The Underground of Happiness

The death of Lou Reed loomed large over this week's show. As plenty of other people have remarked over the weekend, there's an enduring freshness and vitality about the first Velvet Underground album, especially. It really has aged well, as the man himself did. New music from Wooden Shjips , La Femme & Delorean ; old soundtrack music from Ennio Morricone and Witchfinder General , the latter gets a re-release next month. More from Angele David-Guillou (pic), beautiful, moving piano music; and littlebow , brilliant, playful, keyboard and flute-lead exotica. The National are on tour right now, as is the film made on tour with them Mistaken For Strangers , which plays in Cork soon. So do NZ folk duo French For Rabbits , and Bouts , launching their debut album. Plus Band of Clouds are just finalising a fundit campaign, they could do with your patronage. More on these pages. Oct 29 2013 w/ Wooden Shjips,littlebow,Bouts,La Femme,Witchfinder General OST,...

A serene set of keyboard-led, classically influenced tunes from the London resident, whose previous solo work has been released under the Klima moniker. They are deceptively sedate though with a sense of deep emotion and fierce intelligence at work underneath the still, almost-romantic surface. The addition of sprightly violins, shaker, tambourine and clicking percussion to the waltzing piano turns ‘And the grass was singing’ into a beautiful far-reaching chamber pop. A kind of dream pop emerges from the hazy cascade of electric piano on ‘Dream of Leonor Fini’. Finger bells, click drums, saw, tambourine and pizzicato strings are all used superbly with a light touch to alter the mood. ‘But now I am joyful’ introduces vocals for the first time to brilliant effect, creating a bath of sadness with dynamic piano shapes before finishing with the devastating punchline, ”I can see the sky from the bottom of the sea”. ‘Our garden’ weaves avant garde leanings into another gorgeous ...

Several pieces of music this week from artists playing in Cork, or Ireland, soon. Adrian Crowley plays his first show in Cork next month since his Choice Prize nomination earlier this year (for his excellent I see three birds flying album), Crayonsmith are in town this weekend launching their new album on Out on a Limb , Glenn Jones lands in November too bringing his beautiful guitar instrumentals, Vindicatrix in Cork as well, gesturing at "unspeakable depravity just beyond the cabaret curtain." (one of the press release quotes of the year, that) Beautiful new music from Angele David-Guillou , a sublime piano instrumental from her gorgeous new album Kourouma , more on that soon); The Unusual History of Ether , beguiling cosmic jazz pop shapes; Bill Callahan getting down with the funk; Kramies produced by Jason Lytle, lovely hazy dream pop; Carriages from Dublin, brilliant folktronica sound. And Barry McCormack launches his new album in the National Concert Hall ...