The Underground of Happiness

My favourite tunes of 2019.* Sounds like another great year. Enjoy. *A few snuck in from other years on the basis that they happened for me in 2019. So as well as the year of Twen, Purple Mountains, Vanishing Twin, Paul & The Tall Trees... The year of Bright Phoebus . The year of Steve McQueen (acoustic) . The year of Loch na hEala . Playlist Vanishing Twin – Magician’s success (Fire Records) POZI – Engaged (Prah Recordings) Weyes Blood – Everyday (Sub Pop) Hiss Golden Messenger – My wing (Merge) Charles Rumback & Ryley Walker – Half joking (Thrill Jockey) Twen – Holy river (Frenchkiss Records) Paul & The Tall Trees – Then we’ll wave (So long) (Big Crown Records) Rozi Plain – Trouble (Memphis Industries) Fixity – Becoming an earthworm (Penske Recordings) C Duncan – Reverie (Fat Cat Records) Sarah Louise – Late night healing choir (Thrill Jockey) Bedouine – Tall man (Caroline) Paperface – Little monsters (Daydream Records) Purple Mou...

There's a few tunes there now like... Playlist Fixity – Becoming an earthworm (Penske Recordings) Spill Gold – Dali (Meduse MagiQ) Laurence Pike – Drum chant (The Leaf Label) Pozi – Watching you suffer (Prah Recordings) Drahla – Stimulus for living (Captured Tracks) Pill Fangs – Pain inside (Sunstone Records) The Pinheads – Feel it now (Stolen Body Records) Mdou Moctar – Ilana (Sahel Sounds) Death & Vanilla – A flaw in the iris (Fire Records) Rozi Plain – Conditions (Memphis Industries) Lali Puna – Being water (Morr Music) Vanishing Twin – KRK (At home in strange places) (Fire Records) Von Spar feat. Laetitia Sadier – Extend the song (Bureau B) Wand – Scarecrow (Drag City) Samsara – Yellow fangs (Tiny Room/Hidden Shoal) The Proper Ornaments – Please release me (Tapete) Dana Gavanski – One by one (Full Time Hobby) Bobby Oroza – Your love is too cold (Big Crown Roecords) Hiss Golden Messenger – Everybody needs somebody (Merge) Nilufer Yanya – Tears (Ato...

A lash of new music again this week. Lake Ruth , lush baroque pop tones. Brona McVittie , pastoral folk music with a kosmische filter. Jim Ghedi , sprightly enervating folk instrumentals. Chloe March , sumptuous dream pop. Benjamin Schoos & Dent May , gorgeous orch pop. Plus an aching memory from Michael Nyman from 1988 (pic), soundtrack music for the ages. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 475 Tues Jan 23 2018 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 goo.gl/KyG3NM Playlist Percolator – Crab supernova ( playing Quarter Block Party, Cork Feb 2-4 ) Lake Ruth – Julia’s call Tandem Felix – Nothing I do will ever be good enough ( playing Quarter Block Party, Cork, Feb 2-4 ) The...

******************************************************************************************************** Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble – Undying love for humanity (from the album Find me finding you , Drag City) Wonderful Brazilian twist on Laetitia’s signature kosmische. It’s hard to pick out any one element but I must say the vocals are a particular joy. Not just the lead which is as clear and pure as the best Stereolab . But the inspired backing ba da das which drive the playout. Still sounds fresh as a daisy almost a year after release. Michael Nau – I root (Full Time Hobby) Sublime hazy memories of love from Maryland in the US... ... as if Harry Nilsson turned his mind to happier fuzzier times. There’s very little detail to list here – a one and a half note guitar figure, a snare roll, a ride cymbal, a dream of a voice – but really the story is more to do with the atmosphere. Languid is a word. Sleepy maybe. Intimate for sure. ...

A playlist from the first half of 2017. Some were reissued this year. One is an extract from a longer piece. Most will be familiar if you're a regular listener. Part 2 of this selection comes up next week. Say hello to Laetitia and friends. Enjoy. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 456 Tues July 18 2017 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 goo.gl/73FkiB Playlist The Comet Is Coming – March of the rising sun ( playing Liverpool Psych Fest, Sept 23 ) Snapped Ankles – Jonny Guitar calling Gosta Berlin Percolator – Crab Supernova Golden Retriever – Pelagic tremor Matthew Bourne – Isotach The Roger Webb Sound – Moon bird (English Weather compilation) Kamasi Washington – Truth (extract) G...

A selection of dreamy kosmische cuts this week. Jane Weaver making something vulnerable and really beautiful out of interweaving synths. Percolator with lovely gauzy shoegaze textures. The Saxophones have a veil thin dream pop. And Matthew Bourne is back with sublime instrumental piano music. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 444 Tues Apr 25 2017 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 goo.gl/M33CKO Playlist Jane Weaver – Slow motion ( playing The Lexington, London, May 22 ) Percolator – Yellow fire ( playing Coughlan's, Cork, Apr 28; Bello Bar, Dublin, Apr 29 ) Autre Monde – Customs Me and The Bees – Spinnin The Saxophones – If you’re on the water Nightlands – Dependi...

Delicious mixture of the propulsion of Stereolab and the textures and crunch of My Bloody Valentine from this Dublin band’s debut album. There are many things to love about the album – the sense of adventure, the absorption in ideas for their own sake (an improv spirit maybe), the embrace at the same time of pop melodies, the sheer breadth of sounds generated throughout the album – but I think my favourite is that great quality in any band or album, not trying too hard. I can think of ten other bands who might have taken a rough draft of these songs and turned them into bombast, beating you over the head with the ideas and in the process murdering any beauty. Percolator have that wonderful thing, restraint, so instead they stick with the ideas, the raw elements and see them through, not just as means to an end but as diamonds in themselves. In this I would put them next to labelmates The Altered Hours . A band with vision and in it for the long haul. Plus with obvious ...