The Underground of Happiness

A time of year for lists. Or for remembering. Here's some tunes from 2023. Enjoy. x Playlist 1. Ella Ronen – Truth (BB*Island) 2. Pierre Bastien & Michel Benabila – Stray carrier pigeon (Pingipung) 3. Hochzeitskapelle + Eddie Marcon – Itsuko Manika Watashitachi (Alien Transistor) 4. Gratin Carnival – City of silver and blue (Alien Transistor) 5. Henrik Lindstrand – Tumlare (One Little Independent) 6. Minwhi Lee – Borrowed tongue (Alien Transistor) 7. Sufjan Stevens – Will anybody ever love me (Asthmatic Kitty) 8. Marta del Grandi – Snapdragon (Fire Records) 9. Mitski – Star (Dead Oceans) 10. Rachael Lavelle – Let me unlock your full potential (Rest Energy) 11. Nuria Graham – Fire Mountain, oh sacred ancient fountain (Primavera Labels / New Deal / Verve Forecast & Universal Music Spain) 12. Arborist – Dreaming in another language (Kirkinriola Records) 13. Boa Morte – Hard to know (Gare du Nord) 14. Naima Bock – Lines (Sub Pop/Memorials of Di...

A Christmas Cracker this week folks. A journey through some less travelled paths of seasonal music. Atheists/Social Realists – Gruff Rhys & Owensie Exotica – Arthur Lyman & Esquivel Blaring Jazz – Pony Poindexter Pre Modern – Laura Cannell & Lost Idol Folktronica/Bonkers Unicorn Strand – Sufjan Stevens Plus some classic spoken word from the absolute legend that was Dylan Thomas . 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 472 Tues Dec 12 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/a3E7Rx Playlist Gruff Rhys – Post apocalypse Christmas Owensie – The old breadline Dylan Thomas – A childhood Christmas in Wales (extract) John Cale – A childhood Christmas in Wales (li...

Beautiful album, released a couple of months back on Asthmatic Kitty , featuring a collaboration between two of its roster, Julianna Barwick and Helado Negro . She the one with the banks of celestial vocals (you'll find some more links in these pages), he with the sonic sculpts, or as the PR puts it, "rustic-Latin-psyche-folk meets big-city-blockparty" (nice). Anyway, I'm saying no more about this. This one's not for reading about, it's for listening. Believe You me by OMBRE

You'll remember seeing the name Julianna Barwick around here before. She was responsible for one of the most beautiful, and haunting, albums of last year, The magic place on Asthmatic Kitty , her debut for that label. Her first album, Sanguine , is getting a first issue on vinyl now, on the Portland-based M'Lady's label. If you were into The magic place , you'll love it. If not, you need to hear it, so here you go.

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 199 Tues Nov 29 2011 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 https://rapidshare.com/files/563072973/The_Underground_Of_Happiness_Nov_29_2011.m4a Playlist St Vincent - Year of the tiger ( playing Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, Feb 27 2012 ) Pepe Deluxé - The storm Field Music - (I keep thinking about) A new thing ( playing Deaf Institute, Manchester, Feb 19 2012 ) Atlas Sound - Lightworks Chairlift - Sidewalk safari (edit) Black Cherry - Modern lover Antonymes meets Slow Dancing Society - That moment Eden Ahbez - Mongoose ( Trunk Records ) Kramies - Inventors Rozi Plain - See my boat Tom Waits - Chicago KXP - Easy Portishead - Chase the tear Real Estate - It's real Lambchop - If not I'll just die (...

A few things of note on the Asthmatic Kitty front. First a new video from the great Shara Worden , that is My Brightest Diamond , taken from the current album All things will unwind (you'll find other Diamond-related info here and here ). At the risk of sounding churlish, I must admit this video gives me a bit of a rash - it's just sooo right-on. However, it's chamber pop, people, and we have religious obligations around here about catchy, effervescent pop tunes played on orchestral instruments. My Brightest Diamond - ALL THINGS WILL UNWIND: High Low Middle from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo . And next to something so bonkers, it makes Gruff Rhys look staid and conformist (which he's not, at all). The name of the group is Pepe Deluxé , new to me. Have a read of this first. This is the first ever composition for The Great Stalacpipe Organ, the largest musical instrument in the world, located deep in the caverns of Luray, Virginia. The Organ consists of hand-tuned anc...

As an adjunct to last week's mention of the new My Brightest Diamond album , some great new Take Away Shows of her ( Shara Worden ) with some friends have just been released by the wonderful La Blogotheque . This first film features her solo with guitar sitting at the bar of the Hotel MichelBerger in Berlin (sounds good so far, says you) singing a song she wrote for her son (if my French isn't mistaken). Apart from being achingly beautiful, it also shows the meaning of "inhabiting" a song, as opposed to simply singing it. Those tears aren't crocodile, girls. My Brightest Diamond | I Have Never Loved Someone | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo . This next one switches to New York (in the park, near water) and features Shara Worden and the yMusic Ensemble , who play extensively on the new album. There are actually two pieces of music here - first a song (she plays an autoharp and suppresses a smile, as if the director was trying to make her laug...

Another notable release this month on Asthmatic Kitty is the new album by My Brightest Diamond , All things will unwind . We opened this week's show with a song from the album, Reaching through to the other side . It's an affecting, fluttering chamber-pop piece, all flutes and clarinets and bending violins, and of course Shara Worden's always engaging voice. It's really beautiful, as you can hear here. Reaching Through to the Other Side by My Brightest Diamond In the past, MBD was/were one of those artists I've admired from a distance, without getting up to my neck in. I might have to change that. Here, Shara Worden describes the background to the visual and other concepts at play on the album, including the funky body-painting art design and superb synthetic hair sculpture. Personal ancestry and the finite nature of the cosmos also feature. My Brightest Diamond - ALL THINGS WILL UNWIND: Visuals from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo . And in this one, Sha...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 191 Tues Oct 4 2011 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr *listen back to this show here https://rapidshare.com/files/1776308550/The_Underground_Of_Happiness_4-10-2011.m4a Playlist My Brightest Diamond - Reaching through to the other side Julia Kent - Dear Mr Twombly ( playing Cafe Oto, London, Oct 19 ) Roll the Dice - Cause and effect Scott Solter - The great cold The Jezabels - Endless summer Mint Julep - Days gone by Dum DUm Girls - Bedroom eyes ( playing The Factory, Manchester, Nov 13 ) Paul Curreri - Juju ( playing The Crane Lane Theatre, Cork, Oct 9+10 ) Young Knives - Vision in rags Adrian Crowley - These icy waters ( playing Triskel Christchurch, Cork, Oct 6, w/ James Yorkston & Alisdair Roberts ) Alisdair Roberts - The daemon love...

Beautiful new release from Julianna Barwick , who is one of our favourite singers/artists around here. Her fantastic album The magic place came out earlier in the year, also on Asthmatic Kitty - this was the UOH verdict at the time. Julianna Barwick - The magic place (Asthmatic Kitty) From the opening strains of Envelop , with multiple wordless, heavily treated vocal parts creating texture as well as melody, you know you're in the presence of something special here. By the end of that track, as a distressed piano line gradually swamps the vocals, a haunting, heartrending mood has taken over from the initial bliss. The title track is a choral symphony which slowly disintegrates into a lone soprano. Cloak sounds for all the world like a line from a church hymn sampled and looped, until its layers gather a power not witnessed in any church I've ever been in. White flag creates the effect of standing at the mid-point of three competing choirs, which somehow manage to complemen...

A few months late with this, but there are some things so special you won't mind waiting. Julianna Barwick - The magic place (Asthmatic Kitty) From the opening strains of Envelop , with multiple wordless, heavily treated vocal parts creating texture as well as melody, you know you're in the presence of something special here. By the end of that track, as a distressed piano line gradually swamps the vocals, a haunting, heartrending mood has taken over from the initial bliss. The title track is a choral symphony which slowly disintegrates into a lone soprano. Cloak sounds for all the world like a line from a church hymn sampled and looped, until its layers gather a power not witnessed in any church I've ever been in. White flag creates the effect of standing at the mid-point of three competing choirs, which somehow manage to complement each other. You could quibble that a sameness sets in midway through the album which might have been broken by the use of more percussion...