The Underground of Happiness

New single from the Dublin band showing another intriguing string to their bow. This one leaves previous shoegaze tendencies to one side (apart from a brief interlude midway through) going instead for a strand of post punk fed through a Stereolab filter. The former you can hear in the great strident bass work, uncompromising drumbeat and insistent 2-chord structure. The latter in the second half playout with the love of a gorgeous melody and irresistible overlapping da-da-da vocal by Aoife. 2m39s. This band can go long, they can go short, shallow or deep, noisy or quiet. Whichever way they go, they go with beautiful envelope-pushing pop music. You’re gonna love them long time. Black Window by Princess

Daniel Knox is someone I've come across just lately (thanks to delzer). He's a fascinating character whose backstory is well worth checking out (it involves Chicago and teaching himself piano). Of more interest to us here, he also has a wonderful voice, a rich croon, and is a great songwriter. 'By the venture' has a jaunty cabaret air to it which undercuts the sombre lyric. Brilliant and playing in Europe this month. New single from Virginia Wing , an interesting English band taking on a little of the mantle of Stereolab and Broadcast. Princess , a Dublin band taking shoegaze and fuzz pop into thrilling new directions. Veterans The Monochrome Set are back with another album proving that class is permanent. Dawn of Midi making riveting instrumental music a bit reminiscent of Hauschka. O Emperor taking a fascinating detour into soft pop. And The Drink - is it math pop, is it amped up folk music, is it unhinged nursery rhymes? - who cares, it sounds great. M...

It's just gone 50 years since The Byrds recorded their groundbreaking version of 'Mr Tambourine Man' (thanks J Comic), so time, I thought, for some Gene Clark from 1968, providing the ultimate antidote to the Summer of Love - "Los Angeles, City of Doom". There's a great new single from Myles Manley , top drawer beat-pop and get a load of that keyboard solo which kinda upstages the rest of the song. Twerps also play brilliant off kilter guitar pop. The new Rozi Plain single has a lovely kosmische drift to it. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith also has a cosmic feel, very much in keeping with the title 'Glide' - she plays a Buchla Music Easel, more on that soon. O Emperor's new single takes up where their last album Vitreous left off (tasty psych/prog pop) & Roslyn Steer with some very nice cut up dream pop - both play the Quarter Block Party in Cork next month. And a wonderful long languid psych jam from Dublin band Princess who are out on ...