The Underground of Happiness

Final instalment of my favourite music of 2022. Cork. Limerick. Waterford. Kerry. Glasgow. Dublin. New Orleans. Melbourne. Leipzig. Nottingham. Copenhagen. Tokyo. Harrogate. Brussels. Enjoy. x Playlist 1. Fuxa feat Britta Phillips – Help me please (Rocket Girl) 2. Henrik Lindstrand – Gammafly (One Little Independent) 3. Julie Odell – Cardinal feather (Frenchkiss Records) 4. Keeley Forsyth – I stand alone (The Leaf Label) 5. Bróna McVittie – Living without you (Company of Corkbots) 6. Miss Grit – Follow the cyborg (Mute) 7. Mitski – The only heartbreaker (Dead Oceans) 8. Monolithe Noir feat Jawhar & Mirabelle Gilis – Barra bouge (Capitane Records) 9. Mt. Misery – The time it takes (bandcamp) 10. Naima Bock – Every morning (Sub Pop/Memorials of Distinction) 11. Núria Graham – The catalyst (Primavera Labels/New Deal/Verve Forecast/Universal) 12. Oh No Noh – Drift (Teleskop) 13. Robert Sotelo – Above (Upset The Rhythm) 14. Sinéad O’Brien – Holy c

Another batch from end of year compiling. Some you may have heard of. Some you probably haven't. Enjoy them all. x Playlist 1. BJ Cole – Ely revisited (Tompkins Square) ( Luke Schneider Presents Imaginational Anthem vol. XI : Chrome Universal - A Survey of Modern Pedal Steel ) 2. Yuko Kono – Ginger (Morr Music) ( Minna Miteru 2 ) 3. Jimi Tenor – Lifehugger (bureau b) 4. L.A. Salami – Desperate times, mediocre measures (Sunday Best Recordings) 5. Shake Chain – RU (Upset The Rhythm) 6. The Umlauts – Sweat (PRAH Recordings) 7. Etienne Jaumet & Fabrizio Rat – Visione pop (bureau b) 8. Aoife Nessa Frances – Emptiness follows (Partisan Records) 9. Marina Allen – Or else (Fire Records) 10. Telefís feat Sean O’Hagan – Space is us (Dimple Discs) 11. Yosa Peit – Anthy (Fire Records) 12. The Burning Hell – Dirty Microphones (BB*Island) 13. Modern Studies – Geese (Fire Records) 14. Bjork – Sorrowful soil (One Little Independent) 15. The Orchids – This boy is

The first instalment of tunes that caught my ear last year. A combination of albums I played a lot and one off tracks that stuck with me. Call them earworms. Enjoy. x Playlist 1. Harmonious Thelonius – Soft opening machine (bureau b) 2. Ghost Power – Asteroid witch (Duophonic Super 45s) 3. Astrel K – Is it it or is it I (Duophonic Super 45s) 4. Albertine Sarges – Hold on (Moshi Moshi) 5. Chalk – Velodrome (Dutch Tilt) 6. Chewy She – Mustard (Chewy She) 7. Donna Thompson – Be with you (PRAH Recordings) 8. Guerilla Toss – Cannibal capitol (Sub Pop) 9. Josephine Foster – Hum menina (Fire Records) 10. Junk Drawer – Tears in Costa (Art For Blind Records) 11. L’Exotighost – Exotique mecanique (Everlasting Records) 12. Rozi Plain – Help (Memphis Industries) 13. Silverbacks – A job worth something (Full Time Hobby) 14. splint – Military procedures (Nice Swan) 15. Sprints – Literary mind (Nice Swan) 16. The Garbage and The Flowers – Eye know who you are (Fire

For those of you who prefer the long read format, here are all 30 chapters plus bonus in one piece...enjoy x I'm going to post out some thoughts on live shows I was at this year. I'll put them out between now and the end of the year. It's a bit of an experiment because, unlike whenever I've written live reviews^ before, this time (for the most part) I was writing at a remove of many months. These were not thoughts I put down at the time of the gig. So these are thoughts dependent on memory - I suppose all thoughts are but with these ones longer term memory - in that whatever I've written consists of impressions that have stayed with me over time. I like the idea of forcing myself to depend on memory this way. It might create a different kind of review. Less detail probably, but heavier on general currents, patterns, trends. Shorter (good says you). Plus it would presumably incorporate more of an overview of all the shows together. Because, whether these arti

And one more bonus chapter. One more dan for the road. Back to Plugd where the year almost started. Dan Walsh with friends. Specifically... Elaine Howley on keys and vocals. Cathal MacGabhann on organ. Elaine Malone on guitar. Chris Quigley on guitar. Micheál Fitzgerald on bass. Krautrock Christmas 7 . Improv. Krautrock. Jams. But not aimless. Dan on the tiller. Deciding when each beat, each sequence has run its course. Seamlessly chiselling a new beat out of the old one. A new direction. Right hand man on bass. Laying down ferocious markers. High tone. High fret. Plectrum. Battering the fucking thing. Proper to the horizon bass playing. Proper autobahn grooves. Stabs of organ fed through wahwah. Snaking guitar fuzz. Reverb vocals circling and repeating. The whole thing probing the meaning of repetition. Like Can going off on one. In all. Let’s call it a year there so. Thanks Dan and friends. See you again in 2023.

Chapter 30 Part 2 of my Quiet Lights appointments. Back to Coughlans for Aoife Nessa Frances . She played here in February 2020 with a band headed by Cian Nugent. Tonight Aoife is very much in charge on guitar – mostly fingerpicked – and keys. The band is drums, second keys with a side of clarinet and a giant pedal harp centre stage. And it is actually the woman on harp who steals the show. Méabh McKenna is the name I learn later. Sitting underneath this towering slab of wood and steel, she lets loose waves of string glissandi, pulling at the instrument, imploring it nearly, and living every second of the music through her face, frowning, grimacing, raising her leg for extra traction. The effort. And the joy. She is a sight to behold. The songs sound wonderful. Crescendos of mellotron clarinet and big body Epiphone. The sublime Emptiness follows. The yearning Way to say goodbye with that perfect hazy vocal on top. The outstanding stalking groove of Only child. A kind of