The Underground of Happiness

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 231 Tues July 24 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/CBalzc Playlist - Best of 2012 So Far AU feat. Sarah Winchester Jherek Bischoff feat. Carla Bozulich - Counting Matthew Bourne - Juliet Frankie Rose - Gospel/Grace Twin Shadow - Five seconds It's a Musical - Point back Naim Amor - Le revenant M Ward - The first time I ran away The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock - The brutal here and now (Part 1) ( playing The Pavilion, Cork, July 28 ) Myles Manley - Dream minus one Yawning Chasm - Whispered sun ( playing The Roundy, Cork, Aug 17, w/ North Side Drive & Rory Francis O'Brien ) Hidden Highways - Come wander with me ( playing Half Moon Theatre, Cork, Aug 11 ) Hooded Fang - ES...

Two new albums in the last month or so have featured prominently on the show, both on the great Hidden Shoal label, one Italian, one German, and both inhabiting the broad terrain of instrumental ambient electronica. Elisa Luu's Un giorno sospeso ("a suspended day" or "one day suspension", depending on your translator) is a beautiful album of drifting, teasing textures. "Suspended" might be a good word to describe the kind of head-over-heels dizziness it could induce in you. It has more of a homely feel compared to her last (first) album, Chromatic sigh , which had quite an exotic, spacey atmosphere. Like me, you might find it hard to get past the first two tracks - the gentle twinkling bleep of 'Flussigirl', with flute samples set in a bed of friendly static; and 'Se fosse per me', a glorious tune that rides on a wave of treated fuzz guitar samples, with a warm electric piano for company. It also features a beguiling saxophon...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 230 Tues July 17 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/CB92mo Playlist Katie Kim - The feast ( playing Half Moon Theatre, Cork, July 21 ) Peter Broderick - I do this Twin Shadow - Five seconds Lali Puna - I've been over the rainbow Seb Rochford & Alice Grant - Rini gave word (Days & Nights at the Takeaway 6) Elisa Luu - Flussigirl Julia Stone - Bloodbuzz Ohio Richard Hawley - She brings the sunlight ( playing Savoy Theatre, Cork, Dec 6, and other dates; also, Electric Picnic, Aug 31-Sept 2 ) Angus Stone - Broken brights Hong Kong in the 60s - Into the forest of eyes (Collision/Detection v4) Lawrence Arabia - Travelling shoes Alabama Shakes - Hang loose (radio edit) *next ...

Jesus, there's no stopping Peter Broderick . After already releasing a new album this year on Bella Union , the excellent http://www.itstartshear.com (yes, it's a web address, try typing it in your browser, and more here ), he's now announced another new album to come out in October on Erased Tapes . These walls of mine is the title. Here's some background from PB. “I had recently been experimenting at home with a microphone and a laptop, recording and uploading new songs for free online, each one alongside a photo and some words, and open to comments from the outside world. At some point Robert (Erased Tapes label founder) started listening to the music and felt compelled to encourage me to compile an album with all this material. His reaction to ‘These Walls of Mine’ (the song, not the album) was exactly how I felt about the music. I wasn’t sure if I loved it or hated it. But I loved the feeling of that uncertainty, of surprising myself and others around me. A...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 229 Tues July 10 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/CB8Fdu Playlist Jherek Bischoff feat. Carla Bozulich - Counting Olafur Arnalds - Endalaus II Hong Kong in the 60s - Banbury Grove (Collision/Detection v4) Ombre - Cara falsa Sfumato - Pound Peaking Lights - Lo Hi Para One - Lean on me (Max Tundra remix) Hauschka - Tanzbein (Steve Bicknell - Lost mix) Donnie & Joe Emerson - Baby Yawning Chasm - Orange milky white ( playing The Roundy, Cork, Aug 17, w/ North Side Drive ) The Fresh & Onlys - Yes or no Markus Mehr - Barcelona waltz The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock - The brutal here and now (Part I) ( playing The Pavilion, Cork, July 28 ) *next week's show will feature mu...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 228 Tues July 3 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/CB8EdW Playlist Sfumato - Ostia Ginnels - It's not a summer without you Jherek Bischoff feat. David Byrne - Eyes David Byrne & St Vincent - Who Jean Claude Vannier - Le ballet des accoucheuses Bappi Lahiri - Disco title music from Dahshat Chairlift - I belong in your arms Micachu & the Shapes - OK ( playing Vicar Street, Dublin, July 15, w/ Tune-Yards & Last Days of 1984 ) Pieter Nooten - Ode Elephant - Golden Slow Place Like Home - Selkie Fuxa - A billion kilograms Wizards of Time - Little's jingle *next week's show will feature music from Sfumato, Jherek Bischoff, The Fresh & Onlys, Olafur Ar...

I think the trick with chamber pop is to introduce enough acid elements to balance the sweetness, like lemon juice in a tart. There’s plenty of swooning on Composed (the bending string arrangements alone would break your heart at several different times), but it’s offset by some gothic lyricism and an intriguing minor-key undertow to make an intriguing, moving whole. I should fess up, I’m a sucker for chamber pop. We can agree that Van Dyke Parks was the chief pioneer in this area – the man is one of my heroes – and the whiff of VDP floats around this album like a warm embrace, in its showtune interludes, beautifully subtle keyshifts and full use of every orchestral voice. Actually, “chamber” is a moot point – you could say orchestral – but I’d stick with the word on the basis of the winning personal and intimate atmosphere all through. The guest vocal turns will attract most of the headlines – David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, Dawn McCarthy, Mirah Zeitlyn, Zac Pennington, SoKo ,...

Originally published on http://wearenoise.com/index.php/2012/06/slow-place-like-home-there-go-the-lights-again-ep/ More superior ambient electronica delivered with gusto (a technical term) from the Atlantic North West. Meet Keith Mannion from Donegal, who marshals synths, drum machines and samplers but keeps them sounding warm and organic. His Coastal hubs for chivalry EP in January made a very good impression on me and, if anything, this one is even better. ‘You’re so square you’ve got corners’ kicks things off on quite a bright uptempo note, high pitched snares and laser gun drum fills under intertwining synth lines carrying the middle ground, until it gathers its forces with the extremely hummable refrain “ you’re not awake ”. Speaking of hummable, the bassline is a whole hook unto itself. ‘Selkie’ we’ve mentioned previously, a child’s spoken intro of “ bzzz said the bumble bee ” prefacing a gorgeous, pastoral instrumental over a dainty breakbeat, using flute and harpsi...

Another Irish band that's caught my ear in a big way this year is Galway's Yawning Chasm . They were a duo - Aaron Coyne and Declan Kelly - until being joined by Jimmy Monaghan on drums lately. They play a kind of plangent folk music, with slow, deliberate tempos mostly, arranged around careful electric guitar pickings and lovely synth gurglings for support. Here's a few words from a piece I did for WeAreNoise recently. http://wearenoise.com/index.php/2012/06/yawning-chasm-butterfly-crab-ep-free-download/ A quick follow-up to Rebecca’s preview of the Yawning Chasm gig that took place at Citóg in Galway last night (by the way a great night was had by all, we believe), to launch their new Butterfly & Crab EP. As Rebecca mentioned, the gig would trigger the new EP becoming available on the band’s bandcamp page, to replace the previous, and majestic, Whispered sun EP. So, you’ll find your free digital download below. These new tunes retain plenty of the previou...