The Underground of Happiness

One last post before New Year's. This one rounds up some tunes mostly from the second half of the year. It turns out there was a lot of great instrumental music in there. Plus some other material that I think fits with that. Enjoy and see you on the other side. Fixity – Hungry clouds Tortoise – The catastrophist Elias Krantz – Patchwork Pt 1 Syrinx – Aurora spinray Marielle V Jakobsons – Rising light Cavern of Anti-Matter feat. Bradford Cox – liquid gate Melt Yourself Down – Dot to dot The Comet Is Coming – Space carnival Dieterich & Barnes – Parasol gigante Alien Ensemble – Skeleton dance Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Arthropoda Matthew Bourne – Keighley Qluster – Glasperlenspiel Nathan Bowles – Chiaroscuro Lambchop – Flotus Iggy Pop, Tarwater & Alva Noto – As Adam early in the morning/I am he that aches with love Rothko – A young fist curled around a cinder for a wager Wymond Miles – Protection C Duncan – Nothing more Weyes Blood – Generation Why Cool...

A wonderful archive compilation of this Canadian group’s output from the early 1970s. There’s an ecstatic quality to tracks like ‘Aurora spinray’ and ‘Tilicum’, a great kosmische bounce that borders on Eden Ahbez-like exotica in places, in others approaching the blissful pastoral haze of Cluster. Elsewhere you’ll find the gorgeous stretched out electronic jazz trails of ‘Hollywood dream trip’. All round a thoroughly fantastic slice of the 70s underground (although unexpectedly accessible) and a great piece of work by RVNG Intl . Full details below. The two instrumental albums that Syrinx issued in the early 1970s sound little like the psychedelic music prevailing Toronto’s rock venues at the time, and are even further removed from the electronic tape experimentations spooled by a younger John Mills-Cockell. Instead, the path of Syrinx whimsically veers away from the dominant mode of ‘70s subculture, charting surprising commercial success. Tumblers From The Vault...