The Underground of Happiness

A playlist from the first half of 2017. Some were reissued this year. One is an extract from a longer piece. Most will be familiar if you're a regular listener. Part 2 of this selection comes up next week. Say hello to Laetitia and friends. Enjoy. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 456 Tues July 18 2017 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/73FkiB Playlist The Comet Is Coming – March of the rising sun ( playing Liverpool Psych Fest, Sept 23 ) Snapped Ankles – Jonny Guitar calling Gosta Berlin Percolator – Crab Supernova Golden Retriever – Pelagic tremor Matthew Bourne – Isotach The Roger Webb Sound – Moon bird (English Weather compilation) Kamasi Washington – Truth (extract) G...

In a way this is the sound of the past. The mid 1980s. Flying Nun Records. A hazy but thrilling jangle. A band of women. Insouciance. Nostalgia can be beautiful. But another way of looking at it (or listening to it) is that this is the sound of now. Psychedelic pop with gauzy back of the room harmonies. Without this the likes of Warpaint wouldn’t exist. In the 80s they operated in a parallel world to The Pixies. One where they used flutes. A more democratic one, maybe. The yang to the yin of The Chills. That fed into all kinds of what was known as indie. A wonderful uncaring looseness. They also call it unselfconscious. With some hard to pinpoint connection to The Go Betweens. A glorious thing to sustain you in hard times.

Slowdive have a first new album in over 20 years. It's great and picks up seamlessly from where they left off. We heard from it and from their shoegaze confreres of the 80s/90s Cocteau Twins , the magnificent swirl of the album Heaven or Las Vegas . The charmingly named Snapped Ankles (pic) have released track 2 and it's another stonking piece of strident electro, not without melody and other intrigue however. Another gorgeous Flying Nun memory from their reissue of Look Blue Go Purple ; new music from This Is The Kit , a beautiful kosmische jam; The Magnetic Fields with memoir, Stonewall riots, feather boas, Serge Gainsbourg, Judy Garland and irresistible tunes. And Manu Louis with a twisted kind of fairground funk with some brass band looney tunes thrown in which is wonderful. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness ...

Some Flying Nun news this week. Dunedin band Look Blue Go Purple reissue 3 x 80s EPs through the legendary NZ label. It's juicy jangly and swoonsome psych pop. Howe Gelb is back on tour, bringing Lonna Kelley and Naim Amor for company. Expect sumptuous lounge tones with to die for smoky vocals and from Naim a French jazz meets Tucson swing. Also getting the reissue treatment is Bert Jansch on Earth Recordings . We took the title track from his wonderful final studio album The black swan (2006). C Duncan is on tour around now. Transcendental vocal magic. And Whyte Horses making genius thrilling psych pop. 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 445 Tues May 2 2017 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) UCC 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/983fm *liste...