The Underground of Happiness

We mentioned the sublime ‘Husbands’ from Mr Chris Cummings some weeks ago, that’s Marker Starling under his nom de musique. Next off the very sweet Rosy maze album is the nourishing sound of ‘Uphill battle’. Coming in with a distinct Stevie Winwood feel – with that electric piano it’s inescapable – it preserves that tone through later deceptively smooth soul stylings. Restrained brass swells, those electric piano stabs and a brilliantly offbeat chorus of backing vocals. The backing is so sweet it takes a minute for the painful lyric reflections to register – what’s at stake I can’t say but it’s more than just the vapours of unvarnished pride That same verse has the icing on the cake of a host of comforting ooh-ooh-ooh backing vocals, bringing you right into the realm of classic 60s girl group glory. It’s a low key pleasure this one but there’s a lovely slow burn quality to it that will get you through the rest of those April showers.

We had a number of great male crooners on this week's show (I feel a special coming on...), starting with Adrian Crowley , the slightly heartbroken variety, then Daniel Knox , a jauntier cabaret style, later Jon De Rosa , a classic 50s style with gravitas, and Marker Starling who comes under blue eyed soul more, with a great pathos under the smoothness. Stewart Lee has not to my knowledge sung on record before but he has now, covering Shirley Collins with Stuart Estel for a tribute album to mark her 80th year coming out on Earth Recordings for Record Store Day . Virginia Wing , making intriguing psych pop; Colleen making meditational dub sounds; Jessica Pratt , bending time with a sublime folk cut. And Moondog , the man himself making oh so sweetly challenging "classical" music with daughter June on vocals from 1970, and then his influence on Kenny Graham from 1956, which comes out like some wonderful interplanetary exotica. More on these pages. *No podca...

There’s an automatic association for Steely Dan, I think, a kind of signature sound. It’s electric piano and of course Donald Fagen’s creamy and nasal vocal tones. These are also the key touchstones in this intoxicating single from Chris Cummings of Toronto who goes under Marker Starling (he previously used Mantler ). He’s been a stalwart of the underground Toronto scene for quite a few years but I think this is the first music of his I’ve heard. Sombre electric piano chords and a fine lived-in croon (somewhat reminscient of Donald Fagen) introduce a song that seems at first to be about a semi-absurd encounter with a stag group on an airplane. However, over the course of a few short verses the focus shifts onto the protagonist himself, prompting a kind of philosophical meditation. There’s a delicious jazz-pop key change midway through with meandering vibes solo and the woodwind/reed backing rising to the fore which is followed by a distinct deviation in lyrical tone. “...

We started this week with a riff on a kosmische theme. Villalog are an Austrian duo on the Faust label Bureau B . They have plenty of motorik rhythms too but this tune has a beautiful ambient drift to it. And Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith making transcendant electronic music which manages to have a playful undercurrent, which is great. More from Noveller , Sarah Lipstate, creating epic instrumentals with one guitar. Grasscut , a kind of chamber pop with a pastoral tone. A treasure from The Go Betweens from 1984's Spring Hill Fair album (which by the way is cruelly underrated, even by Go Betweens' standards), sounding a little like Orange Juice who of course the band were friends with at the time. New Bjork , break up analysis with heartwrenching orchestrations. New This is the Kit , serene folk music with timeless drones. Two male-female duos, one Swedish, one Australian. More from Death & Vanilla (great reverb-drenched psych pop) and new from Elstow (lovely hazy dre...

Photo: Simone Della Fornace www.flickr.com/softblackstar I had the great pleasure of exchanging correspondence recently with Little Annie . As you know, I was a huge fan of her album with Baby Dee last year on Tin Angel Records , State of grace . It had a great dignity about it, some wonderful instrumentation (especially Dee’s fluid piano playing at the core of it) and it brilliantly evoked real life, earthily, through a kind of debauched New York prism. That moniker “Little” is no word of a lie by the way, she really is very dainty and looks like a puff of wind might blow her over. I know this because I was lucky enough to see her play live as well in Cork at the Southern Gothic Festival earlier in May, with Baby Dee and backed by a double bass player and violinist. In fact, she was carrying a walking stick that evening as a result of a leg injury, she told us. I wrote a review of that gig for WeAreNoise , here it is – http://wearenoise.com/index.php/2013/05/souther...

More from the great new William Tyler album this week – he plays Ireland in May – and paired with another beautiful instrumental, along more ambient lines, from show favourite Slow Place Like Home . Belfast’s Girls Names also have a fine album out, we had some of their moody New Wave stylings. Also K-X-P , soon to visit Ireland as well, with their new version of kraut-disco; John Grant’s searching self-analysis; The Vincent(s)’ debut single; the beautiful chamber pop of Liam Singer ; the sweeping synth pop of Monocle ; new singles also from Elephant, Eleanor Friedberger and Woman’s Hour . And an archive treasure from the wonderful Trunk Records , an album of songs sung by actor Bernard Cribbins (pic), from which we heard the Lerner & Lowe classic from My Fair Lady ‘I’ve grown accustomed to her face’, not so much crooned as caressed lovingly. Mar 19 2013 show w/ William Tyler, KXP, Little Annie&Baby Dee, The Vincent(s),John Grant, Girls Name by Theundergroundofhappines...

Some reviews now of the music that's been featured regularly on the show over the last few weeks, starting with Little Annie & Baby Dee . This is the label blurb for the album. “ State Of Grace is a record that covers love, loss, leaving and the confusion of time. It features collaborations with such luminaries and modern mavericks as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Eric Chenaux, Chris Cundy (Guillemots, Cold Specks) and Jordan Hunt (Irrepresibles, Hidden Cameras). Little Annie aka Annie Anxiety Bandez, is a smokey contralto, raconteur and restless spirit who has spent the last 30 years creating a body of work that would take much more space than available here to list. Baby Dee is an enchanting composer, performance artist, classically trained harpist, circus sideshow veteran, and transgender street legend .” A thrilling, invigorating record bringing Baby Dee’s brilliantly fluid piano work together with Little Annie’s thoroughly lived-in (the definition of authentic) voice o...

We started the show this week with XTC from an album I only picked up again over the weekend, having "lost" it years ago, the great Apple Venus . River of orchids is such a strange but uplifting piece of music, Andy Partidge's vocal is brilliantly unhinged. There's a new Hauschka remix album out in the new year, we had Michael Mayer's lovely, slow building house re-do of Radar . He's the head of the Kompakt label, based in Cologne, and with Hauschka/Volker Bertelmann from Dusseldorf, that's an axis of current German electronic music right there. Jon DeRosa was back again with the gorgeous Snow coffin , the most moving anti-war song in a long time (at least I think I detect a war comment in it). Get Well Soon also in there, with another epic piece of orchestral, sweeping pop music, using Italian 60s/70s film music as his (Konstantin Gropper) drawing board, Rota, Argento, Morricone and the like. Also TOPS' nice New Wave sound, Seti The First...

The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Playlist 216 Tues Apr 10 2012 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://rapidshare.com/files/1918479595/The_Underground_Of_Happiness_Apr_10_2012.m4a Playlist The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock - The Tarentella ( playing Triskel Christchurch, Cork, Apr 12, w/ Barry McCormack ) Grand Pocket Orchestra - Andy has the power of a million men ( playing The Pavilion, Cork, Apr 12, w/ Saint Yorda ) Trumpets of Jericho - PURE LO/E, LIKE ( playing The Pavilion, Cork, Apr 14, w/ Myles Manley ) Alexander Tucker - Third mouth ( playing Triskel Christchurch, Cork, May 12, w/ James Blackshaw ) West Norwood Cassette Library - Collision bump (Collision/Detection v2) Seb Rochford & LV - Sugah sweet (Days & Nights at the Takeaway 3) S...

The Middle East - Jesus came to my birthday party (PIAS, single) This great swinging folk-rock tune has a distinct flavour of Sparklehorse at his laconic best. From the album I want that you are always happy . Roshi feat. Pars Radio - To bio (Rif Mountain, from the Mehregan EP) Prepare to be enchanted and transported by Welsh-born-of-Iranian-descent Roshi Nasehi on vocals and electronic backing by Graham Dids (Pere Ubu). The title translates from Farsi as " Come to me beloved " and the mood has an appropriate emotional heft to it, with deft, minimal soundscapes adding colour. A voice capable of making a name for Iranian folk music. Larsen - Annie's rap (Tin Angel Records, from the album Cool cruel mouth ) A monotonous ringing guitar, an ominous bass tone, a freestyle drum pattern, then a female monologue recounts a strangely gripping tale of getting an early drink in midtown Manhattan. She meets a man in a bar who offers to buy her a drink, to which she repli...

Julia Kent - Green and grey (Tin Angel Records) This second album by the Canadian (she used to be part of the Antony and the Jonsons touring band) might sound a bit off-putting on paper - solo cello, layered, with field recordings. Don't be put off, it's one of the most beautiful instrumental collections you'll hear in a while. For example, the cinematic poise of Pleiades . Or the gorgeous thrum of Acquario 's opening bars with background lapping water, followed by the romantic sweep of several entwined cello parts. The majestic Overlook makes me think of tragic French films. Simply, it's beautiful, beautiful music. Highly recommended. Interview from 2009: Playing Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona, May 26-28