The Underground of Happiness

Part 2 of this list, out of four in total, the others to follow in January. There will be another Best of Mix also over the next week, stay tuned to Mixcloud. ********************************************************************* 1. Trashcan Sinatras – Let me inside (Or let me out) A monumental year for fans of this treasured Scottish band. A new crowdfunded album, the wonderful Wild pendulum , possibly their best ever work, and tours in America and Europe. And having seen them play live in November, the big insight (other than the obvious genius on show) was the sheer soulfulness of the songs. So yeah, top notch tunes and buckets of soul. I’ll take that any year. http://theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.ie/2016/11/trashcan-sinatras-workmans-club-dublin.html Track 14 in this playlist 2. Britta Phillips – One fine summer morning (from the album Luck or magic, Double Feature) Another artist I saw play live in 2016. In these thoughts from last June, I was zoning...

It feels a bit strange to be talking about debuts almost 30 years into a music career but this is the debut solo album of Britta Phillips , of Dean & Britta and Luna fame. The album contains five originals and five covers. A couple of the originals have appeared in some form elsewhere before, the driving thrumming New Order-ish ‘Million Dollar Doll’ on the soundtrack to the Noah Baumbach/Greta Gerwig film Frances Ha , and ‘Ingrid Superstar’ from the 13 Most Wanted/Andy Warhol Screen Test project soundtracked by Dean & Britta, with a lovely late night, mellow but slightly haunted, Velvet Underground feel. In general, the album is pleasingly out of fashion, if you know what I mean. There’s a cover of a little known Abba song, also the very well known ‘Drive’ by The Cars, the reasonably familiar Fleetwood Mac song ‘Landslide’ and the sumptuous Dennis Wilson cut ‘Fallin’ in love’. There are pillowy synths but also the signature and beautiful spidery guitar lines of ...

Galway singer Brigid Mae Power has hooked up with Peter Broderick on production for her new album, a lovely spacious set full of captivating vocals. It's out on Tompkins Square . Robert Rotifer ploughs a line I like a lot - sombre measured songwriting with a political undercurrent. Britta Phillips' debut solo album is out, it's full of sweet arrangements and dream pop gorgeousness. And a trio of sumptuous orchestrations from the late 60s/early 70s - Lee Hazlewood invoking Morricone, Frank Sinatra invoking Jimmy Webb, The Beach Boys making vocal harmony orgasm. 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 404 Tues May 31 2016 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://goo.gl/7CJ...

We started this week with a Colleen/Seti The First pairing, who are playing together in Cork in a few weeks - delicately earthy, singular musings/brilliantly poised classical tunes. A couple of great new discoveries for me this week too, Brous (pronounced Bruce) sings bonkers 60s style pop with sweeping Morricone-esque arrangements (something from Ennio in the show too), and Elephant return with another blissful slice of dream pop - both intoxicating. The new Fuxa album features Britta Phillips on guest vocals, among others, singing the old Linda Ronstadt number 'Different drum' to Randall Niemann's 'Stand by me', stirring stuff. Satelliti are an intriguing Italian duo playing instrumental post rock with jazz tones; Satellites an Englishman in Copenhagen making satisfying alt-rock mini anthems. New Crystal Stilts and Hidden Highways and the infectious Congo-via-Liege pulse of Dragon Noir . More on these pages as always. Oct 8 2013 show w/ Co...