The Underground of Happiness

A bumper crop for this late summer. Enjoy. x Playlist 1. The Doomed Bird of Providence – Businessman found dead in a shop at Mildura (bandcamp) 2. Sam Prekop & John McEntire – A ghost at noon (Thrill Jockey) 3. The Magnetic Fields – ’69: Judy Garland (Nonesuch) ( playing Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Sept 8 ) 4. The Burning Hell – Dirty microphones (BB*Island) ( playing Bush Hall, London, Oct 21 ) 5. Kathryn Williams – Radioactive (One Little Independent) ( playing Purbeck Valley Folk Festival, Wareham, Aug 18-22 ) 6. Craig Fortnam – New gold (Best Behaviour) 7. Mitski – The only heartbreaker (Dead Oceans) 8. Sinead O’Brien – Holy country (Chess Club) ( playing Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Oct 26 ) 9. Æ Mak – Sun God, I'll Be Your Woman (Spacer Records) 10. Elephant – Calling (Excelsior Records) 11. Thee U.F.O. – Transparent seed (Gelatinous Records) ( playing Electric Avenue, Waterford, Aug 13 ) 12. The Besnard Lakes – A jacket for a rainy lady (Full Time Hobby) 1...

Some odds and ends here. Mixture of things that fell through the cracks towards the end of last year, plus some new releases from January. More great sounds in the world. Enjoy. x Playlist 1. God is God – The song Part II (bureau b) 2. The Monochrome Set – Hello, save me (Tapete) 3. Analphabet – The wirtschaftswunder (bureau b) 4. Blue States feat Allison Brice Grasso – Alarms (Memphis Industries) 5. Guerilla Toss – Cannibal capitol (Sub Pop) 6. Junk Drawer – Tears in Costa (Art For Blind) 7. Lael Neale – Hotline (Sub Pop) 8. Naima Bock – 30 degrees (Sub Pop) 9. Prima Queen – Chew my cheeks (Nice Swan Records) 10. Sprints – Little fix (Nice Swan Records) ( playing Ulster Sports Club, Belfast, Mar 6 ) 11. Saroos feat Sequoyah Tiger – Frequency change (Alien Transistor) 12. Odd Nosdam & Rayon – From nowhere to north (Morr Music) 13. Abiodun Oyewole – My life (AFAR) 14. Anita Lane – Home is where the hatred is (Mute) 15. The Burning Hell – Bird Queen...

A backlog of music in the autumn time. Enjoy. x Playlist 1. Buffet Lunch – Cheeks (Upset the Rhythm)( playing Mono, Glasgow, Nov 11 ) 2. Faust – I’ve got my car and my tv (Bureau B) 3. Harmonious Thelonious – Ayranman (Bureau B) 4. Herbert feat Mel Uye-Parker – Hypnotised (Accidental Records) 5. SUEP – Domesticated dream (Memorials of Distinction) 6. Clear History – Solar death ray (Upset The Rhythm) 7. Sone Institute – Echo Zulu India (Mystery Bridge) 8. Margot – Watercolour (Full Time Hobby) ( playing Sebright Arms, London, Nov 11 ) 9. Shuko feat Lee Fields & Nia Wyn – Nothing’s gonna change (For the Love of It Recordings) 10. The Magic Lantern – There’s a light (Hectic Eclectic Records) ( playing Wardrobe, Bristol, Dec 13 ) 11. Abiodun Oyewole – Harlem (Afar) 12. Anna Vincent – Thin skin (Ultimate Blends) ( playing Waiting Room, London, Nov 1 ) 13. Barry Adamson – The climber (Mute) 14. Pretty Happy – Sea sea sea (Art For Blind) ( playin...

So here's the final instalment of this Best of 2016 loosely centring on Psych Pop and some offshoots. I must say it was great listening back to the tunes over the last few weeks. It seems I always say this, but it really was another great year for music. It’s also very interesting when compiling a list like this to spot trends over the year, or longer, some kind of pattern that might be developing, or on the other hand any glorious one offs. I think I always say this too but no harm in repeating. These lists aren’t meant to be representative in any way. I know there are glaring omissions here out of the sum of music released last year but this list is made up of the music that struck a chord with me and in almost all cases was played (generally quite a bit) on the show. So once more with feeling, these are in no particular order. Enjoy. ************************************************************************** 1. Weyes Blood – Front row seat to Earth (Mexican Summ...

Another fantastic racket from Cork Psych’s leading lights, produced by Elastic Sleep's Chris Somers and released on Cork-based Art For Blind . It starts out with a distorted minor key riff that threatens lift-off with a side order of scraped atonal guitar shards. It’s thrilling, although for me the next section is even more enduring – clean, propulsive guitar chords and a brilliantly wobbly drone made up of synth and bass. It suggests the autobahn’s white lines disappearing in the rear mirror. It suggests the digging down of the song’s lyrics. It would suggest a trancelike meditation if it wasn’t so itchy and confrontational. It’s tremendous fucking stuff.

The new single from The Altered Hours was first up this week with their upcoming new single on Art For Blind , sounding great the live fave 'Dig early', along with Eat Lights Become Lights , driving krautrock at its best, fast and loud. A couple of Record Store Day releases from Thrill Jockey , two different shades of guitar folk tune from Glenn Jones & Alexander Tucker . New music from Tennis , love that sepia 60s vocal group sound; Beck channelling Gainsbourg, and Italians The Vickers with some lovely psych rock stylings, for fans of Tame Impala for sure. And Prescott , feat. Kev Hopper ex Stump , making what I can only call wonky jazz. Great. Apr 8 2014 w/ Altered Hours,ELBL,Glenn Jones,Alexander Tucker,Tennis,Beck,The Vickers++ by Theundergroundofhappiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 306 Tues Apr...