The Underground of Happiness

And lastly for today, a song that's already much loved around these parts, but a different version. We were on about Submarines , the first single off the new album by Dark Captain , back in August . Here's some film of four of them (I think they can reach seven, if the weather's good) performing an acoustic version of the song at the Lo & Behold gallery in London . It ups the ante on the original in terms of intimate hushed vocals and cunningly replaces the guitar line with a flute. That may not be everyone's cup of tea but I must say it charms the pants off me. Dark Captain - Submarines (Acoustic at Lo & Behold) from Lo+LOAF TV on Vimeo . And for comparison, the superb original. We'll be talking more about the album later in the month.

This East London band used to be called Dark Captain Light Captain , but they've shortened down (I reckon fans used to shorten the name anyway). Their new single carries on very much where the longer band's material left off. Big beat drums, assorted subtle krautrock-type drones, hushed vocals, raindrop piano and a delicate, spindly acoustic guitar line. It's a beautiful tune and likely to worm its way under your skin very quickly. Out August 30th on CD and download. http://soundcloud.com/lo-loaf-recordings/sets/dark-captain-submarines *By the way, the press blurb says " like Fleetwood Mac being chatted up by The Violent Femmes in a bar in which Robert Wyatt is dancing his heart out to minor key club classics ". I love this idea and I want to know if this scenario can be created and documented. I'm sure people would pay money for the privilege. **And for good measure, here's one of the singles from their last album, Miracle kicker , the sublime Jealo...