The Underground of Happiness

A second album of thrilling instrumentals from the Dublin-based duo of Kevin Murphy and Thomas Haugh , whose first album Melting cavalry still stands as one of the best instrumental albums of this century (at least). The main instruments are ostensibly cello and percussion but even at that not used in ways you might expect. The cello in particular is brought into unusual territory with bends, slaps and scrapes combining brilliantly with longer bowed notes to make a fascinating sonic landscape. ‘Pig iron prophet’ starts with a furious double time backbeat over staccato effects while trumpet and bass drones build the intrigue. There’s the wonderful widescreen cinematic atmosphere of ‘Kingdom of crooked mirrors’, an orchestra of zithers and strings played out over a marching drumbeat. The swooning chamber pop of ‘Century flowers’ and ‘Glass soldiers parade’. The noirish hum of ‘A mechanical Turk’, the genius deployment of high hats and cello harmonics during ‘In the Va...

Here's another 23 tunes to complete my mid year round up of favourite music on the show in 2016 so far. It's the companion piece to the July 26th show making 41 tracks altogether. Even at that, I'm sure I've forgotten a few. For now enjoy. Rozi Plain - Marshes Morgan Delt – I don’t wanna see what’s happening outside Nick Garrie – The nightmare of JB Stanislas Damien Jurado – November 20 Nadia Reid – Reaching through Nap Eyes – Lion in chains Pedro Soler & Gaspar Claus – Cuerdas al viento Brigid Mae Power – It’s clearing now Kevin Murphy – Your heart’s a circle around me Emma Pollock – Intermission We Show Up On Radar – Rockety rock This is the Kit - Les plus beaux William Tyler – I’m gonna live forever (If it kills me) Giorgio Tuma – Maude hope Tindersticks – Second chance man Lake Ruth – The inconsolable Jean-Claude Astronauts – Civil Engineer Man of Moon - Sign Ulrika Spacek - Porcelain Melt Yourself Down – Dot to dot The Comet Is Co...

The second album from the ex-pat Corkman is another smouldering collection of wracked love songs. Defiant acoustic guitars which started out as folk underpin a sweet lovelorn croon layered in sublime harmonies while crisp r‘n’b (as opposed to RnB) backbeats provide matter of fact punctuation. The club comedown feel of ‘You can fall into my arms’ with its bass drum pulse a quickening heartbeat. The gathering gloom of ‘I am swimming’ more of a drowning song than a swimming song under the weight of vocal layers. The wonderful vocal of ‘My own cruel reception’ a fragile thing keeping itself afloat on its own breath. A heart wrenched recording of love and loss. It all adds up to the intriguing prospect of Irish folk music made to collide with post club soul melancholy. Don't forget me (Album) by Kevin Murphy

Another stream of great new music this week. The 2nd Melt Yourself Down album is just out, another marvellous set of space jazz funk. Another track from the Dieterich & Barnes album (pic), delirious improv instrumentals. Holy Fuck back with some great punk funk. Orchestra of Spheres with tricky shapeshifting psych grooves. A couple of lovely looped tropical cuts from Aries and Maria Usbeck . The 2nd Kevin Murphy album, superior wracked songwriting. And The Moles , new music from them for the first time in years, beautiful bittersweet jangle pop. More on these pages as always. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 401 Tues May 10 2016 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://goo.gl/2S966D Playl...

A beautful record finding the common ground between Irish and Finnish traditional music. In fact, that overlap takes in all kinds of other tangents – classical, ambient, folk drones among others. I had the pleasure of seeing the band play live a few weeks ago in Cork. The tone of the album could be taken as sober, reflective but live there’s great gameyness and humour to the music. Aki, the Finnish connection, did the introductions – Danny Diamond on too many fiddles (there were several), Kevin Murphy on grown-up fiddle (cello) and himself on crippled fiddle (nyckelharpa). The music that night showed something like the ambient drift of Sigur Ros in places, the cello heaving and swelling like a proper bellows. The full dynamics of the instruments were heard too, with scrapes, slides and harmonics all used. At times, there was a strident string quartet feel (trio I know but the nyckelharpa is like two instruments in one), other times it came across as some wonderful mutant ...

It’s been a vintage year for Irish album releases. O Emperor, Cat Dowling, Biggles Flys Again, The Last Sound, Peter Delaney, Ann Scott, Enemies, Hidden Highways, God Is An Astronaut have all released singular and accomplished works. It’s time to add another one to that list, someone who is likely to be much less known to you than even those mentioned above. Kevin Murphy is an Irishman currently living in Australia, maybe that’s why he’s slipped under the radar of the Irish mainstream media. In line with those others, he writes songs that stay with you, in his case because of an achingly authentic delivery and brilliantly subtle arrangements. Here’s a review I wrote of his album for WeAreNoise a while back. An unassuming package came through the Noise letterbox recently (I mean that literally, it was a CD). An indistinct, autumnal woodland cover. The artist's name, Kevin Murphy , the album title LOVEhATE (which I'm happy to report appears to bear no relation to the tv s...

The first show back after the summer recess (and for once we had a summer to speak of), so plenty of new music to catch up on. And one of the best is new from Limerick band Hidden Highways (pictured below), a beautiful, tremulous cut from their debut album, Old hearts reborn , out next week. I paired it with Shearwater , joined by Sharon Van Etten on guest vocals, another absolute folk showstopper. Also in there was the delirious glam pop of Jacques Caramac & The Sweet Generation , brilliant; garage rock with brass from King Khan & The Shrines , love it; new music from Manchester's Magic Arm , very catchy; and great to hear new material from Fuxa and Jeffrey Lewis (the latter paying tribute stunningly to Pussy Riot). Plus three other very impressive new Irish releases, Cork in fact - Saint Yorda playing around very nicely with steel drums and rack toms; The Vincent(s) with another impressive blues howl; and Kevin Murphy , doing something interesting with hushed folk ...