The Underground of Happiness

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

A beautiful album of (mostly) chamber pop capable of swinging between noirish and swooning melancholy tones and sharp as a pin lyrically, from the co-founder of The Delgados. So you have string drenched French style torch songs like ‘Don’t make me wait’; spooky stalked atmospheres like ‘Alabaster’, a satisfyingly piquant slice of regret and betrayal; and intimate austere string quartet arrangements like ‘Intermission’, full of throbbing cello and sawing violins. The frantic buzzing backbeat of single ‘Parks and Recreation’ drags things out of the chamber and into the garage, a detour confirmed by the great thudding prog pop of ‘Vacant stare’. This mini run is closed with the very appealing ‘In the company of the damned’, a simple restless electric guitar strum, a faint drone and a wonderful clear-eyed lyric of sycophants and cheats. The album closes as it opened in a minor key with the sublime and spacious orchestral folk of ‘Dark skies’ and the deceptively cutting ‘Old gh...

A round up of my favourite music of the year to date, a show which went out a couple of weeks ago before the summer break. Another belting set of tunes I must say and there was another whole bunch that didn't fit into the hour. So another great year for music, basically. I'll keep the preamble short here as you'll find plenty more around these pages on the artists listed below. Enjoy. July 28 2015 - Best of 2015 (Jan - July) 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 Playlist 366 Tues July 28 2015 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/PhSV4Z Playlist Kathryn Joseph - The want ( playing Summerhall, Edinburgh, Aug 12, w/ Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat ) ...

There’s a bit of a Glasgow roll on the show lately what with C Duncan and Kathryn Joseph (there’s also a new Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat album due out later in the year). What’s even more impressive about them all is the diversity of styles on show, no sign of trendsetting or bandwagon jumping. Man of Moon are a duo who take a hint of Jagwar Ma and put a motorik worm into it. Chunky power chords. Unswerving drumbeat. A song about the road. World weary vocals. (They’re only young.) Dancefloor breakdown. It’s a beautiful thing.

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 ...

Now and again a piece of music arrives that tends to wash other things out. Something arresting and transformative to make you want to put words away, that’s what this is. It’s a perfect miniature and soaked in atmosphere, such a prized quality in all music but particularly pop music. And all with just the merest piano chords and a voice that swoons and cracks. Kathryn Joseph is the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award winner and could there be a more deserving one especially when you read words like these from a recent interview at the SAY awards. http://thegenn.co.uk/kathryn-joseph-wins-scottish-album-of-the-year-award/ “I didn’t love my music before and now I love it because Marcus (MacKay, producer) has made it harder, stronger and more beautiful, and I’d never felt like that about it before.” And now I’m going to put words away and just listen. bones you have thrown me and blood i've spilled by kathryn joseph

I wouldn't often use the word spellbinding but I'm comfortable using it in relation to Kathryn Joseph and partcularly the song in this week's show, 'The want'. Stop you in your tracks, arresting, quietening, words and phrases like this. Superb important music centred around one woman's pleading and completely convincing voice with spare piano. Jim O'Rourke is back with a new album which is great, sounding soulful and loose and loving it. Novella are a band from Brighton with a lovely line in motorik backbeat. The Phoenix Foundation whipping up a satisfying proggy storm from their new album. And loads more, check it out, plus more on these pages. June 16 2015 w/ Lee Hazlewood,Sterling Roswell,Jim O'Rourke,Circuit des Yeux,Novella,Tender Prey++ by The Underground Of Happiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundo...

One of my favourite albums of the 2000s was the third from Camera Obscura , Let’s get out of this country , which featured the peerless pop-referencing-itself ‘Hey Lloyd, I’m ready to be heartbroken’. I must admit that I didn’t bond as much with their following album, My Maudlin Career , but I’m delighted to report that Desire lines is back up with their best and (in the best possible sense) most lovable work. From the sprightly but sad single ‘Do it again’ (“can you see the tears of this clown?”), to the endearingly chipper melancholy of ‘Troublemaker’ (“On a cold morning you arriving, I’m struggling for survival”) and the absolutely sublime heartbreaker ‘Break it to you gently’. Add in the slow dance beauty ‘This is love (Feels alright)’ with its insinuating saxophone line, steeped in a Scottish Motown atmosphere. The wrenching tribute to lost friends ‘William’s heart’. The touching machismo of ‘New Year’s Resolution’ – “I’ve been cool with you and the sooner you admit it I ...