The Underground of Happiness

A thrilling mix of drones, motorik and kosmische from Tim Gane (ex-Stereolab) with friends Joe Dilworth and Holger Zapf , and a couple of mouthwatering vocal cameos from Bradford Cox of Deerhunter and Sonic Boom . There’s enough of that familiar analogue synth bounce to keep Stereolabbers happy. But plenty more dirty filthy beats and sky gazing melodies, hints of everything from industrial to garage rock to psych-noir soundtracks, with a plethora of cracking (mostly danceable) tunes. Tis only early but definitely one of the albums of the year.

Part 3 of this epic poem, and I hope your year's been good so far. We're at a faster clip (tempo basically) for this section, there's something about these songs that shows some kind of urgency, people in a hurry, on some kind of mission maybe. And it strikes me that few things in life are more exciting to me than pop music with progressive tendencies. What exactly this means we can debate but wrapping a pop tune around a literary/unexpected/twisted lyric or conceptual idea raises the genre to a higher artform. Or building a classic rock guitar riff then undercutting it with a kosmische synth. Or steeping a song in jazz influences only to strap a motorik backbeat onto it. Or...well you get the gist. Enjoy. ************************************************************************************************ 1. Ezra Furman – Restless year (from the album Perpetual motion people , Bella Union) Fantastic opening gambit from the lipsticked one’s current albu...

A shimmering thing of unsettling beauty that could well be the best work ever recorded by Bradford Cox and friends. Say no more.

I found it hard to get into the new Deerhunter album. I like fuzz and distortion as much as the next man but most of Monomania seemed to be wrapped in a cotton wool ball of it. Single 'Back to the middle' though had enough zing to plough through the production, thanks to a lovely sliding guitar pattern, an inspired middle eight filled with bleepy keys and a thoroughly simple and brilliant guitar solo. A tune that remembered the pop in psych-pop, essentially.