The Underground of Happiness

******************************************************************************************************** Bedouine – Back to you (from the album Bedouine , Spacebomb) Another wonderful nugget recorded at Matthew E. White’s Spacebomb hub in Richmond Virginia. The origin though is the voice and songs of Azniv Korkejian born in Syria to Armenian parents but resident in the US for some years. Her voice is an intoxicating thing. Hushed. Softly spoken. Insistent. Containing something of a Carole King about it. Or even a Karen Carpenter maybe. Another time anyway. When there was strength in subtlety and soul was in the nuance as much as the decibels. And the dream of an arrangement behind the perfect match. Gently enervating brass and woodwind. Uplifting top note strings. Beautiful pitter patter bass. A genius falsetto backing vocal that catches me every time. She also has a way with a lyric Ms Korkejian. California city parks They talk in excl...

Something I’ve been thinking about for a while is a cello themed show. Well a little preview in the middle of this week’s show. Penny Rimbaud was in Crass and has made a very interesting new album of treatments of Wilfrid Owen’s war poems, featuring some gorgeous piano and cello. I wouldn’t call it backing, it’s more like a jazz trio with one of the parts being a voice. Also in there is the Andy Nice contribution to the Front & Follow compilation celebrating 10 years in the world, beautiful loops and layers. And Solo Collective teasing out the durational element of this endlessly fascinating instrument. Little Tornados making beguiling dream pop featuring Caroline Sallee of Caroline Says . Who is in there in her own right with one of my favourite songs of the year somehow bridging the gap between bossa nova and kosmische. And Bonny Doon sounding like a young 20s Silver Jews with the poetry and the guitars and the wonderful bittersweet stance on life. More on the...

Another fantastic slice of psych folk boogie from the Parisian resident et sa bande a famille. Certain trademark elements are all in place. Lethally infectious melodies. Baggy dancefloor friendly grooves. A progressive bent but endearingly lightly held. Most of all a glorious horn section adding an extra burst of energy and maybe it’s just me but throwing a nod in the direction of ska on this track perhaps giving a teasing hint at fruitful avenues of exploration for TITK in the future. A wonderful group to have in the world.

A perfectly wonderful twinkling folk boogie from Ms Stables and friends. Things that are good. The circling guitar pattern is adorned with a Buffalo Springfield-esque guitar shimmer. The lovely shuffle groove is capped off by the most amenable horn section heard in some time. It seems so simple until you realise that it isn’t. It doesn’t matter whether it’s simple or not. The beguiling melody hits the spot. It is a beautiful thing.

Some genius Go Betweens on the show this week, just cos, which opens with the immortal line - "remembered your name evidently you've forgotten mine". There's a strand of their greatness about Melbourne band Terry . Something louche something rudimentary yet thrilling. There's a new album soon from Michael Nau who makes the most sublime blissed out narco pop with an absolute angel of a voice. It's all too lovely in a quietly devastating Bob Lind or Harry Nilsson kind of way. Which fits very well with Mr Lee Hazlewood and one of his many wonderful songs of love and regret this one from 1971. And new music from Dent May carving a white soul banger as if Jens Lekman jammed with Hot Chip who had lost their synths and a wonderful uplifting thing it is with dreamy guest vocals from Frankie Cosmos . More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebo...

Slowdive have a first new album in over 20 years. It's great and picks up seamlessly from where they left off. We heard from it and from their shoegaze confreres of the 80s/90s Cocteau Twins , the magnificent swirl of the album Heaven or Las Vegas . The charmingly named Snapped Ankles (pic) have released track 2 and it's another stonking piece of strident electro, not without melody and other intrigue however. Another gorgeous Flying Nun memory from their reissue of Look Blue Go Purple ; new music from This Is The Kit , a beautiful kosmische jam; The Magnetic Fields with memoir, Stonewall riots, feather boas, Serge Gainsbourg, Judy Garland and irresistible tunes. And Manu Louis with a twisted kind of fairground funk with some brass band looney tunes thrown in which is wonderful. More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness ...

Part 2 of this list, out of four in total, the others to follow in January. There will be another Best of Mix also over the next week, stay tuned to Mixcloud. ********************************************************************* 1. Trashcan Sinatras – Let me inside (Or let me out) A monumental year for fans of this treasured Scottish band. A new crowdfunded album, the wonderful Wild pendulum , possibly their best ever work, and tours in America and Europe. And having seen them play live in November, the big insight (other than the obvious genius on show) was the sheer soulfulness of the songs. So yeah, top notch tunes and buckets of soul. I’ll take that any year. http://theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.ie/2016/11/trashcan-sinatras-workmans-club-dublin.html Track 14 in this playlist 2. Britta Phillips – One fine summer morning (from the album Luck or magic, Double Feature) Another artist I saw play live in 2016. In these thoughts from last June, I was zoning...

First show back and a few new albums which came in during the summer break. Robert Forster's 1st solo album in 7 years is a beautiful slow burn of Blonde on Blonde -ish folk moves and faux memoir. Blank Realm , also from Brisbane, are a powerful psych rock beast taking in elements of No Wave on this the opening track from their new album Illegals in heaven . Seminal jangle pop Marxists McCarthy are getting a reissue on Optic Nerve . This is the Kit play Sounds from a Safe Harbour festival in Cork this month. Sublime soul crooning from August Wells . And The Chap being extremely Chappish once again, setting the internet on fire with their electric sound of desire (that excellent line is a quote from the song 'Guitar Messiah'). More on these pages as always. Sept 1 2015 w/ Robert Forster,Blank Realm,Television,August Wells,The Chap,McCarthy,Ergo Phizmiz++ by The Underground Of Happiness on Mixcloud The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music o...

A couple of blinding folk records I've been enjoying in the past week or so. Aldous Harding is a young woman from Christchurch in New Zealand who sings ghostly, gripping folk songs, murder ballads and such, using not much more than an acoustic guitar and her unique voice. She may be young but the songs have an ancient quality. Stunning. Also great is the new Elephant Micah , plangent tales of the world at large feat. forests, 4-legged creatures and the unmistakeable backing vocals of Will Oldham . A couple of token Christmas tunes, but a little off the beam. Gruff Rhys imagining Christmas post apocalypse, a la Cormac McCarthy but as heard through T-Rex, sort of. And Tex Ritter , combining western swing with some social sensibility, a surprisingly apt combination it turns out. Some furious Krautrock from Faust and also their Austrian friends Villalog . New Alasdair Roberts , glorious, some old This is the Kit , who play Ireland this week, lovely trancelike folk. And t...