The Underground of Happiness

visiting tokyo, cork, boston, melbourne, berlin, london, sunderland, rotterdam, belfast and dublin enjoy x Playlist 1. Bananagun – Free energy (Full Time Hobby) 2. Chalk – Tell me (Nice Swan) 3. Sprints – Up and comer (City Slang) 4. Rats on Rafts – Japanese medicine (Fire Records) 5. Memorials – Acceptable experience (Fire Records) 6. Silverbacks – Selling shovels (bandcamp) 7. The Last Sound – Sting Possible Combinations (Cruel Nature Records) 8. Albertine Sarges – Stand near your fire (Moshi Moshi) 9. Marcel Wave – Something looming (Upset The Rhythm) 10. Field Music – The waitress of St Louis (Memphis Industries) 11. The Silver Abduction – Remember my heart (Lightwell Recordings) 12. Katrina Ford – Dundalk dungeon (Violin Films) 13. Oslo Twins – Sally (Half Normal Records) 14. Hilary Bow – Fall fall (bandcamp) 15. Kugelschreiber – (me x u) ≠ (u x me) (Wamho Records) 16. muckno – manboy (bandcamp) 17. Throwing Muses – Drigstore drastic (Fire Records) ...

Three nights running. Dan Walsh was back in the game following his marathon Year of the Dan in 2022. This time a solo Fixity . No drums this time. One man and his flute. With drum machine. Samples. A mixing desk. Effects. He also sang. It was wonderful drifty kosmische and what’s more you could dance to it. Dan the headtheball had another show later. The Tan Jackets in Coughlans . He played bass in that one and sang primal rock n roll. Grand for a Saturday. FIXITY by Dan Walsh

For those of you who prefer the long read format, here are all 30 chapters plus bonus in one piece...enjoy x I'm going to post out some thoughts on live shows I was at this year. I'll put them out between now and the end of the year. It's a bit of an experiment because, unlike whenever I've written live reviews^ before, this time (for the most part) I was writing at a remove of many months. These were not thoughts I put down at the time of the gig. So these are thoughts dependent on memory - I suppose all thoughts are but with these ones longer term memory - in that whatever I've written consists of impressions that have stayed with me over time. I like the idea of forcing myself to depend on memory this way. It might create a different kind of review. Less detail probably, but heavier on general currents, patterns, trends. Shorter (good says you). Plus it would presumably incorporate more of an overview of all the shows together. Because, whether these arti...

Chapter 23 On to October. Junior Brother . Cyprus Avenue . He was born in the Bons apparently. Joined onstage by the dream team. Dan Walsh on drums and other things. Phil Christie of The Bonk on keys. To add to JB and regular accomplice Tony on mandolin. Furious rock and roll folk music. Spadgie folk. Free jazz folk. Odd and proud of it. Also deeply heartfelt and dare I say emotional music. They played songs from the just released second album The Great Irish Famine. Which is wonderful. No country for young men with the glorious singalong line, can’t tell the goons from the guards. Daly’s Well a kind of math rock Tortoise trad beast. The laugh out loud but somehow also poignant Life’s new haircut. With this band they elevate already very good songs to the Richard Dawson stratosphere. A theatre of music and character with nothing but compelling storylines. Accept no knock offs. Only the fuckin brilliant real thing. Incidentally Fixity were on support. Dan...

Chapter 19 Back to Coughlans for Fixity two nights later. Yes. Dan Walsh again. This time with friends. Two guitars. Bass. Drums. Sax. Storming twisting shapes. Rock and roll jazz. The closest we have to Tortoise. Exhilarating. Support band His Father’s Voice from Limerick are worth a mention. Shoegazey electro pop with songs that stick. Two things. The frontwoman announces from the stage that Dan Walsh is just as much a legend in Limerick as in Cork. Cue solemn nodding of heads. Second thing. That Dan invites a pop band of young guns to Cork to play. A touch of class. FIXITY 7 by Fixity In the Shade by His Father's Voice

There's a few tunes there now like... Playlist Fixity – Becoming an earthworm (Penske Recordings) Spill Gold – Dali (Meduse MagiQ) Laurence Pike – Drum chant (The Leaf Label) Pozi – Watching you suffer (Prah Recordings) Drahla – Stimulus for living (Captured Tracks) Pill Fangs – Pain inside (Sunstone Records) The Pinheads – Feel it now (Stolen Body Records) Mdou Moctar – Ilana (Sahel Sounds) Death & Vanilla – A flaw in the iris (Fire Records) Rozi Plain – Conditions (Memphis Industries) Lali Puna – Being water (Morr Music) Vanishing Twin – KRK (At home in strange places) (Fire Records) Von Spar feat. Laetitia Sadier – Extend the song (Bureau B) Wand – Scarecrow (Drag City) Samsara – Yellow fangs (Tiny Room/Hidden Shoal) The Proper Ornaments – Please release me (Tapete) Dana Gavanski – One by one (Full Time Hobby) Bobby Oroza – Your love is too cold (Big Crown Roecords) Hiss Golden Messenger – Everybody needs somebody (Merge) Nilufer Yanya – Tears (Ato...

An instrumental mix for this summer/autumn crossover (sum/tumn). Some of my favourite soundtrack cuts in here. Also a few notable new releases. Some on the experimental end. Plenty of drones. Enjoy. Playlist William Tyler – I’m gonna live forever (If it kills me) (Merge Records) Glenn Jones – From Frederick to Fredericksburg (Thrill Jockey) Richard Osborn – Streets of Laredo, A Pastorale (Tompkins Square) Spindle Ensemble – Moonbow (Adderwell Music) Sebastian Reynolds – Mahajanaka (Remix by Emseatee) ( www.sebastianreynolds.co.uk ) Bernard Herrmann – Scene d’amour (from the soundtrack of the film Vertigo , Varese Sarabande) Moondog – Theme (Columbia) Soccer 96 – Button basher (Slowfoot Records) Infinite Music – Magenta ( Infinite Music: A Tribute to La Monte Young , Fire Records) Jodie Lowther – Dream of the Melting Plane ( The Blow Vol 4 , Front & Follow) Eat Lights, Become Lights – Modular Living (Rocket Girl) Tangerine Dream – Teetering scales (from ...

Part 3 of this epic poem, again in no particular order. And as a companion piece, check also this Best of 2016 mix which includes many of these tunes, along with a few from the upcoming Psych section, the final instalment. ************************************************************ 1. Tortoise – The Catastrophist (Thrill Jockey) Another wonderful album from Chicago’s finest and apart from anything else (the glorious hooks, the minimalist chops, the thrilling musicianship etc) a reminder of just how fucking groovy they are. Marvellous music for the brain and the feet. 2. Syrinx – Tumblers from the vault: 1970-1972 (RVNG Intl) A bolt from the blue for me and a fantastic compilation of ecstatic kosmische/dream jazz from this Toronto 3-piece. Also a thoroughly fascinating slice of the 70s underground (albeit unexpectedly accessible) and another great piece of archive work by RVNG Intl. 3. Fixity – Hungry clouds (Kantcope) Tremendous cut from the very...

One last post before New Year's. This one rounds up some tunes mostly from the second half of the year. It turns out there was a lot of great instrumental music in there. Plus some other material that I think fits with that. Enjoy and see you on the other side. Fixity – Hungry clouds Tortoise – The catastrophist Elias Krantz – Patchwork Pt 1 Syrinx – Aurora spinray Marielle V Jakobsons – Rising light Cavern of Anti-Matter feat. Bradford Cox – liquid gate Melt Yourself Down – Dot to dot The Comet Is Coming – Space carnival Dieterich & Barnes – Parasol gigante Alien Ensemble – Skeleton dance Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Arthropoda Matthew Bourne – Keighley Qluster – Glasperlenspiel Nathan Bowles – Chiaroscuro Lambchop – Flotus Iggy Pop, Tarwater & Alva Noto – As Adam early in the morning/I am he that aches with love Rothko – A young fist curled around a cinder for a wager Wymond Miles – Protection C Duncan – Nothing more Weyes Blood – Generation Why Cool...

A spate of great gigs coming up in Cork and we played several of these bands on the show this week. Fixity , a new album conceived in Cork, recorded in Malmo and sounding like a pure beast, launches in Triskel Dec 3. The Altered Hours , "hometown" show at the Kino Dec 10, it's been too long. Also Rozi Plain , same venue the following night, all part of the Sudden Club Weekender . Great. A terrible clash but also on Dec 10 in Cobh at the Sirius Arts Centre , the return of the wonderful Slow Moving Clouds , strings and drones turned into gorgeous ambient hum. Also great music from Cool Ghouls , channelling The Byrds from 1965/6; Rothko with vocals by Johny Brown, sterling bass and voice expositions from the north of England; The Sea Nymphs , a timeless treasure from 1992, just released. And Lambchop , making autotuned vocals credible for the first time. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.th...

Ahead of the release of Fixity 2 on vinyl, and a Cork Opera House (Green Room) show, something from the first Fixity album, dark and murky and engrossing. Matthew Bourne hitting a similar tone using a Moog - shimmering analogue sounds. Glorious vocal stylings from Sans Chateaux which should be to the liking of Beach Boys fans. Some "lost" Russian film music from the wonderful Mikael Tariverdiev . Yama Warashi is a Japanese woman in Bristol (and friends) making adventurous cosmic folk music. Arborist is Belfast man Mark McCambridge flitting between beautiful chamber and country sounds. And The Altered Hours who play a Cork show in December at The Kino , drifting, teasing, psych pop. 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 419 Tues Oct 18 2016 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on T...

We had a good deal of instrumental music in this week, another 2 hour stint. David Pajo is reportedly releasing new music soon, great to hear something from his 1999 masterpiece Live from a Shark Cage . Some great soundtrack pieces from Mary Lattimore & Jeff Zeigler and also Nick Cave & Warren Ellis . Fixity with dark and enigmatic improv work. Elias Krantz with wonderful propulsive rhythms. And as near instrumental as makes no difference from Syrinx , great kosmische feel. Plenty of people touring - TAU at Liverpool Psych Fest , The Goon Sax in the UK, Rats on Rafts in Ireland, Pascal Pinon, C Duncan, The Lemon Twigs . 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 415 Tues Sept 20 2016 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.i...

An extended show this week, 2 hours of goodness feat. loads of new music from Fixity , superb freewheeling improv Nathan Bowles , minimalist piano patterns reminiscient of Philip Glass Laura Cannell , timeless & arresting double recorder tunes Angel Olsen , tremendous garage rock w heart on sleeve North Sea Radio Orchestra , great delicate folk songs La Femme , invigorating psych tune w motorik backbeat There's also some older treasures from Luna, Television, Stars of the Lid, The Unthanks and of course Gene Wilder RIP. 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 413 Tues Sept 6 2016 11.00am-1.00pm (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/v6TS7X Playlist Gene Wilder – Pure imagination (from the...

A compelling series of largely instrumental soundscapes from Cork native Dan Walsh . Side A (it’s a cassette tape) features mostly shorts, Side B two longer form pieces. They all drift and tease through a thick fog of cymbal hiss and ambient haze. The bass is the thing I keep coming back to. The warped rock n roll pattern of ‘Blue paint’. The stalking garage rock feel of ‘Hungry clouds’, although that gives way to a kind of blissed out haunted dream pop. The constant pulse of ‘stigmatostigmata’ amid freaked out filtered guitar. The wonderful frantic motorik effect of ‘The things in the room’. It’s dark more than bright but somehow an optimistic dark. Abstract for sure but still groovy as fuck. Improvisation - knocking on your door then dangling it just out of reach. It just is. There is great art in our midst. FIXITY by Dan Walsh