The Underground of Happiness

The first instalment of my favourite music of 2018. Categories are a bit arbitrary as always. Parts 2 and 3 to follow. Enjoy. Playlist Django Django – In your beat (Because Music) De Lux – 875 dollars (Innovative Leisure) Tune-Yards – Heart attack (4AD) Kamasi Washington – The Space Traveller’s Lullaby (Young Turks) Todd Tobias & Combo Qasam – Do the Massabu (Tiny Room/Hidden Shoal) Khruangbin – Maria tambien (Dead Oceans) Richard Swift – Broken finger blues (Secretly Canadian) Terry – The whip (Upset The Rhythm) Gulp – Claudia (E.L.K Records) Blue Orchids – Get Bramah (Tiny Global Productions) Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread – When (Full Time Hobby) Jessica Pratt – This time around (Mexican Summer) Steve Gunn – New moon (Matador) Soccer 96 – Harmonious Monk (Slowfoot Records) Orchestra of Spheres – Koudede (Fire) Nightports w/ Matthew Bourne – Exit (Leaf) Camera – Super 8 (Bureau B) Snapped Ankles – Drink and glide (Leaf) Sz...

And speaking of winter music...something about this dreamy beauty makes me think of the kind of swirly feeling that comes at the end of the year (often brought on hot whiskey). It’s a song inspired by the oldest tree in Kew Gardens. The combination of harpsichord-alike arpeggios, a thick ambient fog and March’s marvellous drifting vocal creates a suitably ageless effect. A stunning evocation of the vastness of the universe and the microscopic human heartbeat running through it. Under The Day by Chloë March

A lovely piece of drifting dream pop from the Denver resident. This track features and was produced by Jason Lytle ex-Grandaddy and you can hear a little of the ache that was so apparent in that band's music in the hazy synths and swirling melody here. The Wooden Heart by Kramies

Circus Devils are Todd Tobias, his brother Tim and longtime collaborator Robert Pollard . Pollard adds vocals and of course his unmistakeable, timeworn tones would sound intriguing reading the phonebook. Here a haunting, repeating piano pattern and some synth atmospherics are the only backdrop to a typically surreal tale, making for a memorable psych pop diversion. crossing no examination still better down no lecture on the will in victory they lunch not a bad one in the bunch The forthcoming album from which it is taken, which is also the soundtrack to a film directed by Todd Tobias called I Razor , should be well worth a look see. *For some reason, something about this also reminds me of early Waterboys. For me that's a good thing too. Free download here.

Third part of the Augsburg-based ambient composer’s conceptual trilogy (following In and On ), which consists of a single 42 minute opus. It’s hard to do justice to the range of sounds you’ll find here – tremendous, rumbling, industrial atmospherics forming most of the backdrop; plaintiff, space-age whines; kosmische melodies; classical piano; a choir of voices. For something that’s so abstract on paper - and so steadfast and glacial in its pacing - it connects brilliantly with the listener, prompting all kinds of emotional and philosophical responses. It makes you wish some film maker would use the music as a template for an exploration of the origin, or the meaning, of space, earth, life, the cosmos – it would undoubtedly make for an epic, soaring, awe-inspiring journey.

Post-rock is a dirty word(s) in some quarters these days but something as unself-conscious and beautifully light as this tune could be capable of redeeming the genre. A guitar-flute duet (in a certain light), it has a lovely, fluttering, chiming quality that’s quite alien to most guitar instrumentals. From the Perth band’s second album on Hidden Shoal.

Two new albums in the last month or so have featured prominently on the show, both on the great Hidden Shoal label, one Italian, one German, and both inhabiting the broad terrain of instrumental ambient electronica. Elisa Luu's Un giorno sospeso ("a suspended day" or "one day suspension", depending on your translator) is a beautiful album of drifting, teasing textures. "Suspended" might be a good word to describe the kind of head-over-heels dizziness it could induce in you. It has more of a homely feel compared to her last (first) album, Chromatic sigh , which had quite an exotic, spacey atmosphere. Like me, you might find it hard to get past the first two tracks - the gentle twinkling bleep of 'Flussigirl', with flute samples set in a bed of friendly static; and 'Se fosse per me', a glorious tune that rides on a wave of treated fuzz guitar samples, with a warm electric piano for company. It also features a beguiling saxophon...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 230 Tues July 17 2012 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 http://i.mixcloud.com/CB92mo Playlist Katie Kim - The feast ( playing Half Moon Theatre, Cork, July 21 ) Peter Broderick - I do this Twin Shadow - Five seconds Lali Puna - I've been over the rainbow Seb Rochford & Alice Grant - Rini gave word (Days & Nights at the Takeaway 6) Elisa Luu - Flussigirl Julia Stone - Bloodbuzz Ohio Richard Hawley - She brings the sunlight ( playing Savoy Theatre, Cork, Dec 6, and other dates; also, Electric Picnic, Aug 31-Sept 2 ) Angus Stone - Broken brights Hong Kong in the 60s - Into the forest of eyes (Collision/Detection v4) Lawrence Arabia - Travelling shoes Alabama Shakes - Hang loose (radio edit) *next ...

One of our favourite labels, the Perth-based Hidden Shoal , is 6 years old this month. I'm not sure if the term 'boutique' applies, but there's certainly a care and attention to detail about everything they do that is very satisfying. And as if to take this approach to a new level, label manager Cam Merton has post-produced and edited the new video for Inventors by Kramies . That's the centrepiece of Kramies' recent EP The European (full name Kramies Windt, he's Dutch originally, but domiciled in the US for some time), from which we featured several tracks on the show when it came out, and which was produced by regular Guided By Voices collaborator Todd Tobias - more about him later in the month. Inventors is a lovely, leisurely slice of dream-pop, blissed out and shimmering. Happy Birthday Hidden Shoal, keep doing what you're doing.

Just time for a quick mention of new music from friend to the show Markus Mehr , from Augsburg in Germany. A couple of years ago, he brought out a really beautiful album of ambient instrumentals, Lava , on the ever wonderful Hidden Shoal label, embroidered with his distinctive guitar drone designs. At the time, he spoke to me on the phone from Germany - that's an interview you can find over there on the right of the page (that's right, I'm not going to link it, don't be lazy, it's just over there...). The new material is a 2-track album called In , the first part of an ambitious-sounding triptych, with On and Off to follow later this year. Personally, I can't wait. Check out a couple of excerpts from In down here, it's therapeutic.

We had a couple of excerpts on the show this week of an interview with Conor Devlin of dream-pop trio (The) Caseworker . (Notice I haven't specified where they're from, because it's hard to say exactly, being that each member is resident in a different part of the world. You could argue their spiritual home is the U.S. west coast, where at least two of the band were based for a good number of years, due to a certain burnished guitar sound, although they are from Dublin originally.) You can listen to the whole interview now here, in which Conor talks about... ...listening to Radio Luxembourg on Tuesdays as a child, older sisters with Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd records, travel, Pro Tools, Ethiopian athlete Miruts Yifter, the process of making music together/apart in the internet age, the love of 7-inch vinyl, The Undertones, random brackets, ska, late Byrds, a West Coast Sound, and more. It's interesting, at a time when Irish people are leaving the motherland in ...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 193 Tues Oct 18 2011 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr *listen back to this show here https://rapidshare.com/files/1051330603/The_Underground_Of_Happiness_18-10-2011.m4a Playlist Wooden Shjips - Lazy bones Amiina - Asinn ( playing Opera House, Cork, Oct 30 ) Portishead - Chase the tear ( Amnesty International ) Giant Sand - Recovery mission ( Tucson Together Fund ) Apparat - Song of Los ( playing KOKO Theatre, London, Oct 20 ) Atlas Sound - Lightworks (The) Caseworker Interview Interview Excerpt 1 (The) Caseworker - National runner Interview Excerpt 2 (The) Caseworker - The slow track *d'load the full interview here http://conorot.podomatic.com/entry/2011-10-17T08_17_50-07_00 Yann Tiersen - I'm gonna live anyhow ( playing Jeff ...

We mentioned last month the lead track from this album (first released in 2005 on Tell All Records ), from the man who is one half of American experimental pop duo Boxharp . Its seven instrumental tracks run continuously, proceeding at glacial pace - turning, shifting, transforming in a slow, deliberate melt. Textures derive from guitar and synth smears, as well as tape manipulations and field recordings, producing a symphony of heart-tugging power. Overall, there is a pastoral rather than an industrial feel, with the humming and groaning and rumbling of the natural world being evoked. It would be wrong to single out one track over another – you need to hear this river in flow. Suffice to say, this is an ambient work of sublime beauty. *As a post-script, Mark and Laura Solter have put together a wonderful piece of film to accompany the entire album. It's called Twins and Wives , it's a series of stately tableaux (of rural and nature scenes mostly) and you can watch it here. ...

(The) Caseworker – Letters from the coast (Hidden Shoal) *Brother and sister Conor & Eimer Devlin (originally Irish) form the core of this three-piece. They’ve produced a beguiling album of sunburst guitar melodies, sitting on a foundation of drone, with a thin gauze of hazy suspense draped over it. We’ve already spoken about the chiming single National runner - written about the Ethiopian long-distance athlete Miruts Yifter and it shares something of his relentless drive. The widescreen feel of Boats is created with banks of ringing, Byrdsian guitars, which combine for a thrilling crescendo. The beautiful Sea years has Eimer’s hushed, low-in the-mix vocal set against a driving bassline (reminiscient of Yo La Tengo a little bit). There’s more than a shade of shoegaze about both Sister song and Little good it did you , with fuzz smears and high-fretted bass. And I love The slow track with its ingenious uplift of trumpet, coming in the wake of a closet bossa nova. Enigmatic but a...

More new music from the Hidden Shoal label from Perth . It's the lead track from American producer Scott Solter's new release, One river . You may already know Scott's name as one half of experimental pop duo Boxharp (who we are very fond of around here), aswell as producer/recordist/mixer/remixer for the likes of St Vincent, Superchunk, Neon Indian, John Vanderslice and The Mountain Goats , among others. This piece has the air of a serious ambient work, channelling both inner and outer space. Gravitas would be a word. I'll leave it to the label for a more detailed description. 'The Great Cold' Is an invigorating five-minute immersal into one of the seven gorgeous flowing passages that comprise One River. Chilly, gaseous tones swell and recede, all the while shadowed by a ghostly high note. The icy stillness is occasionally punctuated by a discreet found sound, which acts as a kind of pivot point between focus and diffusion. Solter creates an unforgettable a...

Jesus, the great music just keeps piling in this month. (Is it the pollen or what?) This is a new single from (The) Caseworker on another one of our favourite labels here at UOH, the Perth-based Hidden Shoal . First things first, we like a band with brackets (parentheses, if you prefer - see what I did there). And the song is about the Ethiopian long-distance runner Miruts Yifter , which I think I'm safe in saying makes it unique in pop music. The press release describes the sound as the " Velvet Underground reared on the Flying Nun label ", which is a lovely idea and I wouldn't argue. There is definitely a drone rock foundation but my first thought was The Byrds I must say, in terms of the dynamics of the twin chiming guitars. There's also a beautiful shoegazey feel off the chorus, with a wash of fuzz and banks of backing vocals. Take a minute. [The] Caseworker - 'National Runner' by Hidden Shoal Nice eh? Play it again, it gets better every tim...

As part of the ongoing housekeeping project, the interview with New York-based pop experimentalist Liam Singer is here now... ...including talk of Morton Feldman, a classical music training, "happy accidents", high art vs low art, Carlos Castaneda, supernatural themes, the influence of travel on composition , and more. Listen here. (*By the way, you might gather that the first few minutes of the interview are missing. This is because of some interference on the phone line during that part of the conversation, relating to musical influences. These included Prokofiev, New Age music, They Might Be Giants and John Cage .) That interview was recorded last October around the time of the release of his current album, Dislocatia , on Hidden Shoal . Did I mention it's brilliant? Here's how much I liked it at the time. Liam Singer - Dislocatia (Hidden Shoal) Regular readers will know that if it's chamber pop, I'm there. Even for the converted though, this ...

One of my favourite record labels is celebrating 5 years in 2011, the Perth-based Hidden Shoal Recordings . They've released some wonderful music in that time. I think it was 2009 I first became aware of them - some of my top albums of that year were from this release list - 2009: A Million Square Miles I might also direct your attention to a couple of Hidden Shoal artists who have been interviewed on the show, German ambient artist Markus Mehr in 2010 and Blake Madden from Seattle band Hotels just a few months ago (links here, or jump straight to the interview below that - you could also follow a search for "Hidden Shoal" at the top of the page). http://theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com/2011/01/markus-mehr-interview.html Markus Mehr Interview Podcast by underground of happiness http://theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com/2011/04/hotels-interview.html And even more recently, the glorious and uplifting pop music keeps flowing from Western Austral...

I'm feeling a bit random, so get a load. Umpire - Supply chins (Hidden Shoal, from the album Now we're active ) Beautiful, chiming guitar pop with layered, soaring vocals from the Perth band's upcoming new album. Comes on like The Shins with more gumption. "Widescreen" (always a description that gets my attention), it says here, and I concur. In addition, there is brass involved and the lyric rhymes "oasis" with "stasis". Top notch. Supply Chins by Umpire And here's the video to the first single from the album, Green light district : Neville Skelly - Poet & the dreamer (Setanta/PIAS) Sumptuous country swing (think Nesmith / Campbell) with a handsome croon at the centre. Title track from the Liverpool artist's upcoming new album. Here's another track from the album, the swooningly beautiful He looks a lot like me . Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - The copper top (Chemikal Underground, from the album Everything...

Antonymes - A licence to interpret dreams (Hidden Shoal) A deceptively simple set of neo-classical instrumentals (there is spoken word on one track), featuring piano, atmospherics and heart-swelling orchestral arrangements, from north Wales' Ian Hazeldine. There's a stillness and glacial beauty about these tunes which inevitably bring existential matters to mind. The maritime pull of The siren, hopelessly lost , for example. Or The Gospel Pass , with a religious bearing brought on by a solemn church organ. The single Endlessly somehow draws a rumbling chord from a series of ineffable tones. An unexpected muted trumpet fanfare opens The door towards the dream , followed by a female soprano signalling the stars. The Reichian piano structure of A light from the heavens is gradually submerged under yearning cellos. Honestly, the fact that one man/the world can produce an album this gorgeous gives hope for the future of the human race. *I must say also that ambient opener A frag...