The Underground of Happiness

A couple more great cuts from the Best of 2017 annals this week (check around the blog for more on that). This is the Kit who are in Ireland this week – Cork tonight, Dublin tomorrow – another great psych pop dance tune. Mick Harvey with the brilliant guest vocal turn of Andrea Schroeder giving Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Je t’aime’ a German twist. It’s magnificent. Then Ennio Morricone from the new live album recorded on recent European tour. Bliss. Django Django back with new music and it’s a cracker ahead of new album. Plus Charlotte Gainsbourg (one that got away from my Best of 2017 lists but it's never too late). Dreamy, heartbreaking, sublime downtempo dance music. Take it how you like. 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 474 Tues Jan 16 2018 11.00am-12.00pm (repeate...

Mick Harvey has just released his 4th album of Serge Gainsbourg interpretations, the wonderful Intoxicated Women . The first track on it is a great cover of 'Je t'aime', in German ('Ich liebe dich') with the memorable vocals of Andrea Schroeder taking the part of Jane Birkin . Depending on your susceptibility to female sighs and intimations, very possibly not safe for work. Any excuse for a classic cut from the man himself Serge, a bit of Melody Nelson with tremendous orchestrations by Jean Claude Vannier . Benoit Pioulard, August Wells, Happyness, OOIOO all playing around or about these parts soon. Basil Kirchin is a revered cult figure in outsider music (subject of a recent festival in Hull), check his gorgeous mixture of jazz and birdsong/field recordings. And The Saxophones , a sublime late night disquieting dream of a song. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundo...

Another absolute joy of an album of Serge Gainsbourg interpretations from the former Bad Seed (his fourth and apparently final), this time focusing mainly on the outstanding but maybe a shade lesser known back catalogue of duets. It begins with a German language version of ‘Je t’aime (Moin non plus)’. It’s a bold move taking on a nailed on classic first up but there’s no risk really when the material is in such experienced and sympathetic hands. ‘Ich liebe dich (Ich dich auch nicht)’ ranks as one of the all time great Gainsbourg versions, the lead female part taken by the German singer Andrea Schroeder. And I have to say she trumps Jane Birkin in the plausibility stakes, her delivery full of sumptuous exhalations which tail off exquisitely. (Plus those guttural “ch” consonants are all soft and gooey.) Or maybe it’s just that she’s an older woman than Birkin was so her breath seems to carry more meaning, more weight. The effect is not so much sexual as existential and it’s mo...