The Underground of Happiness

A few great new things on this week's show. Julia Kent back with another album of searching layered cello instrumentals (interview with her on the blog from 2014, see Interview section to the right). Another track from new album by The Drink , like The Fall same idea as before but completely different. And a few bands in the middle from a new compilation of ORK Records 45s, a label built around CBGBs in New York around the mid 1970s. The Feelies, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Television , mapping out pop music for the next 30 years. Plus the sweet ambient dream pop drift of Chloe March . Colin Bluntstone's bossa nova, The Zombies' baroque brilliance. And Low with the most sublime husband and wife harmonies. More on these pages. Oct 6 2015 w/ Julia Kent,The Drink,Low,HeCTA, The Zombies,Richard Hell,Television,Feelies++ by The Underground Of Happiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergro...

A round up of my favourite music of the year to date, a show which went out a couple of weeks ago before the summer break. Another belting set of tunes I must say and there was another whole bunch that didn't fit into the hour. So another great year for music, basically. I'll keep the preamble short here as you'll find plenty more around these pages on the artists listed below. Enjoy. July 28 2015 - Best of 2015 (Jan - July) by The Underground Of Happiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 366 Tues July 28 2015 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 https://goo.gl/PhSV4Z Playlist Kathryn Joseph - The want ( playing Summerhall, Edinburgh, Aug 12, w/ Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat ) ...

A wonderful return for ex-Cardiacs man William D Drake joined by friends from North Sea Radio Orchestra and Stars in Battledress among others, combining folk threads with medieval, British dancehall, sea shanties and avant garde musics. You’ll be hard pushed to restrain yourself when you hear opener ‘Distant buzzing’ with an irresisitible stomping rhythm lead by a winning sax honk and endearingly antique lyrics by Mr James Kelsey-Fry. Thereafter, enjoy the shanty swing with melodica of ‘Lifeblood’, the startling slave mutiny anthem ‘Heart of oak’ and the meditative medieval choral atmosphere of ‘Be here steryear’ with Drake’s constantly searching wrongfooting piano chords. ‘The Catford Clown’ comes on like a modern day madrigal, twirling melodies and undefined time signatures, until the breakdowns near the end which countenance heavy metal. By flirting with the spectre of ‘the novelty song’ the scathing satire of the lyric and wonderful instrumental technique are thinly an...

There's a new album by William D Drake who used to be in Cardiacs . It's another wonderful combination of folk with medieval with avant garde and overflowing with great tunes. One of them was in the middle of this week's show, the swinging 'Lifeblood'. New (to me) music also from Kathryn Joseph , a compelling singer from Glasgow, and Flo Morrissey an English folk artist who would remind you a lot of Alela Diane , always a good thing. The Apartments are having one of their albums reissued by Captured Tracks. One of The Apartments Peter Walsh was briefly in The Go Betweens , in fact two of the latter's songs were about him. Sounds like a double play made in heaven. Marcus Hamblett we've had on the show a couple of wks ago. A sublime semi-instrumental from his album would put you in mind of Ennio Morricone so we had him next to Il Maestro this week. And Those Unfortunates who've written a cracking garage rock tune in tribute to Malcolm McDow...

So anyway, I mentioned something in the William D. Drake review a couple of months back that I wanted to come back to. At the time, I said that the instrumental track Ziegler from his album, The Rising of the Lights , reminded me of the Wanderly Wagon theme tune. For the uninitiated, this was an Irish children's tv show from the 1970's, focused around the wide-eyed genius of puppeteer, the late Eugene Lambert . (For those of another generation, it also regularly featured the actor Frank Kelly - Father Jack from Father Ted - as the bungling evil wizard Dr Astro.) So here's the theme tune. Listening back to it now, it starts with more of a Beach Boys feel, with that signature alternating left-hand-right-hand keyboard style, before launching into full prog-rock glory with a creamy guitar solo. Nothing like Ziegler , in fact. Which sounds more like this. Ziegler by William D Drake Is that clarinet, harmonium and hurdy-gurdy together in the one piece of music? Brilliant...