The Underground of Happiness

This song came into my life last week. And at the moment, it feels like my life is divided into the time before I heard it, and the time since. It's a fantastic slice of dreamy, bittersweet psych pop that is liable to haunt/soundtrack your waking hours. I've become quite obsessed with the way the bass and keys enter at different points to competely shift the mood of the arrangement. The woman responsible is Melody Prochet . My information on her is quite sketchy. She may or may not be French. Her debut self titled album comes out in November on Weird World (that already spectacular little label, only just over a year in existence) and was partly recorded in Perth with Kevin Parker from Tame Impala . There is something of that band's dense sound about the tune, although more about this track (all effected guitars and dropped snare beats), a 7" from last summer on Fat Possum (another fine label), which is also great. It's a bit like a Grizzly Bear tune pum...

A special extended show this week, with an extra hour. Three more bands playing the NOISE Weekender this coming weekend, Mumblin' Deaf Ro from Dublin, Trumpets of Jericho & The Great Balloon Race from Cork; a knockout tune from the new Rozi Plain album; new Dark Dark Dark, Polica, Christian Bookshop, David Byrne & St Vincent, Nils Frahm playing piano with 9 fingers, Peter Broderick pondering the mystery of the soul; a lovely Sfumato remix by Sunken Foal , a great slow build by Babe, Terror ; there was also Sone Institute, Wussy, Shonen Knife, Bobby Womack feat. Lana del Rey, Hotels, September Girls, Pollens , and more. And not to forget, Melody's Echo Chamber - I follow you is one of the songs of the year. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 236 Tues Sept 25 2012 11.00am-1.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live...

Managed to squeeze a few extra tunes in this week - they just happened to be shorter I think. More Laetitia Sadier from her beautiful new album Silencio; Peter Broderick beatboxing; Pollens doing some intriguing vocal work; two Cork artists, Cormac O'Caoimh & The Great Balloon Race , both playing the NOISE Weekender at the end of September; Lower Dens & Beach House , both also playing Cork in the next couple of months; Ariel Pink followed by Donnie & Joe Emerson , with the song covered on the new Ariel Pink album; more Wussy and the now Mercury Prize nominated Field Music . Who'll pay the bills? That could be the new Irish national anthem... The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 235 Tues Sept 18 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...

The new collaboration between David Byrne and St Vincent is definitely one of the musical events of the year for me. Apart from the album, they've also just begun a US tour with a 16-piece (I think it is), mostly brass, backing band. That's just shit cool. Here's some fan footage from their gig in Minneapolis the other night for a flavour, as they run through some Talking Heads and St Vincent material, with some interesting choreography. Having had the album for a few weeks now, it's as obtuse and angular as you might expect from two people who each pretty much define the phrase "singular artist". There aren't that many straightforwardly upfront tunes on the album (the brilliant closer Outside of time and space is one exception, where the brass backing takes on a plaintiff colliery band feel). But it's still never less than engrossing and the everpresent brass and reed textures give it a wonderfully offbeat tone, compared to the majority ...

As mentioned a few weeks ago, Peter Broderick's new album comes out next month on Erased Tapes , These walls of mine . In case you didn't come across it already, he recently released this live video of one of the standout songs from it, I've tried . It has some of the vocal looping that Broderick has come to be known for, but employed in more of a beatboxing fashion. This gives the song, and much of the album, an intriguingly RnB flavour (flava?). That's one direction I didn't see coming. Regardless, it's still brilliant. More of the album on the show, and here, over the coming weeks.

Don't you just love it when a new band comes into your life, out of the blue, and reminds you why you fell in love with pop music in the first place. Meet Wussy , a 4-piece band from Cincinnatti. They've released several albums over the past decade and gained fulsome praise from esteemed sources across the Atlantic, such as Robert Christgau and others. For their first release outside the US, Damnably Records have compiled some highlights from previous albums to produce a thrilling set of tunes. I like to think of the music as a ballsier, fuzzier, more blue-collar even, version of Luna (who I love, so you know...). That's to say, this record would sit comfortably between The Velvet Underground and Yo La Tengo on your shelf (alphabetically too, as it happens). It's rare to find songs you've never heard before that you feel like singing along to out loud on the street. That's the effect of the twin vocal, twin guitar attack of Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker ....

More new music from my latest obsession this week, the new Mumblin' Deaf Ro album Dictionary crimes , which comes out this week on Popical Island - we had the sublime 'Little mite' on the show. And the new Sfumato single, from another album I like a lot, These things between . Also Efterklang , who play in Cork & Dublin this week; The Altered Hours (currently recording their debut album in Berlin) who, along with Ro, play the NOISE Weekender in Cork on Sept 28/29/30; Hong Kong in the 60s and Sone Institute , both from the fascinating Front & Follow label; the latest Days and Nights at the Takeaway release; and more new Irish music from Jogging and Yawning Chasm . Plus a track from Wussy (pictured), a relatively new band on me, from Cincinatti. I'm calling them a slightly fuzzier, dirtier version of Luna - who I'm a big fan of - and they're clearly falling over great tunes. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theun...

Here's a review I wrote for We Are Noise , originally published on this link - http://wearenoise.com/index.php/2012/09/mumblin-deaf-ro-dictionary-crimes-popical-island/ . The reason I'm reprinting it here is that I think it's a monumental piece of work, as you can read below. Not just that though. I think there's something about it that could even salvage the whole "singer-songwriter" tag. So if you're someone who thinks that tag has been demeaned by bawlers or chancers or moaners or emoters, give this a go. It might renew your faith in something. The third album by Mumblin’ Deaf Ro is largely autobiographical, the songs dealing with bereavement, grief and parenthood, among other things, and shows the touch of a true writer. In fact, it might just put the “writer” back into “singer-songwriter”. The songs launch from small, everyday situations, leading to broader emotional and philosophical reveries, much like some of the best short stories do. The...

The first show back after the "summer" recess was yesterday and it featured some great new music from Mumblin' Deaf Ro, Laetitia Sadier, Sone Institute, Ariel Pink, Efterklang and Peter Broderick (check around the blog for more info on those albums). We also had a couple of stunning oldies from Cocteau Twins ( 4AD released a retrospective compilation of their career earlier this year, spanning and titled 1982-1990 ) and Lee Hazlewood duetting with actress Ann Margret from a great lost classic of an album, The cowboy and the lady (1969). It was re-released in 2000 on Smells Like Records , the label run by Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth, which is when I picked it up. I'm calling it cowboy lounge, and that's one lounge I wouldn't mind lounging in. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 233 Tues Sept 4 2012 11.00am-12.00pm (repea...