The Underground of Happiness

Friday Trek to campsite. Find bearings. Admire grounds. Time for Lankum in the tent. Crowd love it. Sound is great but I am largely unmoved. See Chapter 9. That night the rain. Mud skiing. The Kraken Bar in the woods. Because it had a roof. And rum. Saturday The sun comes back out. Still ample mud for thigh workouts. Glasshouse play Joni Mitchell on the bandstand. Hearing Canada in the sunshine here is one of those perfect festival/life moments. One of the singers is Rachael Lavelle . More on her later in this series. Ringo Bingo in the kids area. A welcome diversion. Also clean toilets. Lisa O’Neill on the main stage. I’ve been agnostic but she is great here. Including a rousing cover of Black boys on mopeds by Sinéad O’Connor. Black Country New Road in the tent. Very interesting chamber/prog pop vibe. Your man right of stage immediately endears himself to me by announcing he’s had Beamish for the first time the day before – at a Guinness-sponsored fe...

A fantastic musical curio taking in naive pop, folk, jazz and Indian classical music. The song is written by the great Scottish songwriter Ivor Cutler , the band is James Yorkston , renowned Scottish folk musician, double bass player Jon Thorne and Indian classical singer and sarangi player Suhail Khan . They make something lithe and supple and swoonsome. Irish singer Lisa O’Neill , someone whose own work I personally haven’t dug up to now, adds a lovely dual vocal turn. I’m sitting here on the top of the world with my little black buzzer beside me My bum is cold and my face is white and this is my message to you as a bass pulse dots the backdrop and assorted drones (sarangi, nyckelharpa?) swoop and slide. Later Khan’s devotional singing just crowns it, a beautiful percussive instrument against the drones. It's a sweet and lovely thing which takes the charming strangeness of the original and turns it into something ancient sounding.

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...