes, that absorption in the moment, and it struck me that Cork's sizeable trad music support base would have found plenty to like in this gig. There are some revealing comments by Ryan here, in an interview on the G-Man blog, on the subject of performing solo live and the difference between solo acoustic and solo with electronics.

http://www.thegmanworld.com/2011/07/ryan-francesconi.html

It was not a night to concentrate on identifying tunes (Ryan himself didn't introduce any of the solo set by name, if memory serves) but I think he also played this beauty from the current album.



His artist biog on this site has a comprehensive summary of his many projects and releases, covering jazz, folk and ambient music, solo projects as well as collaborations. It also previews the Parables album with the phrase "as if the English Nick Drake was in fact Bulgarian". That might be a little bit easy, as comparisons go, but it's not a million miles away. A great performer.

A word about Cian Nugent, who played before Ryan. His was a more studied performance, you might even say intense, with impressive technique also on show. I thought some more background information on the tunes would have helped engage the audience a bit more, although hearing the stirring Sixes & sevens from his current two-track album Doubles on VHF Records made it worth arriving early alone (albeit without the lovely flurries of trumpet and clarinet on the studio recording). The album is UOH-recommended and you can hear that tune below.

Sixes & Sevens by Cian Nugent

All in all, a decent and appreciative crowd (good business was underway at the merchandise stand) and a standout gig in a distractingly beautiful venue. And to Plugd, for putting the gig on, chapeau, as they say on the Tour de France.

*In the Gulpd café/bar afterwards, you could also have been in Barcelona (and unlike Catalunya, there's Murphy's on draught) - full-length glass doors leading on to a medieval laneway, walls adorned with underground performance art memorabilia (a Black Sun retrospective), food as well as drink available...are you with me? I know the illusion would have been shattered as soon as you turned the corner to Rearden's/Havana's but at least we can dream.

Neville Skelly - Poet & a dreamer (Setanta/PIAS) / Interview

We had a couple of excerpts on this week's show of a recent interview with Neville Skelly, the Liverpool singer-songwriter, whose debut album Poet & the dreamer is out now through Setanta/PIAS. It was a very interesting conversation, taking in Neville's early big band and song stylist influences (courtesy of his father and uncle), how crooning is not a dirty word, how he hooked up with near-neighbours The Coral who introduced him to Dion Dimucci (of Dion & the Belmonts fame), earning his chops on open-mic slots, and more. Listen to the full interview here.



Particularly interesting I thought was Neville's mention of the invention of the microphone, as the catalyst for the style of what he called "lyrical singing". The phrase was new to me but he explained it as a more intimate or soft-spoken singing technique. Up until that time, singers with backing bands would have had to belt out their vocals to be heard, or depend on the consideration/skill of the band. With the advent of the microphone, of course, and the control it gave singers, a completely different style of singing was possible. This style might be called "crooning", or come to have been associated with "easy listening", derogatory terms to some people but not around the UOH camp.

One of the standout songs on the album for me is one of the two Dion Dimucci covers, He looks a lot like me, with haunting steel guitar played by Scott Marmion. Have a listen here - the arresting, spookily beautiful images are provided by Loretta Lux.



The album is made up of twelve tracks, six covers and six originals co-written by Neville. Five of these originals appeared on the Child of the morning EP which came out last year. This is what I thought of it at the time.

Neville Skelly - Child of the morning EP (Setanta)
Sublime set of (loosely) country swing tunes from the Liverpudlian, with a handsome croon at the centre, and adorned quite gorgeously with steel guitar, piano, glockenspiel* and harmonica. Very much in the style of Mike Nesmith's solo material, which is of course a pleasure. Nothing less than magnificent.

(*Reading the album credits, it looks like I mis-heard that glockenspiel - it's actually vibes instead. It could happen to a bishop...)

Funny, listening to the songs now, I'd put Jimmy Webb higher as a reference point, rather than the ex-Monkee. The Glen Campbell interpretations of Wichita Lineman and By the time I get to Phoenix, I'm thinking of in particular, more for the swooning arrangements and overall mood than anything else. Come to think of it, they share that strong narrative style of songwriting as well, along with a certain melancholy undertone. You could even make a comparison between Neville and Richard Hawley (as my wife pointed out, correctly as usual), in terms of the gorgeous expressiveness of the voice. Lyrical singing is right.



Of the six original songs on the album, four are co-written with James Skelly, singer with The Coral, and one with Ian Skelly, his brother, the band's drummer. Though no direct relation to Neville (I've since come across reports that they're cousins, but those are unconfirmed), the chemistry between singer, songwriters and arrangements is there for all to hear. It sounds nothing like a foreign singer parachuted into a band for the first time. It sounds everything like songs played and worn over time and delivered with complete conviction. The production by Ian Skelly is also unfussy and sweet. As well as the two Dion songs, there are Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs and Jackson Frank covers, and this smoky version of Eleanor Rigby.



Neville's revelation that it was The Coral's Skelly brothers who introduced him to Dion Dimucci reminded me of an interview I read with Ian Broudie once where he spoke of his admiration for The Coral (he's also an admirer of Neville's, by all accounts). He singled out for praise the fact that they were into doo-wop, an unfashionable rarity among English indie bands. As is a contemporary male pop singer who's into song stylists like Tony Bennett or Bobby Darin (we don't need to detain oursleves with the eternally auto-tuned and expression-free Michael Bublé). You might say the album is a little bit old-fashioned actually, and I like that about it. Do yourself a big favour and get it, it's a timeless and beautiful piece of work.

Playlist 185 - July 19 2011

The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

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

Playlist 185
Tues July 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/3247110301/UOH_Podcast_July_19_2011.mp3

Playlist
Larsen - Annie's rap
Julianna Barwick - Bob in your gait
Bruce Haack - Cherubic hymn
Cian Nugent - Sixes and sevens (playing Triskel Christchurch, Cork, July 22, w/ Ryan Francesconi)
Patrick Kelleher & his Cold Dead Hands - Too many harsh words
Tom Tom Club - Genius of love (playing Harmonic Weekender, Vicar Street, Dublin, July 22)

Neville Skelly Interview
Neville Skelly - Child of the morning
Interview Excerpt 1
Neville Skelly - He looks a lot like me
Interview Excerpt 2
*d'load full interview here:
http://conorot.podomatic.com/entry/2011-07-18T10_52_36-07_00

The Horror The Horror - Wilderness
The Kinks - I'm on an island
The Dead Trees - Older
The Dead Trees - Arrows

*next week's show features music from Grimes, Cloud Control, Joan as Police Woman and Metronomy 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.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

I was catching up on some of the 4AD sessions and came across this fantastic footage of Ariel Pink and friends. If nothing else, check out Menopause Man, from last year's great album Before today, for a sublime mixture of math-rock and 10cc-ness. I must say I also like the drummer's shirt - it's kinda hairy. To match his bear growls.

Liam Singer Interview

As part of the ongoing housekeeping project, the interview with New York-based pop experimentalist Liam Singer is here now...

...including talk of Morton Feldman, a classical music training, "happy accidents", high art vs low art, Carlos Castaneda, supernatural themes, the influence of travel on composition, and more. Listen here.

(*By the way, you might gather that the first few minutes of the interview are missing. This is because of some interference on the phone line during that part of the conversation, relating to musical influences. These included Prokofiev, New Age music, They Might Be Giants and John Cage.)



That interview was recorded last October around the time of the release of his current album, Dislocatia, on Hidden Shoal. Did I mention it's brilliant? Here's how much I liked it at the time.

Liam Singer - Dislocatia (Hidden Shoal)

Regular readers will know that if it's chamber pop, I'm there. Even for the converted though, this is thrillingly beautiful music, from the Brooklyn-based composer. In recent terms, it reminds me a little of Andrew Morgan and Sufjan Stevens in places, but ultimately shows the conviction of individuality. The 16 tracks include one mini-symphony after another, most of which average around 2 minutes. Despite this, they never feel rushed, yet still manage to leave a complex aftertaste. Piano provides the core of the instrumentation (often treated, but usually with a measured, classical feel), with various other keyboards and orchestrated strings in support. Notably, the album also features the lovely, airy, folk singing of Wendy Allen from labelmates Boxharp (her partner in Boxharp, Scott Solter, also produces), which proves a perfect counterpoint to Singer's own vibrato. As the album title suggests, the atmospheres are never totally reassuring, although they still manage to remain hopeful. The massed vocal and pulsing piano ending to Leave the world to those who care has a medieval feel, and also calls to mind Steve Reich, with its slightly disconcerting off-rhythm running under a wholly engaging melody. A certain avant-garde tendency is confirmed by the title Morton Feldman holding notes for eternity, which features a pair of parallel, out-of-sync vocal lines with a sort of math-rock piano backing. Spellbinding opening instrumental On Earth a wandering stranger was I born begins like Chopin, then adds a fittingly spectral, otherworldly atmosphere, created by the interplay of female soprano, organ and glockenspiel; Words make the master has something in common with Sufjan Stevens' celestial folk music; the elegaic Erat hora's deep rumbling beginning gives way to a melancholy air on theremin, before a swooping, wordless female vocal arrives over stoic piano chords; another tremendous instrumental, the cinematic Mold me torn fan, manages to evoke a thick air of suspense from nothing more than a simple repeating piano pattern, sparse recorder notes, something that sounds like vibes and a few background squeaks. Allied to the album's experimental leanings, though, is a beating pop heart. In the words of a certain pop song, it's all too beautiful.

By a neat coincidence, the stirring Words make the master has just been released as a new single. Check it out here, it's free.

http://hiddenshoal.com/promo/Liam_Singer-Words_Make_the_Master.mp3

Check also the video for another track from Dislocatia, the wonderfully cinematic Mold me torn fan, with intriguing animated images by Portland multimedia artist Jay Leary.

Seán O'Hagan + Van Dyke Parks

As an interesting adjunct to the Van Dyke Parks post last month, surprising news now of a Skype conversation between VDP and Seán O'Hagan of High Llamas. No connection to the fast-developing News International phone hacking scandal here, the news was revealed by the Llamas' label Drag City. (By the way, the Drag City monthly newsletter is one of the most entertaining mailshots going, I recommend you sign up without delay.) Here's the video.

http://www.dragcity.com/news/384

A few things of note.
VDP's conversational style is as meandering and quixotic as his wonderful back catalogue. This is a man who you don't want to stick to the point.
The time delay on Skype creates awkward pauses.
Seán mentions in the first few minutes the anti-government public protest march in London, which he'd attended that day. This prompts VDP to muse on the role of government in society. Forget David Norris. Can we give this man Irish citizenship and get him running in the Irish presidential election? Cultural icon, he is. (Seán O'Hagan is pretty cool too.)

North Sea Radio Orchestra

And speaking of William D. Drake, I believe his hands make an appearance in this video (although I could be wrong).



That's from the new North Sea Radio Orchestra album, I a moon. In a word, it's fantastic. I'll have a bit more on it at the end of the month. NSRO is Craig Fortnam and friends (that's him on guitar). Craig also released one of my favourite albums of last year under the name Arch Garrison. Here's a few thoughts on that at the time.

Arch Garrison - King of the Down (Double 6)
Arch Garrison is mainly Craig Fortnam of North Sea Radio Orchestra. This is a gorgeous album of ancient-sounding English folk music, with a few nods to modernity. Song titles like Stone on the pound, Thames Fluvius and Roman Road give a hint of tradition but this never feels clichéd. Great tunes help, as usual, and an irrepressibly upbeat mood.

That upbeat mood is something carried over into his other band. NSRO classes itself as a chamber group of sorts. I'm not exactly sure what that means but, at the very least, you could find traces of krautrock, medieval folk music and avant-garde classical music in this tune. That could all amount to a recipe for disaster but it's pop music at heart, I think, and wonderfully arranged so it manages to work brilliantly.

Here's a bit of background blurb from the band's website:

In the October of 2002, composer and guitarist Craig Fortnam found himself walking through the City of London with a sackful of tunes slung over his shoulder; tied to a stick (Dick Whittington style). Now, as all music comes from the air, the sack was all that stopped Craig's tunes from escaping and following the Thames out to sea. Needing a substance with the weight of history behind it, Craig bent down and began to scoop up handfuls of London clay, folding and kneeding it into the melodies and chords from his sack. As this was such hard work, he got his wife, Sharron, to help. As she folded and kneeded, she began to sing, so her beautiful voice found it's way into the expanding mixture.

I don't know exactly what to make of that. It's a bit puzzling and a bit endearing. A little bit like the music. Let's go back and have another listen to Berliner luft.

NSRO play at St Giles in the Fields in London on July 15th, along with William D. Drake (including his hands) and Firefly.

Wanderly Wagon + William D. Drake

So anyway, I mentioned something in the William D. Drake review a couple of months back that I wanted to come back to. At the time, I said that the instrumental track Ziegler from his album, The Rising of the Lights, reminded me of the Wanderly Wagon theme tune. For the uninitiated, this was an Irish children's tv show from the 1970's, focused around the wide-eyed genius of puppeteer, the late Eugene Lambert. (For those of another generation, it also regularly featured the actor Frank Kelly - Father Jack from Father Ted - as the bungling evil wizard Dr Astro.) So here's the theme tune.



Listening back to it now, it starts with more of a Beach Boys feel, with that signature alternating left-hand-right-hand keyboard style, before launching into full prog-rock glory with a creamy guitar solo. Nothing like Ziegler, in fact. Which sounds more like this.



Is that clarinet, harmonium and hurdy-gurdy together in the one piece of music? Brilliantly surreal and breathless as it is, it actually wouldn't be out of place as the soundtrack to a scene from "The Wagon". Probably something involving O'Brien trying to get home in time for tea. It's just a pity Mr Drake wasn't knocking around RTÉ in the 1970's, basically.

*Our Brussels correspondent tells me it was Jim Doherty who wrote the Wanderly Wagon theme tune. Another semi-legendary figure who probably deserves a post to himself at a later date.

**And Songs to Learn and Sing reminds me that Jim Doherty is the father of comedian and accomplished keyboard player David O'Doherty. The plot thickens.

Playlist 184 - July 12 2011

The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness

Playlist 184

Tues July 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

https://rapidshare.com/files/1037119948/UOH_Podcast_July_12_2011.mp3

Playlist

Handsome Furs – Bury me standing

EDM – How to fall

Elephant - Allured

The Leisure Society – You could keep me talking (playing Latitude Festival, Suffolk, July 14-17)

Tom Tom Club – Genius of love (Money Mark remix)

Brian Eno – Pour it out

Mowest Compilation (Light in the Attic Records)

Franki Valli & the Four Seasons – You’re a song (that I can’t sing)

Syreeta – Black maybe

Odyssey – Broken road

Ryan Francesconi - Parables (playing Triskel Christchurch, Cork, July 22, w/ Cian Nugent)

North Sea Radio Orchestra – Berliner luft (playing St Giles in the Fields, London, July 15, w/ Catherine AD & Firefly)

Antonymes – The gospel pass

Science Fiction Dance Party – The end of a robot (Finder Keepers Records)

*next week's show features music from Cian Nugent, Larsen and Julianna Barwick 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.

Playlist 183 - July 5 2011

The Underground of Happiness
uplifting pop music of every creed

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

Playlist 183
Tues July 5th 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/999266740/UOH_Podcast_July_5_2011.mp3


Playlist
Bruce Haack - Incantation (thanks to Albert in Plugd)
Shonen Knife - Top of the world (playing Whelan's, Dublin, Aug 19)
Umpire - Supply chins
The Go! Team - Ready to go steady (playing Electric Picnic Festival, Stradbally, Sept 4)
Reader's Wives - Light up (playing Oxegen Festival, Punchestown, July 8)
Friendly Fires - Hawaiian air (radio edit) (playing Oxegen Festival, Punchestown, July 10)
The Amsterdams - Country holiday
The Travellers - Waiting
Sebastian feat. Mayer Hawthorne - Love in motion
Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Let's stop here
Julia Kent - Tithonos
The Last Sound - Only the lonely know the glow is failing
Cashier No. 9 - Lost at sea (playing Oxegen Festival, July 9)
EDM - Hold me down
North Sea Radio Orchestra - Morpheus miracle maker

*next week's show features music from Ryan Francesconi, Cian Nugent, Larsen, Tom Tom Club, Julianna Barwick and Antonymes 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.

Random Tuesday Reviews

The Middle East - Jesus came to my birthday party (PIAS, single)

This great swinging folk-rock tune has a distinct flavour of Sparklehorse at his laconic best. From the album I want that you are always happy.



Roshi feat. Pars Radio - To bio (Rif Mountain, from the Mehregan EP)

Prepare to be enchanted and transported by Welsh-born-of-Iranian-descent Roshi Nasehi on vocals and electronic backing by Graham Dids (Pere Ubu). The title translates from Farsi as "Come to me beloved" and the mood has an appropriate emotional heft to it, with deft, minimal soundscapes adding colour. A voice capable of making a name for Iranian folk music.

Larsen - Annie's rap (Tin Angel Records, from the album Cool cruel mouth)

A monotonous ringing guitar, an ominous bass tone, a freestyle drum pattern, then a female monologue recounts a strangely gripping tale of getting an early drink in midtown Manhattan. She meets a man in a bar who offers to buy her a drink, to which she replies "I like that in a man". This becomes the deadpan refrain, leading to musings on life, relationships and gender politics. The words are by New York singer/painter/performer Little Annie (Crass, Nurse with Wound, Baby Dee) and the relentless musical backing by Italian band Larsen.

And here's another showstopper from the album, the old Sinatra classic It was a very good year, which manages to add a real air of menace and decay to the line "when I was seventeen".

Larsen - It Was A Very Good Year by Tin Angel Records

Alphabet Saints - Jessica's heartbreak (Go Gentle Records, from the album Raptureland)

Intriguing driving rhythm with Leonard Cohen style delivery (down to the female chorus backing), leaves a very much end-of-the-world atmosphere, but still uplifting somehow. There's even room for a Roxy-like sax solo and "inconsequential" rhyming with "existential". "Alternative/Glam/Gospel" is the soundcloud tag, which sounds good to me. Brilliant.

Jessica's Heartbreak by Alphabet Saints

The Scaramanga Six - Cursed (Wrath Records)

The Scaramanga Six - Cursed (Wrath Records)

You'll remember the killer first single from this Sheffield 4-piece's (!) new album was mentioned here previously, the memorable power ballad Autopsy of the mind. Well there's plenty more to love on the rest of the album. Last roll of the dice starts life as a Joey Santiago instrumental before embracing a rousing horn section and massed harmonies. Walking through houses (the one song on the album produced by ex-Cardiacs man Tim Smith, before he was struck by illness in 2008, and to whom the album is dedicated - the full story is on the listening link below) is stalking post-punk masquerading as math-rock. Trouble is three minutes of retribution delivered with a croon. Dark matter is another rousing, brass-lead workout with strong cinematic leanings. The epic Like an insect takes the Kafka scenario literally and wraps it in glockenspiel, toms and a killer chorus. And, as also mentioned previously, closer Spent force comes on like prog-pop given an adrenaline injection (the baritone sax helps). Power pop doesn't come much better than this.

Vessels - Later than you think (Eyan Green remix)

We played the Eyan Green remix of Leeds band Vessels' Later than you think on the show last week. Eyan got in touch with the permanent link for downloading that remix for free. Check it out here.

Later Than You Think (Eyan Green Remix) by Eyan Green

A techno juggernaut on the face of it, but with distinct krautrock affiliations. In other words, really cool. Meanwhile, here's the band playing the original live in Brighton earlier this year. Beautiful Tortoise-meets-Mogwai-post-rock-launched-into-space vibe and lovely video made by Fix the Sky.

Vessels - Later Than You Think (live) from Vessels Band on Vimeo.

As we're at it, here's the wonderful first single from the still current album Helioscope, on Cuckndoo Records, featuring Stuart Warwick on vocals, which got plenty of air around here earlier in the year.

Meatman, Piano Tuner, Prostitute (feat. Stuart Warwick) by Vessels

And the impressionist video by Kira Zighalina.

Vessels - Meatman, Piano Tuner, Prostitute (feat. Stuart Warwick) from Vessels Band on Vimeo.

Thread Pulls & Twinkranes in Cork

Great to see Thread Pulls again over the weekend, playing on Friday at the Crane Lane Theatre in Cork. They make some racket for just two fellas and a (small) bit of machinery. One of the highlights of the gig was this, from their New thoughts album that came out last year on Osaka.

I'm not sure about the choice of venue, although it was quite amusing watching what the Crane Lane weekend "regulars" made of sparse rock 'n roll, stripped to the bone. Not as entertaining as the gig itself, mind you.

I spoke to them when they played in Cork last year, you can check out that interview here.

Also on the double bill were fellow Dubliners Twinkranes, a band I hadn't seen before. They brought drums and organ, with electronics, and were pretty impressive in a driving, krautrock kind of way. We like a bit of motorik, in fairness. You'll get an idea from this.



And have a look at their eye-catching hanging backdrop here.