The Underground of Happiness

himeji to los angeles. glasgow to berlin. belfast to nashville. enjoy. x Playlist 1. Oh No Noh – Dog years (Teleskop) 2. Bella Wakame – Shades of Nambei (Umor-Rex) 3. Echolalia – Little bird (Full Time Hobby) 4. Geckos – Lo Hice (Org Music/PIAPTK Recordings) 5. Junk Drawer – Nids Niteca (Pizza Pizza Records) 6. Keeley Forsyth & Matthew Bourne – Talk to me (Fat Cat Records) 7. Pierre Bastien & Michel Banabila – Closing time: The party is over (Pingipung) 8. Quinie – Macaphee turn the cattle (Upset The Rhythm) 9. Albertine Sarges – Stand near your fire (Moshi Moshi) 10. Deradoorian – Digital gravestone (Fire Records) 11. Le Volume Courbe – Two love (Duophonic Super 45s) 12. Sam Prekop – Light shadow (Thrill Jockey) 13. Water Machine – River (Fat Cat Records) 14. Damian O’Neill – Inside out (Tompkins Square) (Imaginational Anthem XIV) 15. Me Lost Me – A souvenir (Upset The Rhythm) 16. Lael Neale – Tell me how to be here (Sub Pop Records) 17. Eddie M...

middle of the year but not middle of the road a compilation of my favourite tunes of the year so far enjoy people x Playlist 1. Pierre Bastien & Michel Banabila – Closing time: The party is over (Pingipung) 2. Men I Trust – Heavenly flow (bandcamp) 3. Stereolab – Melodie is a wound (Duophonic/Warp) 4. Water Machine – River (Fat Cat Records) 5. Bella Wakame – Shades of Nambei (Umor-Rex) 6. Lightheaded – Same drop (Slumberland Records/Skep Wax) 7. Elaine Howley – Hold me in a new way (Modern Love) 8. Lael Neale – Tell me how to be here (Sub Pop Records) 9. Cloth – Pink silence (Rock Action) 10. Albertine Sarges – Stand near your fire (Moshi Moshi) 11. M(h)aol – Pursuit (Tulle) 12. The Chills – Dolphins (Fire Records) 13. Keeley Forsyth & Matthew Bourne – Talk to me (Fat Cat Records) 14. Echolalia – Little bird (Full Time Hobby) 15. Oh No Noh – Dog years (Teleskop) 16. Adrian Crowley – Brother was a runaway (Valley of Eyes Records) 17. Derya Yildi...

some summery tunes for your heatdome go well brian x (pic far out magazine) Playlist 1. Ensemble – Proposal 1 (Fat Cat Records) 2. Emil Friis – For goodbyes (Fat Cat Records) 3. Studio Electrophonique – David and Jayne (Valley of Eyes Records) 4. Heavenly – Portland Town (Skep Wax) 5. The Alien Dub Orchestra – Vine and fig tree (Alien Transistor) 6. Astral Bakers – Vertical life (Sage Records) 7. Ways of Seeing – USA 94 (bandcamp) 8. Lightheaded – The garden (Slumberland/Skep Wax) 9. Jeanines – Coaxed a storm (Slumberland/Skep Wax) 10. The Beach Boys – Feel flow (Brother Records) 11. The Beach Boys – Til I die (Brother Records) 12. Bea Elmy Martin – Born to fly (Indigo Kin) 13. Half Japanese – Step on up (Fire Records) 14. Guerilla Toss – Red flag to angry bull (Sub Pop Records) 15. Cory Hanson – Lou Reed (Drag City) 16. Ty Segall – Buildings (Drag City) 17. Sebastian Reynolds & Myles Cochran feat. Kelly Michaeli – IYCSM (Pindrop) 18. Later Youth...

Playlist Sufjan Stevens – Love yourself (Asthmatic Kitty) Aldous Harding – Fixture picture (4AD) Pozi – Engaged (Prah Recordings) Jane Weaver – Slow motion (LITSS variation) (Fire Records) Stereo Total – Einfach (Tapete) Apparat – Caronte (Mute) Holy Hive feat. Mary Lattimore – Oh I miss her so (Big Crown Records) Laurence Pike – Taught by spirits (The Leaf Label) Polypores – Third level (Front & Follow) Lewsberg – Chances Vanishing Twin – Magician’s success (Fire Records) The Catenary Wires – Dream town (Tapete) Lee Hazlewood with Nina Lizell – Leather and lace (Light in the Attic) Purple Mountains – All my happiness is gone (Drag City) Sam Evian – Cherry tree (Saddle Creek) RaleghLong – Dukes of Stratosphear (Gare du Nord) Rozi Plain – Swing shut (Memphis Industries) Prefab Sprout – I trawl the megahertz (excerpt) (Sony) Prefab Sprout – Appetite (acoustic) (Columbia) The Go Betweens – Core of a flame (Beggars Banquet) Red Channel – Crazy diamonds (Upset...

For the first show of 2017 a mixture of some 2016 faves and some new music. The former. Weyes Blood , majestic break up music. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith , beguiling organic synth tunes. Tortoise , a twisting groovebeast. Lambchop , a subtly shifting pitter patter autotuned animal. The latter. Courtney Marie Andrews , sumptuous country regret. Flo Morrissey & Matthew E. White , a lovely soulful flight of fancy. Noveller , new year, same old epic soundscapes. And a wonderful treasure from 1970, Lee Hazlewood with Suzi Jane Hokom in Sweden. 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 428 Tues Jan 3 2017 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 goo.gl/NhPIl9 Playlist Courtney Marie Andrews –...

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...

A late entry into my end of year thinking but not to worry as this is an album that needs time to smoulder. The opening song has a gorgeous sweep if you take a minute – banks of devotional voices, a surrounding sense of mystery and a graceful but insistent melody. And in the end a kind of soulfulness, a reaching out, perhaps an effort to alleviate the weight, underneath the sublime minimalist stylings. There's something deeply existential about this sound but in the end it is simply transcendant. The Midnight Sun by C Duncan

More from the new Jherek Bischoff album, an ominous churning beast partly recorded deep underground in an old water tank. The album's called Cistern , naturally. Also new from Welsh artist Antonymes , more beautiful, vaguely ambient, orchestral instrumentals. Hauschka plays Ireland soon, part of the Clonmel Junction Festival , always good to hear his smart progressive piano dance music. New music from Cool Ghouls , another in a fine line of SF psych. And Cate Le Bon with a pastoral love song rendered strange and wonderful. 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 406 Tues June 14 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/bB8cs9 Playlist Nina Simone – Black is the ...

Just the way it fell but a bit of a 1980s theme this week. The new Creation Records box set is out on Cherry Red and I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy (thanks Ricky). It covers 1983 and 1984, the first two years of the label, and how great it is to hear gems like The Pastels & The Loft . Cardiacs are also being reissued, from 1984, and The Go Betweens from the same year, well we don't need an excuse. Also some winter themes - Laura Cannell , arresting Laura Cannell remixed by Lutine , haunting C Duncan , fantastic misty dream pop Jóhann Jóhannsson , slow moving grandeur Slow Moving Clouds , stringed majesty. And Mikael Tariverdiev , wonderful Russian film music from the 1960s. More on these pages. Dec 1 2015 w Sea Pinks,The Drink,Laura Cannell,Jóhann Jóhannnsson,Go Betweens,Cardiacs++ by The Underground Of Happiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com w...

Some whistling to start off the show this week. Esquivel pushed the boundaries of stereo sound (and orchestral arrangements) in the 50s and 60s. And C Duncan is doing similar with pop instruments and classical techniques. Both have knockout whistling interludes. New music from Best Boy Grip of Derry, always welcome, one of the best songwriters and arrangers on this island. J Fernandez , lovely Beach Boyish arrangement. Ezra Furman with that great manic energy but also a searing intellect. The Phoenix Foundation taking off into epic prog territory, a great trip. And The Chap are back and chapping away very chappishly as always. More on these pages. July 21 2015 w/ C Duncan,Beach Boys,J Fernandez,ALS,Blank Realm,Novella,Best Boy Grip++ by The Underground Of Happiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy...

A thoroughly intoxicating album of leisurely (mostly) and dreamy paeans to the everyday from Mr Christopher Duncan of Glasgow. On one end of the scale you’ll find the very pleasantly Grizzly Bear-ish ‘Garden’ with its swooping ooh and aw vocals projecting against a driving psych pop backdrop. All on foot of a mere trip to the garden. Dialling the psych down a notch is the gorgeous ‘Here to there’ with reverbed and falsetto vocal harmonies let loose over a thrumming backbeat. In it Duncan suggests “it’s so familiar” and the song almost comes across as a mission statement for his music. How strange and astonishing the world around us is. Much of the rest of the album is in a lower but no less lovely gear. ‘For’ has a drifting folk-pastoral air to it (and the most beguiling whistling interlude since Esquivel’s version of ‘Sentimental journey’) with beautiful vocal arrangements on display once again. It’s the culmination of the album’s opening run taking in ‘Say’, the titl...

Angel Deradoorian used to be in Dirty Projectors where her voice was used to tremendous and startling effect in a choral bank. She's a solo artist now using her surname and operating out of L.A. but still sounding in fantastic voice. Nice to hear her alongside her old muckers + Bjork from 2010 serenading whales in Northern California. C Duncan is a singer and composer from Glasgow who makes beautiful baroque sounds with room for...rejoice...whistling. It was a recommendation from Kathryn Joseph that put me on to him, she needs no recommendation from me or anyone else, just take a listen and weep. Blank Realm make psych pop with a lovely glide to it, they're from Brisbane . Totally Mild are from Melbourne and make very tasty guitar pop with a twist. De Lux are a duo from L.A. who clearly enjoy Talking Heads (and who doesn't) and make a great rattle reminiscient of Tina Weymouth's bass playing and David Byrne's shouty singing. And Kevin Murphy ...

And so to another great gig (maybe concert is a better word, maybe not) to end a great weekend of music (go here if you haven't heard about the context for this, The Reich Effect Festival ). The Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson came to Triskel Christchurch last Sunday with the Iskra String Quartet (that's a photo - I assume from the soundcheck, seeing as the place is empty - taken from the Iskra blog ). I went along as a novice, in terms of familiarity with the man's music - but then going with a blank slate can be an interesting way to approach a performance. This venue opened last April and so has only hosted a handful of musical events to date. I'd hazard a guess that this is the first time that a combination of volcanic rumblings and brushed strings had been heard in the place. That number resolved into something like aircraft noise, a very un-concert hall type of sound. But this performance was unconventional in several ways, by concert hall standards. Th...