The Underground of Happiness

The new Astronauts album is out in a couple of weeks. Sit back and enjoy again the first single 'Civil Engineer', hushed but insistent. A Dyjecinski releases his debut album tonight, and a highly entertaining slew of lugubrious country lounge it is. Upcoming shows - Anderson in Cork, Hookworms in Dublin, Lail Arad at End of the Road, The Comet Is Coming in London. And Robert Forster coming to Dublin in May (the w'end before Primavera ). More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 398 Tues Apr 19 2016 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://goo.gl/heTwsT Playlist JR Green – Do the Katie-step ( playing Great Escape Festival, Brighton, May 19-21 ) A. Dyjecinski – Dead hor...

A couple of new albums to tell you about this week. Jaako Eino Kalevi (thanks Albert/Plugd) is a Finnish dude with a lovely line in bedroom pop meets Scandi-soul and a bit of electro pop on the side. Emma Pollock does great things on her new album with chamber pop and bitter memories. Still loving the Iggy Pop project with Tarwater and Alva Noto , interpreting the poetry of Walt Whitman (you heard me). And courtesy of Trunk Records , sumptuous library music by Armando Sciascia . More on these pages. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy Playlist 390 Tues Feb 23 2016 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://goo.gl/0FmMNH Playlist Girls Names – Pittura infamante ( playing Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Feb 26, w/ Gros...

This song came into my life last week. And at the moment, it feels like my life is divided into the time before I heard it, and the time since. It's a fantastic slice of dreamy, bittersweet psych pop that is liable to haunt/soundtrack your waking hours. I've become quite obsessed with the way the bass and keys enter at different points to competely shift the mood of the arrangement. The woman responsible is Melody Prochet . My information on her is quite sketchy. She may or may not be French. Her debut self titled album comes out in November on Weird World (that already spectacular little label, only just over a year in existence) and was partly recorded in Perth with Kevin Parker from Tame Impala . There is something of that band's dense sound about the tune, although more about this track (all effected guitars and dropped snare beats), a 7" from last summer on Fat Possum (another fine label), which is also great. It's a bit like a Grizzly Bear tune pum...

Tom Krell’s new material with an album on the way in the autumn. Lush, slowed down, slightly warped RnB, with celestial Bon Iver-esque banks of vocals. Haunting and very, very lovely.

You'll remember we mentioned Peaking Lights recently , signing to Weird World and all that. Well here's another beguiling little off-the-beaten-track number from the reissued album, 936 . The video by Cam Archer reflects that mood - just a girl putting junk together in a field, with gorgeous close-ups - although I'd feel bad about treating a pair of Converse the way she does. The band are also streaming various 936 remixes this week, including this one. Peaking Lights - Marshmellow Yellow / Amazing And Wonderful (Main Attrakionz MAN WORLD remix) by Weird World Record Co You can check the others on a dedicated website, http://www.936.fm/ , including Adrian Sherwood, patten, DaM-FunK, Damu, Cadenza, Sunless ’97, d’Eon, Doldrums and Maria Minerva. They're wonderful, basically.

You might have come across the Domino imprint Weird World . Set up this year, they've already released a couple of impressive records by Smith Westerns and Washed Out . Now they've announced the signing of US west coast husband and wife duo Peaking Lights . Their 936 album gets its first full European release later this week (it came out previously on Not Not Fun in the US). And their new album is due out in the spring. From 936 , here's the great All the sun that shines , which, with its cavernous reverb and deep sea bass, is the perfect soundtrack music for any number of nocturnal activities. All The Sun That Shines by Peaking Lights Aaran Coyes and Indra Dunis are their names - that's them in the very-un-rock-n-roll-but-so-very-rock-n-roll photo above, with their new baby Mikko. Aaron had this to say about the new album - I feel the need to reprint all of it. “The songs that we've been working on have been very groovy and psyched out, foraging deep...

Smith Westerns - Weekend (Weird World, from the album Dye it blonde ) It took me a while to warm to this - it actually took hearing the whole album to give it the context, with its psychedelic shades of glam - but it has a place in my heart now. Maybe it's the cavernous "oooh's" of the chorus. Or the throwaway fuzz guitar riff. Or the semi-whispered male vocal. It's all very west coast for a band from Chicago. SMITH WESTERNS "Weekend" by domino

In the words of David Berman, random rules. Nik Freitas - Middle (Affairs of the Heart, from the album Saturday night underwater ) Understated but insinuatingly catchy tune, anchored by a wry vibrato vocal, somewhere between Harry Nilsson and George Harrison. The arrangement features cooing female singers and heart-tugging mellotrons, two of my favourite things in the world. There's also a drop-dead gorgeous raindrop piano line. Why can't daytime radio start selling some of this? C'mon playlisters... *In between being a touring member of both Bright Eyes and Broken Bells, Freitas also found time to release an EP at the end of last year. Here's the charming title track, a bouncing paean to vintage synths. Washed Out - Eyes be closed (Weird World, from the album Within and without ) Washed Out is producer Ernest Greene from Atlanta. His new album was recorded with Ben Allen - Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion , Deerhunter's Halcyon digest...