The Underground of Happiness

A playlist for Spring. Things growing. There is sun but in this part of the world it's still weak. A cooling sun (with thanks to Jessica Risker , see below). Enjoy. Playlist 487 – May 2018: A cooling sun Modern Studies – Young sun (Fire Records) ( playing The Lexington, London, May 28 ) Nightports w/ Matthew Bourne – Exit (The Leaf Label) ( Matthew Bourne playing Leeds Jazz Festival, July 22 ) Jack Hayter – The mulberry tree at Abbey Wood (Gare du Nord) Sebastian Reynolds – Mahajanaka (Remix by Emseatee) Laurence Pike – Cloud and wires (The Leaf Label) Alasdair Roberts, David McGuinness, Amble Skuse – Long a-growing (Drag City) ( Alasdair Roberts, playing Campfire Club, London, Sept 14 ) Spindle Ensemble – Panic amongst the dragonflies (Adderwell Music) ( playing The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol, May 20 ) Moondog – Voices of spring (CBS/BGO Records) Death & Vanilla – Free Design Kung-Fu (live, The Tenant) (Fire Records) Ennio Morricone with the Czech Nat...

On the face of it you might not think much connects these too. One was a 1960s folk singer songwriter whose deceptively subversive tunes got the fabulous Jack Nitzsche production treatment and who later faded from pop view. The other was blind from early in life who taught himself music and dressed as a Viking to busk on 6th Avenue in New York and whose music has influenced some of the most important composers of the late 20th century (Reich, Nyman, others). But a while back I was playing ‘Counting’ on the show and something about it made me think of Moondog. The arrangements are not very alike. One is a waltz and builds on a bed of thrumming acoustic guitar and an insistent triangle/chime assisted by glorious strings. The other is in wrongfooting 5/4 time (or is it 10/8?) and builds on a simple drum pattern with throbbing sawed violins before the onset of marvellous brass and reed conjunctions. It’s as if ‘Counting’ lives in the pop music world but has an...

We didn't have Ariana Grande on the show this week but we did have a great contemporary Manchester artist. Jane Weaver's new album is a brilliant mix of psych pop and synth driven kosmische and fittingly there's a heartfelt and poignant tone to it. Moondog is always good music to lift the spirit, sitting somewhere between classical and folk but not neatly in either camp. Some folk cuts. Joan Shelley with the most delicate and sublime of folk voices, James Elkington with a lovely baroque folk twist of fingerpicked guitar with cello, Harry Taussig & Max Ochs with a light playful touch of American Priitive. Lee Hazlewood from his Swedish sojourn, always great to hear. And from the English Weather compilation, a brilliant folk-exotica track from The Roger Webb Sound . More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twit...

We had a number of great male crooners on this week's show (I feel a special coming on...), starting with Adrian Crowley , the slightly heartbroken variety, then Daniel Knox , a jauntier cabaret style, later Jon De Rosa , a classic 50s style with gravitas, and Marker Starling who comes under blue eyed soul more, with a great pathos under the smoothness. Stewart Lee has not to my knowledge sung on record before but he has now, covering Shirley Collins with Stuart Estel for a tribute album to mark her 80th year coming out on Earth Recordings for Record Store Day . Virginia Wing , making intriguing psych pop; Colleen making meditational dub sounds; Jessica Pratt , bending time with a sublime folk cut. And Moondog , the man himself making oh so sweetly challenging "classical" music with daughter June on vocals from 1970, and then his influence on Kenny Graham from 1956, which comes out like some wonderful interplanetary exotica. More on these pages. *No podca...