The Underground of Happiness

And so the final instalment of this Best of 2015 review, which has a Soul/Dream Pop tag ostensibly but really is a collection of odds and ends left over. (Floating Points, for example, could certainly have belonged in Part 1 if I had my head on straight a few weeks ago.) These round ups are by nature a time travel exercise, some of the music here being a year old. But even since Part 1 of the review in mid-December, the world seems a very different place. It's now a post-David Bowie time, a post-Mick Lynch time, mortality comes for all of us, better get used to it. Enjoy the music while you can. ************************************************************************************************ 1. Marker Starling – Husbands (from the album Rosy Maze , Tin Angel Records) Spring 2015 was all about my obsession with this song, a glorious discovery and an enduring memory from the year. From February - There’s an automatic association for Steely Dan, I think, a kin...

A distinct echo in this from Bjork’s Post album which is one that always has a soft spot in my heart. Presumably it’s those bending swooping Bollywood strings. Those alone and her vocal are enough to make this captivating. The backbeats are more reminiscient of the Homogenic album maybe. Thudding and brooding. Notice too the wonderful layering of her vocal at the beginning of the song. Not double tracking. Quixotic and out of sync. The triumph here overall is taking deeply emotional content and turning it into a strangely uplifting experience for the listener. Masterful as always.

It's a happy day when new Dirty Projectors music becomes available. Gun has no trigger is from their forthcoming Swing Lo Magellan album on Domino and it takes up where they left off with their sublime Mount Wittenberg Orca collaboration with Bjork (more on that here ). Once again, the so sweet vocals of Angel, Amber and Hayley (not stacked this time, favouring the seeming convention of sustained harmony) will ring in your ears long after the song has ended.