The Underground of Happiness

Another extended show this week, great to have time to pull out a few old treasures, along with the huge backlog of excellent recent releases, plus music from acts on tour in the autumn. The former category, 'Bonnie & Clyde' by Serge & Brigitte , that inspired and ageless slice of psych pop with the best ever "woo-hoo" in pop music (the giddy playfulness between them is a lovely subtext); Donnie & Joe Emerson , two Oregon farming brothers making bedroom pop sound fucking essential in 1979; and Cluster making pastoral, sky-gazing kosmische. The latter category, Amen Dunes , bringing their beautiful 1000 yard drones to Ireland this month; likewise Sean Nicholas Savage (pic), gorgeous bedroom soul from Montreal; SlowPlaceLikeHome , fuzzy and warm electronica from Donegal; Tennis , heart-melting white soul. And Pye Corner Audio , bringing the autobahn compellingly to English underground pop. Sept 9 2014 Hr 1 w/ Serge & Brigitte,Amen Dunes,Sean ...

There’s a very pleasing psych feel to this track from GBV and Circus Devils alumnus Todd Tobias , in conjunction with Steve Five on vocals (from The Library is on Fire). What do I mean by psych? In this case, a stealthy clicked rhythm with plucked acoustic guitar to open. Later, an intriguing offkey punctuation of strings? synths? expiring guitars? (I’d also say offbeat except that these soundbursts occur on the beat.) Followed by gradual decrescendo in a minor key. The vocal has a mantra-like quality – “in like a lamb and out like a lion, I’ll walk you through the waste” – and hushed tones reminiscient of Elliot Smith. Like Elliot Smith at his best, this tune is hardly there at all in one way, it's kinda wispy. However, the elements are so brilliantly and subtly put together, you'll find you'll need repeated listens to figure them out. Haunting stuff. There's an album on the way from Brother Earth , stay tuned. POSITIVE HAYWIRES by Brother Earth