The Underground of Happiness

Dance music to make people who don’t know how to dance dance. Say no more.

It’s been a little while since we had a dance set on the show. We had a good mini set in the middle this week. Charlotte Gainsbourg hooking up with SebastiAn to wonderful French disco effect. De Lux with the great sunbaked LA disco full of nagging synth lines. And SlowPlaceLikeHome with some lovely ambient electronica from the Atlantic north west (Donegal). Also another beautiful cut from the new Spindle Ensemble album. Light as air. The Sea & Cake giving vent to wonderful breezy jazz pop. Jon Brion from the Lady Bird OST making gorgeous quixotic music for pictures involving woodwind. And Django Django making music to make people who don’t know how to dance dance. 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 476 Tues Jan 30 2018 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm...

File this in the 2017 “ones that got away” pile. A brilliant insistent minor key of an album which takes on the vast shadow of Serge and comes through with something authentic and individual and (for anyone with any interest in Serge) very poignant. The production by SebastiAn (with help from Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse and Guy-Manuel de Homem Christo of Daft Punk ) is crucially sympathetic to Gainsbourg’s voice which is by no means a powerful instrument. Where it is most effective is in its hush its intimacy and this is how the production locates it. Plus lyrically there is the inspired decision to address not just the loss of her father but also her half sister Kate (after whom one of the songs is named). The songs are shared between French and English (wisely most of the choruses are in English with the verses in French) as a nod to her joint heritage. Overall there is the sense of an update of Jean Claude Vannier’s Serge productions ( Melody Nelson in particular...

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...

It’s fitting that this should turn out to be one of the songs of the year in which David Bowie and Prince both died, although it first came out last year. Gender bending. Adventurous. Progressive. That’s Héloise Letissier . That warped bass intro is second nature by now. And that great pitter patter secondary bass line. This is one of those songs you probably need the video more than most. Her dancing is part of the expression. A partner to her singing. Characterful. Individual. A little bit defiant. It does the heart good to see the mainstream subject to an intervention like this. *And for full live effect, also below is her performance of the song on Jools Holland a few months back, in a genius medley with ‘I feel for you’.

I’m not a huge reggae head but this is just the most luscious reggae jam with perfect, smart and yearning falsetto vocals from Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig. Yes.

Yann Tiersen – I’m gonna live anyhow (Mute, from the album Skyline ) Welcome to a world where circus music meets pop, featuring an unruly arrangement made up of electronic tambourines, mouth trumpets, falsetto choirs, no-nonsense gorgeous melodies and the winningest refrain. Gruff Rhys feat. El Perro del Mar – Space dust #2 (Turnstile, single) Irresistible duet between the Super Furry Animals’ frontman and the Swedish singer. Hints of Tropicalia in the brushed samba beat, as well as the gloriously over the top lyrics recounting love at a conference – “ When I saw you at the seminar/Raindrops and fireworks flow/When I saw you at the seminar/Active volcanoes aglow ”. Superb. *The single is backed by Whale trail , which comes accompanied with aye-Phone app features. Anybody know the Welsh for bonkers? Crystal Stilts – Dark eyes (Sacred Bones, from the Radiant door EP) Knockout opening tune from the New York band’s new EP, which splits itself (as if unable to choose) between ga...

I flicked around the BBC love-in over the weekend, otherwise known as the Glastonbury Festival . In among the constant back-slapping, there were some genuinely memorable pop moments. (Not including Gwyneth Paltrow, Beyoncé and Jay-Z standing together in the VIP pit watching Coldplay . Or U2 . Although both had some anthropological value.) I'm thinking more of Metronomy's performance of The look in the backstage "fairy garden", which was brilliant. They came complete with compulsory wellies, handclaps, watertight vocal harmonies and that unforgettable vintage keyboard riff. Magic. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to locate the footage of the performance on the net, so we'll have to make do with the video. And as a bonus, here's the ridiculously entertaining video for their new single The Bay , a sub-Ian Fleming fantasy, showing off lovely Torquay, I believe. *I must also mention the mindblowing performance of Janelle Monae . Apart from the flaw...

Metronomy - The English Riviera (Because) A less immediate album than their previous, the wonderful Nights out , but rewards repeated listening, as they say. So, the out-of-phase vocal and saxophone stabs of Everything goes my way creep up on you gradually; the gameshow organ of single The look takes on a different colour bedded under scratchy percussion, high-tone bass and a yacht rock synth. The terrific Trouble comes on like an 80's Northern soul throwback (I'm thinking Orange Juice) with a half beat, chorused electric guitars and falsetto male harmonies. The bay is closest in tone to Nights out , with a slap bass and serious dancefloor chops among the massed harmonies. But then again the great synth build of Some written , from an unassuming samba shuffle, also shows an unlikely future in dance music for the kazoo. Pop music with an endearing sense of adventure and hooks to burn. Free download of She wants - www.metronomy.co.uk Playing Oxegen Festival, Punchesto...

Connan Mockasin - Forever dolphin love (Full length original) (Because Music, single) A genuinely mind-bending and envelope-pushing addition to the canon of surreal New Zealand pop. Atonal piano string arpeggios, followed by the fusion of several high-pitched synth drones, before falling away to be replaced by jam-room bass and drums introducing some lovely woozy guitars. That's just the prelude. At that point the tune kicks in with underwater atmospherics around a chillout drumbeat and high tone bass sound. Plus the vocal has an outer space character as befitting a lyric about inter-species amour. It sounds ridiculous on paper but believe me it's completely convincing in the flesh. It's intriguing, slightly haunting and makes you want to press play again and again. (Stay around for the full 10-minutes of very strange theatre below.) *As for the rest of the album, experimentation is never for its own sake or at the expense of catchy hooks. For example, the sublime tr...