The Underground of Happiness

So as you know, Erased Tapes is 5 years old (reminder here ). And, unlike most 5-year olds, who tend to be on the receiving end of presents, this one just keeps on giving. Among other things this week, new music from Icelandic composer Olafur Arnalds . It's a 7 inch single featuring two pieces of music written for dance performances. Here's some detail on it. This limited edition single captures two exciting tracks for two dance projects. The first 'Endalaus II' was created for 'Endalaus' by Norwegian Choreographer Alan Lucien Øyen, commissioned and performed by the Iceland Dance company. Fans will recognise the track as one of the highlights from Ólafur's recent live shows, creating an emotional punch against the classical strings. 'For Teda', the second song is for London-based company Neon Dance and part of choreographer Adrienne Hart's on-going project 'Archived'it'. It brings forward a new concept in online interaction b...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 227 Tues June 26 2012 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/983fm *listen back to this show here http://i.mixcloud.com/CB5Wyg Playlist Yawning Chasm - Whispered sun ( playing Citóg, Galway, June 28, w/ Brigid Power-Ryce & Raising Holy Sparks ) Mumblin Deaf Ro - Sister ill, better now ( playing Popical Island All-dayer, Whelan's, Dublin, July 7 ) First Aid Kit - Blue ( playing Vicar Street, Dublin, Nov 25 ) Cat Power - Ruin Clare & the Reasons - The lake Richard Hawley - Seek it ( playing Electric Picnic, Stradbally, Aug 31-Sept 2 ) Field Music - Who'll pay the bills Frankie Rose - Apples for the sun (The Go! Team remix) Hooray For Earth - Bring us closer together Markus Mehr - Barcelona waltz Elisa Luu - Il tempo di capire Dutch Unc...

You know how things come together sometimes, coincidences you could say. Well two albums came my way in the last month or so which seem to me to be connected, although as far as I know there's no direct contact between the people involved. Naim Amor is a French guitar player and singer who has spent the last ten years or so living in Tucson , Arizona. While living there, he's rubbed up against Howe Gelb, Calexico and other members of that city's notable music community. He sings in English and French and plays a kind of smoky, beautifully understated French jazz. Apparently, Howe Gelb says he's the best guitar player he's seen, and he's seen a few. His new album Dansons is just out on Vacilando 68 and it breaks new ground in combining Brazilian rhythms with Amor's well bedded French roots style. The result is a fascinating mixture of desert folk and sunny samba. Here's the opening track from the album, Creole , a great example of that fusion. Her...

One of my favourite labels, Erased Tapes , celebrates 5 years in business. It's been responsible for some of the best music of the last few years, music that I'm fondest of, that's really stayed with me. The first time I came across the label was when I interviewed Peter Broderick in 2009 when he played in Cork. After the interview, as we were passing the merch stand, he handed me a CD copy of Music from Falling for Trees , a soundtrack to a recently composed dance piece. It was quite brilliant, I soon discovered. And that lead on to Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnalds, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, World's End Girlfriend , and so on. To mark the 5 years, the label are undertaking a landmark tour with three of the aforementioned. Here are the details. London/Berlin-based record label Erased Tapes celebrates five years of fusing classical and contemporary music. To recognise this milestone, Erased Tapes label founder Robert Raths has set up a number of events and releases...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 226 Tues June 19 2012 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/983fm *listen back to this show here http://i.mixcloud.com/CB3vwL Playlist Donnie & Joe Emerson - Baby Katie Kim - Your mountains my mountains ( playing Cork Opera House, July 21 ) Efterklang - I was playing drums ( playing Cork Opera House, Sept 15 ) Ombre - Cara Falsa Elisa Luu - Se fosse per me Slow Place Like Home - Dr Astro goes ballistic Calexico - Para Naim Amor - Our day will come M. Ward - The first time I ran away Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Ballad of the bastard ( playing Bowerbird, Triskel Christchurch, Cork, June 30 ) David Byrne & St Vincent - Who Ghost Estates - Never forget Electric Guest - Awake *next week's show will feature music from Richard Hawle...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 225 Tues June 12 2012 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/983fm *listen back to this show here http://www.mixcloud.com/theundergroundofhappiness/the-underground-of-happiness-june-12-2012 Playlist Twin Shadow - Five seconds How To Dress Well - Ocean floor for everything volcano! - Pinata Electric Guest - Awake Julia Stone - I want to live here Pieter Nooten - Ode Hidden Highways - Come wander with me ( playing Half Moon Theatre, Cork, Aug 11, w/ Peter Delaney ) Richard Hawley - Don't stare at the sun ( playing Electric Picnic Festival, Stradbally, Aug 31-Sept 2 ) Slow Place Like Home - Shady Jane Beach House - Myth ( playing Cork Opera House, Oct 27 ) Fuxa - A billion kilograms Last Days of 1984 - Wavelife ( playing The Pavilion, Cork, June 16...

Originally published on WeAreNoise - http://wearenoise.com/index.php/2012/04/hiss-golden-messenger/ Some new music came our way today and we thought we’d do a little sharing. Because it’s particularly beautiful, but also because the band in question plays in Cork on May 3rd (Triskel Christchurch, also Whelan’s in Dublin on Apr 30th) (Note: The Cork gig was subsequently, and unfortuately, cancelled.). The music in question is by Hiss Golden Messenger , lead by Mike Taylor , the album Poor moon . Here’s the biog, courtesy of the record label, Tompkins Square . Hiss Golden Messenger is Durham, North Carolina-based songwriter M.C. Taylor, in partnership with multi-instrumentalist and recordist Scott Hirsch, who lives in Brooklyn, New York. The pair have been playing music together for nearly two decades. Poor Moon is the fourth proper Hiss Golden Messenger release, and serves as the best summation thus far of Taylor’s lone journeys through the dark night of the soul. “God is goo...

One of Thrill Jockey’s latest releases is the new album by English folk/avant artist Alexander Tucker . I say folk – and folk fans will find plenty to like about the album – but really that’s only a small part of what’s going on in the music. Add kosmische, prog, tape manipulation and electronics, and you’re closer to the effect. That abstract list of genre tags won’t prepare you, though, for the warmth and accessibility of the album. 'The glass axe' shows shades of the blues guitar picking style of the late Bert Jansch, but ornamented with beautiful layered male-female harmonies, string melodies and a shimmering organ. The pastoral drones and tape manipulation of ‘Mullioned view’ create the kind of sound you might imagine filling the air around Stonehenge a few centuries ago. The song manages the neat trick of sounding like the past and the future, at the same time. Found sounds of bells and rainfall create an eerie atmosphere on ‘Window sill’ and you’ll find in ‘Androm...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 224 Tues June 5 2012 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/983fm *listen back to this show here https://rapidshare.com/files/3773966344/The_Underground_Of_Happiness_June_5_2012.m4a Playlist Low - Try to sleep ( playing Cyprus Avenue, Cork, July 11 ) Katie Kim - Dimmer ( playing Cork Opera House, July 21 ) AU - OJ John Maus - Mental breakdown Elisa Luu - Se fosse per me Markus Mehr - Flaming youth The Chap - Rhythm king Yeasayer - Henriette Naim Amor - Le revenant Jherek Bischoff feat. David Byrne - Eyes ( playing Village Underground, London, June 18 & 20, w/ Amanda Palmer ) Bruce Haack - Program me Last Days of 1984 - Woods ( playing The Pavilion, Cork, June 16, w/ REID ) *next week's show will feature more music from Last Days of 1984...

Very fine Irish albums don't come along all that often (although more often these days, perhaps because there simply are more of them released), so I tend to sit up and take notice when one as conceptually coherent, brilliantly produced and downright catchy as Wake up to the waves comes along. Here's a review I wrote of the album for Cork zine WeAreNoise , original link http://wearenoise.com/index.php/2012/05/last-days-of-1984-wake-up-to-the-waves-osaka/ . Last Days of 1984 are a duo from Dublin – Darren Moloney and Brian Rice – who make blissed-out dance music, using swirling, whooshing synths to create a giddy tropical house rush. You could make comparisons with the percussive offbeats of Tanlines , the euphoric tropicalia of El Guincho , or, at a push, Animal Collective (the latter particularly in the beautifully treated back-of-the-room harmonies). The beaches of Ibiza are never far from the mind on this album, but it’s nothing like a one-dimensional piece of work. ...