The Underground of Happiness

I haven’t had my eye on Montreal I realised. Sometimes happens, says you. Then I got an e-mail from the lovely Plugd Events people about upcoming shows at Triskel Arts Centre here in Cork. Among the Amen Dunes and Girl Band listings was the unknown-to-me Sean Nicholas Savage . “Once a staple of Montreal's all-night illegal party scene” ran the tag. Intriguing already, wouldn’t you agree? (And by the way shouldn’t every city worth its salt have an all-night illegal party scene?) I did a bit of digging and found a beguiling brand of bedroom soul, a concoction of home-made beats, gentle guitar picks and trashy synths, with the coup de grace of Mr Savage’s yearning high register vocal. I arrived at this year’s album Bermuda Waterfall which has a series of memorable underground (all-night/illegal) pop tunes. But I’m highlighting ‘Heartless’, it really is the most beautiful and poignant thing. I suppose because it has such potentially cheesy elements – drum pads rescued from...

We played some new music from Claire Boucher , aka Grimes , from Montreal on the show the other week. Genesis is her first release under the 4AD umbrella (and what an ample, pleasant, accommodating umbrella it is), ahead of a new album Visions later in the year. Her album on Lo Recordings , Halfaxa , made quite an impression around here last year (check the Best of 2011 Review here ), and the new song is in a similar vein of murky electronica with jittery beats and ethereal, layered vocals - intriguing and fairly uncategorisable really. There's some video for the track from Yours Truly below. She plays a whole host of European dates in the summer, including at the Primavera Festival in Barcelona, Field Day in London and Forbidden Fruit in Dublin . Yourstru.ly presents: Grimes "Genesis" from Yours Truly on Vimeo .