The Underground of Happiness

Beguling naive pop (or avant pops as they have called it in the past) with brass and reed from the Japanese duo. Piano trumpet and a clarinet take most of the load making gorgeous circling patterns. Saya Ueno’s vocal is the cherry leading the melody where the other instruments follow. Sometimes simple things are the most beautful. And affecting. Track 9 in this playlist

Bright and breezy pop concoctions which we can call quirky and they rescue that word from oblivion by returning to the root, with a playful wide-eyed sense of adventure and a couldn’t give a fuck quality which is endearing all on its own. Then add the sheer weight of hooks and ideas, musical and lyrical. Here’s some background. The second album from UK/Japanese group Smile Down Upon Us is released by wiaiwya on deluxe vinyl, in a delightful gatefold sleeve designed by artist Yuji Maruyama, on Record Store Day, April 18 (a CD version is released in Japan soon after). It’s a delicate, intimate, playful record that’s equal parts Cibo Matte pop, Vernon Elliott soundtrack and animated Marc Chagall painting, its music a perfect navigation between childlike wonderment, impish eccentricity and sophisticated intricacy. Smile Down Upon Us is the duo of London-based multi-instrumentalist Keiron Phelan (littlebow, Phelan-Sheppard, Silver Servants, etc.) and Tokyo-resident singer/elec...

One of the best albums of this year was the collaboration between the veteran Scottish pianist Bill Wells and ex-Arab Strap man Aidan Moffat , Everything's getting older on Chemikal Underground (go here to refresh your memory). Wells has a new album coming out on Double 6 next week, Lemondale , for which he recruited a host of Japanese musicians for one day's recording in Tokyo , as well as Jim O'Rourke , who lives there now I believe. The press release has this nice detail - Musicians that had never met and had come from different sides of the tracks suddenly found themselves together in the same recording booth. Tori Kudo, self proclaimed Japanese 'King Of Error' was coupled with virtuoso pianist Satoko Fuji, a classically trained graduate of Berkley Music College in Boston. The recording also brought together instruments as seemingly incongruent and unrelated as a modified electric fan played by Tetsuya Umeda and the entirely unique and heavenly voices of Sa...