The Underground of Happiness

A great collection to mark 10 years of the Manchester-based label featuring 25 artists who have graced its releases over that time. My own personal highlights are – the beautiful delicate cello lines of Andy Nice the bracing pre-modern overbowed violin swells of Laura Cannell the compelling folk narratives of The Doomed Bird of Providence the wonderful loops and samples of Sone Institute building guitar slides and phrases with birdsong and electronic pulses. It warms the heart and the ears that this label is alive in the world. LESSONS by Various Artists

Another compelling release from Mark Kluzek and friends which builds on previous explorations of early Australian colonial history. It is wonderfully atmospheric and evocative, thick with drama and intrigue underscored by sawing strings and rowdy percussion. This treatment gives a kind of doom folk meets cabaret feel, an incongruous but authentic sound very much supportive of the subject matter. For their forthcoming release The Doomed Bird of Providence have been busy developing musical pieces based on one person who perhaps no one would know about were it not for some of the historical reseach taking place in Tasmania. That person is Maria Murray, a woman born into slavery in British Honduras (now Belize) in the early 19th century. Her story took many turns, often for the worst but sometimes for the better. The song ‘Fedicia Exine’ from the band’s first album ‘Will Ever Pray’ is loosely based on her life and that of her child – Fedicia. This EP attempts create a bro...

New music this week from The Doomed Bird of Providence , an English-based folk ensemble who play the songs of Mark Kluzek , an Australian who has been researching his native country's early colonial history for some years and translating it compellingly into song. The new You brought the knife EP traces the life of one Maria Murray, a former slave and convict who forged a new life down under, amid rugged strings and brilliant no nonsense colloquial vocals. Qluster (yes with a Q) is Hans Joachim Roedelius with Onnen Bock and Armin Metz all on piano making gorgeous meditative music which still retains an ambient undercurrent. New/old guitar instrumental from William Tyler , his first EP is reissued on Merge. Laetitia Sadier tours the UK this month, anyone there should check out her sublime cosmic soul from the last album. Virginia Wing are at Liverpool Psych Fest in September, another great live band from what I've heard. The Jean Paul Sartre Experience , classic Flying ...

One of the things I consistently welcomed in 2012 was the arrival of the latest in the Collision/Detection series on the Front & Follow label. This is an audio project whereby artists submit audio clips into a pot, and then draw from that pot to create new sounds. We’re on to v7 now and it sees the return of The Doomed Bird of Providence (at least to my world). Here’s the full blurb on what’s contained. 1. In the terror of the moment This piece was written to accompany the climatic scene towards the end of the 1927 film adaption of Marcus Clarke's 'For the Term of His Natural Life'. It involves a ship sinking on stormy seas and the two main characters anticipating watery graves. 2. Safety at sea Written for part of a 20 minute 'safety at sea' documentary involved lightships, lighthouses and model boats often replacing real ones for the more dramatic scenes. It is possibly the most jolly piece of music ever released by the band. 3. Seabound Writ...

We've mentioned The Doomed Bird of Providence in these pages several times this year (go here and here to refresh your memory.) Their excellent album Will ever pray on Front & Follow is one of my favourites of 2011. The Manchester label have just announced a single from the band, containing two new songs, although they tie in closely with the content of the earlier album. The Bell of the Jardines features enterprise, kidnap, ambition and finally leprosy on the high seas off Australia's north-east coast, in the life story of one Frank Jardine . It's really stirring stuff, driven along by wailing fiddles, see-sawing accordions and a thundering marching drum. It comes across like The Bad Seeds in bed with The Pogues, with a compelling singing narrator in ex-pat Aussie Mark Kluzek . Folk music like they don't make any more (well, very few anyway). The death flurry employs electric guitar and bass further forward in the mix to brilliantly convey the visceral terr...

Qluster - Haste Tone (Bureau B, from the album Fragen ) From Hans-Joachim Roedelius, who (along with Dieter Moebius and others) brought you Kluster, Cluster and Harmonia, and sound installationist Onnen Bock. Meditative, swelling synths ebb and flo like the tide, punctuated by discreet bells and obscure gurglings, until a beautiful piano and flute duo sails into view. Sublime stuff from a master. QLUSTER - LIVE PREVIEW 2011 from luma launisch on Vimeo . Cashier No. 9 - Lost at sea (Bella Union, from the album To the death of fun ) An uplifting wall of 60's sound, with a melancholy vocal in the middle and a lonesome harmonica in the wings, from the Belfast band's David Holmes-produced debut album. Tympani and castanets make up the intriguing supporting cast. There's the glorious whiff of the Brill building about the songwriting too. And here's the equally great first single from the album, Goldstar , sounding a shade like The Stone Roses taken in hand by Lee H...

We spoke about the above mini-album recently, a companion to the current Doomed Bird of Providence album, Will ever pray , which is wonderful. Well there's more, in the shape of a Sone Institute remix of the same track. You need to go here to stream it. http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/6679/ It's very woozy without losing any of the drama of the original. By the way, as you're at it, check the Sone Institute album of last year, Curious memories , and the Dollboy meets Sone Institute collaboration, The sum and the difference , both on Front & Follow . This is what I thought of them at the time, with listening links added. Sone Institute – Curious memories (Front & Follow) Beguiling album of Burt Bacharach tones and gorgeous orchestrations, in among the cut-and-paste glitches and samples, from one man electronic wiz Roman Bezdyk. Here's the absolutely sublime French woods from that album. Sone Institute - French Woods by beneshmade Various A...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 178 Tues May 31st 2011 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) Cork Campus Radio, 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr *listen back to this show at https://rapidshare.com/files/157275358/UOH_Podcast_May_31_2011.mp3 Playlist The Phoenix Foundation - Bitte bitte ( playing Forbidden Fruit Festival, Dublin, June 4; Glastonbury Festival, June 25 ) Colourmusic - Yes ( playing Forbidden Fruit Festival, Dublin, June 4 ) Thomas Truax - Free as fireflies in May The Doomed Bird of Providence - Fedicia Exine (Position Normal remix) William D. Drake - In an ideal world Cardiacs - Day is gone Other Lives - For 12 The Middle East - Jesus came to my birthday party Nik Freitas - Saturday night underwater ( playing Columbiahalle, Berlin, June 19, w/ Bright Eyes ) B.I.L.L. - Lovely ending Rutman's Ste...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 175 Tues May 10th 2011 11.00am-12.00pm (repeated on Tuesdays 8.30pm) Cork Campus Radio, 98.3FM listen live on the web at www.ucc.ie/ccr *listen back to this show at https://rapidshare.com/files/461724248/UOH_Podcast_May_10_2011.mp3 Playlist Gang Gang Dance - Glass jar ( playing Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona, May 26-28 ) The Doomed Bird of Providence - Fedicia Exine Secret Cities - The park ( playing Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London, May 14 ) Julianna Barwick - The magic place ( playing Unitarian Church, Dublin, May 20 ) Josh T. Pearson Interview Interview Excerpt Part I Josh T. Pearson - Drive her out Interview Excerpt Part II Josh T. Pearson - Woman, when I've raised hell ( playing Barbican Theatre, London, Nov 26, w/ guests tba ) *d'load full interview here http://conorot.podomatic.com/...

It's quite unusual to find an album that is the result of, in effect, a research project. What a bonus when the music has a mysterious and compelling quality (although we partly guessed as much based on the band's fine eponymous EP of last year). The research in question, by singer Mark Kluzek , focuses on early Australian history and reveals harrowing tales of death and delinquency in the inhospitable tropics and on the high seas. The tales of various miscreants and misfortunates are recounted against a suitable backdrop of folk laments and dirges (violin and accordion are prominent throughout). In fact, the strength of the stories suggests a theatrical setting. Fedicia Exine deserves special mention, a song about "the little-known daughter of a convict" deported to Van Diemen's Land for murder. It contains a heartstopping moment a few minutes in when the drones drop out momentarily to be replaced by a light, airy folk tune on guitar, only for the narrator to re...

An album that's been consuming my brain over the last few days is the new Doomed Bird of Providence , Will ever pray , on the Front & Follow label. It's a set of songs drawing on historical accounts of the early days of colonial Australia. Think dirges, dark waltzes, folk music with a tragic underbelly, and a deep foundation of accordion and droning strings holding it up. I'll have more to say on the album at the end of the month once I've digested it all (it's fairly dense, on first listen). If you've been into anything Black Heart Procession or The Dirty Three have done, you'll love it I'd say. Here's a sample. The Doomed Bird of Providence - Fedicia Exine by frontandfollow