The Underground of Happiness

27 tunes to mark the 27th anniversary of Serge Gainsbourg's death in March 1991. The Provocateur Extraordinaire. Playlist Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin – Je t’aime (moi non plus) Serge Gainsbourg – Le poinconneur des Lilas Mick Harvey feat. Anita Lane – The song of slurs Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot – Initials B.B. Serge Gainsbourg – Mambo miam miam Jane Birkin – C’est la vie qui veut ca Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin – Ballade de Melody Nelson Jean-Claude Vannier – La girafe au ballon Charlotte Gainsbourg – Le chat du café des artistes Mick Harvey – Intoxicated Man Jean-Claude Vannier – Danse de l’enfant et du Roi des Mouches Anna Karina – Roller girl (from the soundtrack of the film Anna ) Michael Stipe – L’hotel Beck – Wave Charlotte Gainsbourg – Rest Serge Gainsbourg – New York USA Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin – 69 Année Érotique Serge Gainsbourg & Michel Colombier – La Horse (from the soundtrack of the film La Horse )...

Valentines are in the air. We had a few but not the soppy kind. Manly regret and nostalgia soaked in strings from Richard Hawley . Stirring moving heartwrenching soul lament from Nina Simone . Serge & Jane with a glorious JC Vannier arranged paean to love in the margins. Charlotte Gainsbourg with a gorgeous melancholy love letter to her father. And Jack Hayter with wonderful quixotic and earthy English folk songs. 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 478 Tues Feb 13 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/VR3cLv Playlist Richard Hawley – For your lover give some time Nina Simone – Black is the colour of my true love’s hair Spindle Ensemble – Kite ( playin...

A couple of great Thrill Jockey releases on the show this week, both duos. House and Land are Sally Anne Morgan and Sarah Henson , both steeped in Appalachian folk music and here giving a haunting take on that tradition. Golden Retriever are from Portland and consist of analog synthesist Matt Carlson and bass clarinetist Jonathan Sielaff . They make glorious slow moving ambient drones, this one appropriately titled 'Pelagic tremor'. Matthew Bourne and the title track from his upcoming new album. Another brilliantly arresting spare piano piece with cello drones. Also The Magnetic Fields singing a song to 1969 and namechecking Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin's '69 Année Erotique, which we also heard. And Edward Williams with one of the great (neglected) soundtrack albums as given a life by Trunk Records - utterly otherworldly and deeply moving. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www....

Mick Harvey has just released his 4th album of Serge Gainsbourg interpretations, the wonderful Intoxicated Women . The first track on it is a great cover of 'Je t'aime', in German ('Ich liebe dich') with the memorable vocals of Andrea Schroeder taking the part of Jane Birkin . Depending on your susceptibility to female sighs and intimations, very possibly not safe for work. Any excuse for a classic cut from the man himself Serge, a bit of Melody Nelson with tremendous orchestrations by Jean Claude Vannier . Benoit Pioulard, August Wells, Happyness, OOIOO all playing around or about these parts soon. Basil Kirchin is a revered cult figure in outsider music (subject of a recent festival in Hull), check his gorgeous mixture of jazz and birdsong/field recordings. And The Saxophones , a sublime late night disquieting dream of a song. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundo...

Another absolute joy of an album of Serge Gainsbourg interpretations from the former Bad Seed (his fourth and apparently final), this time focusing mainly on the outstanding but maybe a shade lesser known back catalogue of duets. It begins with a German language version of ‘Je t’aime (Moin non plus)’. It’s a bold move taking on a nailed on classic first up but there’s no risk really when the material is in such experienced and sympathetic hands. ‘Ich liebe dich (Ich dich auch nicht)’ ranks as one of the all time great Gainsbourg versions, the lead female part taken by the German singer Andrea Schroeder. And I have to say she trumps Jane Birkin in the plausibility stakes, her delivery full of sumptuous exhalations which tail off exquisitely. (Plus those guttural “ch” consonants are all soft and gooey.) Or maybe it’s just that she’s an older woman than Birkin was so her breath seems to carry more meaning, more weight. The effect is not so much sexual as existential and it’s mo...

I picked up a 60’s French Pop compilation recently, put together by Kid Loco, and I’ve been on a bit of a French buzz ever since. The Les Chats Sauvages track is from that, giving the 1st Psych Wave a run for its money. And before that, any excuse for the incomparable greatness of Serge & Jane . We also had two Front & Follow releases, a beautiful remix from the Sone Institute album (pictured, the remix EP is a free d'load through the label from Dec 3rd), and Kemper Norton with the latest in the Collision/Detection series. Great label, that. Another Little Annie/Baby Dee song from the getting better all the time State of grace album; Kyle Forester (Crystal Stilts keyboardist) singing the songs of his friend Joshua Stein ; B Fleischmann brilliantly taking a pop at Bono & Sting; Sfumato with full gospel choir; some lovely flamenco from the upcoming Mice Parade album; and Snow Palms' (Ellis Island Sound's David Sheppard) beautiful instrumental exotica. Plus a...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 211 Tues Mar 6 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 https://rapidshare.com/files/2606149256/The_Underground_Of_Happiness__Mar_6_2012.m4a Playlist AU - Get alive ( playing Shacklewell Arms, London, Apr 25 ) Peter Broderick - I am piano Memoryhouse - This will be our year ( playing Whelan's, Dublin, Mar 24 ) The Zombies - She's not there Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot - Bonnie & Clyde Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin - 69 Année Erotique ( Serge Gainsbourg: Mort 21, Gulpd, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, Mar 11 ) Django Django - Firewater Frankie Rose - Had we had it Field Music - From hide and seek to heartache ( playing Forbidden Fruit Festival, Dublin, June 4 ) Soap&Skin - Wonder Corma...

A couple of other notes to add to the Serge Gainsbourg post yesterday . For anyone in the Los Angeles area, next Sunday would be a good day to get down to the Hollywood Bowl . They're throwing a special event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of SG's death , which features a mouth-watering line-up consisting of Jean-Claude Vannier conducting a full orchestra, as well as Beck, Sean Lennon, Ed Droste (Grizzly Bear), Victoria Legrand (Beach House), and others. Full details here. FFS, I think is the appropriate abbreviation. http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/tickets/performance-detail.cfm?id=4575 Funnily enough, it had passed me by that this year was the 20th anniversary of his death. But this gorgeous looking box-set release by Wrasse Records seems like another worthy tribute. Nice to see they've included 2 full CD's of his songs and scores for films in there. 20th Anniversary Box Set And finally, I also came across this fine article from the Guardian by Nick Ke...

I've been going back through one of my favourite DVD's, Serge Gainsbourg : D'autres nouvelles des étoiles , a 2 x disc compilation of tv appearances, broadcasts and interviews from 1958 to 1989, which Mercury/Universal brought out in 2005. It's fascinating stuff and gives a thorough overview of every stage in Gainsbourg's career, from the early jazz-influenced tunes, to lush string orchestrations, and on to later reggae experiments. (As with everything, I'm sure you might find a free download somehere, but the extensive sleevenotes and credits make it well worth the purchase price.) It was Mick Harvey's Gainsbourg cover albums of the 1990's (interpretations is probably a better word), which my friend Grand Snr turned me on to, that gave me a proper obsession with the man. Those were Intoxicated man (1995) and Pink elephants (1997), both on Mute Records . This was the first time (that I know of) that Gainsbourg's lyrics had been translated into ...