The Underground of Happiness

Meet Benin City . The lads in the sharp suits. Sharp tunes too. Nisantashi Primary School have nothing to do with Japan. They're a 3-piece from Kiev and have a very tasty brand of rudimentary IDM w punk funk shadings. The Brackish are a band from Bristol playing lovely instrumental post rock not a million miles from Tortoise. Josh T Pearson is back with a collection of brash pop songs. And The Saxophones making a most alluring dream 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 480 Tues Feb 27 2018 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/YscbWb Playlist Spindle Ensemble – Moonbow ( playing South Bank Centre, London, Mar 16 ) Alex Stolze – Alkorhythmus Jack Hayter – At C...

A wonderful low key but sustaining collection of quixotic folk songs from the English artist... ...which is a lesson in how to make compelling arrangements out of small details. And the many memorable moments are in the details. Like the owls “whit whoo” of ‘Fanny on the hill’. The plaintiff female vocal humming entry of ‘The Arandora star’ and later its rousing sea shanty build with fiddle and accordion. The line in ‘I am John’s care home’ – “here in this place we’ll turn sand into light bulbs / Let in the sun that turns shit into gold” – over lovely woozy steel guitar. The line in ‘At Crossness Pumping Station’ – “what keeps me here / the shit and piss and afterbirth / the blood and spunk and snot and tears / we wait those years at the pumping station” – over beguiling harmonica fragments. The haunting vocal chorus of ‘The mulberry tree at Abbey Wood’. The strummed fiddle of ‘Fanny on the hill’. Hayter’s voice is a joy throughout. A colloquial and entir...

Robert Forster is back in Europe this week. His new single is a first (I'm fairly sure) for him, a breezy samba duet with his wife Karin. Robert Rotifer can do breezy too, jazz folk is more his bag, 'Calais' is an unsettling account of passing through the notorious Jungle in northern France. Cate Le Bon has a brilliant new album out, wonky via psych via surreal pastoral. A Dyjecinski has a fantastic voice, in the country soul region of things, check his album too. The first taste of Jherek Bischoff's new album sounds great, orchestral majesty. Clint Mansell channelling Bernard Herrmann a little from the s'track of High Rise . New music from The Moles and Piper's Son , great alt guitar 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 403 Tues May 24 2016 11.00am-12.0...

Something rare these days. A songwriter documenting Europe’s migrant crisis. (Maybe documenting isn't the word but read on.) That would make you think something worthy and dense and difficult. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead what you have is something light and drifting, an impressionistic account of passing through the famous jungle in northern France on the way to Belgium. It’s a sublime jazz folk canvas, full of shakers and sumptuous guitar chords. Difficult though. No, disconcerting is better. Disorientating. A woozy guitar line seems about to fall down drunk. A background vocal “ooh” takes the part of the steamed pal holding you up staggering down the street. In the midst of this pleasurable haze, the lyrical content creeps up on you. Around here, an awful realisation hits home – “you see the sea, the sea of tents” – that you’ve been party to a nightmarish scene, although one painted in beautiful pastel colours. That is an impressive ...