The Underground of Happiness

The human voice. Singers. Vocalists. Solo. In groups. Harmonies. Dissonance. A capella. Sotto voce. Screeches. Swoops. Croons. Devotional. An attack. A glide. A growl. A swoon. A yearning. Jazz. Blues. Folk. Pop. Psych. Electro. Classical. Doo Wop. Whatever. Sometimes the simple effect of massed voices. Sometimes singing just for the joy of it. Sometimes a voice not technically great but still with something great about it. Intonations are involved too. Maybe not even words. A voice below the brain. Giving breath to feelings. Backing vocals. Sometimes so crucial and innovative they are the true heart of a song. Backing vocals that don’t deserve to be called backing. Some of my favourite singers and vocal arrangements and performances. Enjoy. ************************************************** Playlist Cocteau Twins – Cherry coloured funk (4AD) Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares – Pilentzee Pee (4AD) Julianna Barwick – The magic place (Asthmat...

New John Parish album coming soon. The first song from it is a remembrance of the late Mark Linkous feat. PJ Harvey , both of whom worked with Linkous. And some wonderful slowcore Americana from the man himself. Gone too soon, 8 years already. Bedouine plays Dublin in May, a sublime slice of soulful folk from her debut album. Both Fixity and The Bonk playing live shows this month. Sample their brilliantly atmospheric mongrel jazz. And Lee Hazlewood giving expression to a mature years world view with grace and genius string arrangements. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 485 Tues Apr 10 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/UJAsbD Playlist Sparklehorse – Homecoming queen John Parish feat PJ Harvey – Sorry fo...

The first show of 2016 had some great new music from Tortoise , luscious shifting grooves from their new album The catastrophist Noveller , more epic soundscapes from one guitar, new album No dreams Josephine Foster , characterful vocal troubador songs, new album No more lamps in the morning . And some further fond memories from 2015 in the shape of Daniel Knox , endearing cabaret bounce Rozi Plain , beautiful kosmische type folk, both playing Cork's Quarter Block Party in February. And Lee Hazlewood from 1966, taking a leaf from Morricone, with massed vocals and bending strings...marvellous. More on these pages - check the Best of 2015 posts for more detail on my favourite music of last year. Jan 5 2016 w/ Tortoise, Noveller, Rajasthan Express, Josephine Foster, The Drink, Daniel Knox ++ by The Underground Of Happiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com ww...

The wonderful Light in the Attic Records has been pursuing a raft of Lee Hazlewood reissues in recent years and what a beautiful thing that is. This winter saw the reissue of his three MGM records from the mid 1960s. In the wake of ‘These boots are made for walkin’’, the smash hit in early 1966 written by Lee for Nancy Sinatra , LH was given the run of the studio with his pick of the cream of session talent. This was what came to be known as the ‘Wrecking Crew’ and the personnel on these albums includes such greats as Glen Campbell, Chuck Berghofer, Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Al Casey and Larry Knechtel. There’s a whole bunch of treasures on all three albums ( Its cause and cure and Something special are the others) but I would have to say that LH hit a particularly rich seam on the first one, The Very Special World of Lee Hazlewood . In fact, the first half of the album alone contains at least four all time classics in the genre LH invented, that strain of world weary, sumpt...

Another extended show this week, great to have time to pull out a few old treasures, along with the huge backlog of excellent recent releases, plus music from acts on tour in the autumn. The former category, 'Bonnie & Clyde' by Serge & Brigitte , that inspired and ageless slice of psych pop with the best ever "woo-hoo" in pop music (the giddy playfulness between them is a lovely subtext); Donnie & Joe Emerson , two Oregon farming brothers making bedroom pop sound fucking essential in 1979; and Cluster making pastoral, sky-gazing kosmische. The latter category, Amen Dunes , bringing their beautiful 1000 yard drones to Ireland this month; likewise Sean Nicholas Savage (pic), gorgeous bedroom soul from Montreal; SlowPlaceLikeHome , fuzzy and warm electronica from Donegal; Tennis , heart-melting white soul. And Pye Corner Audio , bringing the autobahn compellingly to English underground pop. Sept 9 2014 Hr 1 w/ Serge & Brigitte,Amen Dunes,Sean ...

*Thank you to my UCC 98.3FM colleague Jim Morrish for pointing me in the direction of this. From the endlessly nurturing source that is the wonderful LITA , another hidden pop gem unearthed from a time when punk and disco were going head to head. I’ve seen the phrase “bedroom pop jam” used in connection with this and it’s a good starting point. Two brothers in rural Oregon, funded by their farming father, producing the sweetest blue-eyed soul. You can see why Ariel Pink would be into it.

Over the summer, in among the piles of great new music arriving, I became more than slightly obsessed with one song from 1972. It was contained on the great compilation Our lives are shaped by what we love: Motown's Mowest Story 1971-1973 , brought out by the wonderful Light in the Attic label. The song in question is the first track on the album, You're a song (that I can't sing) , by Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons . Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track down a video or full listening link for it, but you will find a 30 second sample on the LITA website here (there's some other top class tunes on it too, from the likes of Odyssey, Sister Love and G.C. Cameron ). http://lightintheattic.net/releases/572-our-lives-are-shaped-by-what-we-love-motown-s-mowest-story-1971-73 As you'll see on that page, the label was the brainchild of Berry Gordy , the Motown boss, an idea to transfer the Detroit operation to the west coast, and launch a west-coast ver...